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On Monday, May 5, 2003, at 09:33 PM, Karen Coyle wrote: > That's another thing that libraries do -- we assign unique names to > authors and other "creators." This is part of the reason why the names > in the library catalog sometimes look odd. Oh, and on this, and just to make the issues I raise of relevance to library people more directly: Perhaps this way of labeling names accounts for the fact that online library catalogs can be so difficult to search? If I type "John Smith" in my library catalog search engine, I imagine I get back a list of 40 names. The names themselves rarely help me identify the specific "John Smith" I need, though, and I regularly find myself clicking on links in vain looking for the records I need. On the other hand, if the additional metadata (birth dates, things like "musical group," etc.) were instead separated out so they could be displayed in separate results fields in a web browser, I imagine my life would be made easier. Bruce