> -----Original Message----- > From: Bernhard Eversberg [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 1:02 PM > To: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description > and Access; Weinheimer Jim > Subject: Re: [RDA-L] Library of Congress response to LCWG > > James Weinheimer wrote: > > > > I didn't want a work, expression, manifestation or item. > Certainly, I > > was searching--but searching for what? Extremely vague things based > > mainly on feelings. There was an identification function > but nothing > > related to FRBR user tasks, and I guess there was a selection part > > (where I gave up on Google, etc.), while my "item" was a > single page > > published over 100 years ago. > > > > This is just one example of what people do today--or at least what > > they want to do. > > ... what people want to do today? I guess you describe what > people had in mind doing all the time but during most of > history, they had to first align their intention with a > bookish mindset and then walk into a library with it to > > 1. search for potentially relevant books 2. identify the most > likely manifestations 3. select one or two for closer > inspection 4. obtain the (hopefully) available items and peruse them > > and do this in as many cycles as necessary or until > exhausted, whichever was first.
This is an excellent point you make. It isn't that people's "wants" have changed. People have always wanted to do what I described. It's just that before, they couldn't do it because the technology didn't allow the possibility of it. Today, the technology has developed to the point where people *can* do these things that they always wanted to, but were never able to do before. Currently, they still need a lot of help, as I tried to show. That's an important refinement when considering Cutter's questions and rules. The questions he poses are the questions that people asked only *after* they had aligned "their intention with a bookish mindset and then walk[ed] into a library"--and then very probably after prolonged discussion with a reference librarian. Very interesting. Thanks for pointing this out. James Weinheimer [EMAIL PROTECTED] Director of Library and Information Services The American University of Rome via Pietro Roselli, 4 00153 Rome, Italy voice- 011 39 06 58330919 ext. 327 fax-011 39 06 58330992
