Australian people names: a key information resource

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Australian people names a key information
resource

• Roxanne Missingham
• and Margaret Kennedy

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• Australian authorities the current situation
• Australian Name Authority File
• Kinetica developments
• New service for Australian personal names
• Vision
• Scope
• Uses
• Next steps

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Information about people and organisations

• Important resource in libraries
• Local system authority files
• Australian Name and Subject Authority Files

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Australian Name Authority File

• Unique resource, online since 1980
• THE authoritative source of information on
  Australian people and organisations
• Relies on Australian libraries to contribute
  authorities and keep the database up to date
• To remain relevant, needs
• Contribution of Australian libraries new
  authorities
• Editing and/or deletion of authorities as
  required

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Authority Control in a Distributed Environment

• Less authority contribution to ANAF
• Authority control in local system
• Other sources of authority data

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Other Sources of Authority Data

• For cataloguers various iterations of LC
  authority files
• These do contain headings for Australians,
  however, preferred form often differs
• Other libraries

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• What are we doing to encourage people to
  contribute their authority data?

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Kinetica Redevelopment Project

• LibrariesAustralia
• Z39.50 redevelopment
• OCLC PICA

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Libraries Australia

• New resource discovery service
• Enables searching and display of authority
  records in html and MARC format
• Enables downloading of authority records in
  various formats
• Find and Get
• Z39.50

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Kinetica cataloguing

• Based on OCLC Picas CBS software
• New update database including CJK
• Will have new functionality
• New interface will replace current web update and
  cataloguing client in late 2005
• Transparent cut-over for BatchLink and Harvester
  Services

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Why do we need authority files?

• Verify form of heading (use of references,
  biographical details, literary warrant)
• Collocate relevant resources under a single form
  of name better retrieval by end user
• Provide access from variations of name through
  well-defined reference structure

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Repurposing Authorities

• International Projects
• Linking and Exploring Authority Files (LEAF)
• Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
• Australian Projects and Services
• MusicAustralia

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Other sources

• Australian Dictionary of Biography (under
  development)
• Roll of Honour Database
• Bright Sparcs
• Australian Trade Union Archives
• Austlit

• Australian Womens Archives
• Australian Sound Design
• ARROW
• Australian Prime Ministers
• Artist Obituaries Database
• Mura gadi

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• A new service for Australian names

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People Portal

• Encompasses Australian People and Organisations
• Builds on data in Australian Name Authority File,
  but will not replace or affect integrity of ANAF
• Schema not yet decided

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People Portal

• Will provide infrastructure to enable linking of
  information on a person/organisation created by
  different agencies
• Integration of content
• Replace links to a multiplicity of services

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• Encourage contributions from partners, both
  within outside library sector
• Use OAI-PMH to harvest data from partners
• Persistent identifiers
• Z39.50/SRW/SRU Interface

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Potential Partners

• Collecting institutions
• Organisations investing in structured information
  about Australian people and organisations

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Benefits (1)

• Savings in end user time single entry point
• Savings in staff time sharing contextual
  metadata between services
• Increased visibility of resources related to
  Australian collections
• Discover and explore different views of a person
  from different sources

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Benefits (2)

• Return on past ongoing commitment to the ANAF
• Improved data quality and coverage through
  collaboration between agencies
• Opportunities to collaborate with international
  projects to link authority files contextualise
  resources

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How will people use it?

• Scenario 1
• A journalist is writing a retrospective piece on
  Bob Hawke for the weekend magazine of a national
  newspaper.

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• Scenario 2
• A teacher in a remote Indigenous community is
  leading his students through an assignment on the
  challenges and achievements of Indigenous
  sporting heroes

National Library of Australia nla.pic-an22839269
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• Scenario 3
• A nationally syndicated radio program mentions an
  upcoming Art Gallery of New South Wales
  exhibition on the artist Margaret Preston,
  resulting in heightened interest in Prestons
  work.

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• Scenario 4
• The Coleambally local history group wants
  information on significant people born in the
  district before the town was officially opened in
  1968 so that they can construct a float for their
  local historical pageant.

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• Scenario 5
• The Committee of the Farrer Memorial Medal for
  agricultural science is putting together a
  centennial booklet highlighting achievements of
  their agricultural science researchers.

From Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School
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• Scenario 6
• Ask Now! operators are inundated with inquiries
  about the writer Peter Goldsworthy, who is set on
  this years NSW HSC curriculum. Alerted to this
  interest, the Ask Now! coordinator wants to set
  up a knowledge base on Goldsworthy so that
  operators can send a pre-formulated list of
  resources

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• Scenario 7
• The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
  wants information on nominees for the 2005
  Australian of the Year Award, and want to be
  notified of any new information that becomes
  available for each nominee until the Award is
  announced.

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• Scenario 8
• A cataloguer wants to verify that a Margaret de
  Salis mentioned in a biography was one of the
  pioneering de Salis family from the Tharwa area
  in the ACT.

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People Portal Song (to the tune of Click go the
shears)

• Out on the Web a name seeker stands
• Grasping their mouse with firm, eager hands
• Fixed is their gaze on what the screen will show
• Can they find the one they want, or thwarted will
  they go?
• Click goes the mouse then, click, click, click,
• Wide are their eyes and their hands move quick
• No need to spend your time in searching high and
  low
• People Portal has the answers to what you want to
  know

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Thank you. Questions??