Template talk:Authority control/2011

usage on commons

Today the interwiki links from the Wikipedias are pointing either to a page in the main namespace or to a category. There might be examples that interwiki links are not synchronized. I would recommend to move all template occurences to pages in the main namespace. It is a lot of work ... ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 22:38, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Strictly opposed. The main namespace of the Commons is just a historic relict, it is hardly ever used, and Commons would probably be better off without it with few exceptions. If we need to restrict the template to a namespace (which we don't, I think), then that must be the categories. The template not only links from here to the "authorities", but it's main benefit is that it provides a large table VIAF -> Commons link or PND -> Commons link, which means it can and will be used by library catalogues and other websites to enhance their content with links. If those links go to our "main namespace" no one will find the wealth of files available for most persons, because hardly any files are available in galleries, but nearly all are available in categories for individual persons. Please do not assume anyone but hardcore Commons users even know about the possibility of navigation via the categories way down there beyond the image on the screen after some epic nightmares of copyright legalese. Same goes for galleries, I doubt people will find the link to the one gallery that more often than not provides many more files. The other way round, to link to a category, is no problem at all: subcategories are displayed before the first images appear, and any gallery will be also easily found, above the images. --AndreasPraefcke (talk) 16:55, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

These are good reasons! So we will add / move the template to the main category for a person. No objections! This is a simple rule. ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 22:51, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

i18n issues

The original template design was made for de: only. Some restrictions:

1. Referencing to the toolserver was implemented using {{PAGENAME}} at de:. It is obvious that this can neither work for wikis using other scripts nor at pages where different "piped" links are used nor at pages using other transliterations ("sch/sh", "w/v", "i/y" etc.).
2. The toolserver will capture information only if an article exists in Wikipedia in German language. Refrences to authors will show empty pages until a page is created at de:.

test:Authority control/i18n 01 is a draft about the status of internationalization and migration of the template at various WM wikis. ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 22:43, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Parameter PICA

<span class="metadata">([http://dispatch.opac.d-nb.de/DB=4.1/SET=4/TTL=1/PRS=PP%7F/PPN?PPN={{{PND}}} PICA])</span> is commented out at de: and here at commons: it has been deleted from the eo: and yi template variants. Today it is still visible at ko:케르테스 임레. record for Imre Kertész states "Dieser Katalog wird nicht mehr weiterentwickelt." which means that at some point in time the information will be outdated. Should the code be removed from all template variants? ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 23:13, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Parameter SWD

There might be reasons to use the parameter "SWD" and to reference to en:Schlagwortnormdatei (SWD). Today it is not transparents to users for what porpose the template is used. The en: and ro: versions are using hidden categories to show the usage:

• en:Category:Wikipedia:Authority control (key words only) linked to ro:
• en:Category:Wikipedia:Authority control (persons only) linked to eo:, ro:, yi:

Questions:

1. Is parameter "SWD" used at commons: until now?
2. Should it be used at commons: or not?
3. Does it make sense to add these categories to other languages? ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 23:13, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

known bugs and problems

:de: #bekannte Fehler :en: #known bugs :eo: #cimoj

---

a) Before displaying the "WorldCat identity" links Avic verified hundered of pages at en: and many at de:. We noticed that "LCCN=a/b/0*c" generated invalid links. This still might be an open issue.
b) "LCCN=a/20/c" is wrong formating. "WorldCat identity" would be broken. The parameter validation is still an open issue.
c) Template:Authority control shold be located before all equivalents of "Link GA" and / or "Link FA" type templates. Else datas are hidden. Making 700++ manual edits (adding additional datas to existing occurences and adding the template to new pages in Latn, Cyrl, Japn and Hebr) I suggest to locate the template after the categories in order to have block of objects which can be adapted tor the needs of other WM wikis. Else it would be difficult to find /identify the template.
d) still investigated: at no: In one example template datas are hidden if the template is located after "<references>...<references/>". Please note that the syntax is not correct. "/references" should be used. ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 22:53, 31 August 2011 (UTC) e) 16:08, 1 September 2011 (UTC): dif:ru:Шарон, Ариэль unknown bug; to be investigated ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 16:08, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Template:Authority control and LCCN_URL=1 at de:Ernst Lossa

