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Jul,Erik wrote: > ... bibliographic records should assist users to (1) find, > (2) identify, (3) select, and (4) obtain resources. > ... > > The Dublin Core has long said that its goal was to facilitate "simple > resource discovery on the net." This would be the finding function, > above. Looking at the DC elements, however, it is obvious that the DC > community rightly felt that finding alone is insufficient, and the DC > elements began to take on other functions. What is unknown is whether > or how well the DC elements set can fulfill the other requirements of > identifying, selecting, and obtaining. > > A useful exercise is ... I fear, Erik, that you are expecting too much of DC. My opinion is that communities will often have their own search/selection/retrieval mechanisms that will be properly tuned to particular applications areas. DC provides a starting point for clients from outside any community, for a first stop en-route to more sophisticated systems. It is thus overwhelmingly compromised! That is a *good thing*, but has its cost. With luck, it will often allow a little bit more than task 1, but cannot be expected to routinely provide a comprehensive solution - certainly not in "DC Simple" form. Don't throw away your MARC records. But do build a crosswalk. -- __________________________________________________ Dr Simon Cox - Australian Geodynamics Cooperative Research Centre CSIRO Exploration & Mining, PO Box 437, Nedlands, WA 6009 Australia T: +61 8 9389 8421 F: +61 8 9389 1906 [log in to unmask] http://www.ned.dem.csiro.au/SimonCox/