[Web4lib] The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate?

[Will Kurt]

The MARC record represents a triumph in design for the 1960s, when 
bandwidth was exceptionally limited.  If you look at the MARC 21 
communications format you can instantly see that it's from an era 
when computer science still hadn't advanced from seeing 
data-transmission as anything other than advanced telegraphing.   The 
format is very limited but is brilliant in that it is optimized for a 
very specific constraint. However that constraint no longer exists 
and it is counter to innovation to stay with a format simply because 
it is what we've always done.

A better option would be an extensible and flexible format (XML or 
something similar).  Conversion from a restrictive meta-data standard 
to a more flexible one is trivial so the argument against conversion 
due to limited resources is not really valid.  Additionally our 
contemporary constraint/challenge is that our data is rapidly 
changing.  If you were to look at our situation today for what it is, 
extensibility and flexibility would definitely take priority of 
keeping the size of the data file at an absolute minimum.

I don't think there are any strong arguments for the MARC format 
other than "we've always done it that way".  MARC was brilliant, but 
it no longer optimized for our environment, and that's what makes it archaic.

--Will



At 09:31 AM 6/27/2007, e roel wrote:
>Like Bill, I respectfully disagree on the MARC record being archaic.  The MARC
>record actually represents a minor triumph of design.  It is very compact,
>migratable, defines the rules of its database format/organization at its head,
>even at its most granular point. It is simply elegant in ways that much of our
>technology today is not.
>
>I am open to alternatives, as there have been many along the way.  But, the
>fact that MARC has survived all this time could lend one to think that its
>design has an advantage.
>
>I am someone who really loves good technology.  I define that (roughly and,
>quickly here) as useful and usable stuff.  I don't define technology as merely
>electron-based novelty.
>
>What I try to do in both my personal and professional lives is keep what is
>good & adopt what is novel and good.  Leave what is bad behind & go right past
>what is novel and bad.
>
>I think that there is a bit of a frenzy around innovation since we are often
>quickly professionally rewarded for that. Conversely, there are strong
>disincentives for wanting to retain something old.)  And then we go onward.
>Alot of that invention/innovation is left by the way side.  Why? Possibly
>because it was too ahead of its time? Possibly because it just didn't serve a
>need? Possibly because it is a design failure?
>
>I enthusiastically support the investigation of ideas. I always hope most of
>us are better than just embracing the new without too much question just
>because it is new (broadly done in society).
>
>e roel
>
>------ original message ------
>date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:51:49 AM EDT
>from: "Bill Drew" <bill.drew at gmail.com>
>to: "Jesse Ephraim" <JEphraim at ci.southlake.tx.us>Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
>re: The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate?"
>
>One problem with this type of statement: "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."
>
>It implies that there is one world wide monolithic group or organization known
>as "the library world."  It is much more complicated than that.
>
>
>-- 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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