Alexander Johannesen wrote:
>
> I'm doing some semantic data modeling, and was wondering what people
> in general would consider the "killer metadata" we catalog that puts
> us in a better position than the world at large. Any thoughts? (You
> can speak MARC or otherwise :)
>
We are not in direct competition with the "world at large", it is
rather the stuff we have on offer that makes the biggest difference.
It is inherently different from what's made searchable elsewhere.
The closest thing to a competition is now, of course, Google Books.
The big difference between their metadata and ours is the
controlled headings we employ and the standardization of data
fields that are not under authority control proper but nonetheless
subject to rigid rules of transcription, spelling, and so on.
Success, however, depends a lot on the search interface and what use it
makes of the metadata, how consistent it is, and how well it is
presented. On the other hand, it depends on the types of searches
and the skill of searchers.
One should, for example, run real-world searches (involve reference
people) against G.Books and selected catalogs, and learn from the
results. Be sure to look at known-item searches as well as collocation
and subject searches.
B.Eversberg
Received on Tue Jul 31 2007 - 08:38:42 EDT