J. McRee Elrod said: "E-books are very rarely used on a computer, but rather on electronic readers. Video games are accessed by play stations, not computers. Of the electronic resources we catalogue, only CD-ROMs are used on a computer."
I suppose that statement is correct if you define a computer very narrowly to mean a workstation (desktop/tower unit, keyboard/mouse, monitor) or laptop. iPads, iPods, iPhones, Android phones, Blackberrys, Kindles, Fires, Xboxes, PS3s, and Wiis may not look like traditional computers, but they are computers nonetheless. All of them have CPUs, have human inputs (touch screen, keyboard, controller, etc.), display capabilities, and storage. As concerns the use of the term "online resource", I agree that the term is problematic. To me it implies availability (i.e., the resource is available on the Internet) as opposed to the carrier of the content. I would prefer a term like digital resource. As regards specificity, RDA does allow for a more specific description of the "online resource" in 3.19. Damian Iseminger Technical Services Librarian New England Conservatory Spaulding Library 33 Gainsborough St. Boston, MA 02472 Phone: (617) 585-1254 FAX: (617) 585-1245 Email: [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of J. McRee Elrod Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 3:03 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [RDA-L] "Computer" media type cariers RDA "computer" (i.e. electronic) carriers: computer card computer chip cartridge computer disc computer disc cartridge computer tape cartridge computer tape cassette computer tape reel online resource How do inhand e-books fit into this? They are acquired as PDF files online, but when installed and in use are not online. We have catalogued well over 30,000 of those. We have never catalogued a computer card, cartridge, cassette, or reel. We have catalogued CD-R0Ms. E-books are very rarely used on a computer, but rather on electronic readers. Video games are accessed by play stations, not computers. Of the electronic resources we catalogue, only CD-ROMs are used on a computer. In addition, "online resource" is far too general as a carrier term; including websites, video games, streaming videos, etc., all of which we have catalogued. RDA seems very out of date to me, in relation to what we are now doing. __ __ J. McRee (Mac) Elrod ([email protected]) {__ | / Special Libraries Cataloguing HTTP://www.slc.bc.ca/ ___} |__ \__________________________________________________________
