Re: arsclist Cataloging

[Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 12/13/2002 9:22:40 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
checker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

> Steve,
>  Do you have good old DOS-Shell, which was eliminated after DOS version
>  5? It lets you peek, but not alter, any file on your computer, both as
>  ASCII and the raw hexadecimals. It still works, even in Windows XP. I'll
>  ship it to you, and anyone else who wants it, along with a bunch of other
>  antique utilities and very useful programs

It is remarkable that anyone connected with modern computers and computer 
science would mention using ASCII text files for anything.  The mere thought 
of putting down a string of characters without a kb of formatting information 
must be appalling. The fact that anyone, anytime (even an alien with six 
fingers would still use binary numbers) could interpret it with just the 
ASCII code list.

I have been using plain text ASCII to catalog tens of thousands of items for 
the last twenty years.  The files first created using EDLIN on my PC-1 (I had 
to travel 100 miles to one of the first dealers to get one) are still in use. 
 In fact just today I added about 200 record numbers to one of them using 
WordPad.

Record catalogs have been around for more than 100 years.  They have been 
useful because they used a limited character set. They placed all of the 
information needed about a record on one or two lines of text where it can be 
scanned at a single glance.  Translating this information to lines of ASCII 
text should be a trivial task. Once in this form, anything entered may be 
found with software as rudimentary as the DOS "FIND" command.

I really don't understand what the goal is of the sophisticated library 
database programs.  I have looked at several of the online databases 
mentioned in this thread.  In most cases, if I did find a listing after 
clicking through several pages, I couldn't even find a manufacturer's record 
number in the data.  Most (perhaps rightly) are limited to allowing one to 
extract a single item from a collection for examination, not to provide 
useful details.

At the museum at which I volunteer they are trying to use "Past Perfect" to 
catalog the collection.  The only way I can see to use it for the audio 
archive is to catalog each track of each tape, disc, wire, etc., as a 
separate object, or to list the entire series as a "collection" and reference 
an unsearchable description. Meanwhile I can locate any of the AV. materials 
I've handled just by clicking on the .txt files I have on every computer I 
use and using WordPad's "Find" window. No database license required.

If files of this type were on line; just word-for-word text copies of what is 
in the record label, it would be of great value. Or perhaps character 
recognized (searchable) scans of old record catalogs. So far I haven't found 
anything like that.

Mike Csontos
-
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