Content area
[...]I ventured into doing research on identity management.! At the University of Tennessee Libraries, when working with the David Van Vactor Music Collection, I reviewed the name authority record for his daughter, Raven Harwood, who was an actress with this stage name · She also used this form of name when collaborating With her father on the music composition for the film she directed, Jungle of the Soul Wikidata, Linked Data, and Other Identifiers In 2019, I ventured into the wiki world and learned about Wikidata, the structured data created to support Wikipedia and other applications in the Wikimedia family. [...]I lacked access to a system that would enable me to have a hands-on experience with linked data. Because Wikidata is an open platform and easy to join, I learned how to create Wikidata and explored the possibilities that this type of data can offer. 1 was interested in data visualization of scholarly contribution or knowledge mapping. Ethical Issues in Identity Management Beyond the technical aspects in identity management, the ethical aspect poses a different challenge when describing other human beings in resource descriptions. Because of my work on the ethical aspects of identity management, I had been invited to give lectures to an information science course at the School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The article focuses on my exploration into identity management and its many facets. I will cover a range of topics including interesting entities, Wikidata and linked open data, researcher identifiers, ethical issues in identity management, and artificial intelligence (Al) as creators and/or performers. While there are many more subtopics under identity management, I highlight these topics to provide a wide representation on what can be done with identity management in practice and in research, and what to anticipate in the future.
Background
In the past decade, I focused some of my work and research on identity management. As a cataloger of unique materials for special collections and local authors of theses and dissertations, I created name authority records in Library of Congress (LC) Name Authority File (LCNAF) via OCLC Connexion Client's Authorities database for creators and contributors of the works in library collections at a few academic libraries.
In my current role as the coordinator of Tennessee Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO) Funnel, I review and answer questions on LCNAF records from our funnel members. It is a balancing act portraying persons in name authority records based on what we know about their works and backgrounds, while trying to respect their privacy. As a result, I ventured into doing research on identity management.!
Discovery of Interesting Identities
In retrospect, I wondered why I chose this path to focus on identity management or, vice versa, why this path had chosen me. I think it has to do with my fascination with people's unique life stories. We provide our stewardship for works by these creators and contributors in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums while we also are their readers and audience. I admire these creators and contributors because writing and creating works is labor intensive and not without struggle. As a cataloger, I made surprising and interesting discoveries when working with name authority records in LCNAF. For example, I found that Sir Brian May, the rock band Queen's lead guitarist, is also an astrophysicist? When working for the American University in Cairo, Egypt, I discovered al-Jazari, a Muslim mathematician and engineer, well-known for his writing of the 1206 manuscript with the translation by Donald R. Hill, 7he Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (1974) ? The book includes description of mechanical devices (automata) and how to construct them. His most elaborate work is the elephant water clock. Al-Jazari's work opened my eyes to the topic of Islamic technology and its influence on later inventions. At the University of Tennessee Libraries, when working with the David Van Vactor Music Collection, I reviewed the name authority record for his daughter, Raven Harwood, who was an actress with this stage name · She also used this form of name when collaborating With her father on the music composition for the film she directed, Jungle of the Soul
Wikidata, Linked Data, and Other Identifiers
In 2019, I ventured into the wiki world and learned about Wikidata, the structured data created to support Wikipedia and other applications in the Wikimedia family. I did so because I wished to know how linked data works. At the time, I lacked access to a system that would enable me to have a hands-on experience with linked data. Because Wikidata is an open platform and easy to join, I learned how to create Wikidata and explored the possibilities that this type of data can offer. 1 was interested in data visualization of scholarly contribution or knowledge mapping. Wikidata's tools offer many options to explore the data, such as Scholia and Reasonator. My contribution to Wikidata included creating Raven Harwood's Wikidata record to link with her father's Wikidata record. I also linked al-Jazari's Wikidata with the scholarly networks on the topic "automaton." My experiment with linked data opened my eyes to the possibility of what authority metadata can do to visualize and analyze the scholarly communication network based on these metadata.
