Re: [ARSCLIST] More on cataloging

[Karl Miller <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005, Steven C. Barr wrote:

> Also, note that a VERY simplified database, created in a fixed-length-
> text format, can be downloaded from the 78Label subsection of the 78Online
> web site. This was assembled by Steven Abrams, and is known as "The C8T
> files."

Thanks for this information, something I did not know about.

> Finally, any mention of digital cataloguing brings up the history
> of the Rigler-Deutsch Index, or RDI...which fell afoul of the
> problems created by using help not knowledgeable or experienced
> in the field of discography!

I have a vague recollection of encountering a composer named Lucia di
Lammermoor...however, I do believe that the RDI was a well considered and
viable solution to an overwhelming task. It still works for me, as it
provides a gateway, admittedly flawed at times, to the basic information
which then leads me to the object.

As I read the literature devoted to the notions of "metadata" (a term
which for me, still evokes the notion of linearity) in the world of
libraries. Most writers on cataloging and metadata seem to view the
challenge internally, and not systemically...they seem to think in
terms that the creation of the documentation and the creation of
information to be separate functions.

While that does not address the huge backlog of what was created before
information was created digitally, it would seem that if we could address
that information created digitally in a systemic manner, we could have more
time to devote to the documentation of that backlog.

Karl