Part 3: Authorities

A.3 Concept Authority

A.3.1.1 Discussion

The Concept Authority contains most of the terminology needed for the Work or Image Records, excluding proper names; thus it can be described as containing information about generic concepts as opposed to proper nouns or names. This authority file may include terminology to describe the type of work (for example, sculpture), its material (for example, bronze), activities associated with the work (for example, casting), its style (for example, Art Nouveau), the role of the creator or other persons (for example, sculptor, doctor), and other attributes or various abstract concepts (for example, symmetry). It may include the generic names of plants and animals (for example, dog or Canis familiaris, but not Lassie). It should not include proper names of persons, organizations, geographic places, named subjects, or named events.

The scope of the Concept Authority will vary according to local requirements; institutions must analyze their own needs and structure this authority file accordingly. See also Part 1: Authority Files and Controlled Vocabularies. Some institutions may wish to create separate authorities for various elements, such as Work Type and Materials. However, given the overlap in terminology needed for various elements, it is typically more efficient to include all such terminology in a single, faceted Concept Authority, because it avoids redundant entry of a given term in multiple authorities. The following discussion is presented from the point of view of a single generic Concept Authority, which exists in a system along with four separate authorities for personal and corporate names (A1), geographic places (A2), subjects (A4), and sources (see Part 1: Authority Files and Controlled Vocabularies: Source Authority).

Divisions of the Authority

In the Concept Authority, dividing terms into various logical categories (called facets in the jargon of thesaurus construction) will make the authority file more useful and easier to maintain. Terminology could fall into the following categories, which are derived from the facets of the Art & Architecture Thesaurus.

OBJECTS

The objects facet includes all discrete tangible or visible things that are inanimate and produced by human endeavor; that is, that are either fabricated or given form by human activity. These include built works, visual works, various types of other objects, furnishings, images, and written documents. They range in purpose from utilitarian to the aesthetic (for example, façades, cathedral, garden, painting, sculpture, albumen print, amphora, chaises longues, Battenberg lace). The objects facet may also include some natural objects or animate objects, such as landforms and plants (for example, mountains, cliff, flowers, daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus). Terminology from this category is used in the Work or Image Record in Work Type (Chapter 1), Subject (Chapter 6), Class (Chapter 7), and View Type and View Subject (Chapter 9) elements.

MATERIALS

Materials include physical substances, whether naturally or synthetically derived, including specific materials and types of materials. They may be either raw materials or materials designed for a specific function (for example, oil paint, tempera, sandstone, iron, clay, adhesive, emulsifier, lumber, Japanese beech). Terminology from this category is used in the Work or Image Record in Materials (Chapter 3), Subject (Chapter 6), and View Subject (Chapter 9) elements.

ACTIVITIES

Activities may include areas of endeavor, physical and mental actions, discrete occurrences, systematic sequences of actions, methods employed toward a certain end, and processes occurring with materials or objects. Activities may range from branches of learning and professional fields to specific life events, from mentally executed tasks to processes performed on or with materials and objects, from single physical actions to complex games (for example, archaeology, engineering, analyzing, contests, exhibitions, running, drawing (image-making), sintering, corrosion). Terminology from this category is used in the Work or Image Record in Techniques (Chapter 3), Subject (Chapter 6), and View Subject (Chapter 9) elements.

AGENTS

Agents can include generic designations of persons, groups of persons, and organizations identified by occupation or activity, by physical or mental characteristics, or by social role or condition (for example, printmaker, architect, landscape architect, donor, doctor, corporation, religious order). Generic names of animals are included as well (for example, wolf or Canis lupus). Terminology from this category is used in the Work or Image Record in Creator Role (Chapter 2), Subject (Chapter 6), View Subject (Chapter 9), and Life Role (in the Personal and Corporate Name Authority) elements.

STYLES, PERIODS, AND CULTURES

Styles, periods and cultures can include stylistic groupings, distinct chronological periods, cultures, peoples, and nationalities that are relevant to cultural works (for example, French, Louis XIV, Xia, Black-figure, Abstract Expressionist, Renaissance, Chumash). Terminology from this category is used in the Work or Image Record in Style and Culture (Chapter 4), Subject (Chapter 6), View Subject (Chapter 9), and Nationality/Culture (in the Personal and Corporate Name Authority) elements.

