I agree, the 'web community' IS trying to get 'more diligent'---trying
to move in the direction of more 'control', in the sense that the
library community has understood 'control'.
So I agree that the trend of library community rhetoric that says "The
solution is reducing our control for the web to be like Google" is
mis-placed.
At the same time though, the WAY we are controlling needs to be changed
DRASTICALLY. We are not currently controlling the right information in
the right ways for maximally efficient and productive use in today's
environment. The Hillman/Coyle article makes a really good contribution
to a discussion on this topic that is NOT happening enough otherwise.
Although I've disagreed with Karen in the past on some of the details of
a 'vision' for the future, I think I mostly agree with her (and that
article) on the ways and reasons that current practice is broken---and
one way or another, this is a discussion that needs to be happening, and
that Hillman and Coyle are engaging in in terms that matter, while I'm
not always seeing the RDA JSC doing so.
Jonathan
Rob Styles wrote:
> Great article, thanks for the link.
>
> I see things going somewhat the other way, though. Rather than the
> library community getting more chaotic I see a significant and rising
> minority of the web trying to get more diligent.
>
> The web at the moment is a very hostile place for computers, while all
> the information is machine readable virtually non is _machine
> understandable_. Libraries have a long history of structuring
> information in a machine friendly way.
>
> Sure there are problems with getting every single name right, especially
> people with two word surnames, but overall the semantics of rules like
> AACR2 are quite amazingly complete.
>
> In my mind though, two key things have to happen for libraries to be a
> key part of this future.
>
> The profession has to embrace internet standards - force, cajole and
> bully your vendors to support SRW/SRU and XML. Not just MarcXML, but
> Dublin Core and any other flavours that appear. Force, cajole and bully
> your vendors to react faster to feature requests like Tagging; not to
> replace the cataloguing effort, but to complement it. Get rid of
> Marc-Speak! Sure that's going to be really hard, but as long as we use
> 100$a in our day-to-day language to mean an author's name there will be
> a barrier between the catalogue and the rest of the world.
>
> Secondly, the profession must break down the walls of the silos. The
> free-flow of information about what you have and how people can get
> access to it is crucial. Anything that stands in the way of that
> free-flow of unencumbered bibliographic and holdings data has to change.
> You must become masters of your own catalogues.
>
> And whenever I say "two key things" there are bound to be three...
> Engage with the standards communities on the net. They are in desperate
> need of the understanding and rigour that this profession has developed
> through its rich history.
>
> rob
>
> Rob Styles
> Technical Lead, Talis
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
>> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Eric Lease Morgan
>> Sent: 16 January 2007 15:26
>> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
>> Subject: [NGC4LIB] coyle/hillman article from dlib
>>
>> I encourage people on this list to read the the Coyle/Hillman article
>> from D-Lib Magazine on the topic of Resource Description and Access
>> (RDA). Some quotes from the article include:
>>
>> The library's signature service, its catalog, uses rules for
>> cataloging that are remnants of a long departed technology: the
>> card catalog. Modifications to the rules, such as those proposed
>> by the Resource Description and Access (RDA) development effort,
>> can only keep us rooted firmly in the 20th, if not the 19th
>> century. A more radical change is required that will contribute
>> to the library of the future, re-imagined and integrated with the
>> chosen workflow of its users.
>>
>> At first seen as amateurish, the Internet gained in bona fides to
>> the point that today some disciplines give preference to online
>> publication, taking advantage of increased speed of delivery to
>> an audience and broader geographical coverage. The library
>> catalog and its conventions, valued by libraries as both an
>> inventory of regularly published items and as the sharing
>> mechanism for catalog entries, does not have a means to respond
>> to this new, more chaotic information environment.
>>
>> Too many librarians still consider themselves the only true
>> experts both in bibliographic metadata creation and in service to
>> information seekers, behaving condescendingly to others newer to
>> the information enterprise. But users have spoken with their
>> keyboards, overwhelmingly preferring non-traditional and
>> non-library sources of information and methods of information
>> discovery.
>>
>> http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january07/coyle/01coyle.html
>>
>> In short, maybe cataloging rules need to be radically altered not
>> incrementally tweaked, and the rules may need to take into greater
>> consideration the almost completely changed information environment
>> in which we live and work.
>>
>> --
>> Eric Lease Morgan
>> University Libraries of Notre Dame
>>
>> (574) 631-8604
>>
>
> The very latest from Talis
> read the latest news at www.talis.com/news
> listen to our podcasts www.talis.com/podcasts
> see us at these events www.talis.com/events
> join the discussion here www.talis.com/forums
> join our developer community www.talis.com/tdn
> and read our blogs www.talis.com/blogs
>
>
> Any views or personal opinions expressed within this email may not be those of Talis Information Ltd. The content of this email message and any files that may be attached are confidential, and for the usage of the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient, then please return this message to the sender and delete it. Any use of this e-mail by an unauthorised recipient is prohibited.
>
>
> Talis Information Ltd is a member of the Talis Group of companies and is registered in England No 3638278 with its registered office at Knights Court, Solihull Parkway, Birmingham Business Park, B37 7YB.
>
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Sr. Programmer/Analyst
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Tue Jan 16 2007 - 13:13:31 EST