Re: Subjects, sets and identifications was: Slightly OT: MARC

Annette,

On 7/20/2010 7:52 AM, Anette Seiler wrote:
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> Hi,
>
> I'm following the discussions regarding MARC on this list with great
> interest. Just a short question, that we at the hbz (MPOW) have to deal
> with regarding identifiers:
>
> Patrick Durusau wrote:
>    
>> The United States Library of Congress has its own internal identifier
>> for books in its collection.
>>      
> Is the identifier identifying the BOOK (FRBR: manifestation (?)) or is
> it identifying the CATALOG RECORD describing the book?
>
>    
Great question!

Answer: I don't know. (sorry)

Example: http://lccn.loc.gov/88026740

If you follow that link, it will display part of a record for "Doing 
what comes naturally: change, rhetoric and the practice of theory..." by 
Stanley Fish.

The record reports:

"LC Control No: 88026740" which you will notice is the same as the 
number following the last "/" in the link.

(You can also view that record as MARCXML, MODS and Dublin Core.)

For the moment, follow "this item in the LC Online Catalog" at the top 
of the page. (For Alex Johannesen's benefit they have helpfully included 
MARC Tags (last item on the right). ;-) )

> We found it important to distinguish between the two. For example, both
> book and catalog record have one or more creators and they are most
> probably never the same.
>
>    
Interesting.

I can easily see how a library catalog record itself could be a subject 
and one that you might want to say things about. Such as who added 
information to it and what information they added.

Question: But what if the distinction between an identifier for a book 
and the identifier for the catalog record is not one that interests me? 
Say I am cataloging my local collection which happens to have a copy of 
this book and I either am unaware of or choose to ignore the distinction 
that is important to you.

I suppose the question is whether we think of ourselves as in the role 
of an omniscient narrator (to cite Wikipedia that came up earlier, 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_mode) that is beyond the fray and 
can "objectively" identify a subject.

I suspect it would be more accurate to say that we use identifiers as 
non-omniscient players and therefore any identifier, has such force and 
meaning as we choose to assign it. And we may choose to assign the same 
identifiers different force and meaning depending upon our needs and the 
communities we inhabit.

BTW, I view diversity, cultural, literary, linguistic, etc. as a good 
thing. As Alex has pointed out, our diversity comes with a certain cost, 
but it is (in my view) part and parcel of who we are. Rather than 
rejecting diversity, I think we should embrace it and create systems 
that fit us and not try to sanitize us to fit a uniform system.

Hope you are having a great day!

Patrick

PS: I would love to hear more about cases where you distinguished 
between BOOK and CATALOG RECORD. Easy enough to see but curious what 
need prompted it?


> Kind regards
>
> Anette
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-- 
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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