Re: [ARSCLIST] Cataloguing again--more OCLC, AACR2 bashing

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

see end for overall reply...scb...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Miller" <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> On Wed, 9 Aug 2006, steven c wrote:
>
> > Well, if you're paying $25/record to catalog your archive...I suddenly
> > see a potential new career for myself, given my knowledge of sound
> > recordings, discography and database technology!
>
> That is just staff time...and it is not for original cataloging, but copy
> cataloging which is less time consuming. All you need to know is how to
> read and write English, operate a computer and be familiar with the
> vernacular of music. The navigation of the MARC format is something that
> you can learn as on the job training. The fact that you know a great deal
> about sound recordings can make your job easier in some respects, however,
> such knowledge can slow down your productivity since you will find, as I
> do, a multitude of errors in the extant records in OCLC.
>
> > I'm currently doing a very limited "pre-catalog" of my half-vast
> > shellac holdings...finished about 19,000 so far and it takes me
> > a minute per disc or less (I'm entering label, number, country,
> > and which milk box (in which of the rooms) it is stored.
>
> The MARC record is so encumbered that it can easily take 30 minutes to
> prepare an original cataloging entry for an LP...and, in the case of
> popular music discs, adding all of the song titles, verifying name and
> subject authorities...and then when you have a non-standard format...you
> may not be able to use a standardized version of the 007 field in the MARC
> record, hence you could easily need to supply (by checking what each of
> the codes represent) a different code for each of as many as 12
> delimitors. Then you have 19 fields in the header, all with abbreviations
> or codes. Does this all sound like gobbledygook?
>
> In the words of Anna Russell, as she described the absurdities in the plot
> of the Ring..."I am not making this up..." Try checking...
>
> http://www.oclc.org/bibformats/default.htm
>
> Then you can read the rules specific to sound recordings in AACR2. Every
> time I consult the rules I am reminded of my pedagogy of theory class with
> the rule king of common practice harmony, the late Robert Ottman...he had
> an answer for just about anything Bach ever did...and even did a fair job
> of explaining Wagner's harmony in terms of Bach's. So, with AACR2 and
> MARC, you can explain a dictaphone recording in a format designed to
prepare cards
> for a card catalog.
>
> Oh, I almost forgot...you will also need to consult the list of subject
> headings. Have you ever wondered what the subject of a Symphony is? Well
> it is "Symphonies." As far as I recall, such subject headings were very
> helpful in the days of the card catalogs...it was really neat as you would
> have in your subject drawers cards, in alpha order, of all of the
> symphonies, filed in some order like, scores first, then recordings of
> those scores, then published arrangements (like a Liszt arrangement of a
> Beethoven Symphony), then a recording of that arrangement. Of course there
> were other problems in organization...like which edition of the score came
> first...etc...but I digress...those problems were for the poor souls (I
> was one of them during my graduate school days) who had to file all of
> those cards.
>
> One of my favorite subject headings is "Popular Music." A keyword search
> on popular music in our local catalog brings up 19,000 entries...and
> people say google and yahoo bring up too many meaningless results. Of
course one
> person's "popular music" is another person's "classic."
>
>  > I have entered about 1,500 records into my full catalog...which
> > gives me an almost complete set of discographic data on each 78,
> > but takes about 10 minutes per side (longer if I have to dig
> > through various discographies). This system could be easily
> > adapted to LP's, since I already use it for multi-track 78's!
>
> I have no doubt that some reasonable system could be adapted to LPs and
> all audio formats, but then one has to deal with the mentality of a
> monopoly, OCLC-RLIN and libraries that are not subject to any bottom line
> with respect to accountability. (points which I have raised in my previous
> post on the subject of cataloging)
>
> > However, if it took me 30 minutes to catalog the average LP, at
> > $25/record I could make $400 per day! I'd be rich! That's two
> > grand per five-day week...or US$104,000.00/year (Cdn$120,000.00)
> > or about eleven times what the province (grudgingly) pays me
> > to be disabled.
> >
> > Where do I sign?
>
> Well, it depends. In many libraries you are not paid that well to do copy
> cataloging, however in our library you can be paid as much as $50,000 a
> year. You will probably be required, but don't need, a library degree.
> What you will need is a mind which will allow you to feel good about
> wasting time, doing duplicate entry of information...for example, you
> may be expected to key in things like location of publication, date of
> publication, song titles, performer's names, label name, number of
> tracks,etc. TWICE. Why? Because, to use the most frequently encountered
> response, "that's the way it is."
>
> So, do you still want to sign up?
>
> By the way, the push these days is outsourcing cataloging...yet those
> folks aren't being paid as much and are still subject to the encumbered
systems most
> of us are forced to use.
>
> And on the subject of outsourcing and libraries...the implications of
> increase in the number of libraries  outsourcing cataloging serves, at
least in my
> mind, as a wonderful illustration of the poor management of internal
library
> operations. Oddly, many library administrators will state that outsourcing
> cataloging is a prudent economic decision...ignoring the fact that had
> they been efficient in their internal operation, they might not need to
> outsource. So why would they be forced to save money when they aren't
> subject to accountability...well these days, library budgets are being
> diverted to many "worthwhile" projects like doing lousy scanning of
> published books and other other activities which will heighten the
> "visibility" of the library, even it doesn't heighten the visability of
> the text.
>
> In short, maybe Google or Yahoo would be interested in your services
system.
>
> Stay tuned for the next installment...getting your punctuation
> right...outrageous isn't it, needing punctuation within a field...a
> preview...where else in the English language, other than the MARC format
> do you precede a colon with a space...answer...I don't know...
>
> Karl (still trying to figure it out)
>
Actually, punctuation is very often used in databases...especially
text-based databases...and, as well, in virtually all programming
languages! And the rules there are CONSIDERABLY more arbitrary and
complicated than punctuating English prose at its worst. When I
write a C or C++ program, leaving out a semicolon, or putting an
extra one in the wrong place, whill result in a string of warnings
and error messages...most, or quite often ALL, of them won't refer
directly to the erroneous puntuation itself!

