Karen Coyle writes:
> > - it is impossible to map MODS to a RDBMS without any loss
> It's not a question of loss, it's a question of appropriateness and
> efficiency. RDBMS' are designed for data with a great deal of repetition
> in data elements and a lot of one-to-many relationships between data
> elements. Bib records have little repetition and there's little
> efficiency that can be gained in the few one-to-many situations that
> exist.In essence, there isn't enough restriction and regularity in the
> data to take advantage of an RDBMS architecture.
> >
This again holds true only if you look at bibliographic data in
general. Specific fields like e.g. life sciences do have this type of
regularity and quite some repetition in a particular field of
interest. In other words, if you're collecting references as an
end-user, the RDBMS seems just fine. If your job is to collect *every*
dataset out there, then probably not.
regards,
Markus
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Markus Hoenicka
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