Re: PICS for cataloging

Terry Allen kindly pointed me to some references about cataloging
online materials.  Slightly more informed provocations, then:

*  In terms of the Dublin Metadata Core Element Set [1], I am
wondering if PICS might not offer a richer, more systematically
extensible format for the "Subject" element.  PICS can handle
any hierarchical subject classification system.

*  In terms of OCLC's recommendations for revisions to the AACR
and MARC cataloging systems [2], there may be some additional
fields suited for automatically-processable categorical ratings,
for example AACR2 9.7B1b / MARC 538, "System Requirements".

The point is that PICS will make available client- and server-side
infrastructure for distributed management of hierarchical category
ratings as a result of political forces much stronger than any drive
toward cataloging the Internet.  Why not ride the wave and see if it
can help bring distributed cataloging closer to reality?


[1] OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop Report (Dublin, Ohio, March 1995),
    Stuart Wiebel et al.  OCLC, 1995.
    <URL:http://www.oclc.org:5047/oclc/research/conferences/metadata/dublin_core_report.html>.
[2] Cataloging Internet Resources, Nancy Olson (ed.).  OCLC, 1995.
    <URL:ftp://ftp.rsch.oclc.org/pub/internet_cataloging_project/Manual.txt>.

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Paul Burchard	<burchard@cs.princeton.edu>
``I'm still learning how to count backwards from infinity...''
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Received on Monday, 4 March 1996 21:44:15 UTC