Bernhard Eversberg wrote:
"OTOH, complexity can be self-defeating: it requires a complex body of rules and then you may end up with a lack of time to learn them and to get stuff right."
If this sort of formatting were considered important enough to implement, the inputting screen could be dealt with. Remember lots of people, probably the majority of people in the world, consider the MARC inputting display to be completely incomprehensible.
To implement Ashley's idea, I would think some kind of drag-and-drop displays may simplify matters. In the new environment, we would be working with templates just as we do today, where our MARC inputting templates automatically create the ISO2709 format of a MARC record, which nobody ever looks at. I think the raw XML coding would be considered similar to the ISO2709 view: something nobody every looks at.
And while it may not be easy to work with nested data in this way, if it is decided that we would need to do it, a way would be found although it may be difficult. Of course, it's the job of the designers and builders of Ferrari's Formula 1 racing team to build what others decide is needed, even if those designers and builders find it really difficult to build. After all, that's the attitude that lets them win races.
James Weinheimer j.weinheimer_at_aur.edu
Director of Library and Information Services
The American University of Rome
via Pietro Roselli, 4
00153 Rome, Italy
voice- 011 39 06 58330919 ext. 258
fax-011 39 06 58330992
Received on Wed Jun 23 2010 - 09:29:18 EDT