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

Physical attributes can include perceptible or measurable characteristics of materials and artifacts as well as features of materials and artifacts that are not separable as components. Included are characteristics such as size and shape, chemical properties of materials, qualities of texture and hardness, and features such as surface ornament and color (for example, strapwork, borders, round, waterlogged, brittleness, vivid blue). Terminology from this category is used in the Work or Image Record in the physical characteristics (Chapter 3), Subject (Chapter 6), and View Subject (Chapter 9) elements.

ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS

Associated concepts can include abstract concepts and phenomena that relate to the study and execution of a wide range of human thought and activity. Also covered here are theoretical and critical concerns, ideologies, attitudes, and social or cultural movements (for example, beauty, balance, connoisseurship, metaphor, freedom, socialism). Terminology from this category can be used in Subject (Chapter 6) and View Subject (Chapter 9) elements.

Discrete Concepts

A concept in the context of this authority file is a discrete entity or idea. Records in this authority file generally should represent discrete concepts, not subject headings. In contrast to a discrete concept, a subject heading typically concatenates multiple terms or concepts together in a string. For example, Pre-Columbian sculptures is a heading composed of terms representing two discrete concepts: Pre-Columbian (a style and period) and sculpture (a type of work). Pre-Columbian as a style and period term may be combined with many other terms and retain its meaning; sculpture may also be combined with many other style or period terms and still retain its meaning. See Part 1: Authority Files and Controlled Vocabularies for a further discussion of the distinction.

A term for a concept is not necessarily a single word; terms can also be a phrase, such as rose windows, flying buttresses, book of hours, High Renaissance, and lantern slides. Maintaining discrete concepts, as opposed to headings or compound terms, in the structure of the authority file will make it more versatile in cataloging and more powerful in retrieval.

Compound Terms

In cataloging, it may be necessary to combine discrete terms into compound terms. Combining compound terms in free-text fields for display in the Work and Image Record is recommended.

Some institutions may not have free-text fields, and thus may need to combine the discrete concepts from the Concept Authority into compound terms in the controlled fields in the Work Record. If so, ideally each part of the phrase should retain its original links to the discrete parts of the Concept Authority.

Another way to include compound terms in the Work Record is to add compound terms to the Concept Authority. This may be appropriate or even necessary for institutions building specialized authorities for local use. If this method is used, the institution must decide how to most effectively flag such terms that are no longer compatible with standard sources of vocabulary, such as the AAT.

Ambiguity and Uncertainty

When creating an Authority Record, the cataloger should state only what is known about a concept in relation to a work. When information is uncertain, it may still be recorded, but with an indication of uncertainty or approximation--such as ca. (for dates) or probably--in the Note (Scope Note) field. Rules should be in place to ensure consistency in recording uncertain data. For example, if a cataloger finds a materials term in a journal article and is uncertain if it is exactly the same as another material with a similar name, rather than mistakenly linking the two terms in one record, a separate record should be made for each term until the question is resolved through additional research.

Organization of the Data

Terms that are synonyms for each concept are critical access points and are therefore required. A Note (sometimes called a Scope Note) describing the scope and meaning of the concept within the authority file is recommended.

Ideally, this authority file should be in the form of a thesaurus, allowing for equivalence, associative, and broader-narrower relationships (see Part 1: Authority Files and Controlled Vocabulary: Thesaurus). An indication of the broader context of the concept is also required. Having a hierarchical structure that allows for the term to be displayed within its broader contexts, either indented in vertical displays or concatenated in horizontal strings, is recommended.

Some fields in this authority file may be used for display. Others are intended for retrieval. The Note field is intended for display. If the horizontal parent string is constructed by hand (in the absence of a hierarchical structure, from which it could be concatenated), broader context would be a display field. If date fields are included, they may include fields intended for display and others that are formatted and used for indexing and retrieval.

A brief discussion of the elements or fields recommended for a concept term authority is included in this section. For further discussion of this authority file and additional fields, see the Categories for the Description of Works of Art: Generic Concept Identification authority. For a fuller set of editorial rules for creating terminology, see the Art & Architecture Thesaurus Editorial Guidelines.¹ For further discussion of the relationships between this authority and the Work Record, see various chapters in Part 2, especially Chapter 1: Object Naming and Chapter 3: Physical Characteristics.

Recommended Elements

A list of the elements discussed in this authority follows. Required elements are noted.

Note

1. The Art & Architecture Thesaurus Editorial Guidelines can be found at
   http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/
   editiorial_guidelines.html