Post-script: On the other hand, it's a lot to ask of MODS/MADS software
that it has every predefined authority URI alias hard-coded in its guts.
 Perhaps you could just stipulate that *if* a reserved alias is defined
in a MODS or MADS file, it *must* be equal to the appropriate URI
established by LoC, though software need not check this.

>>> [log in to unmask] 2004-06-23 09:49:39 >>>
[snip]

As for authority, we made it optional for because there could be a
record
for an entity that is not controlled by a specified authority list.
However, we could use something like "local" as a value for that. As
for
having a defined list of values, we maintain lists of thesauri and
authority files which have hundreds of entries. Also, we add new values
to
these regularly, so wouldn't want to have to maintain a specified list
in
the schema. Couldn't we just use a URI to reference these lists of
values?

Rebecca