Message-Id: <199907081936.MAA11300@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 14:34:28 -0400 From: "Bruce H. Bruemmer" <mailto:bruemmer@TC.UMN.EDU> Subject: Re: MARC v. Dublin Core To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
At 02:58 PM 7/8/99 -0400, you wrote: >To people who are using metadata to index your web site (text, images,
>etc.), I am interested in hearing how you made the decision of what
>metadata/indexing standard to use. Why did you choose MARC over Dublin
>Core, for example? What do you wish you have considered, in making that
>decision, that you didn't?
>
>Jill
At least in some quarters, there is the option to have your cake and eat it. I'm sitting on a local group that's trying to work with the OCLC CORC database, which has a novel characteristic of translating Dublic Core to MARC or MARC to DC at the push of a button. Of couse, this drives our authorities person nuts who (correctly, I think) argues that you cannot reliably go from a broader communication standard to a more precise one (DC to MARC). So, in the case of CORC, Minnesota opted to use Dublin Core, believing it to be the lowest common denominator. Since their is really nothing to be gained by MARC cataloging in CORC, why go to the extra bother?
The real issue in such a union database is content standards, which CORC purposely stays away from. We decided to impose our own, minimalist, content standardization (such as inverted names), just so we had a prayer of a chance to retrieve our own institution's records effectively. Just can't let go of some AACR2.
All of this is very ironic to me. I started as a heretic by cataloging MARC AMC, and now I look at practical manifestations of Dublic Core, scratch my head, sigh for the good old days of strict content standardization, and wonder if I, too, have become an old fart. Bruce H. Bruemmer, Coordinator Digital Collections University of Minnesota Libraries 499 Wilson Library Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-2033 612 626-9353 (fax) mailto:bruemmer@tc.umn.edu mailto:Bytelib@tc.umn.edu http://digital.lib.umn.edu