Re: Slightly OT: MARC
Patrick Durusau <patrick-Q/[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.text.xml.xtm.general |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Lars, It isn't that every library "does its own thing." ISBNs are actually assigned by publishers. Each publisher is assigned a block of numbers but management of the numbers in that block is left up to them. Bad idea. Some publishers, often after a decent period of time, simply recycle the numbers. :-( Or even give a first and second edition of a book the same number. Or correct their original mistake with the numbers. (I worked for a consortium that wasn't always real particular about its use of ISBNs. Wasn't my department but stories of earlier mis-deeds circulated.) Or do many of the horrors that have been described. But, as Alex suggested, it isn't completely useless, it just isn't failsafe to rely upon. We have some helpful identifiers for books, but perhaps not completely reliable as a global identifier. How's that? Given the amount of time and energy that has been devoted to the sub-set of subjects that are books, does that give a clue as to what more ambitious projects to give all subjects a single unique identifier are going to wind up? Hope you are having a great evening! Patrick On 7/19/2010 6:40 PM, Lars Heuer wrote: > Hi Alex, > > [ISBN] > >> Have you ever searched for a book by its ISBN only to find books >> completely unrelated? Yeah, same ISBNs can be different books in >> > No, I don't I thought the ISBN is a GUUID? It isn't? > > >> But of course we can use both of these to *help* us create an identity >> for a book. However, book identity is complex when you dig into >> > Well, my question was "Do we have something like a GUUID in MARC?" > Your answer and the answer of Maria seem to deny it. > > I wonder how someone in the US could exchange information about the > book "XY" with DE? This seems to be impossible according to your > respond and to the respond of Maria. > > That's a "bit" strange... > > So, the conclusion is: We don't have any global identifier? Each > library does its own thing? > > I can't believe that.... > > Best regards, > Lars > -- 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 Twitter: patrickDurusau