Agents and Authority Linking

• Breakout sessions Oct 4 2-4, Oct 5 3-4:30

• Goals:

• Explore issues in Agent discovery.

• Do we need an Agents working group?

• If so, create its charter.

Starter Definitions

• Agent: a person (author, publisher, sculptor, editor, director, …)

• Or a group (organization, corporation, library, orchestra, country, federation, …)

• Or an automaton (weather recording device, software translation program, …)

• … with a role in the lifecycle of a resource.

More Definitions

• Agent Record: a collection of elements describing an agent.

• Agent Authority Record: an agent record that includes the particular name that is preferred (considered authoritative) within a particular community (eg, libraries).

DC AGENTS ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION (1)

• Do we need an Agent Element Set?

• If so, what are its purposes?

• Is it possible to develop an Agent Element Set that will be useful for multiple communities? What are the obstacles to this?

DC AGENTS ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION (2)

• Is there an existing standard that we can use for the Agent Element Set?

• What should be done with the strawman proposal?

• How would a DC Agent record relate to a DC record for an information resource? How might this relationship be expressed syntactically?

DC AGENTS ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION (3)

• Should a new Agent Element Set Working Group be formed?

• If so, what should be its charter?

Issues

• Creator/contributor/publisher (CCP) elements outcome?

• Appropriate literals

• No discussion of changing top 15 elements

• Optional link field associated with each CCP element

• Better name than Agent? (actor?)

More Issues

• Need common, X-domain agent elements

• Other non-agent elements may need our solution, or parts of it; does it generalize?

• Use existing standards?

• CCP qualifiers

High Level Functional Requirements

• ? Search access points, not necessarily in the resource

• ? Need type of agent• ? Need agent element set• ? Cross-domain• ? Support discovery• ? basic description (eg, contact)• ? distinguishing info

High Level Functional Requirements (2)

• ? record authorized name• ? alternate name• ? Small number, eg, four, elements• ? Unique identifiers• ? Roles important, but where? In an event

description record?

Three interest areas and proposed schedule

• CCP qualifiers– roles (editor, adaptor,…), types (personal, corporate,

geographical, …)– Third, 45 minutes

• Linking out to agent descriptions– Authority, generalization– Second,15 minutes

• Agent descriptors– Elements, domains, authority– First, 15 minutes

Three interest areas and proposed schedule (2)

• Working Group charter– Remaining work– Last, 10 minutes

Agent descriptors alpha list

• Museum alpha list– Names– Culture– Period– Dates (birth-death)– Dates (active)– Place– Nationality– Type e.g. social, geophysical, instrument

Agent descriptors alpha list (2)• Library alpha list

Name with Scheme qualifier for authority fileDates (birth-death)Dates (active)Type (person, corporation)TitleAffiliationRelation Alternate names, incl. Former nameIdentifierNationalityJurisdictionDescription

Agent descriptors alpha list (3)

• European Environmental Agency alpha list– Name Name of Institution or Person– Type Person, Organisation– Contact Postal Address, electronic address– Original Identifier Database ID– Terminology controlled vocabulary, uncontrolled voc.– Description textual description of function, role, background– Relation to other contact(s), to resources– Date Date of Creation, last modification– Relation – Alternate names

Agent descriptors alpha list (4)

• Government– Affiliation– Name– Jurisdiction– Type– Dates– Relation– Contact– Availability

• DING

Link out definitions and requirements

• Do we want different types of link schemes?: vanilla link, authority link, annotation link?– Probably yes. Links that link to structured data

(records), to schema, to unstructured text.

• Do we need to say something about structure of information on the other end of the link?– No.

• What restrictions are there on what can be at the other end of the link?

Link out definitions and requirements (2)

• Do we need bi-directional links – links from agent record to resource record?

• If we sent you a query, could you give us back data in this format so we could understand it? « This » format being some schema we define.

• <creator>– <name>– <scheme>– <link>– <linkType>

• </creator>

Link out definitions and requirements (3)

• General need for elements across DC that have data value, link value, link type. Don’t worry about what is at other end of link, could be anything. Possibly link type will tell you.

• DING!

CCP qualifiers• Rights element may have associated agents but this is out of scope for

this discussion.• RoleLikeThings

– E.g. illustrator, editor, adaptor, etc.– Rebecca’s list is on the table.– Decision: Creator and contributor elements need role-like

qualifiers.– Decision: The lists for these elements may be different.– Decision: On the WG mailing list, come up with an initial list of

qualifiers for Creator and Contributor to recommend to the Usage Committee for immediate Recommended status.

– Decision: Registration mechanism will allow new qualifiers to enter the vocabulary and be promoted to Recommended status if generally useful.

CCP qualifiers (2)

• TypeLikeThings– E.g. personal name, corporate name, instrument name

OR person, organization, instrument

• Syntax– Issue: can you have multiple qualifiers on an element?

Or only one Element refinement qualifier and one value qualifier?