Michelle Kaufman of the Getty Information Institute sent me the
following very informative mail and gave me permission to forward
it to the list. Michelle isn't on the list (yet?) so if you want
her to see responses, please copy her.
Misha
> Hi Misha,
> Joseph Busch passed the below message to me
> here in the Vocabulary Program of the Getty
> Information Institute. Is there an e-mail list I could join
> to follow this discussion? Could you forward me the
> e-mail you refer to below that explains namespaces?
> Or let me know the archive where I can get it?
>
> Here is some information on uniqueness of terms in
> the Getty's 3 vocabularies.
>
> Every term in the AAT is unique, but in our other 2
> vocabularies (ULAN and TGN) determining
> uniqueness is more complex (see below). Also note
> that the three vocabularies have different structures,
> and only AAT has facets. TGN, like AAT, is organized
> hierarchically, so you could think of the nations or
> continents in TGN as facets, but it requires more than
> the nation to uniquely identify a place (see #2 below).
> ULAN is not a hierarchical vocabulary, so it has
> nothing like facets.
>
> 1) Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT): Every term in
> the thesaurus is unique. The facet designation is not
> required to uniquely identify a term. Some terms
> include a parenthetical qualifier to disambiguate
> homographs, for example:
>
> pastels (crayons)
> pastels (visual works)
>
> drums (column components)
> drums (membranophones)
> drums (walls)
>
> The parenthetical qualifier is considered an
> inseparable part of the term; therefore each term is
> unique and guaranteed to stay unique. (Note, the
> non-preferred terms in the AAT are also unique, and
> include parenthetical qualifiers when necessary.)
>
> 2) Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN): In
> order to uniquely identify a place in TGN, you need the
> placename, the place's parents up to the nation level,
> and the placetype. For example, there are two places
> in Pennsylvania called "Springfield"; to uniquely
> identify them you need to know the county, state, and
> nation. The placetype is also required to uniquely
> identify a place because there can be a physical
> feature, like a lake, and an inhabited place, like a city,
> that have the same name and the same string of
> parent places.
>
> 3) Union List of Artist Names (ULAN): In order to
> uniquely identify an artist, you need the name, life
> dates, nationality, and role.
>
> All that said, it may be that using a term's unique ID
> (numeric or alphanumeric identifier that we assign)
> would be the easiest way to uniquely identify a term.
>
> I hope this information is helpful, and that I will be able
> to give you additional information once I have read the
> e-mail about namespaces.
>
> Michelle Kaufman, Editor
> Getty Information Institute
> 1200 Getty Center Drive Suite 300
> Los Angeles, CA 90049
> [log in to unmask]
> (310) 440-6645
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