[DCRM-L] ESTC and the revision of SCF

[dfarren]

I trust that no one was offended by the out-spokenness ("rather ... sternly
reminded," as Richard Noble put it) of my message. Those "knowledgeable" of
me:

 

.         know that I used to earn my living as a cataloguer, and

.         tolerate my sense of humor.

 

I'm always favorably impressed and inspired by the SERIOUSNESS and
CREATIVITY of this group in finding solutions.

 

 

Donald Farren

4009 Bradley Lane

Chevy Chase, MD 20815-5238

dfarren at concentric.net

voice 301.951.9479

fax 301.951.3898

mobile 301.768.8972

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On
Behalf Of Noble, Richard
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 10:10 AM
To: rbrandt at library.berkeley.edu; DCRM Revision Group List
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] ESTC and the revision of SCF

 

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 

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