What It Does
Searches by the name of the person or organization responsible for the content of a publication. This includes authors, narrators, composers, editors, and translators. The name can belong to a person or a group, such as an organization, corporate entities, government bodies, or conferences.
When To Use It
Because the system reads the name from left to right, you should use this only if you know the last name of the person—either the full name or the beginning of the name—or the first words of the group name.
Examples
- For author Thomas Bickford
- Enter bickford thomas or bick thomas
- for narrator Laura Giannarelli
- Enter giannarelli laura or gian laura
- For author Eugene O'Neill
- Enter oneill eugene
- For the group American Diabetes Association
- Enter american diabetes
- Enter a group name in direct order
- library of congress
- american diabetes association
- american telephone and telegraph company
- conference of librarians serving blind and physically handicapped individuals
Retain the hyphen in a hyphenated name: robbe-grillet.
For names with connectives (van, von, der), follow the conventions of the person's country or language: de groot roy.
Search hierarchical names in full descending order: library of congress national library service for the blind and physically handicapped
Tips
Omit initial articles in any language, e.g., a, an, the, das, el, la.
When omitting an apostrophe, close the space. For example, enter oneill eugene not o'neill or o neill.
Always omit initial punctuation in any language, such as quotation marks.
Omit intervening punctuation such as commas, periods, and apostrophes.Exception: retain hyphens.
If the spelling of the last name is uncertain, enter as much as you know. Omit first names, titles of nobility, etc.
With group authors, search enough of the name to distinguish it. Department is often abbreviated to dept; search using both forms to ensure that all relevant records are retrieved.
Search both acronyms and full names to retrieve all relevant catalog records. As an example, search aarl and the full name, american radio relay league.Search Limits
Not available.
Boolean Search
Not available.
Truncation
Searches are automatically truncated and retrieve catalog records that begin with the words or phrases you enter. Entering bank will automatically retrieve bank, banker, banking, bankhead, banks, etc. Do not use the question mark (?) for truncation.
More Info
In search results, most headings will link directly to catalog records. Headings marked with the MORE INFO icon link to a separate page that provides more information, including links to headings that reflect the official Library of Congress Subject Headings.
