Mark Sandford wrote:
>
> -Drop down menus for every tag, subfield, etc, that uses encoded data
> (or something more user friendly, like pop-up windows for large lists
> of relator codes, country codes and such). Don't send me to loc.gov
> to scroll through their list. Bring their list to me and let me click
> on the data I want to insert.
Mark, this one seems to be such a no-brainer, but some of us have been
lobbying for this for a while [1] and we just can't seem to get any
traction. Here's the proposal: pull all of the codes out of the MARC
standard documentation and make them web-standard vocabularies, open
access. Each code would have one or more vocabulary entry points, a
display form, if that's desired, and it could even have definitions.
Every system developer would be able to either download these into their
system or, if desired, access them dynamically over the web. Updates
would be added to these lists and could be incorporated automatically
into each system that uses them (no more re-keying from an email notice).
What would they look like? We did an example for the RDA carrier here:
http://sandbox.metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/44.html
this isn't very pretty, but it's how a vocabulary might be stored
online. If you look at this particular one:
http://sandbox.metadataregistry.org/concept/show/id/517.html
this shows what kind of data might be in an entry. This isn't in the
form that a cataloger would see on the screen -- that could be more
aesthetic. The alternate forms could be used for indexing as entry
vocabulary for users or for catalogers. The definition could be
displayed to the cataloger if the meaning isn't clear. And if you click
on the "Get RDF" button on the bottom right, then you see code that can
be directly incorporated into programs.
In addition, there is a unique identifier for each term, so the whole
vocabulary could be translated into other languages and still connect to
the same value in bibliographic records.
Again, this seems so obvious to me that I cannot understand why we
haven't already done it. But we haven't.
kc
[1] http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2007/03/theres-always-something-new.html
--
-----------------------------------
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 Mon Oct 22 2007 - 11:42:11 EDT