Michael Jost wrote:
> I would guess that James Weinheimer and Bernhard Eversberg have something
to say here ;-)
Indeed, and so do I.
When I introduce people to the Dublin Core, mostly, but not exclusively,
librarians, I say things like "DC is silent on form of entry."
Whenever I have the chance, I suggest that librarians and other knowledge
management professionals should know and understand what DC/XML/RDF does and
does not do, individually and in conjunction with each other. Use the
strengths; discover the weaknesses; fill the gaps. And many of the gaps are
exactly in the areas that libraries and others have focused on for some time
such as consistent (rule-based) form of entry, authority control,
classificaiton, subject analysis and heading assignment, uniform and series
titles, other "added entries," etc.
Metadata does not obviate the need for these types of approaches to resource
description.
What metadata should do, what DC does (and XML and RDF), I think, is (1) not
prevent the use of (much like the Hippocratic oath of "do no harm") the
rules and schemes that are thought useful and necessary by any particular
metadata creator or, more broadly, any particular resource description
community , and (2) remain neutral with respect to the preference of any
method over another.
--Erik
Erik Jul
[log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|