MeSH Authorities
MeSH authority records
The National Library of Medicine creates and maintains the authority records. Records are stored and displayed in the MARC authorities format. When working with WorldCat bibliographic records, you can search the MeSH authority records to determine the correct forms for names of persons, organizations, conferences, or titles associated with the resource you are describing.
Types of headings
See MeSH indexes and indexed fields for a list of headings.
Search or browse for a MeSH authority record
When working with WorldCat bibliographic records, you can search the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus MeSH authority records to determine the correct forms for medical subject headings associated with the resource you are describing as well as for Library of Congress Personal Names, Corporate and Conference Names, and Titles tagged as MeSH).
- From the Data Type drop-down list, select Authority Records.
- From the Scope drop-down list, select a scope.
- MeSH Authorities - searches the MeSH file
- MeSH Authorities - Browse - browses the MeSH file
- From the Index drop-down list, select an index. For a list of all indexes, see MeSH indexes and indexed fields.
- In the Term(s) text field, enter your search terms. The text field will expand to fit your search terms, if needed.
- Click Search. The Search results page appears with the matching authorities results listed in a table.
- Click the Name of the matching item to view the authority file record.
Apply MeSH authority heading information to a bibliographic record
After you control a heading and replace the record in WorldCat, Record Manager automatically updates the heading whenever the linked authority record changes.
Copy authority heading information from an authority file
- Open the record to which you wish to apply MeSH authority heading information.
- In the MARC 21 editor, click the field immediately above the location where you want to add the controlled field and then click the Add Field icon (
) . - Enter the controllable field and, if applicable, the indicator you want to add to the bibliographic record.
- In the Basic search panel, select a scope.
- MeSH Authorities - searches the MeSH file
- MeSH Authorities - Browse - browses the MeSH file
- From the Index drop-down list, select an index.
- Based on the index you selected, enter your search terms. The text field will expand to fit your search terms, if needed.
- Click Search. The Search results page appears with the matching authorities results listed in a table.
- Click the Name of the matching authority to view the authority file record.
- Click Copy Authority Data.
- Return to the field you created in the MARC 21 editor.
- Select Apply Authority Data from the Edit drop-down menu. The MeSH authority heading information is added to the field. The header displays as a hyperlink in the bibliographic record and the $0 value is shown as a mouse-over of the link.
Manually enter a single authority heading
- Open the bibliographic record to which you wish to apply authority heading information.
- In the MARC 21 editor, click the field immediately above the location where you want to add the controlled field and then click the Add Field icon ().
- Enter the field number and indicator for the new field.
- Enter an authority heading in the new field.
- Right-click the new field and click Add from the Controlled Heading flyout menu.
- If the text you entered matches an authority heading, the header displays as a hyperlink in the bibliographic record and the following confirmation message appears: The controlled heading is associated with a single authority record.
- If the text you entered does not match an authority heading, the Control Heading dialog opens and states that no matching authority record wa found. Click Cancel to close the dialog and edit the text you entered.
Manually enter multiple authority headings
- Open the bibliographic record to which you wish to apply authority heading information.
- In the MARC 21 editor, click the field immediately above the location where you want to add the controlled field and then click the Add Field icon ().
- Enter the field number and indicator for the new field.
- Enter an authority heading in the new field.
- Repeat steps 2-4 for additional authority headings.
- Select Control All Headings from the Record drop-down menu.
- If the text you entered matches an authority heading, the header displays as a hyperlink in the bibliographic record and the following confirmation message appears: Some of the controllable headings were controlled.
- If the text you entered does not match an authority heading, the following message appears: Some of the controllable headings were not controlled.
Controllable fields
MeSH authority headings can be added to bibliographic records and controlled provided that the heading is in one of the following fields:
- 650 where second indicator = 2
- 651 where second indicator = 2