Hopefully, in the future we will be able to make use of the ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier), which has just been published as a standard by ISO (ISO 27729:2012).
http://www.isni.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Name_Identifier
According to the press release, the initial database was created by consolidating data from VIAF and 15 other groups. The database is hosted by OCLC in the Netherlands.
------------------------------------------
John Hostage
Authorities and Database Integrity Librarian
Langdell Hall
Harvard Law School Library
Cambridge, MA 02138
[log in to unmask]
+(1)(617) 495-3974 (voice)
+(1)(617) 496-4409 (fax)
http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/
> -----Original Message-----
>
> If each currently undifferentiated John Smith has a separate authority
> record (a separate ID), this would allow linking of the individual ID
> specifically to records for other resources created by that particular
> individual. If you could retrieve only the resources created by the
> author of Book X without having to cut your way through a jungle of
> qualifiers, I think that would be a great service for the user. And
> hey, if we can afford to add death dates to personal names with the
> resulting catalog maintenance, I think looking into the potential of
> separate IDs/authority records for names that are not textually
> differentiated could be justified. In the process of doing authority
> work, the cataloger would be tasked to make the intellectual decision
> to link a new work with the proper ID, but once done it would be as
> reliable as any other controlled heading in WorldCat, and really save
> the time of the user.
>
|