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offer true author/creator browse

Currently Alma offers browsing bib headings with using "names" type - which includes also headings from 600/610/611.
We find it more useful to have a way to browse by author/creator headings without the subject name fields (relevant 1xx and 7xx without 6xx).

263 votes
john shared this idea  ·   ·  Admin →
Completed  ·  Dana Moshkovits responded  · 

Alma enables you to browse bibliographic headings to support various cataloging workflows. You can browse by author name, subject, series, and title.
As of November release for cases when a person appears both as a creator and as a subject (i.e., ‘Agatha Christie’ might be both the subject and an author), you can select between the following methods of mapping the MARC 21 fields 600, 610, 611:
Names – (existing options) When browsing bibliographic headings using this option, the 6XX fields appear under Names.
Subjects – (existing options) When browsing bibliographic headings using this option, the 6XX fields are not found.
Names (without MARC21 600/610/611) – (new option) When browsing using this option, the 6XX fields are not found.
Subjects (with MARC21 600/610/611) – (new option). When browsing using this option, the 6XX fields appear under Subjects.

For more information please see Alma November Release Notes:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2020/Alma_2020_Release_Notes

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  • Anonymous commented  · 

    #2, please!! This is how our users expect to be able to search within the library's collections.

  • AdminItai Veltzman (Product Manager, Ex Libris) commented  · 

    We would like to offer the institution the ability to work in one of the following ways:
    1. As today - mixing name and name as subject (keep backward compatibility)
    2. New way - name will be separated from name as subject
    Note: it will mean that when looking for example Agatha Christie you
    will get only the books she wrote. If you will want to see the books
    that were written upon a separate browse will need to be done.

    Only one of the way can be activated.

    Your feedback will be most appreciated

    (Edited by admin)
  • Anonymous commented  · 

    Please, yes -- this would speed up research and make the process more rational for our readers. Thank you for considering a change.

  • Dan Lipcan commented  · 

    This is a basic and essential feature for a research library catalog.

  • Benjamin Boss commented  · 

    This would be incredibly helpful for separating the browse for works about artists from works by the artist. I agree with the others--please make this fix!

  • Jennifer commented  · 

    This seems like basic cataloging / ILS 101. Please DO implement this!

  • Tessa Brawley-Barker commented  · 

    We would like this idea applied to both Alma and especially to Primo VE. In Primo VE, we would like a true author browse of the 1XX and 7XX fields, not a “name” browse which browses 1XX, 6XX, and 7XX fields concurrently. This name browse is unhelpful and causes further use of the facets for our users. For the subject browse in Primo VE, we would like to browse across all the 6XX fields not just 650 (Library of Congress subject headings). In our art research library, these distinct browse features are essential for users to browse for an artist who is the author of a book versus browsing for a book where the artist is the subject.

  • Anonymous commented  · 

    So many books are cataloged with the artist as the author, this feature would be incredibly useful.

  • Katherine Cowan commented  · 

    For our library collection this will be an important feature, since so many art books are catalogued as though the artist is the author.

  • Anonymous commented  · 

    Imagine trying to find ABOUT Shakespeare, and having to weed through all the headings for books BY Shakespeare.

    This is an embarrassment for our library.

  • Anonymous commented  · 

    This is so basic a feature it's hard to believe it has not been enabled already.

  • Anonymous commented  · 

    I agree this is most annoying. Our library has tens of thousands of books about artists. We cannot search on their names as subjects, and we cannot separate out artists who have been authors of books. Please do fix this. Thank you.

  • Roger commented  · 

    An essential distinction for searching a specialized research collection.

  • Molli and Thomas commented  · 

    Primo VE’s browse feature is extremely limited and can only subject browse by LC subject headings. The consequence is that Mercury users cannot Browse by Author or Browse by Subject for artist names. In the place of author, we applied a Browse by Name function as a band-aid fix, but the larger issue still needs to be addressed.

    For example, Mark Rothko is both the subject of books and an author of his own books. Right now, you cannot browse for Rothko as a subject. To find books that he has written through the browse feature, you have to Browse by Name then filter down by author name in the facets.

  • Nancy Babb commented  · 

    Voting to improve Author Browse in Primo VE

  • Karina Ricker commented  · 

    It's the Browse in Primo that is the problem from the public service point of view.

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