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Displaying and Searching Diacritics and Special Characters

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Library of Congress Authorities Help Pages: use the browser's back button to  resurme searching

Searching Name Authority Headings

[Image of the search selection box]Select the search type "Name Authority Headings" on the main search screen to browse...

  • Personal authors and creators, including editors, performers, photographers, artists, etc.
  • Group authors and creators, including corporate entities, government bodies, conferences, jurisdictions, etc.

...established by the Library of Congress (and cooperating partners) and used in Library of Congress Online Catalog records.

Keyword Searching of authority records is not available in this release of Library of Congress Authorities. All searches should be entered beginning with the leftmost word of the heading (see search tips below).

Personal or Group Authors/Creators are searchable as Name Authority Headings. Most name authority headings and references also can be searched as Subject Authority Headings; but to ensure retrieval of all relevant records, it is recommended that only the Name Authority Headings search type should be used to search for name/title headings.

Subject headings for Geographic Names (151 field in MARC 21) may also be searched using this search type.

Name Authority Search Examples:

Name type . . . Search Examples . . .
personal name weber carl maria von
napoleon i emperor
compound last name de la mare walter
government agency united states congressional budget office
california administrative office
organization battelle memorial institute
metropolitan museum of art
company american telephone and telegraph
conference international symposium on antarctic glaciology
geographic subject
(MARC tag 151)
ararat mount turkey

Search Tips:

  • Omit initial articles (a, an, the, das, el, la, etc.) in any language.

  • Always omit initial punctuation in any language (e.g., quotation marks, ¿). Also, omit intervening commas, periods, apostrophes, and most other punctuation. Exception: hyphens should always be retained.

  • Searches are automatically truncated and retrieve catalog records beginning with the words, word roots or phrases enters. Do not use the question mark (?) for truncation.

  • Personal author/creator
    • Enter the author/creator's last name followed by the first name: mitchell margaret
    • If the spelling of the last name is uncertain, enter as much as you know: dosto (omit first names, titles of nobility, etc.)
    • Retain the hyphen in a hyphenated name: evans-pritchard
    • For names with connectives (van, von, der), follow the conventions of the person's country or language: gogh vincent van

  • Group authors/creators (government agencies, organizations, conferences)

    • As with individual authors, search enough of the name to distinguish it
    • In most instances, department is often abbreviated to dept; search using both forms to ensure that all relevant records are retrieved
    • Search hierarchical names in full descending order: united states dept of defense
    • Search both acronyms and full names to retrieve all relevant catalog records. Search opec as well as organization of petroleum exporting countries
    • Proceedings of conferences, meetings, etc. can be found by searching on the full name of the conference: international symposium on x-ray microscopy

How to View Authorities and References:

Your search results will be presented as a Headings List -- a list of all name headings in the Library of Congress Online Catalog, whether the headings have online authority records associated with them or not.

Please Note: Headings that end with the legend "[from old catalog]" were assigned before the online cataloging era and may not be associated with an online authority record. In addition, the Headings List may display headings from in-process catalog records for which authority records will be made in the near future.

The Name Authority Headings search is a "browse," placing you at the point in the index most closely matching your search words. Select [Previous Button]to view headings that precede your search words alphabetically or scroll down to view headings following your search words.

[Image of the Headings List display]

To retrieve authority information, references and/or scope notes for a heading, select the icon shown to the left of the heading.

Please consult the following Help Screens for more detailed information:


Use the browser's [Back] button to exit help and resume searching.

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June 28, 2002