Stu, nowhere did I suggest that DC should be "rule-free".
The very example you use is the one I raised as a place where rules make
sense. What I do suggest is that we distinguish between rules which have
a direct impact on the ability of an engine to make the data searchable
and those which represent an interpretive judgment as to the
characteristics of the material being described.
Your "any guideline is a rule" comment reminds me of a story about an
old Sun slogan, "The network IS the computer" or some such thing, which
was rapidly followed by t-shirts saying "The network is the network; the
computer is the computer. Our apologies for any confusion." Perhaps our
problem is a semantic one... At least in my environment, there is
actually a distinction between guidelines (optional) and rules
(mandatory).
--Robin
P.S. BTW, you make it sound as though my institution (Harvard) plans to
participate in CORC over my dead body, whereas in fact I initiated its
effort. I am by no means anti-DC; I am pro-pragmatism.
On Fri, 16 Apr 1999, Weibel,Stu wrote:
> It is not reasonable to expect, nor to recommend, that DC be rule free.
>
> Schemes express rules, for example (ISO 8601).
>
> specifying best practice for name conventions (eg. surname, given-name
> middle-initial) is a simple rule that many will want to apply.
>
> Any guideline is a rule.
>
> The challenge is finding a rule set that is simple enough to satisfy a large
> proportion of users and specific enough to be useful, and that is readily
> understandable. Its a compromise.
>
> Some communities will use more, others less. Interoperability will not be
> perfect (surprise surprise).
>
> Robin may not want to see DC influenced by rules, but her institution
> (Harvard) is signing up for the CORC project (purl.oclc.org/corc) which is a
> combined DC-MARC application with rules. Its too marcish for my liking, but
> that also has a certain benefit.
>
> Can we agree we're still learning what the best thing to do is?
>
> stu
>
>
Robin Wendler ........................ work (617) 495-3724
Office for Information Systems ....... fax (617) 495-0491
Harvard University Library ........... [log in to unmask]
Cambridge, MA, USA 02138 .............
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|