It does not have to be one big solution. Just because you have MARC in
your catalogue does not mean that you have to inflict it on others. As
long as you can express what you want within your domain and expose
some of it outside it, that is probably good enough.
Though there is a tendency in the library community to want to control
how data and services are used. Perhaps it has to do with the idea
that users need to *learn* how to use them. That idea has to go.
Anyone attending IFLA 2006 in Seoul might remember the theme song
performed at the opening[1]:
"Who can lead the way to the light
Guiding the world to a brighter day
Who can show the way to our dreams
Helping to explore the meaning of life
You are a shining light, beaming
brightly on our path
[...]"
Inflated self-image anyone?
Perhaps we need to be "just" data providers for a while and not the
ones who also control what services gets built. We do not need One
Solution to Rule Them All, we need many solutions. And we need *open
ended* solutions.
So, how do we accomplish that? Linked Data. Let more people compete
and build on each others solutions.
/martin
[1] http://www.lib.pu.edu.tw/~jiang/LAROC/200611/IFLA-WLIC.pdf
Received on Mon Aug 25 2008 - 16:15:44 EDT