['Scuse the narrative. Please at least take a look at the examples
at the end of this message.]
There is a higher-level discussion that I (and silent others) think
we need to have before we can make sense of the detailed debate going
on about Date and Resource Type.
The *nature* of the element: Resource Type needs to be fleshed out.
Resource Type ought to be reserved for the purpose of indicating what
thing is being described (e.g., statue, picture of statue, digital
image of picture of statue, or web page about the statue). In other
words, all the other elements should be interpreted as being about
the thing identified in Resource Type.
This makes Date meaningful, as well as Publisher, Creator... All of
our element definitions refer to the "resource" -- Resource Type
should reflect what the heck the resource is.
Without it, all is muddled. It also allows the describer to focus on
the description which will help users find the resource. And it
lets the user distinguish what type of thing they are looking for
and therefore what they mean when they say Date.
Format then, could be used, when applicable, to give specific format
information about that instance of the Resource Type (e.g.,
Postscript, ascii, TIFF, vhs or beta, 16mm or 35mm for microfilm).
For many applications currently under discussion, the Resource Type
would be Web page(s) and Format might be unnecessary, though one
could supply HTML, XML, or whatever. They way we describe a personal
home page or institutional home page may be quite different from how
we describe a particular page deep down in, say, a museum site where
what is of interest is not the page itself.....
For instance, for Michelangelo's David:
if Resource Type contains "photograph"
then creator is the photographer
date is the day the picture was taken
format is 35mm slide or whatever
publisher might likely be empty or might contain the name of the
publisher of the book, calendar, poster in which the photo appears or
perhaps the gallery in which it is hung
if Resource Type contains "sculpture"
creator is Michelangelo
date is 15xx or whatever
format is stone-carving or whatever (anyone for "realia"?!?)
publisher is empty or the Galleria dell'Accademia
if Resource Type is "web page"
creator is David Phillips
date is 1996-04-15
format is html
publisher is David Phillips or Onramp Access, Inc (Phillip's
web space provider)
if Resource Type contains "digital image"
then creator is the person who scanned it
date is the day it was scanned
format is JPEG or whatever
publisher is likely empty or may be the sponsor of the website or
CD-ROM publisher, etc.
Whaddaya think?
Ricky
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