Quoting Kelley McGrath <[log in to unmask]>:


>
> Three optional machine-comprehensible provenance elements attached
> to every data element:
> 1) source of the data
> 2) the institution entering the data
> 3) date the data was input
>
> Perhaps something like the following for title proper:
> TitleProper: Citizen Kane
> DataSource: title frame
> DataInst: OrU
> DataDate: 2012-01-04

One possible answer is that we eliminate generalities like "title
proper" that don't actually tell us much about title itself. "Title
proper" is like "main entry" -- it tells you the role the title is
playing in the record, not what the title actually is. We could have:

- title page title
- cover title
- title from jewel case insert

etc., if that information is important to capture, rather than calling
one of them the "title proper" and essentially losing key information
about the source of the title. In a situation where you want to
display just one title you would have an algorithm in your display
code that selects the one to display from a list: first title page,
then cover, then supplied....

If you look at AACR/2 it's easy to see that the cataloger is selecting
data elements to fit into certain display roles, and in that process
losing the meaning of the data elements themselves. This is one of the
difficulties in then transforming the current data into something that
is based on the meaning of the data rather than its position in the
record. Essentially the rule would be:

"say what it is, not where you want it to display"

And of course, notes about data elements are virtually useless in a
data environment. The data elements themselves need to carry that
information.

As for the dates or versions on a data element, and the entity that
created the data, that is being considered by the W3C provenance
working group.

http://www.w3.org/2011/prov/wiki/Main_Page

It might be interesting to offer some use cases from library
cataloging as test cases for their work.

kc



--
Karen Coyle
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