[DCRM-L] ESTC and the revision of SCF

[Noble, Richard]

In an ideal world, the 510 field would function as in ISTC, with its
choice of expanded or condensed references to accommodate those in the
know and those not--and those who need a reminder. SCF would be the
underlying public and technical reference database, not just another
proprietary professional grimoire.

The market we address necessarily includes (as Donald Farren rather ...
sternly reminded us) users who may have reason to consult resources
outside fields in which they are expert at the acronymic level. In most
cases it is possible to provide an author keyword or two and enough of
the title (without abbreviations and over-concern about length) to
indicate the nature of the reference and to serve as the basis for a
reasonably precise catalog/database search. "Adams" and "Evans" and
"Sabin" really must give way to something a bit more self-explanatory
and less likely to produce about 112,000,000 Google hits (result from
search on "evans"). These traditional citations may unite the
cognoscenti who receive the posher sale catalogs, but they separate us
even from our colleagues the next desk over.

In such cases as ESTC or ISTC, surely we can extend this principle to
formulate the reference as, e.g. "English short title catalogue (ESTC)"
or "Incunabula short-title catalogue (ISTC)", both of which phrases I
just cut, pasted, and lower-cased from those websites. (And since it's
possible in some such cases, we might encourage the use of the 856 field
or other linking device(s) to take users to the database, or even the
particular entry.)

There will be work involved in revising catalog records, though I
suspect that many (most?) institutions that make use of such references
can globally update phrases in specific fields (MARC hath yet its uses).
I do believe that it would be worth the effort, if only to preserve a
little longer our ability to provide this information at all, in the
face of those who urge us to "get over ourselves" and, I guess, throw
over our more educated users.

RICHARD NOBLE : RARE BOOKS CATALOGER : JOHN HAY LIBRARY : BROWN
UNIVERSITY
PROVIDENCE, RI 02912 : 401-863-1187/FAX 863-2093 :
RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU