"Assuming relator terms or role indicators are immensely helpful, all the more important they be consistently and inclusively applied throughout the catalog. Is LC going to retrospectively add them, OCLC? At present it's 270 million records without relator terms, how many with? Even if OCLC can add relator codes retrospectively overnight, won't we still have to re-export all records that are now in our local catalogs? I suppose, in time all will be done but I don't see any near term solutions."
I don't see a near term solution either. Over time records, especially frequently-used records, will doubtless be updated, but it would seem that comprehensive updating of all records would be daunting to the point of impossibility. However, if relator terms or role indicators are consistently added to new records starting now, future searching will be facilitated. Over time records including those attributes may well come to dominate catalogs. And if not all of the legacy records get updated, might that be an indication that they weren't searched or accessed as often as other records including more recent ones? In 100 years catalog users looking for stuff by and about current film participants may be no more numerous than catalog users doing searches on D.W. Griffith are today. Not that I think that's a good thing, just that it seems probable. Mike Tribby Senior Cataloger Quality Books Inc. The Best of America's Independent Presses mailto:mike.tri...@quality-books.com
