Why does this seem like we're reinventing the wheel? We know there was a
good reason for defining a MARC subelement for subtitle
information. The same reasoning was applied when developing the
ISBDs. It's not surprising that this argument is coming up again in a
MODS context, but it's making me wonder why we bothered with MODS if
people are going to enhance it to the point where it is as rich (and
complex) as MARC. It's a somewhat backhanded compliment to MARC
really. Maybe MARC's richness isn't such a bad thing, eh?
Randy Barry
On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, Karen Coyle wrote:
> At 10:56 AM 12/2/2002 -0500, Rebecca S. Guenther wrote:
>
>
> >Do others see a rationale for separately identifying subtitle (other than
> >the fact that MARC does)?
>
> The main reason that I can see if that there are times when we are taking a
> title and looking for the same title in another database that we try the
> whole title first, then eliminate the subtitle and try again if we didn't
> get a hit. There is great variation in what people consider a subtitle, and
> sometimes they get left off altogether in databases that aren't based on
> library cataloging. Knowing where to make that cut can be helpful, just
> like knowing where to make the cut between the title and the statement of
> responsibility. "Subtitle" ends up meaning "that bit of text near the title
> that some people may consider to be too unimportant to bother to record."
>
> ----------------------------------------------
> Karen Coyle [log in to unmask]
> http://www.kcoyle.net
>
> ----------------------------------------------
>
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Randall K. Barry
Library of Congress
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