Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
But I agree with John in general. Certainly, when the standards are insufficient metadata creators are always free to add extra stuff not provided for in the standards. But our goal should be to make standards that are sufficient, of course.
I think that our history with MARC has led us to the unfortunate conclusion that the cataloging activity and the systems activity are separate. When the MARC format was developed, there were two key factors: 1 - the cataloging rules and practices already existed, and they were designed for the creation of an eye-readable card 2 - the MARC format was to be used to print those cards MARC was added on top of the cataloging rules rather than being developed along side them. Of course, the MARC record now IS the catalog entry. But it's still got that card history built into it. There has been a great deal of effort to coordinate MARC and the AACRs, but MARC has many data elements that aren't covered by any rules other than the MARC21 standard. This situation of having the cataloging rules and the data entry format and rules on separate development paths is not ideal. However, I think our profession has become accustomed to thinking of the catalog rules and the data rules as separate. This leads to an unfortunate (and erroneous) assumption that one creates catalog rules without including technology requirements, and that somehow systems developers will come along with some magic that makes the catalog useful. I know that RDA has as a goal to be "technology neutral," but there is no such thing. A statement like "Make a note" is a technology solution. It is utterly technologically deterministic. As a systems person I should ask: "OK, it's a note. What do you want the system to do with it?" If the answer is: "Display it to the user," I can do that. But if later someone comes along and says: "Make it possible to retrieve all items with these characteristics" and that data is only in a note, I have to say: "Sorry, no can do." So in fact the cataloging data DOES determine the technology capabilities, whether it does so consciously or not. We have a lot of examples in our current systems where there are functions we would like to provide but cannot because the data isn't there in a way that can be processed. I think our future will be much of the same because once again we are developing cataloging rules as if they will be used in a display-only environment, and that technology will just have to work with that as best it can. kc -- ----------------------------------- Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kcoyle.net ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet fx.: 510-848-3913 mo.: 510-435-8234 ------------------------------------
