Jonathan:
"An authority record is _data_ (or metadata, anyway), a web page is a
_particular presentation_. We can not replace authority work "with web
pages"...
And 'a web page' is certainly not a substitute for an authority control
practice! So I know what you mean, but please stop saying that! It
only makes people who think you DO mean it scared that you are trying to
dismantle authority control, which seems to be the response anytime
anyone brings up modernization ideas."
Jonathan, maybe you could go into more detail about what you mean here -
about why this is important. The purpose of authority control is to
provide a unique way of identifying something, so as to distinguish it
from other things. A simple (simplistic?) way of looking at things
would seem to suggest that a "barcode" could do this just as effectively
as a proper name.
"See" and "See also" references come in here of course - is this the
key? Even getting to a point where you can "see" or "see also" presumes
that, in your search process, you either thought of or recognized a word
that at least potentially makes some sense, in this context of that, to
you and others. This of course can't be done with a URL, which by
itself makes no sense at all (unless the "end all" authority record -
words, dates in case of persons, etc - was contained in the URL itself?)
The lights are only beginning to come on for me here... I haven't
thought about this a ton. Does this sound right? Does anyone else have
thoughts about this?
Nathan Rinne
Media Cataloging Technician
ISD 279 - Educational Service Center (ESC)
11200 93rd Ave. North
Maple Grove, MN. 55369
Work phone: 763-391-7183
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan Rochkind
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 4:47 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Next Gen Catalog and FRBR
I said this before, but I'll say it again. I know what you mean, Thomas,
but please don't say that "authorities should morph into web pages". An
authority record is _data_ (or metadata, anyway), a web page is a
_particular presentation_. We can not replace authority work "with web
pages".
But we CAN and I agree our systems SHOULD be producing interfaces like
you talk about. So the question is how we do that, if the authority
data we have now is sufficient to support that interface, what feasible
changes can or should be made to our authority control pratices to
better support that sort of interface, and other sorts of flexible
interfaces we want to provide. We DO need authority data that will
support that kind of interface. We don't get that by "making web pages"
though. The web pages are the result of good metadata practices, they
are a product.
We need authority control processes that support multiple flexible
interfaces by NOT assuming any one particular interface. Not a card
catalog, and not one particular kind of web page either. And 'a web
page' is certainly not a substitute for an authority control practice!
So I know what you mean, but please stop saying that! It only makes
people who think you DO mean it scared that you are trying to dismantle
authority control, which seems to be the response anytime anyone brings
up modernization ideas.
Jonathan
Brenndorfer, Thomas wrote:
> It's too bad the existing authority data in most catalogues is used so
> poorly.
>
> I had seen a screenshot of the web catalogue for the now defunct
Horizon
> 8 where one could click a name in the browse list and see some
> information contained in the authority record. That would help users
to
> distinguish similar names.
>
> In IMDb, I can only stare with envy at a result like:
>
> Barbara Stanwyck (Actress, Double Indemnity (1944))
> birth name "Ruby Catherine Stevens"
>
> and best of all in IMDb...
>
> I click Stanwyck's name and I am taken to a web page. Topping the page
> are photos and other bits of useful info helping me IDENTIFY (there's
> that FRBR user task again) the person I'm looking for. Filmography--
the
> garden variety list of titles-- appears next AND you can sort and
filter
> that list to your heart's content.
>
> Oh yes, and there's a discussion board attached to Stanwyck's IMDb
page.
> You can only do that kind of social networking with an anchored and
> focused web page.
>
> I'd like to see a next gen catalogue have something similar. A global
> page, available to all, with whatever external links are appropriate
> (official web page, IMDb link, etc.). This is what current AACR2
> authorities should morph into-- web pages with enriched content like
the
> enriched content provided for bibliographic records by companies like
> Syndetics. How that globally stored data relates to a local library
> catalog and its locally built indexes is an open question, but I think
> that's the challenge and opportunity. I think there is a great deal of
> efficiency to be gained if most of the high level work on authors,
> works, and so on were done centrally and collaboratively, integrated
and
> downloaded as needed. There would also need to be room for local
data--
> locally published materially such as from local companies and
municipal
> governments, as well as local data such as useful additional access
> points for local users. So a next gen catalogue would be a hybrid of
> mostly shared central data synchronized to all users and some
customized
> local data.
>
> Thomas Brenndorfer, B.A, M.L.I.S.
> Guelph Public Library
> 100 Norfolk St.
> Guelph, ON
> N1H 4J6
> (519) 824-6220 ext. 276
> tbrenndorfer_at_library.guelph.on.ca
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
>> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Jon Gorman
>> Sent: May 14, 2007 4:48 PM
>> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
>> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Next Gen Catalog and FRBR
>>
>> On 5/14/07, MULLEN Allen <Allen.MULLEN_at_ci.eugene.or.us> wrote:
>> > I am of a mind, however, that authority control as presently
>>
> configured
>
>> is
>>
>>> designed by and largely for librarians than other users. Birth
>>>
> dates
>
>>> and initials as a primary means of differentiating names in a browse
>>> listing is pretty sad customer service. [OK, do I want the Mullen,
>>> Allen born in 1957 or the one with middle initial Z. born in 1923 or
>>> perhaps the one with a middle initial P. and born in 1988? - yikes!]
>>>
>>>
>> One thing that I've mentioned other places that I've always been
>> struck that libraries don't help sort out authors by the one key
piece
>> of information they already have....what did they write? It's
>> entirely possible that someone may be looking for works by an author
>> and not think to look up a particular title. But what if they were
to
>> see a list of some of the titles associated with an author as
>> browsing? I would hope it could help them quite a bit in figuring
out
>> that "Smith, John" that wrote "Dynamics of ferrate compounds" might
>> not be what they're looking for, but the "Smith, John" who wrote "25
>> ghastly ways to die" and "Murder in the Rogue's Morgue" might be that
>> mystery author they've heard about. Subject headings used in their
>> work also might help.
>>
>> I haven't had enough time to implement something like this, but I'd
>> really like to try an author search that doesn't throw you
immediately
>> into a pile of titles. Instead, it'll give you the chance to narrow
>> down the author or likely authors, then return the books. Worldcat
>> Identities look like a similar approach.
>>
>> Jon Gorman
>>
>
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Sr. Programmer/Analyst
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Tue May 15 2007 - 07:01:02 EDT