Re: [ARSCLIST] Cataloging Sound Recordings

[Karl Miller <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005, Thom Pease wrote:

> A noble thought.  In the meantime, we have decades of
> unique recordings in the OCLC database, which are
> linked to LC authority data.  This is useful
> information for discovery, once you figure out how to
> use it.

Which is, for me, one of the major problems.

Researchers of musical scores have many of
> the same problems, esp. with manuscripts and early
> editions.  How have they gotten around it?  With RISM,
> thematic catalogs, and other indexes that supplement
> their library catalogs and First Search.

As with other finding aids. But my question is, why have they seen a need
to circumvent the fundamental of the single system. I believe it has to do
with several factors, limitations of the system, the complexity of data
entry as an end unto itself and the funding limitations which have
libraries devoting much of their energies to those items which are likely
to be frequently requested.

> Libraries that own sound materials could not afford to
> re-catalog all these materials, and it is for
> libraries (and their patrons) that the OCLC
> Bibliographic File is often valuable (WorldCat/First
> Search for patrons).

I agree, but that is only because the information is not valued enough.

> Often times, it isn't MARC or AACR2 or even OCLC
> that's failing us...but rather the integrated library
> systems that we're using in our local institutions.
> Not naming systems here, but there's one that just
> won't index uniform titles with main entries
> correctly--it just drives librarians crazy.

And can you imagine the frustration it provides patrons!

  The good
> news is that there are many systems out there, so you
> just have to pick a good one.

Yes, but that is not an ultimate solution. Of course, one question is, is
there an ultimate solution...a question which we ask every day in
preservation.

> What you're proposing is something similar to what
> Wikipedia is about.  That might be useful too, but how
> could experienced people trust all of the information
> in there.  Ever is it the conundrum between providing
> access and our desire to have authorized control over
> names--to have the right name, the right title, etc.

For me, that is also a fundamental concern. However, as I like to say,
when you consider the increase in information, one has to question the
basic notion of bibliographic control. The production of information has
already exceeded our ability and/or resources to control it. Why not
concentrate on the development of technology to navigate
information...which is one of the basic notions of most search engines. I
believe that our current notions of control have already "lost control" as
they are predicated on the basic notion of the linearity of the
printed page.

> I think improving/influencing LC cataloging
> policy--maybe even a redesign of the sound recordings
> work format--would be a better use of resources than
> trying to build the next database.  The problem is the
> material that we've already put in the catalog for
> decades.

Yes, there is sense to that, but then, I remember when libraries were
making the conversion from Dewey to LC.

 For that reason and others, I'd like to
> paraphrase a thought from Rob Ray and Chuck Haddix's
> March 2005 ARSC pre-conference workshop that shared
> catalogs are better than individual databases.

Yes, but I would respond that the development of good naviation tools are
closer to the solution than reinforcing the notion of control. Control is
not only a psychological issue for people, but a systemic issue for
institutions and professions. Under the current notion of bibliographic
control, it seems to me that the only hope for libraries is the reduction
of acquisitions and the rechanneling of monies to bibliographic control.

You can't expect a grant to do cover the basics of operations. What do you
do when the grant money is gone...you apply for another...and then you
hire staff looking for grant money and divert more of your resources to
raising money, branding, publicity, and all of it going to help you look
for the cheese (bibliographic control and the money to support it) in the
same places...and it has been moved.

Just my thoughts.

Karl