Talk:Use Case Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)

Tom says "I do not see the use of identifying elements, such as text strings, which together represent an entity, discussed in the Use Case for VIAF [1]. This reinforces my sense that there is a gap in our use-case coverage on this issue."

See email from Barbara Tillett, which says:

"This very much ties into the notions that helped VIAF to evolve - IFLA had thought one string established by a national bibliographic agency (NBA) would be used by everyone in the world for the "authors" in each country and that one bibliographic description for everything published in a country would be provided by the NBA and that those bib records would be used everywhere. What's wrong with this picture? We don't all use the same languages or scripts. SO the idea of the linked clusters of authority records evolved for VIAF, where all names used for a person, corporate body/conference, uniform title - that is all the text strings, plus the set of other attributes associated with each of those entities, would together represent that entity (be the surrogate) and we could display the context appropriate form to an end user based on their preference/profile/ etc.

However, since not all use cases have an end user with a preference/profile, we still have "default " values for a particular name/text string that libraries will display as their authorized access point. RDA is trying to eventually get us out of that mind set of the authorized access point, by first giving all the identifying elements needed for each entity (person, corporate body, etc.) so again the context appropriate set of elements could be displayed as needed, but for now with limitations of MARC and no new systems yet developed to make the visions real, we have to continue with authorized access points/aka headings. - Barbara"