Message-Id: <199602071515.JAA26506@library.wustl.edu> Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 10:07:59 EST From: "M. Jessie Barczak" <mailto:jbarczak@MAIL.CASI.STI.NASA.GOV> Subject: Re: URLs To: Multiple recipients of list WEBCAT-L <mailto:WEBCAT-L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>
-- Art Z.
http://www2.dra.com/art/bio.html wrote:
"... I watched some discussion fly by as I plowed though a ton of
back email... and I want to toss a thought out. Isn't publishing a
URL that refers to a specific bib record like telling a patron that
they will find the card for Huck Finn in the seventh drawer from the
top, as the 57th card in the drawer? Worse, isn't publishing a URL
that refers to a specific holdings record like telling a patron that
they will find Huck Finn in the fourth aisle, nineth shelf, 6.7
inches from the left? ..."
Well, maybe URLs don't belong in a catalog unless they point to
titles of works such as databases, web pages, etc?
Then there's the problem of maintaining correct URLs. How many times
have you tried to access a hyperlink or an address spit out by a
netsearch only to find a dead end?
I feel URLs are icing on the cake of cataloging practice. If you
have one, fine, but don't rely on it to stand throughout time
immemorial.
M. Jessie Barczak
Head of Cataloging
NASA Center for AeroSpace Information
Baltimore, MD
mailto:jbarczak@sti.nasa.gov