Re: [ARSCLIST] National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) Study

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jon Noring" <jon@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Working with XML for open standard ebook formats (both for content and
> metadata), I agree that XML offers a lot of interesting advantages to
> structure metadata, which most audio people usually refer to as
> discographical information.
> 
> For a while I've been advocating that the ARSC fraternity, working
> with other entities, develop an *open standard* XML schema for
> discographical information. The advantage of this is that discographical
> data in such a format is platform- and application-independent, useful
> as an interchange format, and there's a huge toolbase, a lot of it
> open source, to author and process XML data documents. In addition, since
> XML is simply text with markup (the "pointy brackets"), the XML data is
> readable with a simple text editor (preferably a UTF-8/UTF-16 compliant
> text editor). This makes XML documents eminently archivable and
> repurposeable. If one is to digitally preserve discographical information
> into the distant future, it is important that the information be in the
> most readable form, which is plain text -- proprietary binary (non-text)
> encodings (especially of complex data structures) *must* be avoided at
> all costs.
> 
What is actually needed, IMHO, is a standardization of the core fields
for both discographic and cataloguing databases in ANY platform...since
the two types of databases have different, albeit overlapping, requirements
to meet. This could also be applied to XML documents, which would be
one specific variant of databases in general. The desired result would
be an interapplicability of ALL collections of data concerning
phonorecords! Note that I refer to "core fields" since each entity
creating databases of either sort will have specific needs and wants
for his/her/its database...for example, I have one field which tells
me whether the disc is stored in the basement, on the ground floor
or on the second.

As well, one thing that might be possible would be for ARSC to work
with expert database programmers to develop an application which
could be distributed to those requiring/desiring it...with the
thought that these standardized databases could be combined into
an attempt at a universal database of 78rpm phonorecords...?!

Steven C. Barr