Creating the Catalog, Before and After FRBR

Creating the Catalog, Before and After FRBR by Karen Coyle........


There is a great deal of talk today about the future of the library catalog. There is also ongoing work on developing a "next generation" library bibliographic data format, possibly based on the model presented by the IFLA study group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records.  There is a tendency, however, to treat the current state of data and catalogs as a starting point. The historical context is, however, much richer.

The history that we need to confront is long and complex. In terms of technology, you can date library catalogs back to the times of clay tablets and to tags affixed to the ends of scrolls in Greek and Roman times. Technological progress led to the use of book catalogs, paper slips, and eventually cards. In modern times the catalog technology moved from physical cards to a virtual catalog on computer and managed by a database system. In progress today is a transition from closed database systems to the use of the Web of data and the World Wide Web Consortium’s Resource Description Framework (RDF) .   We also need to consider how information itself has changed over time, from the first written symbols to virtual reality. And finally there is the lengthy history of libraries and their functions over the milennia of reccorded history.

http://kcoyle.net/mexico.html

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