In 2021, I took an online course from the Rare Book School, enous Book in Virtual Space," taught by Michael Kelly and Kiara M. Vigil, when I learned about Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkála-Sá, Red Bird in Lakota). Zitkâla-Sâ was an advocate for the rights of Native Americans and their sovereignty. In 1926, she co-founded the National Council of American Indians with her husband and acted as the president until her death in 1938. She is an example of the problem of misrepresentation due to many websites using images of her at the age of 22 to represent her entire life since the older images are not in the public domain. While Wikidata relies on openaccess content, there are limitations to using a free, but clearly younger image, to represent a political figure from a marginalized community. These are a few lessons I learned about Wikidata's capability and limitation.
While the University of Tennessee Libraries does not actively use Wikidata in our catalog or authority records, the Library of Congress Linked Data Services have incorporated Wikidata in its personal name authority records. They are currently listed under "Agents" → "LC Name Authority File (LCNAF)," as shown in Raven Harwood's name authority, "Harwood, Raven, 1933-1994 "8 Our metadata librarian later joined the PCC Wikidata Pilot to apply Wikidata to personal names in our digital tions." As the for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) expands beyond LCNAF to incorporate other identifiers like Wikidata, researcher identifiers also are considered to be included in name authority records because they are included in Wikidata. NACO offers options to add Wikidata and researcher identifiers, such as ORCID, Scopus (Elsevier), and ResearcherID (Web of Science) to the LC name authority records." In 2020, to support the promotion of ORCID usage at the University of Tennessee Libraries, our cataloging team proposed a project to add ORCIDs to the names of authors of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) and their advisors in the catalog and LC authority records. Our project was accepted into the PCC URIs in MARC Pilot." After the pilot, we integrated this practice into our regular ETDs cataloging workflow. Later 1 also served on the advisory board for WorldCat Entities." It is functioning and allowing data connection with Wikidata and other identifiers. The data enrichment from this project has been visible in the addition of URIs from WorldCat Entities to WorldCat records.
Ethical Issues in Identity Management
Beyond the technical aspects in identity management, the ethical aspect poses a different challenge when describing other human beings in resource descriptions. Because of my work on the ethical aspects of identity management, I had been invited to give lectures to an information science course at the School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I challenged students to consider how to describe others by asking them to describe themselves. I also shared with them the resources on this topic and examples to illustrate the complexity of describing other people with the respect and sensitivity they deserve. My opening line for the course came from the "Cataloguing Code of Ethics": "As cataloguers, we have significant influence over how information resources are represented through the choices we make."13 The "Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms Manual" also provides this guideline, "Naming demographic groups and identifying individuals as members of those groups must be done with accuracy and respect." For ethnic group terms, I shared an exhibit on portraits taken by Kip Fulbeck (artist) twice of each person of multiracial identity in the project 15 years apart." The examples from the exhibit show how each person sees themselves varies over time. This was one of the scenarios that I shared with the class to show how complicated the work of describing other people in catalog metadata can be.
Al As Creators and/or Performers of Works
As the impact of Al, such as ChatGPT (an AI chatbot), on galleries, libraries, archives, and museums has garnered more attention, I started to read about AI and stumbled upon AI used to create works. Some examples are Beta Writer, code-davinci-002, and Jon the Robot (comedian), listed as authors in their books and as a comedian on YouTube." Currently the PCC guideline does not recognize these AI authors as authors, only as "a related work, not as an agent."'" Based on these examples, 1 raised the question whether these AI "authors" or "comedian" should be considered to have unique roles in the creation and/or performance of their works. After I brought this issue to the OCLC Research Library Partnership Metadata Managers Focus Group, the question on Al as authors or performers has been noted for the group's further discussions.'s
Epilogue
These examples portray a rich tapestry that forms the fabric of identity management. This experience enriches my work and my contributions to the field of library science in my practice, teaching, research, and publications. My exploration and experience have touched upon different facets of identity management, ranging across ethics in metadata practices, the role of researcher identifiers in scholarly communication and faculty evaluation, Wikidata and linked data, and AI as creators or performers of works. Al is a topic that will have a role in the world of resource description and libraries for some time to come. BIBFRAME and linked open data also will continue to evolve and will impact how our users can discover information in our collections and beyond. My journey with identity management has been rewarding. I cannot wait to see what the next few years will bring.
References and Notes
1. Anchalee Panigabutra-Roberts, "Enhancing Catalog Records of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) with ORCID Identifiers: A Case Study at the University of Tennessee Libraries," in Enriching ETDs and Their Reach: Proceedings of 26" International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 26 International Symposium, ETD 2023, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, October 26-28, 2023, https:// ir.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/1944/2420 (accessed Nov. 15, 2024); Anchalee Panigabutra-Roberts, "The Tale of Three Service Types for Researcher Identifiers and the Ethical cation on to Information and Representation of Authors," in Ethical Questions in Name Authority Control, ed. Jane Sandberg (Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2019), 261-303.
