I agree. MARC is not as output neutral or as display neutral as we'd
like it. But we want to get MORE in that direction, not less! "Replacing
authorities with web pages" sounds like less, to me. I think we are in
agreement. Maybe?
Jonathan
Brenndorfer, Thomas wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>>
>
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Sr. Programmer/Analyst
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Tue May 15 2007 - 11:02:10 EDT