Project InterParty: From Library Authority Files to E-Commerce

InterParty is a project that aims to develop a mechanism that will enable the interoperation of identifiers for “parties” or persons (authors, publishers, etc.–persons and corporate bodies in library authority files) across multiple domains. Partners represent the book industry, rights management, libraries, and identifier and technology communities, united by their perception of a common benefit frominteroperation in terms of access to “commonmetadata” held by othermembers to improve the quality of their own data. The InterParty solution proposes a distributed network of members who provide access to “common metadata,” defined as information in the public domain, sufficient to identify and distinguish the “public identity” of a person. At a minimum the InterParty network would provide access to multiple domains of data about persons, including multiple library authority files, author licensing data files, etc. It will also add value by providing a facility for linking records between different data files by means of a “link record.” Link records will assert that an identity recorded in one database is the same asanother identity recorded in another database. Linked data will be mutually enriching and therefore more reliable and supportive of accurate disambiguation of persons within and between databases. InterParty has potential to develop a common system that supports both the emerging needs of e-commerce and the traditional requirements of library authority control. [Article copies available for a fee fromTheHaworthDocumentDelivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]