I added a VIAF number to de:Ernst Lossa and could see that an invalid LCCN was generated. Now the code for commons would be:

• {{Authority control|PND=134190149|LCCN=no/2009/16539|LCCN_URL=1|VIAF=38128467|TSURL=viaf/38128467|NOTES=LCCN_URL=1}}

• According to Ralf G. it seems to be a temporary problem at loc.gov. The questions is: For how long?. Please see eo:Vikipedio:Bibliotekoj/VIAF:38128467 where Parameter LCCN_URL=1 is used as a swith between oldstyle url's and newstyle url's. As far as I remember Avic has noticed this problem in the past. Best regards ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 15:16, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

  Commons:VIAF inter project linking/viaf.user.js Greasemonkey-Skript

  The tool was made by my friend T.Gries. The source code is located at mw: svn; same is the Greasemonkey JavaScript code. Because of hundreds of edits, tests, preparations for a MW chapter workshop held on 10th of September 2011 in Nuremberg I did neither managed to properly integrate the page at commons: nor to get as many translations as possible. Any help would be most welcome! Regards ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 23:16, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

  Template:Authority data

  Long ago, I had already created Template:Authority data. Unneccessarily it had been moved to "Template:Normdaten" by someone, and now again to "Template:Authority control". Could those responsible please make sure that it now stays where it is, and that all instances of "Authority data" and "Normdaten" are replaced by the new name? Thanks. --AndreasPraefcke (talk) 15:02, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

  Template:Authority control was redirecting to Template:Normdaten. Now Template:Normdaten redirects to Template:Authority control. I do not think there is any harm in relying on template redirects. Sorry, I did not know about Template:Authority data alias. Template:Authority control name is the same as on en wiki and the name of article and project: en:Wikipedia:Authority control & en:Authority control. It should be the most general. --Jarekt (talk) 15:39, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

  For anyone wanting to read out all entries of a given template from our database, I think it would be easier if only one template existed. I think we should rename all instances before the system is introduced widely in the Commons (the whole authority control topic it's not too easy to understand for the normal user without experience in these things anyway, so why add more confusion). Generally, I welcome that authority data is now obviously more welcome on the Commons (that's why I tried to introduce the concept last April, without much success back then and without many replies on the Village Pump). I have used the templates mainly for artists that do not have an article in de.wikipedia but have a commons category, since tagging all the people that already have a de.wikipedia article with PND and/or VIAF and/or LCCN could and should be done by a bot.). --AndreasPraefcke (talk) 16:45, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

  OK, I will change them all to Template:Authority control --Jarekt (talk) 17:45, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

  i18n migration issues

  Parameter TSURL

  Ariel Sharon is using the English spelling. At German Wikipedia the name is de:Ariel Scharon. The toolserver database record / page can be accessed with up to four urls:

  1. viaf/66507956 (15:10, 1 September 2011 (UTC) + 24 hours); it is there now (00:49, 2 September 2011 (UTC))
  2. pnd/121428184
  3. peende/321
  4. Ariel Scharon

  Please no that the url Ariel Sharon will fail. The sample url 1. is available if a VIAF number is known to de: while 2. is available if a PND number is known to de:. The toolserver retrieves the datas from articles at Wikipedia in German within 24 hours.
  The "internationalisation degree" of the urls relates to both the coding of the url and the lifetime. If the article at Wikipedia in German is renamed url 4. will change and all reference urls posted on the web will fail. Regards ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 15:10, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

  Shall we rely on pnd & viaf to access toolserver database? Or try first pnd and if not present try viaf and only then try person's name? It might be more reliable than current approach of relying on german wikipedia to have the same name as commons. --Jarekt (talk) 16:05, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

  I would prefer to use |TSURL=viaf/66507956 . This is what I added everywhere else. It is just 24 hours and the datas are there. I do not have a bot to validate all datas (all occurences). This is why no "'automatic logic" in the template is used. ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 16:23, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

  ---

  category:Richard Wagner (Novelist) : Here the code is

  • {{Authority control|PND=122541332|LCCN=n/86/94638|VIAF=49258731|TSURL=viaf/49258731}}

  Please compare with: test:Richard Wagner (novelist) and other linked pages. Best regards ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 20:37, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

