Template:Cite LCAuth/doc

The purpose of this template is to provide a standardized citation for information (e.g., date of birth) sourced from Library of Congress Authorities (LCAuth) records, which can conveniently be accessed through the Library of Congress Linked Data Service (LCLDS). The template will generate the citation and an external link to the corresponding linked authority record in the LC Linked Data Service, from where the information was sourced.

Usage

All field names must be lowercase.

{{cite LCAuth |id= |text= |access-date=2025-06-23 }}

Fields

The available fields are:

• id: required parameter. This is the unique identifier of the LC Authorities record, for example: |id=n79021425 is for Johann Sebastian Bach.
• text: optional parameter. If specified, used for free text to describe the kind of information that has been sourced, for example: |text=Date and other names. If not specified, the text defaults to "Date".
• access-date: optional parameter. Full date when item is accessed, in ISO 8601 YYYY-MM-DD format, for example: |access-date=2025-06-23. (Must not be wikilinked.)

Purpose

The Library of Congress Authorities (LCAuth) is an authority catalog consisting of individual authority records, i.e. identifying records for entities, such as authors or organizations, contained within the LC cataloging system of the library's more than 12 million works. To quote from the LC website, an authority record is:

...a tool used by librarians to establish forms of names (for persons, places, meetings, and organizations), titles, and subjects used on bibliographic records. Authority records enable librarians to provide uniform access to materials in library catalogs and to provide clear identification of authors and subject headings. —LC Authorities FAQ

These records, available online free-of-charge and typically in MARC 21 format, contain a variety of identifying and annotative remarks on these entities—such as alternative or full names of people and organizations, date or year of birth of authors of books or subjects of books, cross-referencing of affiliated entities, and so on.

The information contained in these records can frequently be a useful source for base information, such as exact date of birth or variant names and titles, that may be difficult to verify or obtain from other generally available sources. It can also be a useful resource for distinguishing between similarly named (but distinct) individuals, or cross-referencing individuals whose names are variably spelled/written.

While the LC Authorities can be accessed and searched directly through its website (authorities.loc.gov), the interface is reasonably complex and the search result URLs often resolve to something quite lengthy.

An easier, more intuitive interface, compared to the LC Authorities data, is provided by in the Library of Congress Linked Data Service. This is an open-access online service to the LC cataloging index compiled from the 10,000+ member libraries worldwide, interlinked with the Library of Congress, and other major cataloging systems, such as Deutsche Bibliothek (DNB).

The LC Linked Data Service collates a range of information on their authority records (authors, organizations, subjects, etc.) associated with publications and other materials held in many of the world's libraries.

How-to

One common usage of linked authority records would be to ascertain birth date information (or year, if not the exact date) for an individual author, or subject of a published work. Finding alternative, former, or variant names is another possibility.

Just about any person or institution who has ever written or been associated with a book or other published material will have an authority record. The linked authority record quite often will contain some identifying or annotated information concerning the individual, such as date of birth (or death) data. Not all records by any means have this, but most do.

Note, there is a systemic bias of sorts in favor of English-language published identities, and publications in Latin orthographical scripts, tending all the more so for the linked authority records.

Steps to accomplish this:

1. Go to the LC Name Authority File (LCNAF) page of the LC Linked Data Service: id.loc.gov/authorities/names
2. Enter the name (format: Lastname, Firstname ) of the individual in the searchbox (e.g. Le Guin, Ursula)
3. Select the desired entry from the list of identities that will be generated – usually, it will be the topmost-entry (e.g., select Le Guin, Ursula K. 1929-2018 (Fiction) in this example.).
4. This brings up the LCNAF record.
5. Clicking on the link will bring up the LCNAF record page, which displays the various (and variable) fields of the authority record. The birth date (or death date) information, if present, will normally appear in one of the fields below. Other useful information may also be cited in the article.
6. To use this as a cited source for the DOB, take the last part of the "URI" shown (in this example, n78095474) and apply it to the template, as follows:

'''Ursula Kroeber Le Guin''' (October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018)<ref>{{cite LCAuth|id=n78095474|access-date=2021-01-01}}</ref> was an American author...

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author...

BLP reminder

When sourcing information regarding living persons, please be mindful of the privacy sections in the WP:BLP policy (especially WP:DOB and WP:BLPPRIMARY). It may be appropriate, for example, to omit the full date of birth of a living person in an article, even if the LC Authorities record contains this information; and instead use just the year of birth. The addition of information into articles sourced via this method should comply generally with all other relevant policies, just as for any other sourcing method.

See also

• {{LCAuth}}