Have you been cleaning up your Author Headings?

Whether from the original MARC records or from the catalog module, it's easy for "alternate" versions of Author Headings to sneak in: an added or omitted middle initial, combined authors ("Smith, John and Schmoe, Joe." as one heading instead of two), or missing periods at the end of the heading are some of the most common. Even once the Title record is corrected, these headings can linger in your system and end up as Patron Preferences or Exclusions. 

(Image description: a screenshot of example Author Headings with no Titles. Includes columns HeadingType, Full Desc, Code, # Titles, and NumPatUses. Most have only 1 patron use, but the combined heading "Johnstone, William W. with Fred Austin" has 6.)

The good news is that it's easy to clean up using Headings Maintenance !

In Headings Maintenance, sort the Author Headings by #Titles to find all the 0s. 

If there are any that also have 0 Patron Uses, they can simply be Deleted. If you have a bunch of 0 Titles/0 Patron headings, it can be faster to select as many as you can at once (about 20), and merge them until you have just one remaining, allowing you to Delete just the one merged Heading.

For those with Patron Uses:

If there is another version of that author (with/without a middle initial, a period at the end, or just a slightly different spelling), use Merge Headings to combine the "bad" heading into the standard one. 

For combined authors, you'll need to Query the patron module for the patrons using that heading. On each patron record, replace the Preference or Exclusion with the standalone heading for each author. Finally, when the NumPatUses has dropped to 0, Delete the combined heading.
Query: preferences - type - begins - author, and preference - value - equals - (full description, copied from Headings Maintenance)

Download more detailed instructions on using Headings Maintenance  from the linked article if needed, and don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions!

(Note: This function is intended for catalogers and KLAS admins. If you are not sure whether you have the authority to make these types of changes for your library, please clarify with a supervisor before making any changes in Headings Maintenance.)