MJ Suhonos wrote:
>>
>> Can you envision catalogers talking MODS to the same effect and
>> efficiency they are now talking MARC? Efficiency matters.
>
> There's the problem: cataloguers are *forced* to learn how to "talk MARC" and thus become superhuman. MODS, in contrast, is readable by "mere" humans. Why do we require cataloguers who aren't doing under-the-hood system maintenance to understand MARC?
>
No, to learn MARC does not consist of learning all the numbers and
codes, that's rather trivial. You have to learn the precise meanings and
the concept, and that's the same with verbal tags. You only *think* you
understand something when reading verbal tags, but without the
understanding of the precise semantics you are prone to producing a hell
of a mess. Dublin Core data have proved this point in abundance;
read Roy Tennant's "Metadata's Bitter Harvest":
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA434443.html
B.Eversberg
Received on Tue Apr 20 2010 - 09:53:26 EDT