  ---

  category:Richard Wagner (Novelist) : Here the code is

  • {{Authority control|PND=122541332|LCCN=n/86/94638|VIAF=49258731|TSURL=viaf/49258731}}

  Please compare with: test:Richard Wagner (novelist) and other linked pages. Best regards ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 20:37, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

  I added TSURL parameter. not your code above gives:

  • --Jarekt (talk) 04:07, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

    reformating and Thanks a lot! ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 07:33, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

    Parameter TSURL=N/A

    If there is no article at Wikipedia in German "TSURL=N/A" is used at:

    • eo:category:Aŭtoroj nekonataj en centra datumbazo
    • ro:category:Wikipedia:Persoane necunoscute la baza centrală de date

    PAR NOTES

    If the information is contradictory, if more then one VIAF number has been identified "NOTES is used at:

    • eo:category:Malklara aŭ speciala

    VIAFn n=2..9

    This is just a descriptive parameter so far.

    PND_NAME=1

    

    Wilhelm Schmidt PND:118608959 VIAF:27082555

    Please see de:user talk:Ralf Gartner#PND Name bei eo:Ferenc Szilágyi mit VIAF verknüpft (German). There are "good PND's" and "bad PND's". Tn="Name" is associated to a name and not to a individual person. Tp="Person" is associated to a named person only; it might (?) be used for a pseudonym (maybe in erroneous records etc.). We need information from the authority here. Thanks for any further clarification. ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 08:02, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

    de:Hilfe:PND#Wichtige Unterschiede bei PND-Datensätzen illustrates an example for Wilhelm Schmidt PND:118608959 VIAF:27082555 (Tp type PND:118608959 versus Tn type PND100806678). Thanks to Ralf G.! ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 15:49, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

    Please note that the PNDs that are used in the Template:Normadaten in de.wikipedia are all "good" PNDs (or at least they should be, and indeed they are with relatively few exceptions). VIAF isn't that good since it contains lots of "bad" PNDs, but these bad PNDs don't do a lot of harm anyway, and can sometimes even be quite useful (for people with rare names they are as good as "good" PNDs, and they are only really useless for very common names). --AndreasPraefcke (talk) 14:05, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

    Parameter WORLDCATID

    If no LCCN value is available but valuable "Worldcat identitiess are identified then "WORLDCATID" is used at:

    • eo:category:Personoj kun WORLDCATID
    • ro:category:Wikipedia:Persoane folosind WORLDCATID
    • yi:category:Persons with WORLDCATID

    Some samples are at commons:.

    simplifying template logic

    • We should search other mechanism to add &#124; as link separator.

    notepad / to dos

    • Parameter SOURCE (for mass import transfer from foo: to bar:, foobar etc.)
    • Parameter ISREDIRECT
    • Parametr REFONLY (instructs toolserver not to create extra pages)
    • {{URLENCODE:WORLDCATID|foobar}} (after succssfull test)
    • provide some useful search links and hints

    sample welcome message

    This might be posted at wikis starting using the template. Please improve this text adding new ideas.

    i18n for template Authority control tour

    Thanks for adding template:Normdaten to "MW_CODE" . Before asking specific questions please make a tour at:

    • (preliminary urls) test:Authority control/i18n 01 and test:category:Authority control
    • commons:user talk:Jarekt#The internationalization of template:Authority control is not just copy and paste!
    • commons:template talk:Authority control

    I worked on the internationalization (i8n) of template Normdaten / Authority control since a few months returning to WikiMedia because of "VIAF inter project linking" activities.
    Before taking the tour please answer the following questions:

    1. Where did you copy the template from? Please provide a "Permanent link" (a link containing "title=foobar&oldid=nunber")
       answer: (link)
       1. If the template was added by anonymous users or people which never returned here: Are there some active contributors which are either familiar with authority control data or which are involved in librarian activities? Are there some active contributors who would like to start on such topics?
          answer: (...)
    2. Did you make any modifications? Please provide a brief description.
       answer: (...)
    3. Would you appreciate some help?
       answer: (...)

