Library Authorities Alternatives

Without delving into the dysfunctional politics that has led to the shutdown of most U.S. Government services, we thought it might be helpful to our library and archives colleagues to point out some alternatives to various library authority sources that have been shuttered at the Library of Congress.

In some cases (for example, LCSH vs. FAST) they are not exactly equivalent, but they might be useful during this period nonetheless. Please note that we cannot verify the accuracy or completeness of the Internet Archive copy of any of these sources.

This is a summary of some of the most widely available resources, but please note that bibliographic data, classification schemes and authority files traditionally provided on the loc.gov site are also available in subscription services from the Library of Congress (Cataloger’s Desktop and Classification Web) [note: these LoC services continue to be made available to subscribers during the shutdown], from OCLC (for cataloging service subscribers), and from other service providers.

Also, for a  more complete list of alternative resources, see this spreadsheet (Excel .xslx file, courtesy of Eric Childress).

Name Authorities

• Library of Congress Source: LC Name Authority File  (unavailable as of this writing)
• OCLC Alternative: LC Name Authority File and the  Virtual International Authority File
• Wayback Machine Alternative: Archived LCNAF

Subject Authorities

• Library of Congress Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings (unavailable as of this writing)
• OCLC Alternative: Library of Congress Subject Headings and FAST Headings
• Wayback Machine Alternative: Archived LCSH

MARC Documentation

• Library of Congress Source: LC MARC Documentation (unavailable as of this writing)
• OCLC Alternative: OCLC MARC Documentation
• Wayback Machine Alternative: Archived LC MARC Documentation
• ITS MARC Alternative: ITS MARC Documentation.

Classification

• Library of Congress Source: LC Classification (unavailable as of this writing)
• OCLC Alternative: OCLC Classify Service
• Wayback Machine Alternative: Archived LC Classification

Genre Headings

• Library of Congress Source: LC Genre Forms Headings (unavailable as of this writing)
• OCLC Alternative: LC Genre Forms Headings
• Wayback Machine Alternative: Archived LC Genre Forms Headings

 Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

• Library of Congress Source: Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (unavailable as of this writing)
• OCLC Alternative: Thesaurus for Graphic Materials and Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: Genre Terms
• Wayback Machine Alternative: Archived Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

We hope these are useful, but even more we hope that very soon we will be back to business as usual. Even then, though, you may find some of these other sources helpful. If you know of other reasonable alternatives, leave a comment below.