[Web4lib] The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate?

[Andrew Ashton]

The problem with this argument is that the *way* we need things to
change will not be driven by companies in the form of new products, but
rather by communities of scholars and librarians in the form of fluid,
exchangeable collections metadata.  Neither Ex Libris nor III nor any
one entity can create that by design.  MARC reinforces that fundamental
restriction on how we think about our metadata - is metadata just for
our institutional information silos or is it part of the broader
continuum of learning and scholarship?  If it is the latter, MARC only
hinders us.  


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Ron Peterson
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 11:39 AM
Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate?

I disagree that it isn't in the best interest of the vendors to change.
I think librarians have demanded continuing support for MARC and tied
the vendors hands.  In my experience, it seems that the vendors often go
out of their way to keep MARC around, because we wouldn't buy their
systems if they didn't.  But I don't think we should let the vendors off
the hook either.  They could have been more creative in meeting our
demands while developing innovative systems.


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