The Getty Vocabulary Program, which produces the AAT, TGN, and ULAN, is pleased to announce a significant improvement in our data releases. We have implemented new functionalities in our editorial system that will result in more persistent IDs for our vocabulary records. Previously, although each record had a unique numeric ID, the ID would change when new records were "merged" with existing records, and in other rare situations. While licensees of Getty vocabulary data received annual mappings of old IDs to new ones, our user community was anxious to have a more persistent ID for the Getty vocabulary records over time. The new merge process, implemented in January 2008, will result in the ID of the original vocabulary record being maintained when a new record is merged into it. Other editorial situations may occasionally require the generation of new IDs (e.g., when one existing record is divided into two records); for these rare cases, a mapping of the old IDs to the new ones will continue to be published with the annual releases. Details of this improved maintenance of a persistent ID will be published with the licensee documentation for the July 2008 data releases for all three vocabularies. Please consult our Web site after July 1, 2008 for a full explanation of the change (http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/download.html). If you have questions in the meantime, please contact [log in to unmask]
Murtha Baca,
Head, Getty Vocabulary Program
Patricia Harpring
Managing Editor, Getty Vocabulary Program
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