Hilary Dunlavey writes:
>
> Harping back to library OPACs, if the enquirer knows the name of a
> particular contributor/author then an Author Browse/Search, by whatever
> name the function is known locally, can retrieve records of all
> publications on which that name appears as main/secondary/other author.
Yes, but only if the name has been input consistently. That's what this
whole argument is about. That's what's a bit more difficult to do than
some people think.
> If the enquirer however thinks that the term'Jones' appears somewhere in
> the record (perhaps as Editor/Photographer/Graphic designer/Layout
> Artist etc) but isn't sure in what capacity, a search on keywords can
> retrieve it for them and they don't need even the vaguest understanding
> of what rules were applied in generating the metadata.
>
Good luck with "jones" in a database of several million.
> Any requirement for casual users to first understand data generation
> rules surely cannot be practical ?
>
Whoever made that requirement? We have those rules and use authority
control for quite the opposite reason.
Bernhard Eversberg
Universitaetsbibliothek, Postf. 3329,
D-38023 Braunschweig, Germany
Tel. +49 531 391-5026 , -5011 , FAX -5836
e-mail [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|