Quoting Casey A Mullin <cmul...@stanford.edu>:
Regarding the "extra time" argument, I will just say this succinctly. At Stanford, we did not use relator codes/terms under AACR2. We do under RDA (though, as previously stated, we have the option to leave them out if choosing one leads to agonizing). After our initial training period, in which the "burden" to add relator terms was only one among the suite of new/different practices, my productivity has returned to previous levels. Several of my colleagues have reported the same.
<snip>
Put yet another way: it's not a question of taking extra time, it's a question of encoding the fruits of our intellectual work in way that is friendly to humans AND machines, and thereby making better use of the precious time we have.
And IMO the time, even if significant, is worthwhile. In music, the roles of vocalist, instrumental performer, conductor, composer and editor are all significant, and one person may well occupy several of those roles in a lifetime. In textual works, the roles of author, editor, translator are likewise significant.
It should be easy to search for a person's name, then specify whether one wants to select resources where that name figures as author, or in another specified intellectual role, or even as subject.
Save the reader's timer, anyone? Once we've got away from the minimalist mindset which led to abandonment of relator terms at the implementation of AACR2, we can recognize their value, and begin to insist that public catalogues provide ways of making use of them.
It's all very well to say that catalogues are too complicated; but that's because of the nature of the resources, reflected in the data. We need to begin to insist on plain, straightforward features to help users get the best out of our intellectual effort. Relationships need to be easier to follow; simply leaving them out is no benefit.
Hal Cain Melbourne, Australia hec...@dml.vic.edu.au ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
