to be different, for example different presentations of the same
name, pseudonyms, etc.;</font>

contact the correct agent associated with a resource;

and collocate all the works of any specific agent.

Disambiguation may be the most significant of these

purposes. It enables effective searching for resources by enabling a
reasonable degree of certainty about associated agents, and it is
essential for protection of intellectual property and to assist with
copyright payments, where a high degree of certainty about agents is
needed.

So the resource description/discovery community needs an

agent core because the DC element set does not allow a sufficiently
precise description of an agent to support the above functions.

2. Scope

This
document aims to set out the requirements and the metadata elements
needed for unambiguously describing OR identifying the agents
associated with resources. Agent descriptions may be contained within
DC metadata records, or linked to the DC metadata records for
particular resources as an associated metadata description. It is not
within the scope of this document to consider the issue of where
agent descriptions should be located. The functional requirements set
out in this document will form the basis for development of a core
set of metadata elements for describing agents.

For
the purposes of this document agents are defined as persons
(author, publisher, sculptor, editor, director, etc.) or
groups (organization, corporation, library, orchestra,
country, federation, etc.) that have a role in the lifecycle of a
resource.

We
also point out the constraints of the various data protection acts
which ensure that there is only a limited amount of data that can
legally be recorded about persons. So dates and location may be
problematic for living people unless their explicit permission to
include such data is obtained.

3. Entities

We
define two classes of agents in this document:

1. Person: an individual human being,
living or dead; and

2. Group: a set, either existing or
defunct, of individual entities acting collectively.

4. Attributes

Each

class of entity has associated with it a set of attributes or
characteristics that serve to identify that entity unambiguously from
all other entities of either class.

4.1 Attributes of a Person

This
document defines the attributes of a person as the following:

identifier
name
dates
title
affiliation

location
email
other
information

1. 

Identifier

A
scheme, numeric or alphabetic, or a combination of the two, used to
identify unambiguously a specific individual agent. No such schemes
yet exist. This element will allow for the use of such schemes when
and if they are developed.

4.1.2 Name

The
name or names by which the person is known, including alternative
names.

4.1.3 Dates

May
include date of the person's birth and/or death, or floruit
dates (ie. an indication of the period in which the person was known
to be active in a given field of endeavour).

4.1.4 Title

A
word or phrase used to identify the rank, office, nobility, honour,
etc. of the person.

4.1.5 Affiliation

The
name of the organization, institution, company, or other body with
which the person was or is associated, or by whom the person was
employed or contracted.

4.1.6 Location

Information
about the person’s principal area of residence over time.
Context may be indicated by the use of appropriate qualifiers (for
example: Lived in Canberra 1991-2005).

4.1.7 Email

Email
address or addresses currently assigned to the person at the time of
the description.

4.1.8 Other

Information

Any
additional significant information about the person that is needed to
unambiguously identify that person.

4.2 Attributes of a Group

This
document defines the attributes of a group as the following:

legal
number
name
jurisdiction
location
dates
web site
other
information

4.2.1 Legal

number

Any
official number assigned by a public authority that is used to
identify the group.

4.2.2. Name

Names
by which the group is or was known. May include other forms of the
name and changes of name over time.

4.2.3 Jurisdiction

The
legal name of the judicial and administrative entity which has
jurisdiction over the territory in which the group operates.

4.2.4 Location

The
place from which the group operated.

4.2.5 Dates

Dates
indicating the period the group operated. May include such things as
date of founding and dissolution, date of legal mandate establishing
the group, etc.

4.2.6 Web

Site

The
http address of the world wide web site operated by the group.

4.2.7 Other

Information

Any
additional significant information about the group that is needed to
unambiguously identify that group.