Delete authorities

In This Topic

In this topic we’ll look at how to manually delete an authority using Authority Control and using Cataloguing.

If an authority is linked to only one bibliographic record and you delete that bibliographic record then the authority is deleted automatically. Manually deleting an authority isn’t something you’d normally do. In fact, you might have difficulty finding an authority that’s not linked to a bibliographic record.

Remember that you can’t delete an authority if it’s linked to a bibliographic record or to another authority record, e.g. it might be linked to another authority as a narrower term.

You can delete authorities in a bibliographic record by editing the bibliographic record in the Cataloguing module and deleting the authority fields.

Delete authorities using Authority Control

If there are no bibliographic records attached to an authority record then the Delete Record button will be displayed on the Authority Change page. Let's see an example.

From the Module Menu select Cataloguing, MARC, Authority Control and then Authority Search.
Search and find the authority record you want. At the Full or MARC Display, click Edit Heading. This displays the Authority Change page, for example:

Click Delete Record.

This will delete the authority even if there are references or notes.

Delete authorities using Cataloguing

You can also delete an authority using the Cataloguing module.

Do one of the following.
- From the Module Menu select Enquiry, Cataloguing and then Authority Search.
- From the Module Menu select Cataloguing, Search Pages and then Authority Search.
- From the Module Menu select Cataloguing, MARC, Authority Control and then Authority Search.
Search and find the authority record you want. At the Full or MARC Display, click Edit Record to open the record in the Cataloguing module.
Click the cursor in the leader field 000.
Click the cursor in the Record status in the top left pane, and click d – deleted in the top right pane.

Click the cursor anywhere in the bottom pane to show the Save buttons, and then click Save & Close.

This will delete the authority even if there are references or notes.

Automatically delete authorities

A scheduled task may be configured on the Spydus server to automatically clean up any authority records that have no links to any bibliographic records.

Please contact Civica Support for assistance as commissioning is required.