From: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access on behalf of Weinheimer Jim
Perhaps I am completely off base, but I do not believe I am talking about relationships here, I am talking about some new types of entities that do not seem to fit the WEMI theoretical framework. These new things I discussed do not seem to me to fit in very comfortably to work, expression, manifestation, or item. They seem to be completely different animals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do these new things/entities have a name? Do they have a definition? Is there any relationship between them and the model under discussion? To previous cataloging theories? That is, where do they fit into the structures we are used to? Or are they entirely incompatible with previous thinking? Do we need to replace bibliocentric thinking with datum-centric thinking (like geocentrism was replaced by heliocentrism)? Or can the approaches live side-by-side to address different levels of granularity at which users can operate (like quantum and Newtonian mechanics for sub-atomic and super-atomic interactions)? I can see from James and others' posts that something interesting is going on with full-text, digital access and the use of search engines. I can also see that others have something interesting to describe concerning the semantic web. I get glimmers that RDA seems to be leveraging FRBR to tap into the latter (setting aside concerns over the possible success or failure of that endeavor). But I do not see what proponents of the former would like to accomplish, what their plan is to accomplish it, what libraries' place will be in it, and by extension what the role of the cataloging community will be. I get the point that hand-crafted metadata is not sustainable in a digital environment. (Not happy, but get it.) FRBR/RDA seem to offer the hope of guiding the evolution/development of machine-assisted metadata. The "full-text rules/datum snippet/mash-up" approach seems only to offer oblivion. John Myers, Catalog Librarian Schaffer Library, Union College Schenectady NY 12308 mye...@union.edu 518-388-6623
