Approved Changes MODS 3.8 (May 5th, 2022)

1. Remove controlled-list restriction on authority attribute from <placeTerm>, <geographicCode>, and <languageTerm>
   --People occasionally want to use a legitimate value that is not on a controlled list, for one of these three.


2. Add @otherTypeAuth, @otherTypeAuthURI, and @otherTypeURI to <titleInfo>
   --<titleInfo>and <relatedItem> both have attribute @otherType.  <relatedItem> has the following three attributes in addition, intended to complement @otherType: @otherTypeAuth, @otherTypeAuthURI, and @otherTypeURI. <titleInfo> does not have these attributes, and so they will be added to <titleInfo> for consistency with <relatedItem>.


3. Add <agent> element as a subelement of <originInfo>
   --For an <originInfo> instance, the “event” might be publication, manufacture, distribution, or production. Any of these may have an associated agent. However, currently in all cases the agent can only be represented as <publisher> because there is no <originInfo> element for any other agent type. For example, a manufacturer (for a manufacturing event) must be represented as publisher, which is confusing. Adding a generic <agent> element would allow the manufacturer to be represented by that element rather than the <publisher> element.


4. Add authority attributes to 1) <accessCondition> and 2) <name><affiliation>
   ----To support controlled vocabularies for (1) rights and access, such as rightsstatements.org; and (2) identifiers for research organizations, such as https://ror.org


5. Add the @usage attribute to <recordInfo>
   --You might get data (one or more  MODS records) from a provider which you use/consolidate to create a new record.  <recordInfo> for the new record is the “primary” <recordInfo> but you may also want to include <recordInfo> elements for the provided records. So there will be two (or more) <recordInfo> elements, and you indicate which one is primary: @usage=”primary” for the primary <recordInfo>.


6. Add the @IDref attribute to any element that has the @ID attribute. Add the @ID and @idref attributes to top-level elements that have neither.


7. Add <placeIdentifier> as a subelement of <originInfo><place>
   --A RWO identifier for a place should be expressed as <placeIdentifier>. <placeIdentifier> contains a URI that identifies a description of an entity, sometimes referred to as a Thing, a Real World Object or RWO, whether actual or conceptual.  When dereferenced, the URI points to a description of that entity.


8. Add <cartographics> as a subelement of <originInfo><place>
   --This will allow a place to be specified in terms of cartographics--for example for locations with no precise names, e.g, archeological sites. <place> currently is now <place><placeTerm>. <place> can now be expressed as (1) <place><placeTerm>; (2) <place><cartographics>; (3) a URI expressed as<place><placeIdentifier>; or (4) any combination of the above.


9. Add @stateType attribute to <subject><hierarchicalGeographic><state>
   --The name of this subelement <state> is intended as a generalization of the specific term used in various countries: state, province, canton, Länder, etc. It is not intended to imply that a particular such entity is necessarily referred to as  “state.”
   <state> with @stateType would allow for specifying which type.
   


10. Add <displayDate> as subelement of <originInfo>
    --Currently an <originInfo> date is supplied in machine-readable form. <displayDate> would allow a date to be represented in human-readable form.


11. Add @eventTypeURI attribute to <originInfo>


12. Deprecate @usage value "primary display"  for <location><url>
    --See discussion at https://listserv.loc.gov/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1005&L=MODS&P=2400. The value "primary display" was unofficially deprecated in 2010 but should be explicitly deprecated in the schema.


13. Remove all (16) occurrences of @fixed attributes. In each case add a single-value controlled list, where the value is the current value of the @fixed attribute
    --In all cases of @fixed attribute within the MODS schema, the intent was that if the attribute was supplied it had the fixed value; if not supplied the value is unknown. However, @fixed attribute has a somewhat different meaning: @fixed means that the attribute assumes the value of @fixed whether supplied or not (and if supplied must have that value).
    


14. Add @type attribute to <extension>
    --A MODS record might include multiple extensions. A specific application might be interested in extensions of a particular nature. Currently there is no way to determine if a particular extension is of interest, without following the link to to and examining the extension. @type will provide a hint, so that the application can more easily find extensions that are of interest and bypass those that are not.

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