Before the advent of digital online public access catalogs and the Internet, creating and maintaining a library's authority files were generally carried out by individual cataloging departments within each library. Naturally, then, there was considerable difference in the authority files of the different libraries. For the early part of library history, it was generally accepted that, as long as a library's catalog was internally consistent, the differences between catalogs in different libraries did not matter greatly.

As libraries became more attuned to the needs of researchers and began interacting more with other libraries, the value of standard cataloging practices came to be recognized. With the advent of automated database technologies, catalogers began to establish cooperative consortia, such as OCLC and RLIN in the United States, in which cataloging departments from libraries all over the world contributed their records to, and took their records from, a shared database. This development prompted the need for national standards for authority work.

In the United States, the primary organization for maintaining cataloging standards with respect to authority work operates under the aegis of the Library of Congress, and is known as the Name Authority Cooperative Program, or NACO Authority.

नावात फरक असूनही जे एकाच विषयाचे/व्यक्तिचे वर्णन करतात
Access control
अथॉरिटी कंट्रोल रेकॉर्डस व संचिका
Authority control and cooperative cataloging