Accessing information on the Internet: Feasibility study of USMARC format and AACR2

Accessing information on the Internet: Feasibility study of USMARC format and AACR2

When we joined the OCLC Intercat Project, our first concern was the feasibility of using MARC formats and AACR2 for describing and accessing Internet resources of various types. Are there any other information discovery and retrieval standards or techniques that can adequately replace our traditional cataloging tools?

This field report searches for answers via titles that we contributed to the Project, by mapping the data elements and the data structure designed for describing Internet resources among metadata standards such as the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, the TEI Header, the Uniform Resource Characteristic (URC), and the USMARC format. This report compares the relative flexibility, compatibility, comprehensiveness, reliability, and sophistication of data structure for each of these standards.

The report also evaluates primary search tools currently available on the Internet, such as robot-based search engines, general purpose catalogs, and locally created "classification" schemes (e.g., library Web pages) that arrange resources alphabetically, chronologically, geographically, by subject, or in various combinations thereof. While these engines and catalogs are powerful tools for retrieving massive amounts of data, their search results are usually indiscriminate, so that the user must spend a great deal of time identifying worthwhile and reliable information. The typical library Web page, on the other hand, presents evaluated materials, but usually offers limited access points, and segregates Internet resources from the library's catalog.

Internet resources organized by MARC formats and AACR2 offer important benefits: (1) they have been filtered by library subject selectors to suit the needs of a given user community; (2) they have been controlled formally and concisely via bibliographic description, authority control, and subject analysis; (3) the automated library systems in which they reside have been developed to handle sophisticated searches of very large data quantities. But most important, Internet resources can be integrated with the millions of bibliographic entities already indexed with MARC formats.

This experience helps us to understand the pros and cons of Internet information access standards and technology, with emphasis on the value of USMARC format and AACR2. It also helps us to identify the limitations of, and potential ways to improve, USMARC format and AACR2.

Xu, Amanda

1996

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Proceedings of the OCLC Internet Cataloging Colloquium.

http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/aw/oclc/man/colloq/xu.htm

Xu, A. (1996). Accessing information on the Internet: Feasibility study of USMARC format and AACR2. In Proceedings of the OCLC Internet Cataloging Colloquium.