I think Tom has an interesting idea here: 

"So what *is* the best data entry screen today in the library world?
Can people provide screenshots of their favorites?

What do I think the bibliographic data entry of the future looks like?
 It's a camera that I wave the book in front of showing the front &
back covers, the spine, then flip through the title page, copyright
statement, and table of contents after which the computer "magically"
figures out what's what and shows it to me for verification.  If
available, this is integrated with or overlaid on top of book data
received online from the publisher/distributor.  (Yes, I know this is
all just waaay to complicated for a computer *ever* to figure out)

That's not that far in the future, but in the mean time a modern input
screen like we're used to seeing in all other web applications would
be a good stepping stone.

Tom"

But I think it doesn't even have to be that complicated. In most instances, if we had a system where scanning a barcode would pull in existing bibliographic data from a variety of sources, which we could then select from, add to, or edit for our own purposes, we'd be well served.

Of course that wouldn't work for everything that needs to be cataloged, but it wouldn't be a bad start. 

Laura


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Laura Krier
Metadata Librarian
California Digital Library

510-987-0832