03.08.2011 17:42, McRee Elrod:
How anyone comparing the XML and MARC versions could prefer the XML is beyond me. We find it simple to crosswalk from MARC to XML for anyone who wants it, but not back again.
The latter is what we had to do in order to construct our database. Sure you can't get full MARC21 out of the stuff, but as BL has said, the current version is only a beginning. (Notwithstanding, I think you *can* find a thing or two in the database as it is.) The broader issue of whether or not XML will indeed have to be looked at. XML has been around for quite a while, and it has been showered with much enthusiasm. Not only that, but many an ambitious attempt has been made at doing metadata in a big way in XML, by more than a few good fellows eager to prove something. Well, we are all set to applaud the first compelling success. Why not take our solidly non-XML BNB database as a benchmark to surpass in a big way with an XML implementation? Doing new tricks not otherwise doable. But seriously, XML is certainly inadequate as a medium for data input and editing. A software interface will have to shield the raw XML entirely from the view of catalogers. And that's rather curious because XML is praised for being able to use human-readable tagging. But as not only Mac has found, how readable actually is an XML record when compared with a MARC record? The verbal tags only make the clueless think they understand what they read, but tag numbers, besides being language independent, can convey much more meaning and, as we all know, become a shorthand language that is more precise and faster for actual communication than cumbersome verbal tags as we see them in any attempts of XML metadata. XML may be many things, but it is not economical, in more than one way. This may be old-school views. Just prove me wrong. Only in practice, not in theory. Okay then, what now? What's going to be the medium and paradigm for the MARC successor? This question needs an answer, and soon, if RDA is to have a future and if this future is to begin in early 2013. B.Eversberg
