I know I may seem obsessed with lists, but the fact is that the library
world relies heavily on controlled lists of values and these will make
up a large part of records used by libraries. I'm also struggling with
the controlled "lists" which are more than simple values -- those that
have structure or additional data. I'd like to be able to define all of
these so that we can be clear when we are discussing them. Sometimes the
current terminology and common view gets in our way.
1) external lists -- these are lists that are external to the
application profile, maintained elsewhere. They may be simple lists, or
they may be data structures such as name authority records. What the
application profile will incorporate will be an identifier for the list,
but it seems to me that the AP itself may not have any "knowledge" of
the nature of what it points to nor of how the application gains access
to the list values.
2) internal lists -- when the values in the list are included in the AP
definition. These values are probably going to be literals, although
they may be structured (e.g. a code and a display value). I suppose they
could have URIs, but that seems both unlikely and unnecessary. If you
think anyone else will want to share them, then you should move them out
of the AP into a neutral space or registry.
I now have a third possible category...
3) external lists, with a selection of values -- this is a situation
where one refers to an external list (e.g. iso 639-2), but the AP
selects a subset of the values as valid for the application ("en" "fr"
"sp"). The values may be simple strings, structured strings, or URIs,
and how the application should work with them should be based on the
referred to list, not the AP statement.
Now here's a question: what if the external list is NOT just simple
values and you want to refer to a part of the structure of those values?
For example, with the ISO languages, the standard list has codes and
spelled out forms of the language. How could you indicate that you want
to use just the code, or just the spelled out form, or both? The library
name authority records have numerous fields and subfields. What if you
only want to select personal name fields (100 tag) and only certain
subfields from that field? Can these be defined in the AP, and if so,
how? Or is this best left for the application itself?
kc
--
-----------------------------------
Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
[log in to unmask] http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
------------------------------------
|