Myers, John F.
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:32:00 -0800
At the risk of showing my ignorance on the topic, it's not so much getting "info from MARC" -- as Daniel's quip indicates there are a few thousand ILSes doing fine with it. The issue is making the information actionable by other machines. I might add that not all of the shortcomings are MARC's fault but also of the cataloging codes that are used to populate a MARC record.
As an example, consider the FRBR expression entity. A significant aspect in textual works between expressions is translation. We do have a 240 field to record that, but since the application of the rules for Uniform titles were left to the discretion of the cataloging agency, indication of an expression for a translation can also appear in a translation note recorded in tag 500, sometimes in conjunction with the 240 but oftentimes alone (as several thousand records in my catalog will attest). Now, if this data were consistently recorded in the 240 (both with respect to the format and to the application of use of the 240), then machine FRBR-ization of these records for translations would be relatively simple. In the present circumstances however, with the existing mix of treatments, it is much, much more complicated. Having attempted to duplicate solo translation notes into corresponding 240 tags, I have learned there are no simple solutions. I have to manually copy, interpret, and edit the data due to the free-text nature of the note. I could employ a few programming tricks to simplify some of the tasks, but I would still need to review so much of the resulting edits that my current manual method is no less inefficient than a (partially) programmed approach. My manual approach is on the edge of practicality (although I'm not sure which side), when I start with a file of about 4k culled from a database of about 300k. Any larger sets would likely be unfeasible. Doubtless others will have more cogent examples but I hope this gives a hint as to the problem. John F. Myers, Catalog Librarian Schaffer Library, Union College 807 Union St. Schenectady NY 12308 518-388-6623 mye...@union.edu -----Original Message----- From: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access [mailto:rd...@listserv.lac-bac.gc.ca] On Behalf Of Frances, Melodie Can anyone explain WHY it's so hard to get info from MARC?