7.1 definition and basic function.CIES- Ch. 7 020507-p. 1CHAPTER 7.ACCESS POINTS: KINDS AND FORMSPURPOSE: The purpose of this chapter is to introduce to the reader the idea and uses ofaccess points (APs) as they are found in manual and computerized library catalogs. This in-cludes exploring aspects of the definition and functions of access points, listing and explain-ing the various kinds of access points, and introducing the practice of Authority Work, themethod by which vocabulary control is imposed on access points in library cataloging. Inaddition, this chapter will cover AACR2r chapters and rules related specifically to the vo-cabulary control of name and title access points. An outline of the topics in the chapter is asfollows:7.1 DEFINITION AND BASIC FUNCTION.7.11 Definition.7.12 Words and Codes as Access Points.7.13 The Functions of Access Points and Alternative Terminology.7.14 Access Points and File Structure.7.15 Access Points and Other Information Entity Data.7.2 KINDS OF ACCESS POINTS.7.21 Preliminary Considerations.7.22 APs Consisting of Codes.7.23 Name APs.7.24 Title APs.7.25 Name-Title Combination APs.[Remainder of Chapter not yet completed.]7.6 REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER 7.7.1 DEFINITION AND BASIC FUNCTION.7.11 Definition. An "access point" is defined in both the AACR2r Glossary and The ALA Glossary of Li-brary and Information Science as "A name, term, code, etc., under which an Informationentity record may be searched and identified." Four aspects of this definition merit furthercomment.7.12 Words and Codes as Access Points.First, the three words, "name," "term," and "code," are probably differentiated in thisdefinition because they represent three important kinds of access points found in typical li-brary cataloging practice--those which consist of names (e.g., the names of persons, corpo-rate bodies, places), those which consist of strings of words other than names (e.g., titles ofall kinds and topical subject headings), and those which consist of alphabetical or alphanu-meric strings of characters found in systems of codes (e.g., classification system notations,system Information entity record registry numbers, publishers' numbering systems).CIES- Ch. 7 020507-p. 2This threefold categorization of access points is deceptive, however. In reality, each ac-cess point can be considered a term regardless of its composition, and terms may be dividedinto those which consist of words (including abbreviations and acronyms), and those whichconsist of codes. Of these two major categories, access points which consist of words maythen be further divided into a variety of subcategories such as names, titles, subject head-ings, descriptors, etc., whereas access points which consist of codes may be further dividedinto subcategories related to the kinds of systems they represent. (A fuller enumeration ofthe various kinds of access points in this nomenclature will be provided below.) All of thisis said in order to keep terminology regarding access points as simple as possible. A simplechart of this terminology will be found in Figure 7.1.Figure 7.1 General Access Point Terminology7.13 The Function of Access Points and Alternative Terminology.Second, the definition makes obvious the general function of access points in a librarycatalog--that is, to enable a catalog user to search for and identify the Information entityrecords which a catalog contains. In this respect, access points may as well be called searchpoints or identification points. Why they should be called "points," however, is somewhatvague unless one interprets the term "points" either as locations or as a synonym for point-ers. When viewed in either of these two ways, the idea of searching and identifying in thedefinition is plain to see. One is able successfully to search for something when its locationis known or to identify it when it can be pointed out.1There are other ways to express these same concepts. Access points may also be calledindex terms. Indexing refers to a process of indicating or giving the location of something.In addition, some database systems commonly use phraseology such as search terms andsearch keys. In each case a process is involved of finding data by means of some speciallyset aside terms which lead one to the data. In sum, access points may have any of a varietyof names: Access points, Access locations, Access pointers, Index terms, Search terms,Search keys, etc. But all such terms end up portraying the same idea--that is, that the roleof a term which functions as an access point is to lead a catalog user to the Information en-tity record with which it is associated.It should be strongly noted that the idea of “access” as used here in relationship to Infor-mation entity records does not ensure the retrieval of the actual Information entity that anInformation entity record represents. It only ensures the retrieval of the Information entityrecord itself. Were the retrieval of the actual item also to be ensured, the catalog userwould need to be able to (figuratively) put his or her hands on the item itself. This could beenabled were the Information entity Access Control system to have some automatic meansof delivering an actual item upon selecting some given access point or to reproduce the itemin virtual form, for example, as electronic text. Of course, were these capacities included inthe catalog, the system would no longer be merely a surrogate file, but rather a surrogateand item file combined or even an item file in and of itself. The latter is what occurs in full-1It should be noted that the term pointers also has a more precise technical meaning in database work whereit consists of a code attached to both an index term and to the data to which the index term is related. Hav-ing the code in both places effectively links the two entities so that when the index term is chosen the datastring from which it comes will also be called up. Word(s) = Names, Titles, Subject headings, etc.Access Point = Term Code(s) = Numeric, Alphabetical, Alphanumeric.CIES- Ch. 7 020507-p. 3text retrieval systems.7.14 Access Points and File Structure.The third aspect of the definition of access points of interest here is that the definitionimplies, although without stating so directly, something of the file structure of a library cata-log. File structure refers, at a minimum, to the basic elements of a surrogate file and theirlogical (and,