OK, spurred by Bernhard's question (below) how about sharing the 'one step' that you would like to see taken to move us in the right direction (with the reason why)? I know we won't all agree on this 'one step' - in my mind the point of this thread is not to reach agreement but to see if we can build a set of very practical steps. If you like the idea, please join in...
My 'starter for 10' (does that work outside the UK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starter_for_Ten?) - anyway, my step:
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Ensure that every bibliographic record in your catalogue has a persistent URL, which can be easily found and bookmarked when viewing the record.
My reason for suggesting this is that it would be a good first step to making library catalogues part of the web - allowing people to link to a bibliographic record. I also think the mainstream ILSs can support this, but sometimes need some 'tweaking' to make a permanent link clear and visible to the end user.
Although it doesn't go far enough in terms of integration with the web (IMO) I think it is a first step, and achievable by the vast majority of OPACs right now. Also it should be easy to share how to do this - so once one person in a particular ILS community has done it, hopefully the barrier is very low for others.
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Owen Stephens
Assistant Director: eStrategy and Information Resources
Central Library
Imperial College London
South Kensington Campus
London
SW7 2AZ
t: +44 (0)20 7594 8829
e: o.stephens_at_imperial.ac.uk
> >
> What might be the next "steps in the right direction"? What are
> realistic near-term goals? Can anything substantial be done without
> involvement of OCLC and LC? Are they assets or predicaments?
> And what can be expected from RDA, what should be done about it then?
>
> B.Eversberg
Received on Tue Mar 17 2009 - 11:10:20 EDT