Hello,
This is my first posting to DC-General and, as you will see, I have a
fairly awesome lack of detailed knowledge about DC/metadata. However the
listmaster has assured me that this is the place for high-level rather
than detailed postings so here is my set of questions/musings -
I am at present looking at the future of Community Information for a UK
supplier of library systems (for say the next 5 years). I am not at all
clear about the need, or lack of it, to take into account the likely
usefulness of metadata in this context.
For instance, while some Community Information is relevant only to
someone sitting in the local library searching for the nearest art
class, other information will be of regional or possibly national
significance and may well contain HTML or other links to
regional/national/global web pages/data sources.
Will the library system have to have a special engine to make use of
metadata ? Is this where ROADS comes in ?
Does DC assume that metadata be automatically generated or is it done
manually or both (I am thinking of the effort which may be involved)
If the data is stored in US-MARC format and accessible via Z39.50 is
metadata actually required ? (I believe that the Z39.50 spec is
undergoing expansion to accommodate DC elements ?) Likewise
bibliographic data in UK-MARC format ?
Does the DC notation cater for Community Information data, in particular
for scope and geospatial data linking maps/routes etc or is that
completely off track ?
I have other questions too, but I suspect that they may become
irrelevant when I have a firmer grasp of the basics. I shall be very
grateful for any help/guidance which any of you can provide - I
appreciate that I am perhaps asking for reiteration of discussions which
you resolved a long time ago !
Thanks
Hilary
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