Thank you for your comments, Karen,
> I wasn't involved in the early development of DC, but I suspect that the
complexity of
library metadata had sent many running in the opposite direction. Perhaps
too far.
That is partly true for me. I was a cataloguer before moving into metadata
but it was clear that AACR2 and MARC were not suitable tools for
non-cataloguers trying to create metadata. I did try to impose some
cataloguing conventions, for example recommending "Lastname, Firstname" for
personal creators. One of our major partners refused to go along with this
and used the "Firstname Lastname" format. As far as the search engine is
concerned, the order really does not matter. Furthermore, our search logs
show that almost nobody searches on creator names; most searches are for
subjects. So I stopped being prescriptive. Dublin Core enabled us to move
to a record that was more like a journal database record than a catalogue
record - ie the choice and form of each metadata element was geared to how
it would be utilised in the search engine. We do not aim for absolute
precision in search results.
I had a quick look at the draft RDA when it was first issued - and ran
away! Yesterday I spent more time checking the contents - it is a massive
accomplishment which I think will help cataloguers to deal with a wide
range of media. However, as with AACR2, I am amazed that cataloguers
internationally have put so much effort into descriptive cataloguing
standards and so little into subject analysis guidelines. Perhaps later on
RDA will use its placeholder Chapter 23 to link to all the thesaurus work
that has been done elsewhere.
Cheers, Prue
Prue Deacon
HealthInsite Editorial Team
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing
[log in to unmask]
phone: 61 2 6289 7505
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au
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