"Jul,Erik" wrote:
> 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.
I can sympathize with the desire to "remain neutral with respect to the
preference of any method over another." But at the same time, if we try to say
"everything is OK" all it does is make, e.g. Mary's good records essentially
unfindable.
(i.e. people find a few works by "A.S. Pushkin" and think they have everything,
but most of them are under: Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, 1799-1837. Still
others are under: Puskin, Alexander Sergeyevich; Poesjkin, Puszkin, Puschkin...)
I think we have to state--in so many words--that if a metadata creator doesn't
want to follow rules, then the record will not be found except through sheer
luck (as it works today on the web). At the same time, they'll mess it up for
everybody else. It's only fair to the metadata creators, because if we don't
state this clearly, everyone's expectations for "making things easier to find on
the web" will crash to the ground.
Jim Weinheimer
Princeton University
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