Identity parade: building web portals about people

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to look at the current state of initiatives to develop “people‐centred” portals by repurposing name authority data from union catalogues and similar sources.

Design/methodology/approach

A range of current projects and services are reviewed and evaluated to identify common features and trends.

Findings

Several recent efforts in this area are of considerable interest and promise, but there are elements of this kind of service that will need further development and experimentation.

Originality/value

This is one of the first attempts to give an overview of this type of initiative and to suggest some directions for the future.

Citation

Burrows, T. (2007), "Identity parade: building web portals about people", OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 329-331. https://doi.org/10.1108/10650750710831448