Core Authority Control Interest Group

The VIAF is a cooperative project of OCLC and national libraries. Dr. Thomas Butler, OCLC Research, update presentation.

With the work on VIAF has any consideration been given to changing the rules for constructing names so that they are more useful in a global context? Many U.S. Corporate names do not provide a qualifier to show it is an American organization instead of a British or Australian, or Canadian, etc. See "National Association of Blind Teachers (U.S.)" which includes a helpful qualifier and "Southern Regional Association for the Blind" which does not. A user has to look further to determin what "Southern Region" is implied. See the more helpful "Southern and Western Regional Association for the Blind (England)". These name headings are not just for LC since they are NACO created name authority records and most of our libraries--even LC--have users searching that are not from the U.S. so additional qualifiers should be considered. Even American users would find it more helpful to consistently use qualifiers when an authorized name does not indicate its location. Has this been discussed in relation to VIAF? Is there any official effort to recommend such a change in practice?

We have not discussed that as a group in VIAF, but as libraries join they are noticing ways in which their names do not work as well as they could in the global context that VIAF is beginning to provide (e.g. not putting dates on historical figures).

I agree that this is starting to be more important.

--Th