As far as MARC, I've read all the ARSCLIST discussions/debates/
arguments on that subject...and, in fact, have a couple of sample
MARC files I was sent once when I asked how it worked. The question
of "what fields do we need" is, of course, one of the most important
parts of database design...the trouble with MARC is that the answer
seems to have been "All of 'em, in case any one user wants any one
field to be available!" MARC tries to simplify this by making most
(or all?) fields optional...but any documentation would refer to
every possible field, even if it is only used by one lone library
out in Gravity Falls, E. Dak.! What little I know about MARC
suggests that it would be well suited to an XML approach (I hope
you know what I'm talking about here).

As well (at least to me)...one of the main problems in asking
librarians or folks with degrees in Library Science to catalog
archives/collections of sound recordings is this! They are
extensively trained in the cataloguing of printed documents
(mostly books)...so, as a result, everything they need to
organize or catalog becomes, in their eyes and mind, some
kind of a book! Given that libraries have had and used card
catalogs at least since typewriters were invented (if not
before), and are thoroughly familiar with only the Dewey
Decimal System and the LOC system (both of which offer
considerable room for error and are glacial in adapting
to the rapid evolution of technology, especially when
that technology becomes a subject itself!)...they
develop elaborate systems for creating functional
duplications of catalog cards (digital, tape, punched
tape/cards, wotever...) for BOOKS! I can imagine (but
I'd rather not) the confusion were they given the task
of inventorying a hardware store...!

So...were I not nine days older than dirt and twice as
polluted (63.8 in Earth years), I'd sit down and try to
create a program in Visual Basic 6 (which I have) which
would allow questions to be answered in text boxes and
then output the data in a MARC-compatible text file.
Once I did that, I could load that program onto my
steam-driven computing machine and go library-to-
library rather than door-to-door...perhaps crying
"Any rags? Any bottles (full preferred!)? Anything
need to be catalogued?..."

Steven C. Barr
(who has a 1977 Sears Spring & Summer catalog, if that helps...)