Re: Library data is expressed primarily as text strings

Bouncing on that thread, I'd like to mention that the section immediately following this one, "Library controlled vocabularies are expressed as text strings", is slightly redundant, see:
http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/index.php?title=Draft_issues_page_take2&oldid=6141#Library_data_is_expressed_primarily_as_text_strings

I'm also not fond of the heading "Library controlled vocabularies are expressed as text strings": the vocabularies as a whole are expressed as structured data, even though this data relies  on strings, mostly...

Is there any objection to my trying to merge the two in the coming hours?

Antoine


> I found the point "Library data is expressed primarily as text strings" to be
> vague as written, so I have sharpened the point [1] to emphasize the difference
> between "unique alphanumeric strings" such as ISBNs and "display-oriented text"
> such as "words and names".  Please read the following paragraph and raise a
> flag if I have somehow "overinterpreted"...:
>
>      Most information in library data is encoded as display-oriented text
>      strings. Some of the resource identifiers used in library data are based on
>      unique alphanumeric strings, such as ISBNs for books, but most
>      identification is done using words and names.  Some data fields in MARC
>      records are coded uniquely, but there is no clear incentive to include
>      these in all records as few of them are used for library-system functions.
>      Some data fields, such as authority-controlled names and subjects, have
>      associated records in separate files, and these records have identifiers
>      that could be used to represent those entities in library metadata;
>      however, the data formats in current use do not always support inclusion of
>      these identifiers in records, so many of today's library systems do not
>      properly support their use.
>
> Note "authority-controlled" with hyphen.
>
> Tom
>
> [1] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/index.php?title=Draft_issues_page_take2&diff=6098&oldid=6090
>
>

Received on Monday, 5 September 2011 07:58:15 UTC