"Persona" (Latin for "mask") would be in keeping with other terms borrowed from Latin to be used in the model, like "res" and "nomen". (And come to think of it why not go whole hog: opus, dictum, manifestationem, tomus?)

--Ben

Benjamin Abrahamse
Cataloging Coordinator
Acquisitions and Discovery Enhancement
MIT Libraries
617-253-7137

-----Original Message-----
From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kevin M Randall
Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2016 12:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Excessive simplification / was: FRBR-LRM: "agent" as an entity

Steve McDonald wrote:

> Would you feel better if the Agent entity were named something else, 
> like Potential Agents?  As currently defined in the draft, Agent is 
> not just things that are acting as agents.  It is defined as all 
> things that _can_ act as agents.  Just because something is identified 
> in the model as an Agent does not mean that it has ever acted as a 
> creator.  I think what you are feeling is a reaction to the name of the entity rather than the definition.
> That's the problem with names of concepts, sometimes.

"Potential Agent" may still be inaccurate, and is still defining the entity in terms of an action or relationship, not what it actually is.  I think a better term would be "Persona".  That term is rather widely understood, is not inherently limited to human beings, and says nothing about agency.  Many uses of the entities in this class would have nothing at all to do with agency, so whether or not something can act as an agent is irrelevant.

Kevin M. Randall
Principal Serials Cataloger
Northwestern University Libraries
Northwestern University
www.library.northwestern.edu
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847.491.2939

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