Quoting Jonathan Rochkind <[email protected]>:
What we need is a "data schema" (aka "data dictionary", aka "data
vocabulary") that actually semantically captures what we need to
capture.
And I will again say what I have said before: I have set up a wiki
page for such a project, if anyone wants to join in. I don't expect
that we will be able to actually transform MARC in this informal way,
but I see it as a way to explore some of the issues (like the one I
brought up about the uniform title, and which I will add there).
http://futurelib.pbworks.com/w/page/29114548/MARC-elements
If you want to add info, comment, or edit the page, I will need to set
you up with an ID, I think. Also, I'm trying to figure out how to
allow comments...
kc
That's the hard part, and it neccesarily will not be round-trip
backwards compatible with MARC. If we have that, whether we put it
in XML or something else doesn't matter. The serialization format
itself is, to a large extent, an implementation issue. This is my
contention.
If you have that, then you can, as Behrnard says 'make it a snap to
extract the "title" of the piece represented, unambiguously and
independent of context inside the record that only a human reader
can unravel.' And, sure, you can do that from an XML format. Just
not AACR2-style MarcXML.
Jonathan
In the light of this, what we need is a real data format. It may look
not all that different from MARC, but it needs to be understood in
a markedly different way (and RDA supports this view more than AACR2 in
that it clearly leaves textual display (ISBD) outside the rules).
What we do not need, however, is an RDB sort of format, consisting
of a set of interrelated tables. This seems to be what Thomale
understands best. And for many developers, RDB is synonymous with
"database". And that's the other trap into which we ought not fall.
A true format must, for one thing, make it a snap to extract the
"title" of the piece represented, unambiguously and independent of
context inside the record that only a human reader can unravel.
OTOH, it will never be easy to say and pin down what the title of a
thing is, no matter what syntax you use to record it. In MARC, the
245 is the most confounded element - no, textual paragraph.
B.Eversberg
--
Karen Coyle
[email protected] http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet
