What’s in a name: associated costs or authority work for artists’ names
Authority control is both the most expensive and important quality of any library catalog. Controlling headings for artists’ names can be more expensive than other personal names, as more time is required for the necessary research needed to determine the preferred form of name and variants. However, the cost associated with controlling artists’ names can be managed through effective use of reference materials and time. How artist headings are used also suggests that, over time, the initial investment can save a library from expenses associated with future catalog maintenance.
Issues of Personal Name Authority Control in a Retrospective Cataloging Project
The cataloging department of the Michigan State University Libraries undertook a retrospective cataloging project of digitized Extension bulletins published during the past 100 years. The project's retrospective nature and concentration of authorship created challenges in coordination and execution of personal-name authority work. A decision-making flow chart was created to provide guidelines in searching variant usages and name authority records on OCLC, as well as to help coordinate authority work among project catalogers. Although the project was satisfactorily completed with the help of this flow chart, some issues remained unresolved and the adequacy and efficiency of the existing name authority workflow was questioned.
The Tsadik and His Soul’s Sparks: From Kabbalah to Hasidism
The present study shows the continuity between the Safedian Kabbalistic view of the relations between the sparks of a certain soul, and the Hasidic theory, that was conceived of as innovated by and characteristic of 18th century Hasidism, as to the responsibility of the Tsadik for the sparks that belongs to his soul. In the two literatures, the rescue of a spark of one's soul is related to the beautiful captive woman that is conceived of as an externalization of an inner dimension of the righteous person, immersed in a shell.