Re: Library data is expressed primarily as text strings

Agreed. Originally these were two sections - one on bib data and one  
on authority data. They were once more different than they are now. So  
I agree that they should be merged at this point.

kc


Quoting Antoine Isaac <aisaac@few.vu.nl>:

> 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
>>
>>
>
>
>



-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
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Received on Monday, 5 September 2011 15:17:32 UTC