Finally, why is it wrong to expect to search a library catalog for Steven
Spielberg as a producer only? Because it's
not the right tool, whether anybody likes it or not.
James Weinheimer weinheimer.ji...@gmail.com
I disagree with James here. I think the library catalog ought to be able
to do this search. I believe that users do want to do searches like
Steven Spielberg but only those films he directed, or Clint Eastwood and
only the films he starred in AND directed. Or directed but didn't appear
in. Or sound recordings that Leonard Bernstein performs on as a pianist
on works that he composed. And so on.
We have been consistently coding relator terms for persons associated
with moving image resources for a dozen years or more, in the hopes that
we will one day have a system that would enable users to either execute a
search including a role, or limit by that role. Many other media
catalogers have been doing the same. Few have done the same for sound
recordings, alas.
I agree that the catalog is not the appropriate place to look for all of
the movies that Spielberg produced, but within the context of a given
collection, and most users probably care about what is easily and
immediately available to them from their local institution, the catalog is
the appropriate place to find films in a specific collection having the
attribute of Spielberg as a producer or as a director or as both. Our ILS
vendors have not done a good job of making EXISTING data useable. I hope
that will change with RDA, where relationships are given much more
prominence.
Adam Schiff
**************************************
* Adam L. Schiff *
* Principal Cataloger *
* University of Washington Libraries *
* Box 352900 *
* Seattle, WA 98195-2900 *
* (206) 543-8409 *
* (206) 685-8782 fax *
* asch...@u.washington.edu *
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