I just came across this link about WorldCat identities:
http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/006/research.htm
David
David S. Iversen, MLS, MA
Cataloging & Government Documents Librarian
Gordon B. Olson Library
Minot State University
500 University Ave. West
Minot, ND 58707
Phone:(701) 858-3859
Fax: (701) 858-3581
Email: david.iversen_at_minotstateu.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Bernhard Eversberg
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2007 9:54 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] content beyond books
Weinheimer Jim schrieb:
>
>> And an important one too. It gave rise to the VIAF project
>> currently under research at OCLC.
>> Ultimately, one can imagine an "Authority Google" of sorts,
>> a database somewhere in the background that can be consulted
>> automatically and transparently by catalog systems (or search
>> engines too) every time a personal name is requested. It would
>> return (in the positive case) an appropriate ID with which the
>> catalog in question can do the actual search.
>> With this concept in place, and authority files from the world
>> over merged into it eventually, libraries could well stick with
>> their national conventions for name headings instead of
>> kindly asking their patrons to find and enter enter LC forms of
names.
>
> I hope this project is successful. From my understanding of it, it
will link the two by providing a link from heading to heading. Will
German users get the advantage of searching LC cross-references and
English users be able to use the German cross-references?
>
Well, it seems that "WorldCat Identities" emerges from this project,
although nothing much can presently be found out about it. But I'm
sure someone from Frankfurt or Dublin (Ohio) is listening in and
ready to enlighten us.
One easily fancies that they publish an API enabling
everbody to integrate it with their systems. (This is what would have
happened were they Google, anyway, but they will be lacking the
resources.)
But I may also be wrong and all the documentation has already been
rolled out and the API deployed - one cannot know everything.
B. Eversberg
Received on Thu Aug 23 2007 - 08:35:42 EDT