Authority control. Teorie, applicazioni e prospettive di sviluppo

The authority control, though being a process which integrates the catalogue architecture – and which assures the indexes quality (author, title, descriptor) and supports the relational and syndetic structure of the catalogue, endorsing capabilities of fully retrieving the information it contains – for a long time has been disregarded in the context of the theoretic thought of the catalogue pertaining process. During the last years this trend was reversed: the authority control gained a first level role on the international bibliotheconomic scenario; at the present time in this area there are many operative plans and new applications, often managed in a co-operative and trans-national way, in some cases stimulating the authority control to extend its range of action outside libraries, in order to interoperate with heterogeneous systems like archives, e-commerce systems and museums. This work wants to define the role and the functions of the nominal and semantic authority control. The first part deals with the authority control under the theoretic point of view: all its elements are examined, while its origin and development in the cataloguing process and in relation with the organisation and relational structure of the catalogue is outlined. The second part treats the semantic indexes control; after a short theoretic-normative report, the situation of the authority control in Italy, which has today, like it never had, a particular evolution, is deeply examined. Referring to the Sistema Biliotecario Nazionale (SBN, National Library Service), the story of the evolution of the semantic authority control in Italy is sketched, along with the new development perspectives favoured by the Nuovo Soggettario project. At the end this work treats what should be considered the most important existing project, on a co-operative international basis, of subject authority control: the Subject Authority Cooperative Program (SACO).