If we will try to resolve the "fundamental purpose of the catalogue"
it will take thousands of year. It's the same time of question as
"what is the fundamental purpose of life, or God, or anything".
In the meantime we should continue the search for the holy grail.
We are living in new times, with Internet, Google, electronic
resources, databases. The biggest changes since Gutenberg
and we have to find a way to survive in cyberspace and not
just the fundamental catalog but also as libraries.
Jan
Philip Davis wrote:
> Eric Lease Morgan writes eloquently about the aims and purposes of the list. His object is clearly to temper harshness of debate and promote politeness. I agree with this.
>
> In saying,however, that 'Broadly speaking, our goals are similar,' I believe he points to a basic divide that is apparent on this and other lists. It relates to the fundamental purpose of the catalogue. Are we trying to provide a sophisticated tool for scholarly research or a crude finding list. Until this matter is resolved, all discussion about the relative merits of different systems is essentially pointless.
>
> Philip Davis
> philipdavis4_at_yahoo.co.uk
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
>
--
Jan Szczepanski
Förste bibliotekarie
Goteborgs universitetsbibliotek
Box 222
SE 405 30 Goteborg, SWEDEN
Tel: +46 31 773 1164 Fax: +46 31 163797
E-mail: Jan.Szczepanski_at_ub.gu.se
Received on Fri Sep 07 2007 - 05:15:30 EDT