>
>At the simplest level, MODS should contain the filing version of a field
>and, if its different, a display version. I shouldn't have to figure out
>what's a first name, a last name or whatever in order to display the record.
>I may not understand anything about the cultural norms for the group who
>created a MODS record and it shouldn't matter.
The problem with display forms, and I'm in the midst of struggling with
this in my own system, is that we don't all agree on how headings should be
displayed. The classic example (at least the one I can remember most
easily) is Mao Tse-Tung.
Using the example that Geoff gave:
<creator>
<name>
<first>Geoff</first>
<last>Mottram</last>
<displayForm>Mottram, Geoff</displayForm>
</name>
</creator>
Mao's entry would be:
<creator>
<name>
<first>Tse-Tung</first>
<last>Mao</last>
<displayForm>Mao, Tse-Tung</displayForm>
</name>
</creator>
In fact, in a catalog in an Asian library, the display form would most
likely be:
<displayForm>Mao Tse-Tung</displayForm>
Although either form isn't too bad. But what if you were giving the display
form in the order in which it would appear on a book? You have:
<displayForm>Mao Tse-Tung</displayForm>
For Mao, but for Geoff you'd want to do
<displayForm>Geoff Mottram</displayForm>
In other words, the display form may be contextual, and it may vary based
on different sets of rules. So we'd either need multiple display forms (for
different situations) or we need to codify the name (and I prefer calling
the parts "family name" and "given name", but there isn't really a truly
universal way of naming the parts of names as far as I know) and let the
system that is doing the display make decisions based on its own preferences.
Filing forms get even more ornate and I can't begin to remember the
examples from cataloging, but the whole question of what you do with the
various "von, de, de la" etc., not to mention the parts of Arabic names,
and then there's some exception for Hungarians... well, I guess the
question is whether we think MODS should stick with AACR or if it has a
broader purpose, and if it does then we've got the same dilemma as Dublin
Core which is again that there are no universal rules for filing. So it's
probably best to avoid making any declarations about filing and just try to
codify the data for better interpretation by receiving systems.
kc
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Karen Coyle [log in to unmask]
http://www.kcoyle.net
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