Quoting "Young,Jeff (OR)" <[log in to unmask]>:


>
> I disagree, but you do have to look closely for evidence. MARC21  
> Authority Format does have fields for birth and death dates and  
> relates these to "the entity described in the record".
>
> http://www.loc.gov/marc/authority/ad046.html

Wow. Thanks, Jeff. I have NEVER seen that used in a record, but it  
would be great to start taking advantage of it. For example, it isn't  
filled in in the B Cartland record I quoted from, even though the  
dates are available. (I looked through the fields, and this one, 046,  
is called "Special Coded Dates," which didn't say "birth/death dates"  
to me. I wonder how many people even know it is there?)

Do you find them in the records submitted to VIAF?

kc

>
> UNIMARC refers to the referent as the "Primary Entity" like so:
>
> "Primary Entity — The entity, named in the 2-- block of the record,  
> for which the record was created. Data in the 1-- block generally  
> pertain to characteristics of the primary entity."
>
> http://archive.ifla.org/VI/8/projects/UNIMARC-AuthoritiesFormat.pdf
>
>> The record exists to
>> establish a particular string as the form of the name to be used to
>> identify that agent (person, persona, corporate body...) in library
>> catalogs. Any information that is not needed to establish that
>> identity is pretty much ignored.
>
> Even if we have to parsed them out of the established heading, there  
> are sparse but important properties in MARC data that undoubtedly  
> have the "primary entity" as their subject. We should have a way to  
> express the "authority" of these assertions as well.
>
> Jeff
>
>> Here is the LC authority record for
>> me:
>>
>> 000	00415cz a2200133n 450
>> 001	710543
>> 005	19930416143026.2
>> 008	890307n| acannaab |n aaa
>> 010	__ |a n 89613425
>> 035	__ |a (DLC)n 89613425
>> 040	__ |a DLC |c DLC |d DLC
>> 100	10 |a Coyle, Karen
>> 670	__ |a nuc89-22212: Her RLIN II processing for UC online catalog
>> input, 1984 |b (hdg. on WU rept.: Coyle, Karen; usage: Karen Coyle)
>>
>> There is nothing about me except my name and the provenance of that
>> information (the first thing that LC cataloged with my name on it). I
>> am a real person, yet there is no real person information about me
>> (e.g. date of birth, where I went to school, what my profession is)
>> because that was not needed to establish a unique heading ("Coyle,
>> Karen") that identifies me. (The heading only includes my first and
>> last name because I'm the first Karen Coyle in their file. If another
>> one writes something, her identifying string will contain a year of
>> birth or perhaps a middle name.)
>>
>> The purpose of library authority data is very different to the
>> purposes of FOAF, not the least being that there is nothing much
>> social about library authority data. I see them as being pretty much
>> unrelated except that they could be linked to indicate that the same
>> person is "spoken of".
>>
>> kc
>> [1] Functional Requirements for Authority Data
>> http://www.ifla.org/publications/functional-requirements-for-authority-
>> data.
>> Unfortunately not available online in English but the translations
>> include the diagrams, which explain a lot.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Karen Coyle
>> [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>> skype: kcoylenet
>
>



-- 
Karen Coyle
[log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet