Bernhard Eversberg wrote:
<snip>
But we can do that without giving up internal use of MARC.
We need never expose MARC to anybody out there, all we need
is useful exports and services. And these can be changed any time
without changing internal formats. But first of all, as we
noted yesterday, right now there just *isn't* this "format that
is usable for others" because others agree in nothing but
that they need something different.
</snip>
Yes, we need what is called an Exchange Format, something that I worked on
extensively when I was at FAO, helping to create the AGRIS AP. It's based on
all different kinds of existing formats and we created "namespaces" (i.e. new
tags) only when something did not exist already. How things are coded within
local databases can be totally different. Still, I think we could provide
something pretty useful with qualified DC or MODS Lite. It's worth a try anyway.
I think the basic idea should be "simplicity," and trust that the people who
want to use our information will figure it out. Of course it won't be perfect,
but it can be (and will be, I might add) updated and improved in all number of
ways. The main idea is to put the information out there.
Also, the traditional catalog attitude of, "do it once, do it right so that you
don't have to update" doesn't apply to this new world in some areas. The
attitude does apply to the information itself, but not to the coding, which we
can assume will change drastically many, many times in many, many ways. In the
following MODS-Lite info, we can assume that the mods coding will change as new
formats come up, e.g. DC, OAI-PMH, Google-type metadata which most probably
will come up sooner or later, and things we don't know anything about now, but
the *real* information "Springer" will not change.
<mods:publisher>Springer</mods:publisher>
Catalogers should keep their focus on the unchanging bits.
Changing the coding is child's play. Perhaps CERN should consider redoing their
catalog in MODS-Lite. I tried myself just now with MarcEdit but got an error
message. (Error message 4, whatever that means!) Still, all the tools exist
right now, today, to do it. The biggest question is whether libraries should
put the records out in an open manner or not.
James Weinheimer [email protected]
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
