This publication contains author name, subject, and place name authority lists for the Lutheran Brotherhood Foundation Reformation Research Program at Luther Seminary. The Reformation Library encompasses a microform collection of primary source material for the late 15th to the early 17th centuries. The collection is housed in the Rare Book Room at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and complements the seminary's collection of early printed material. The Reformation Library has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the years 1995-1996, and will use this support to augment the number of cataloged items and improve access to the collection.
Authority control is an important part of any collection of information.
Those who research find it helpful to be able to narrow their searches by using standard forms of names and subjects, instead of searching under many variants of an author's name or under different terms for the same subject. LC currently maintains several authority lists, the best known being the Library of Congress Subject Headings, currently in the 17th edition in four large volumes. Supplements detailing options for subdivisions are also maintained. LC also maintains a name authority list on-line, and users of utilities such as OCLC and RLIN have access to these lists. The Lutheran Brotherhood Foundation Reformation Research Library also maintains authority lists for names and subjects, drawing on Library of Congress standards whenever possible.