Comments on: MARC21 as Data: A Start http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5468 Wed, 22 May 2013 14:07:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Eric Nord http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5468/comment-page-1#comment-5980 Eric Nord Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:53:02 +0000 http://journal.code4lib.org/?p=5468#comment-5980 While new to MARC I’ve already become accutely aware of the need for a new format. One of the great difficulties with MARC21 is identification of records is aproximate not exact. I belive this is due in part to many new formats and item types being forced into a standard that was never built to handle them (Describing CD, DVD, Blu-Ray in the 007 for example)

I wonder how the well a modular approach would work where each “item type” had it’s own standard identifiers, rather than trying to cram everything into one rule set (which leads to abstract identification). This would compartmentalize the “standardization” to a specific item type and perhaps allow for more direct and clear identification by SMEs of that specific item type.

This may also lead to simplificaiton where libraries would only need to understand the item types they deal with directly.

In the end we’ve all used MARC21 differently to best describe our varied holdings – due to MARC21s “approximate” nature I really don’t see a universal application that will cover all cases. We’ll all have to dig ourselves out of the corner we’ve painted ourselves into with MARC21 and the more we stuff in the worse it gets.

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By: Jakob http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5468/comment-page-1#comment-4023 Jakob Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:27:08 +0000 http://journal.code4lib.org/?p=5468#comment-4023 @Scott: I would not call it Object-Oriented and I strongly doubt that using Object-based RDBMS makes any difference, because this is too much on a technical level. The representation in a (possibly OO-)RDBMS is just another (internal) serialization, comparable to XML, or RDF. Instead we need a better understanding of the \data elements\ as Caren calls it: the task is to determine the basic conceptual entities (you can also name it aspects) of a record and their dependencies. Codd’s or other datbase theory maybe helpful in doing so, but I find Caren’s diagrams helpful enough.

@Caren: I found that sometimes order of repeatable elements is relevant and sometimes it is not. Do you have more on repeatable fields?

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By: “MARC21??????”??? » ????III http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5468/comment-page-1#comment-4010 “MARC21??????”??? » ????III Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:04:38 +0000 http://journal.code4lib.org/?p=5468#comment-4010 [...] 2011?8?6? ? catwizard ?? » MARC21 as a Data: A Start / By Karen Coyle. Code4Lib Journal, Issue 14, 2011-07-25. ISSN 1940-5758 [...]

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By: Scott Lewis http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5468/comment-page-1#comment-4003 Scott Lewis Thu, 04 Aug 2011 23:25:27 +0000 http://journal.code4lib.org/?p=5468#comment-4003 Though I have not worked extensively with MARC, I’ve done enough with it to notice many of the complexities described in this piece.

Overall, it is my impression that attempts to describe these data structures in terms of databases and database-type concepts(such as Codd’s
normalization) may not be the most fruitful path to follow.

My impression of MARC is that what it maps to most closely would be the way in which we construct and make use of objects in the more pure O-O programming
languages, such as Smalltalk and Self.

One way of looking at that shift is that data/database type constructs tend to concentrate on the \nouns\ of the given information. The formation of MARC
itself is attempting to supply both the \nouns\ and something like a \verb\ form (or at least a gerund) as well. This noun/verb form (data and the
integral means of accessing it) is very much what objects offer.

I think there may be two consequences to following this path. Firstly, if the goal of a user/translator of MARC is to do something helpful with it within
a program, it might be best to consider moving from a standard RDBMS to an Object-based RDBMS. Secondly, if the goal is to serialize the MARC data in a
different form, such as XML (perhaps in OWL), it might be best to first transform the data into an object form, then work out how to serialize that
object.

Using objects as an intermediary in this way may seem to be either a distraction or an additional task. However, the goal of O-O has never been to, say,
make computers work faster. It has always been about finding better ways for humans to conceive of complex systems. MARC might be a good place to make use
of these tools.

cheers,
Scott

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By: Matthew Beacom http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5468/comment-page-1#comment-4001 Matthew Beacom Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:59:45 +0000 http://journal.code4lib.org/?p=5468#comment-4001 Karen,
Great article on your MARC modernization effort.

At the end you say, “… armed with this knowledge we might decide to greatly trim or radically transform the data elements that we carry with us into the future.”

We may begin to trim the needed data elements immediately and not wait until we are fully-armed with this knowledge. We can create a simple bibliographic model that can begin to capture or propose those elements (with definitions) that would allow us to create services for users. Among them may be identifiers of various sorts, titles, publication as an event, etc. That said, you have given us all a great start. Thank you.

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By: Formato XML pode substituir o formato MARC? | Processo Técnico BICE/UCS http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5468/comment-page-1#comment-3977 Formato XML pode substituir o formato MARC? | Processo Técnico BICE/UCS Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:45:36 +0000 http://journal.code4lib.org/?p=5468#comment-3977 [...] Para acessar o artigo, em inglês, clique aqui [...]

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By: Code4Lib Journal – n° 14 « pintiniblog http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5468/comment-page-1#comment-3967 Code4Lib Journal – n° 14 « pintiniblog Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:26:29 +0000 http://journal.code4lib.org/?p=5468#comment-3967 [...] MARC21 as Data: A Start [...]

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