At the end of the eighties, the University of Florence included 21 libraries and 77 collections, some greatly valuable, but isolated. The common language in this "little Babel" was found in Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale. A Coordination Operative Group was created, with the task of identifying operative, homogeneous standards and to play the role of tutors in each unit. It is in this context that the issue of the control of access points to the catalogue was faced for the first time, trying to envisage a set of controlled terms by means of developing an authority list for Greek, Latin and ancient East authors, for Medieval and Renaissance ones, for uniform titles of works by classical authors and anonymous works and for subject headings.