I think this there are some very nuanced distinctions to be made here.
My struggle to understand cataloguing has been the result of tackling
online systems with very little experience working with catalogue cards.
So while looking forward and exploiting new automated tools, I've had to
look back and try to envision how the data I'm working with actually was
used in a card catalogue. In fact, I would say that this understanding
has been critical in really getting under the hood of AACR2 and MARC and
seeing why things work or don't work so well in an automated
environment.
I suppose at one time the term "authority" sometimes just meant
"authority card"-- the card that would control the headings on main and
added entry cards, and control the production of reference cards. The
choice of data that would go into an "authority" then would sometimes be
based on this kind of presentation-- or so it seemed and continues to
seem so.
Whenever I see references in the MARC manuals to "print constants" and
the rules of adding/omitting concluding punctuation I feel like I'm
operating some massive printer control machine, with buttons and levers
that have very little to do with the presentation of the data on a web
page.
Authority control in the abstract shouldn't be abandoned, but the choice
of data and underlying structures could change to better support new
displays and mechanisms of storing and transporting 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 Jonathan Rochkind
> Sent: May 14, 2007 5:47 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 - 07:33:55 EDT