I will preface this by saying that I have not yet read the chapter 3 draft and am just responding to Martha's comment below. I certainly agree that it seems unlikely that cataloging can be reduced to pull-down lists. No matter how many rules there are, the number and variety of exceptions that exist is often under-appreciated by those who have not cataloged on a regular basis. On the other hand, it often seems to me that we need more pull-down list-like categories in our records. I would like to see more controlled access points for things that we currently put in free text notes, like widescreen vs. fullscreen. Really the existing fixed field data in MARC records are pull-down lists stored in a more concise form (although outside the universe of AACR). I wonder if we could not be more effective in many areas with controlled data supplemented by free-text notes (e.g. record languages in controlled form as in MARC 008/041 and only use notes like MARC 546 to supplement or explain). However, I am not sure how to balance the need for consistent, controlled vocabulary and the need for flexibility to deal with exceptions and new or weird things.
-----Original Message----- From: Martha Yee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [MAJOR ISSUE] In general, these chapters feel like they were designed to support the construction of pull-down lists for data entry. This seems like a fundamental misconception of the nature of cataloging, which is actually a kind of expository writing. Those skilled in its practice can concisely and accurately describe anything unusual collected by a library, archive or museum, even when there are not specific cataloging rules to cover it. This art of cataloging can never be reduced to selecting from pull-down lists. The mechanized combination of terms from pull-down lists evident in the examples in this draft make us sound illiterate. ------------------------------------- Kelley McGrath Cataloging & Metadata Services Librarian (Audiovisual) Bracken Library Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306-0161 Phone: (765) 285-3350 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
