Karen -
What's the difference between your constructs "a small set of elite libraries is authorized to add and change records" (NACO) and "limit input to a trusted set of experts" (the proposed wiki)? The people currently authorized to enter authority records are individual librarians at particular libraries; getting to be one of those people involves a reasonably extensive application for both library and individual and, in my field at least, a multi-year distance-learning-like training process for the individual librarians. By virtue of the resources at hand (which the library's application reveals) and the expertise of individuals (from education in the subject field, and training in the specifics of authority creation), those NACO librarians *are* "trusted experts."
The notion of limiting "the 'record' portion to experts" and allowing "other users to have a sandbox for whatever information they wish to add" is new (the sandbox part) and potentially useful, it seems to me, but you still need those "experts." How are they going to come to exist if not through some sort of application and training process? And who is going to oversee that process?
Jean
--
Jean Harden, Music Catalog Librarian
Libraries
University of North Texas
PO Box 305190
Denton, TX 76203-5190
(940) 565-2860
jharden_at_library.unt.edu
>>> On 5/25/2007 at 10:10 AM, in message <4656FC5E.7010501_at_kcoyle.net>, Karen Coyle
<kcoyle_at_KCOYLE.NET> wrote:
...
> I presume we are talking about the first use, a large database of
> authority "copy" that can be updated by librarians but that is mainly
> used to download data into library catalogs. This is basically the NACO
> model, although in that one a small set of elite libraries is authorized
> to add and change records. And there's no reason why this "wiki" model
> couldn't limit input to a trusted set of experts. Or at least limit the
> "record" portion to experts, and allow other users to have a sandbox for
> whatever information they wish to add.
...
> kc
> -----------------------------------
> Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
> kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
> ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
> fx.: 510-848-3913
> mo.: 510-435-8234
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Received on Fri May 25 2007 - 09:30:24 EDT