Carl,
If you want the group to proceed with a "specification" phase for a
machine encodable version of DC, does that in any way preclude its role
or the use of it as an author-created, non-format-specific document
descriptor? I hope not.
While I think many people are more comfortable with having issues like
date formats settled very specifically, others are looking for general
guidance for document descriptors in a varied set of environments,
particularly those in which authors or other non-professional catalogers
are the key actors. In my case, I am interested in helping
organizations such as corporations think about what kind of document
descriptors will help them with their goals (which may differ from a
library's, incidentally). A specification may not help them, while a
considered set of what constitutes the core items to describe a document
(DC) can.
What I am concerned about then, is that the specification be clearly
seen as one of several possible specifications of the DC. I'm sure it
will be a good one -- the work so far attests to that. But many of the
possible audiences for the DC and Warwick work may lose their way when
presented with a detailed specification created from a certain
perspective.
Lisa Murphy
Accounting & Information Systems
School of Business
Indiana University
Bloomington IN 47405-1701
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