Karen Coyle wrote:
"3) The name authority record contains virtually nothing that could
interest a user -- no bio about the author, nothing to help the user
know who it is we are talking about."
I guess this idea bothers me because a lot of discussion centers around
how we don't have time to do this or that current cataloging function,
and now we're supposed to spend time compiling author biographies? Is
that really our job?
If the response is, "No, we won't write it, we'll link to something on
the web," that really opens up a can of worms. Which web sites?
Wikipedia? What happens when the website vanishes? Or will we buy an
author database from a vendor, in which case everybody who wants
authority records will have to buy access to the same database.
I can see a lot of ways in which authority headings could be improved,
but this just doesn't seem like a useful direction to me.
Steve McLaughlin
San Francisco Public Library
smclaughlin_at_sfpl.org
The views expressed in this message do not necessarily represent the
views of the San Francisco Public Library.
Received on Wed Aug 22 2007 - 12:05:21 EDT