While I agree with most of what you are saying, I think there is still a
gap in understanding here.
There was a time when bibliographic and authority data was not encoded
in any way at all. There was some good overarching theoretical work in
the form of the Paris Principles and ISBD, which forms the basis of
AACR2. It wasn't a matter of MARC replacing cards any more than it's a
matter of web pages replacing MARC. MARC originally encoded the
practices involved in producing catalogue cards, and many fields and
terms used in MARC really derive from very specific options in the
display of catalogue cards.
For example, what does the series field 440 really mean?
440 has a practical effect in the production of catalogue cards. It
prints the series statement in brackets. It prints the word "Series" in
the tracings field at the bottom of the catalogue card. It produces an
added entry card. It actually produces an added entry card with series
numbering that a file clerk could then file in series number order in
the card catalogue.
When to use a 440 and a 830 is very confusing for new cataloguers,
especially when one can't easily refer to the production of catalogue
cards.
I would argue we actually don't have an output-neutral or
display-neutral format with MARC. You have to change MARC to get the
display options and functionalities that are now only becoming available
with web displays. For example, VTLS's Virtua system restructures and
modifies MARC records into FRBR components. I can look at a VTLS web
catalogue and see some interesting FRBRized displays (a tree-like
structure). It seems to me that one can take what's been started with
VTLS and add in more standards developed for the web to solve a number
of the problems that have been identified and have prompted the interest
in the next gen catalogue. This doesn't mean an end to encoded data and
it doesn't mean the web is an endpoint.
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
>
> But we have much of this in MARC Authorities now. If our software
isn't
> taking full advantage of it, that's our software's fault. If we're
> missing data that we need, that's our data's fault. But "replacing
MARC
> with web pages" is not the answer, that would be a step backwards. Web
> pages are a _presentation_ of authority data, the actual authority
data
> needs to live in a structured way such that software can extract all
the
> meaning out of it that the cataloger's put in.
>
> Hope this make some sense, Thomas. The distinction between
presentation
> and underlying structured data is an important one.
>
> Jonathan
>
>
Received on Tue May 15 2007 - 10:15:29 EDT