Authority Control?

Here's a question from a non-librarian: how do we (could we) do authority-control-type-operations across a lot of different systems/services? Is there already an Authority Control Service application for this sort of thing? So that when we deposit something into MINDS@UW, the "Author" field can be something other than a free-text string, and can hook into the same authority control system that is used in all of the other places that need it?

I have this feeling that good authority control ties into FRBR and faceting in ways that could make things easier for us in the future.