- From: John S. Erickson <john.erickson@hp.com>
- Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 10:20:15 -0400
- To: <www-rdf-dspace@w3.org>
Rob wrote:
> \subsection{The Library Domain}
>
:
> No one who actually manages archives expects to track
> changes to the metadata over time. In traditional library/
> information management systems logs are kept around to
> track metadata changes temporarily, but it's just not
> considered important to the core mission of managing the
> \emph{content} over time. Schemas change, contexts change,
> resources get described in myriad ways (all at the same time),
> people make mistakes, fix them, we add stuff, we remove stuff,
> and libraries do not track all this.
JSE: This statement is pretty troubling to me.
* Can we reasonably say that "no one who actually manages archives" CARES
about the provenance of metadata over time? That schemas change AND THEY WON'T
CARE? That contexts change AND THEY WON'T CARE? I don't think so.
* Or is it more reasonable to say that "(any)one who actually manages
archives" thinks that maintaining the provenance of metadata across an archive
over time might well be useful, but adequately maintaining provenance data is
viewed as difficult given current tools and mechanisms.
It seems to me that the same need for decision-making "clues" that exists in
the automated inference space also exists in the library domain; it's just
that human collection managers are able to use their judgement, based upon
their knowledge and experience, to fill in the gaps where explicit provenance
data is missing...
John
Received on Monday, 7 July 2003 10:26:43 UTC