Re: Itemprop for person

On 11/12/12 8:45 AM, Graham Bell wrote:
> Karen, Richard
>
> But increasingly, with adoption of VIAF and ISNI identifiers for names,
> I guess the library world _will_ be able to differentiate between 'real'
> names and pseudonyms.
>
> For example, Agatha Christie (ISNI 0000 0001 2102 2127) and Mary
> Westmacott (ISNI 0000 0003 6613 0900) are different public identities
> (or personal names) for the same person. The two identifiers are linked
> within the ISNI registry, and the latter is clearly marked as a
> pseudonym. Note also that the ISNI 0000 0001 2102 2127 includes 'Agatha
> Christie', 'Agatha Mallowan', 'Агата Кристи', 'Agatha Miller', 'アガサ・
> クリスティ' and a bunch of other variations, since these are all names
> for the same public identity -- whereas 'Mary Westmacott' is a separate
> public identity. And although Agatha Christie and Mary Westmacott are
> linked, this isn't always the case (see for example ISNIs 0000 0000 7320
> 7425 and 0000 0000 4340 7282).

It would be nice to know where they got the pseudonym information from. 
Most of the information in the record comes from VIAF (all of those 
language variants) which means that it comes from library authority 
files. If they used the data in those files to arrive at the pseudonym 
it would be interesting to find out how they did it. There are fields in 
the LC name authority records for "related names" (as opposed to "other 
name forms" which are coded differently) -- did they assume those to be 
pseudonyms? Here's what ISNI has:

[on the Agatha Christie record] Related identities:
 
Westmacott, Mary (other identity, same person)
Westmacott, Mary (pseud; other identity, same person)
Westmacott, Mary (pseudonym; other identity, same person)

[on the Mary Wesmacott record] Related identities:
 
Christie, Agatha (other identity, same person)

I wonder if some library authority files indicate which is the 
pseudonym? LCNA does not, AFAIK. Anyone know?

>
> So you can say that there are three levels to distinguish:
> -- the person
> -- the public identity (or 'persona')
> -- the exact detail of the name
> Book metadata generally identifies only the public identity of the
> author (via one or more variations of author name listed in an authority
> file), and there isn't really a formal link to the real world object --
> the person -- at all (except perhaps a private one in the contracts or
> the royalties system of the publisher). Indeed, sometimes, the lack of
> this link between the real-world person and the public identity (or
> between two public identities) is critical.

Exactly. Amanda Cross (really Carolyn Heilbrun) kept her real identity 
secret because she thought it would hurt her career. She outed herself 
only after she had gotten tenure in her institution.

One thing I want to remind people of about VIAF: each entry is a cluster 
of name authority records. The VIAF identifier identifies the cluster, 
but all of the information about the name is to be found in the 
contributed library records. This means that within a cluster you can 
find a variety of forms of a name, and sometimes even conflicting 
information. However, it is also possible that one of the participating 
libraries provides you with the particular bit of information you are 
looking for, such as:

Person
ISNI:
 
0000 0001 0939 7604 [searched on Amanda Cross]
Name:
 
Cross, Amanda (pseud. de Carolyn G. Heilbrun)
Gold Heilbrun, Carolyn
Heilbrun, Carolyn
Heilbrun, Carolyn G
Heilbrun, Carolyn G.
Heilbrun, Carolyn Gold

This is what appears under "Amanda Cross." The "pseud" information in 
parentheses comes from what looks like a Spanish-based authority file.

Note also that her name is given both as Amanda Cross AND Carolyn 
Heilbrun (and various forms of Carolyn Heilbrun). This is because VIAF 
has pulled these together (and I don't know what the algorithm is, nor 
why in this case VIAF treats the two names as equivalents. It looks like 
VIAF *is* making a decision about pseudonyms and RWOs, but it isn't 
clear to me how it does so or why it does so. (Richard, do you know if 
VIAF is attempting to bring together personas? If so, that would be good 
information to have since that is different from what some or most 
library authorities do, and I haven't heard that discussed in 
library-land. Is there documentation on this?) VIAF also provides a lot 
of "variety" of name forms, in part because it is a cluster of records 
not a single authority "declaration." There is no "preferred VIAF name 
form," just a cluster of preferred forms from contributing libraries.

If you want a tightly coherent authority file for your name display you 
need to choose one and only one of the participant files to pull from.

kc

>
> If there are links between person and public identity, they are at least
> optionally one way or private.
>
> This three-level model also helps clarify the 'two authors writing under
> a single name'. Multiple real people have (often private) relationships
> with a public identity like 'Franklin W. Dixon'.
>
> It may seem 'mostly good enough' to assume an author is either a person
> or an organization, but it might be hiding some important issues.
>
> Graham
>
>
>
>
> Graham Bell
> EDItEUR
>
> Tel: +44 20 7503 6418
> Mob: +44 7887 754958
>
> EDItEUR Limited is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England
> no 2994705. Registered Office: United House, North Road, London N7 9DP,
> UK. Website: http://www.editeur.org
>
>
>
> On 12 Nov 2012, at 15:27, Richard Wallis wrote:
>
>> The thing we need to take into account when using something like
>> Schema.org <http://Schema.org/>
>> is that they use classes to describe real world Things, such as people -
>> their names, and possibly pseudonyms, being just properties of that
>> Person.
>
>
>
> On 12 Nov 2012, at 15:07, Karen Coyle wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 11/12/12 8:31 AM, Richard Wallis wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Two authors writing under a single name has me stumped at the moment,
>>> and I think we would have difficulty in convincing the Schema.org
>>> <http://Schema.org> folks
>>> to make changes to cope with such an edge case.  Perhaps we should
>>> default to describing them as a Person with an explanatory note as a
>>> description (not liking that I have just said that.)
>>
>> Richard, I don't think that the library data that we have today
>> distinguishes between "real" names and pseudonyms. I see nothing in the
>> authority record that encodes this either. So what we have is "personal
>> names" (and it's not "person" it's "personal name"), corporate names,
>> family names, and each of these can either be an Agent (1XX, 7XX, 8XX)
>> or a subject (6XX). That's it, at least in the MARC world. It would be
>> interesting to hear from a wider international group if there are
>> library standards that include more information about the relationship
>> between the name and a Real World Object.
>>
>> kc
>>
>

-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet

Received on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 16:34:14 UTC