Do We Need Authority Control? Investigations at the Milwaukee Urban Archives

Abstract

Although authority control is an issue of growing importance to archivists, little research has been done to investigate its necessity. As an initial step, the Milwaukee Urban Archives conducted an experiment to answer one specific question: how often do names used by the MUA match those already in the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) for the same person or organization? The research focused on the potential need to create authority records for personal and corporate names, used either as creators of collections or as added entries. The results show that 85 percent of the names did not exactly match those already in the LCNAF, including 34 percent which conflicted. Only 15 percent of the names matched the LCNAF exactly, meaning that no conflict could occur. The study concludes with observations on the need for further research.

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