Dear all,
In response to Sarah and Geoffrey's comments below, and speaking as a
suplier of automated systems, DS Limited and our CALM 2000 customers are
very interested in the area of 'cross discipline cataloguing' and have
elected to go for an approach in which different records types in CALM
2000 are associated with different standards e.g. Collection and
Component are drawn from ISAD(G); the Object record type is based on
Spectrum / Cidoc; while the Book type utilises MARC / AACR2 compatible
bibliographic structures.
The assumption is that the user effectively makes a choice to use a
standard through their choice of record type. Field equating search
techniques make it possible to link fields for search purposes.
Authority files are common to all and multi-level description can be
used in the context of all record types , for example to describe the
Associations of museum objects.
As other correspondents have implied, we also recognise that an
automated system can only be a facilitating tool, however sophisticated.
Where a system is attempting to work across archives, libraries and
museums, given the implied objective to retrieve data across the
disciplnes, the formulation of a common intellectual approach is clearly
advantageous.
Malcolm Howitt
DS Limited
National Resource Centre Hallview Drive Bilborough Nottingham NG8
4GD
Tel: +44(0)115 9008000 Fax: +44(0)115 9425718
Direct Tel: +44(0)161 6275508
>Flynn, Sarah JA wrote:
>
> Dear all
> Geoffrey Yeo's contribution to this debate is helpful but I would just like to comment on this bit of his message:
> "Automated systems might be expected to provide us with a solution [to the problem of material which could be classed as archive and/or MS], but to date most systems have been developed to meet the perceived needs of a single profession, and the opportunity to address the wider issue has been largely ignored."
> Automated description can hardly be expected to solve a conceptual problem, being only a tool and not a mechanism of making our professional decisions. It is unsurprising that most such systems have been developed for use by one custodial profession (excellent phrase) only, since they tend to address issues important to that profession and be largely used by that profession. Although anyone out there who has used systems based on the library/MSS framework of AACR2 and MARC may have points to m
> However I do endorse Geoffrey's point about the desirability of professional dialogue on these matters. It may be that the new cultural consortia proposed by the present government will allow archivists to take the lead as he suggests, on these and on other matters of common concern.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|