    Waiting for your questions here (at the local template talk page).

    discussion

    Posted at ko:. Starting taks at ru:, nn:. Best regards ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 00:47, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

    Template localization

    I created template localization subpages. Please add translations and links to your language wikipedias. --Jarekt (talk) 15:12, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

    Please add subpages somewhere. Thanks ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 19:42, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

    just follow the directions at Template:Authority_control/doc#Localization --Jarekt (talk) 23:22, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

    yi:template ביכער-- and yi:category:ביכער--

    Template content:
    

    This is a notification template for category:ביכער--.
    

    Please add "{{ביכער--}}" to all articles about single persons.
    The template will be replaced with template:ביכער containing the apropriate parameters.
    

    Thanks in advance! zol zayn mit mazl!
    

    Such notification templates could be usufull to work on special lists / categories / subjects first. ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 19:25, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

    Template:Book authority control

    Due to a separate discussion on Template talk:Book, I created Template:Book authority control which I will integrate into {{Book}} template. As far as I can tell no wikipedias/wikisource have similar template. --Jarekt (talk) 14:57, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

    Layout

    Frankly, I don't like the layout at all. First, the data should not be centered, since nothing in Commons is centered. Second, why is everything bold? I don't see any reason why any of the words and data should be written in bold. --AndreasPraefcke (talk) 14:17, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

    Fixed Original template did not use table to create the box but a "

    " html tag which seemed to have a lot of strange side-effects, like including some surrounding text into the template. I changed it to html-table so I have better control over it however this changed text to centered BOLD, which I did not notice. I changed it to wiki tables and hopefully it looks better. --Jarekt (talk) 15:08, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

    Thanks! --AndreasPraefcke (talk) 14:03, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

    Adding Authority control templated to Categories and Galleries

    Today and in the near future user:JarektBot will be copying some of Authority control templates from DE Wiki. It have already added 13.5k of them. I will be also adding Authority control data to creator templates (see Creator:Leonardo da Vinci and Category:Leonardo da Vinci). --Jarekt (talk) 13:56, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

    Great. I am just wondering: I suppose that if the authority controls are provided in the creator template, they do not need to be provided outside it. So wouldn't it make more sense to skip categories that contain a creator template (like Category:Michele_Marieschi)--Zolo (talk) 18:18, 12 September 2011 (UTC). Can categories containing a creator template be skipped so that we do not get redundant data ?--Zolo (talk) 18:21, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

    That was my thinking. AFAIK I did not add {{Authority control}} templates to categories with creator templates. I was planning to add them separately to the creator templates themselves. --Jarekt (talk) 20:04, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

    Yes I saw that too late. I have moved some authority control that had been previously added in creator home categories though. I guess it is easier to do itnow.--Zolo (talk) 21:00, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

    Is this really a good idea? Ideally, authority control data can be read by a machine and will be used to link back to the Commons. But where should one link to if the template is used in dozens and dozens of pages on the Commons? Each template should only be used once: in the home category of a person (or in a gallery, if no such category exists). --AndreasPraefcke (talk) 10:40, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

    Commons structure is clealy not ideal to deal with this kind of data. However I think it makes sense to use in priority for such things, since this is were other data are stored too. machine can still find category. Hopefully a machine can still find direct subcategories of people by name that transclude {{Authority control}}.--Zolo (talk) 11:07, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

    I think a bot should be able to find the data either way. In both cases it will be added by transcluding {{Authority control}} template (directly or through {{Creator}} and one can always look for "PND=.....", "LCCN=....." and "VIAF=.....". --Jarekt (talk) 02:55, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

    Couldn't we just link the category description pages from Creator? Adding it to Creator would indeed add these links to each file description page. --  Docu  at 06:29, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

    The original intent was to add Authority control to the creator pages, so all that information is in one place and so it is transcluded to files, galleries and categories using it. In files the infobox is collapsed so it does no overwhelm the reader with the author information unless user wants it. --Jarekt (talk) 10:39, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

    Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough. The template will not only be used to lead users from the Commons to the libraries, but also the other way round: it is needed to automatically extract the data that is necessary to link _to_ the Commons. Example: We need a link resolver for links _to_ the Commons that only have, let's say, the PND. De.wikipedia already has one (via the "Apper Tool"): http://toolserver.org/~apper/pd/person/pnd-redirect/de/118580779 leads to our de.wikipedia article about Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. That means that library catalogues or online dictionaries can easily link to de.wikipedia via the PND. They know about the existence of an article in de.wikipedia by the "BEACON" file that is provided on our toolserver. This file only contains the URL to the resolver, and a long list of PND numbers - in the case of de.wikipedia a list of roughly 400.000 distinct PND numbers, line by line. Look at http://www.bmlo.lmu.de/m0559 - there are many links to Wikipedia and other projects, all possible by reading such BEACON files.
    Now, if on the Commons dozens of pages contain the template with the PND value 118580779, where is a tool like that supposed to link to? It _should_ link to the main "parent" category of a person, but when the template is used in subcategories, let alone in each image by a painter, the resolver will not know where to link to. It means that we either have to restrict ourselves to _one_ instance of the template per person, or that we need another value in the template (something like linkhere=1 if the link target is supposed to be that page). This won't work when the creator template is used to replace the Authority control template on these "main pages", though (instead of being additionally added there). Any suggestions?
    Alternatively, maybe something could be programmed that reads out all the PND (or VIAF or LCCN...), and if there is more than one instance of the PND in the template, it preferably uses the one that has Category:People by name in it (or some new category that could be introduced, defining our own main page for any person). --AndreasPraefcke (talk) 16:39, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

    Yes I misunderstood the question, Which on the sacond reading should have been clear. I assume that we should link back to categories only and there should be only one category with Template:Authority control template per person. That is still true when the Template:Authority control is called from creator template. I do not think that would be very confusing to a bot. --Jarekt (talk) 23:24, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

    I created Category:Categories with authority control data with categories transcluding Authority control template to test my theory. And There are cases where non biographical categories transclude the template, for example Category:Alice’s Abenteuer im Wunderland calls a book template which calls creator template, which calls authority control template. I guess one will have to intersect Category:Categories with authority control data and Category:People by name to get the correct list. --Jarekt (talk) 00:25, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

    allow multiple values for some parameters

    Some authority control systems still contain quite a few errors. This is presumable worst for VIAF since it involves coordinating several large institutions (eg the first two results here). Should several values be added for some parameters or should we choose the one that seems most relevant, hoping that they will fix it some day ? Or should we notify problems on a dedicating page, in order to initiate some informal cooperation with these institutions ?--Zolo (talk) 06:17, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

    I do not know. May be we should ask on German Wikipedia. They are dealing with 170k of those templates, so they must have run into this problem. --Jarekt (talk) 13:11, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

    Oh yes, actually it was already discussed there. The problem was also with VIAF, not individual institutions (and VIAF is apparently not the most developed parameter out there). They decided to leave the field blank. Personnally, I'll try to keep track of the cases I find. I suppose that if we have many of them we could try to find a better solution.--Zolo (talk) 20:27, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

    I have already found at least four creators with two VIAFS ([1], [[2] [3], [4] and possibly [5]). I think the simplest solution would be to allow to values through a {{#titleparts:}}, with only the first one showing, and maybe the second one categorizing in "authority controls with two VIAF numbers".--Zolo (talk) 17:31, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

     Done VIAF parameter can take now multiple values separated by "/". Only the first one is displayed, at the moment. --Jarekt (talk) 19:04, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

    Other parameters

    There seem to be many other good candidates for authority control for people:

    1. BNF - Above discussed French Library
    2. ULAN - en:Union List of Artist Names
    3. ARC - Archival Research Catalog from NARA

    I think it would be fine to add them all, but I am not sure how to balance some competing requirements

    1. I do not like that the template holds authority control data for people, companies and subjects. I think each one of those should have separate authority control template. On the other hand splitting the template would make it incompatible with DE & EN Wikipedia versions.
    2. I like having authority control data in Creator templates. I also like them in categories, which often transclude creator templates. Right now if the data is in creator template than it is not placed in the category description, so it does not show up twice in the category description. However that makes less predictable and hard to find for future bots. We could have it in both places, which would make it harder to keep in synch).
    3. As the number of the parameters increase in the template, what should we do with the creator template parameters. Keep on adding as well or change Creator template not to call authority control internally but take a single parameter authority_control = {{Authority control|.....}}
    4. Authority control at the moment is text based, but it could be more esthetically pleasing if it used icons instead. National libraries could use their flags, and we could get an icon for VIAF, toolserver, etc.

