[Web4lib] Re: The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate?"

[Sharon Foster]

I was also a software engineer for many years before going to work in
a library and starting an MLS program last year. I love
standards--there are so many of them. ;-) I worked with many data
standards that are not human-readable by any stretch of the
imagination, and standards that have features that no one ever really
used, and I wrote many programs to convert one standard format to
another. So I have no problem with MARC in that regard. If anything,
the standard needs to be extended to include FRBR-like linkages to
"same work, different format." But we must never confuse any internal
standard with its external presentation to the end user. Those are two
different things. Dublin Core seems to me like a case of achieving
some sort of "universality" at the expense of a great deal of
precision. I rather like MARCXML for its potential as a "full
employment for software developers" standard. ;-)

On 6/26/07, Jesse Ephraim <JEphraim at ci.southlake.tx.us> wrote:
> I'm also very interested in finding out how the "Ultimate Debate" went.
> I was a professional programmer for almost a decade, so I tend to have
> pretty strong feelings about the technical side of library innovation.
>
> My biggest pet peeve with library technology is MARC records - until the
> library world is ready to move to a non-archaic form of data storage, I
> doubt that much will improve.  If anyone went to the event, was that
> discussed?
>
> Jesse Ephraim
>
> Youth Services Librarian
> Southlake Public Library
> 1400 Main Street, Suite 130
> Southlake, TX  76092
> (817) 748-8248
> jephraim at ci.southlake.tx.us
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Sharon M. Foster
F/OSS Evangelist
Cheshire Public Library
104 Main Street
Cheshire, CT  06410
http://www.cheshirelibrary.org

Any opinions expressed here are entirely my own.