Library Legacy Data?

Greetings!

At some point in the exchanges with Alex Johannesen, Alex suggested that 
I was interested in protecting the library legacy in MARC records.

After thinking about it, I would have to agree but not simply to 
preserve it.

Rather, my default position (subject to the requirements of a particular 
topic map) is to treat the data structures and metadata that accompany 
the "data" as first class citizens and therefore entitled to 
representation in a topic map.

You could say that is simply preserving the "mistakes" of the past but 
consider the following:

1) In order to "validate" a conversion, being able to show users who are 
fluent in the "old" way and the "new" way the prior representation of 
data can be important.

2) Moreover, if Alex is correct (and I think he is) that MARC has been 
inconsistently used over the years, then having additional subjects (not 
less) in a topic map, such as the source of particular MARC records, 
could help us discover patterns of inconsistency that could help us 
refine "conversions."

3) To the extent that there exist systems and references to the MARC 
records or their structures, such as in the secondary literature, if we 
have topics for those subjects we can maintain a connection to that 
older secondary literature.

How much detail you want to capture/retain is a matter of project 
priorities and funding. What I suggest above is only one option of many.

Let me suggest another example of differing requirements for projects.

If you were to transcribe a manuscript, would you include the line 
breaks? There are projects that don't because they are only concerned 
with the "text." Or at least their definition of a "text." I can't 
imagine a manuscript transcription that does not include line breaks 
because one of my interests is the transmission of texts. One common 
error is where a scribe, who were hand copying, skips part of line to a 
similar word on the next line or perhaps the line after that. Unless you 
know the original configuration of the lines, we will know a mistake was 
made but have no way to evaluate what may have happened. (Emphasis on 
*may* have happened.)

Hope everyone is at the start of a great week!

Patrick

PS: See: Top Secret America - Report, http://tm.durusau.net/?p=1139, for 
my take on a report on US intelligence agencies that appeared today.

-- 
Patrick Durusau
patrick-Q/[email protected]
Chair, V1 - US TAG to JTC 1/SC 34
Convener, JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 (Topic Maps)
Editor, OpenDocument Format TC (OASIS), Project Editor ISO/IEC 26300
Co-Editor, ISO/IEC 13250-1, 13250-5 (Topic Maps)

Another Word For It (blog): http://tm.durusau.net
Homepage: http://www.durusau.net
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