Jim
I certainly respect your motivations. However, there are some instances (such as this one) where the discussion gets completely out of hand.
I can appreciate your example about "the A in RDA". In my opinion, access is the most important part of the work we do.
Julie
-----Original Message-----
From: James Weinheimer <weinheimer.jim.l_at_GMAIL.COM>
To: NGC4LIB <NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU>
Sent: Wed, Oct 9, 2013 5:33 pm
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] The Return of Cards? [mailing list]
On 10/9/2013 8:53 PM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
snip>
This morning I was on the verge of shutting down this mailing list.
A number of years ago we -- the library profession -- were debating the
dvantages of more traditional OPACs versus indexes (read "discovery systems").
ow-a-days we, in general, are using both. Maybe this list has outlived its
sefulness.
/snip>
Interesting.
Concerning my own motivations, I have tried my best occasionally to
ring up a topic that has been little discussed, and to discuss it not
nly with catalogers (as happens with Autocat and RDA-L) but with what I
oped was a larger community. NGC4LIB seemed a nice place for that.
utocat is populated by catalogers asking questions that mostly discuss
echnical issues of little interest to anyone other than catalogers: how
o create a specific heading, what is the punctuation in a certain
ield, how to input diacritics into specific catalogs, which rule do I
se for [fill in the blank]. RDA-L is almost exactly the same as
utocat, it just includes the RDA flavor to it but the discussions are
ssentially the same.
There are few places where systems staff really get to discuss matters
ith cataloging staff, so that each can find out what is important to
he other, how different groups think and so on. Of course there are
ifferences, and discussions can get a bit heated once in awhile. Thank
oodness! It shows that people actually care!
I feel I can discuss issues on this list that would be completely
ncomprehensible to catalogers on Autocat or RDA-L. For instance, there
as a thread recently about the A of RDA and it was on a few lists. The
opic was about "Resource Description and Access" but 99% of all of the
iscussion on RDA-L and Autocat is about "Description" while "Access"
s, for all practical purposes, not discussed. On this list, I don't
hink I have to explain that the public is most interested in "Access"
ut on the other lists, it can be a struggle. There are legitimate
easons for that. It turned out that the discussion was different on
ach list: Autocat pretty much ignored it, RDA-L had one take on it, but
he NGC4LIB take was different. That difference is important.
Access wasn't (and hasn't been) discussed on RDA-L or Autocat, and it is
lear that it won't be. For instance, I am still waiting for somebody to
emonstrate how the changes with RDA or FRBR or going into linked data
s going to make a difference that is both practical--in the sense of
ow much work and expense will it be--and will also be meaningful and
seful to the public. No graphs, no promises, no heartfelt testimonials,
o reliance on faith. All I have seen is the assumption that once we get
out there", that is, into linked data (now that people seem to have
iven up assuming that the FRBR user tasks are what people *really* want
o do) then everything will change, just like everything will be all
ight when Godot manages to show up.
It's important to ask: Why will it change? How will it change? Will our
ecords suddenly get into the magical top three hits in a Google search
nd people will find the usefulness there? Will there not be spam to
ilter out? Will SEO not be trying to crowd out our records? Will the
ncomprehensible headings used in the catalogs suddenly make sense?
omething brand new will spontaneously appear that the public will love?
hy? How?
Few want to touch these topics, and prefer to cross their fingers and
ope. It's nice to have a place to discuss these matters in a wider context.
--
ames Weinheimerweinheimer.jim.l_at_gmail.com
irst Thushttp://catalogingmatters.blogspot.com/
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ooperative Cataloging Ruleshttp://sites.google.com/site/opencatalogingrules/
ataloging Matters Podcastshttp://blog.jweinheimer.net/p/cataloging-matters-podcasts.html
Received on Wed Oct 09 2013 - 17:58:51 EDT