2. "May, Brian, 1947-," Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF), http://id.loc.gov/author-ities/names/n92102686 (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
3. "Jazari, Ismail ibn al-Razzaz, active 1181-1204," LCNAF, http:// id.loc.gov/authorities/names/ n80013610 (accessed Nov. 15, 2024); Isma'1l ibn al-Razzaz Jazart, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (FT ma 'rifat al-hiyal al-handastyah), translated and annotated by Donald R. Hill (Dordrecht, Boston: Reidel, 1974).
4. University of Tennessee Libraries, David Van Vactor Music Collection, https://digital .lib .utk.edu/collec-tions/vvsmcollection (accessed Nov. 15,2024); "Harwood, Raven, 1933-1994," LCNAF, http://id.loc.gov/ authorities/names/no2018023849 (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
5. David Van Vactor and Raven Harwood, "Film Music Nos. 4-5, 7-11 from Jungle of the Soul," 1969, in David Van Vactor Music Collection, University of Tennessee Libraries, https:// utk.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/ permalink/01UTN_KNOXVILLE/ bemt7h/alma9926502645602311 (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
6. "Raven Harwood," Wikidata (Q62075064), www.wikidata.org/ wiki/Q62075064 (accessed Nov. 15,2024); "David van Vactor," Wikidata (Q2182197), https:// www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2182197 (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
7. "Zitkala-Sa," Wikidata (02668090), www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2668090 (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
8. Library of Congress, Linked Data Service, LC Name Authority File (LCNAF), "Harwood, Raven, 1933-1994," http://id.loc.gov/author-ities/names/no2018023849 (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
9. Wikidata, "Wikidata: WikiProject PCC Wikidata Pilot," www .wikidata. org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ PCC_Wikidata_Pilot (accessed Nov. 15,2024).
10.PCC URIs in MARC Pilot, "NACO 024 Best Practices Guidelines," (Aug. 16, 2023), www.loc.gov/ aba/pcc/naco/documents/NACO-024-Best-Practices.pdf (accessed Nov. 15,2024).
11. Library of Congress, PCC, "PCC URIs in MARC Pilot," last update Aug. 25,2023, www.loc.gov/aba/ pec/pilots/URIs-in-MARC-Pilot. html (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
12."WorldCat Entities," https://entities. oclc.org/worldcat/entity (accessed Nov. 15,2024).
13. Cataloging Ethics Steering Committee, "Cataloguing Code of Ethics," final version Jan. 2021, https://sites.google.com/view/catalo-ging-ethics/home (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
14. Library of Congress, Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms PDF Files, "Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms Manual," L 400. Ethics and Demographic Group Terms (July 2024), www.loc.gov/aba/publi-cations/FreeLCDGT/freelcdgt. html#Manual (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
15. Kip Fulbeck, "hapa.me," https:// kipfulbeck.com/hapa-me (accessed Nov. 15,2024).
16.Beta Writer and Steffen Pauly, Lithium-Ion Batteries: A Machine - Generated Summary of Current Research (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019); code-davinci-002, I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks, eds., Brent Katz, Josh Morgenthau, and Simon Rich (New York: Back Bay Books, 2023); Sarah Hagen and Jon the Robot (comedian), A Bot and Costello - Let's Power the Whole Thing Off, YouTube video, 5:27, posted by Naomi Fitter, Feb. 4, 2020, www. youtube .com/watch?v=OkCoTIxO-MM (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
17.Library of Congress, Program for Cooperative Cataloging, "PCC FAQ: Cataloging of Resources Generated Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Software," Feb. 8,2024, www. loc.gov/aba/pcc/scs/documents/ FAQ-Cataloging-of-Resources-Generated-by-Artificial-Intelligence (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
18.Richard Urban, "Getting ready for AL," Hanging Together: The OCLC Research Blog, June 24, 2024, https://hangingtogether.org/getting-ready-for-ai (accessed Nov. 15, 2024).
Copyright Media Periodicals Division, The Kansas City Gardener, Inc. 2025