On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 4:24 PM, Robert Maxwell <robert_maxw...@byu.edu> wrote: > Yes, I might have a different opinion if you could move information on and > off a Playaway. But they exist as a dedicated player for a single book. No > mediation is required to use one. I don't see why it would make a difference > that it is digital. Do you agree that a windup music box would be unmediated?
** I'd agree that a music box is an unmediated object. Part of the problem is that RDA doesn't completely get away from mixing up content and carrier with its categories like "audio carrier." It almost seems to me that they would have been better off with more form-based categories like "magnetic tape" or "projected rolls" or "optical disc" and then talk about any audio or visual aspects of the carrier separately. Definitions: Media type is a categorization reflecting the general type of intermediation device required to view, play, run, etc., the content of a resource. audio: Media used to store recorded sound, designed for use with a playback device such as a turntable, audiocassette player, CD player, or MP3 player. Includes media used to store digitally encoded as well as analog sound. unmediated: Media used to store content designed to be perceived directly through one or more of the human senses without the aid of an intermediating device. Includes media containing visual and/or tactile content produced using processes such as printing, engraving, lithography, etc., embossing, texturing, etc., or by means of handwriting, drawing, painting, etc. Also includes media used to convey three-dimensional forms such as sculptures, models, etc. If you think about the spectrum of things that make noise: You can bang on most physical objects and make a sound; that doesn't really affect the media/carrier type decision Where I used to work, they had musical instruments in their collection: drums, flute, even a didgeridoo. These would seem to be unmediated objects since it's the user making the audio rather than recorded sound. Some objects make noise, such as toys like a fire truck with a siren or talking dolls. These may be recorded sounds, but they usually aren't interacted with primarily as audio carriers so they still seem like unmediated objects Music boxes, according to Wikipedia, use clockwork to power an "automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth (or lamellae) of a steel comb." So I think this still isn't recorded sound and thus falls into the unmediated object category. Plus they may be of interest visually or from a tactile aspect as well as aurally. I have some friends who have a self-playing piano that plays from sheets of perforated paper that were created based on performances by famous pianists. That does seem like a recording even though the music is created afresh every time. However, since you'd probably catalog the rolls separately, probably they would have an audio carrier and the piano would just be an unmediated object. Playaways are recorded sound. That recorded sound can't be perceived directly in the way that notes from a music box can. Inside the Playaway is some kind of memory card with the recorded sound and some intervening technology that changes those bits and bytes into something that human ears can hear. Imagine a library circulates MP3 players that they've preloaded with audiobooks. I don't know of any libraries that do this, but it's analogous to what some do with ebook readers. Why is this so different from a Playaway? It's the same experience from the patrons point of view; it's just that the library has loaded the content instead of the publisher. And RDA explicitly says that MP3 players are audio carriers. Then, of course, you have your traditional audio carriers: records, cassettes, CDs RDA considers music downloaded from online another matter entirely with a computer media type and an online resource carrier type. Music files can also be stored on computer discs. A strict reading of the definitions with their emphasis on a separate intermediating device does seem to leave you stuck with unmediated object for Playaway. But I wonder if that is really the intention of RDA or if the definitions were just constructed with a lack of foresight for objects where the content and the intermediation device are one and the same. I think of intermediation as the technology between the content and the user. It seems to me that you can perceive the audio content of a music box directly in a way that you can't with a Playaway without some intervening technology, even if that technology is embedded in the carrier. It also seems to me that the sound characteristics at 3.16 (type of recording, recording medium, configuration of playback channels) are relevant to Playaways in a way that they aren't for music boxes. To me, this aligns Playaways more closely with audio carriers. Anyway, that's how I was looking at it, but I'm willing to cede to the majority. Kelley