    --Jarekt (talk) 14:18, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

    About points 1 and 2, clearly I think a more databasish is even more needed now.

    About point 3, apart for the small gain in the maintenace of template:Creator, what difference would it make ? Yet another possibility would be that creator would display some of the parameters in the infobox and some in the reference field. But that would be unclean.

    I am not sure about icons and flags. If there were only libraries it could do, but if we add other things, I think it could become rather confusing. "Is the American flag for the Library of Congress for NARA or the Library of Congress ?" You would have to be fairly well acquainted with Commons to tell. To me when you need some informaton about the meaning of a number, it is more intuitive to click to a text hyperlink to Wikipedia than on an icon.--Zolo (talk) 18:31, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

    About splitting the template, what do you mean by "subject" ?For companies, it does not look to good to me either, but that is the way the Library of Congress - I did not check for other - seems to do. Anyway I think we can begin with people and see afterwads what we can do for companies. --Zolo (talk) 18:46, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

    Add explanation

    I suggest giving this template some explanation. In the form that appears on categories, that can be making this template have two lines, with the first line being an additional explanation (probably in italics?), and the second being the current content. In the form used in the Creator template ("bare" option I think?), the explanation can be a tooltip for the "authority control" label.

    I suggest the explanation (for the English version, obviously it would need localising) be something like:

    Links to corresponding entries for {{BASEPAGENAME}} in [[:en:Library catalog|library catalogs]] and other [[:en:authority file|authority files]] around the world
    

    "BASEPAGENAME" should work out as the person or entity's name.

    I'm not quite sure how to implement this but it's not that hard to figure out, if people agree. Comments? Rd232 (talk) 09:58, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

     Done for English version. See Template:Authority control/en --Jarekt (talk) 19:01, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

    TSURL

    Parameter TSURL is not necessary if a PND and/or VIAF number exists, since Personensuche can also be addressed via the PND or VIAF, e. g. http://toolserver.org/~apper/pd/person/pnd/118580779 or http://toolserver.org/~apper/pd/person/viaf/2665666 It is even quite a bad idea to include this parameter (if redundant) since it will change as soon as an article in de.wikipedia is moved. --AndreasPraefcke (talk) 11:09, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

    We did discuss it here that TSURL can be based on PND, VIAF or German article name. Since I was copying the templates from German Wikipedia I used the last option. I did not realized that someone moving articles there would brake the links. We could place logic in the template to first try PND and VIAF before using TSURL. --Jarekt (talk) 22:02, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

    I was thinking some more about it and i do not understand how would Personensuche know about PND and VIAF which are not on German Wiki. For example someone just added VIAF to Creator:René Frémin but I do not expect http://toolserver.org/~apper/pd/person/viaf/69199621 to work anytime soon. I think current solution is the safest way to ensure that link will be valid. --Jarekt (talk) 17:50, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

    Artnet

    Should the template include en:Artnet. This is a commercial website and I am not sure it is technically considered an "authority" but it can provide this page in Creator:Samuel Walters for instance.--Zolo (talk) 11:29, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

    I think I would add that to the reference section of Creator:Samuel Walters.--Jarekt (talk) 00:18, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

    Category:Categories with authority control data

    As the description says, this category is filled with all the category where Creator templates are transcluded. Couldn’t this be solved by adding the tracking category only when the category name (PAGENAME) matches the homecat parameter of the Creator template ? Jean-Fred (talk) 22:45, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

    This category is not added by {{Creator}} but by {{Authority control}}. So it would not work.--Jarekt (talk) 04:05, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

    If we really need it, we could use LCCN= VIAF= parameters rather than Authority control= in {{Creator}} and then make categorization conditional in {{Authority control|bare=1}}, so that it can be disabled we we are not in the homecat. This is certainly not very clean, but it should be possible if we really need it.--Zolo (talk) 08:07, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

    worldcat superscript

    Hi, wy is the link to ^worldcat superscript? Sorry for my bad English. --Knochen (talk) 19:31, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

    It was because En wiki version used it, and our original version was a clone of it. I removed it, EN and DE wiki no longer use it and it is silly. Thanks --Jarekt (talk) 12:20, 19 December 2011 (UTC)