Stu Wrote:
but are the efforts to do cross walks between DC and MARC
> a step in this
> direction?
>
The crosswalks are indeed a step in this direction, as is CORC. However, the
biggest problem libraries have in adopting descriptive standards other than
Marc is in the systems they use. I think libraries and librarians are very
interested in the Dublin Core and other metadata standards; however, the
tools we use (i.e. our integrated library systems) don't have any support
for anything other than Marc.
What librarians need are systems that can handle and maneuver between
different descriptive schemes, whether they be Marc, DC, or something else.
As far as I know, there is no ILS that currently does or attempts this.
However, the Open Source Digital Library System Project (OSDLS -
http://osdls.library.arizona.edu) is attempting to build an ILS that has at
its core a datamodel that tries to facilitate non-reliance on a specific
standard; the information is broken down into its individual fields, and can
be rebuilt "on-the-fly" to match up with Marc, DC, etc. At the moment, this
project is just a step or two down that road - we have the first draft of
our datamodel, and we have a system that allows 'cataloging' in Marc, yet
does its search and retrieval using simple DC. You can try out the system by
going to the OSDLS website, and you can also download the code from there as
well (as well as the supporting documentation).
-- Jeremy
----------------------------
Jeremy Frumkin
Metadata Librarian
University of Arizona
[log in to unmask]
+1 520 621-2916
+1 520 621-8276 (fax)
----------------------------
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|