> ... 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.
-- That's what I too expect. To those most accustomed to a cataloging client, note the word "web." And, like all (good) contemporary web interfaces, I would expect a new cataloging interface to do as most to help the cataloger as possible: predictive text (dynamic look ups), automatic population of fields wherever possible, data verification, automatic data reformatting (capitalize first letter, perhaps), etc.

The tedious manual entry that currently takes place must take a backseat to the important intellectual contributions of the cataloger.

Yours,
Kevin

--
Kevin Ford
Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Library of Congress
Washington, DC


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bibliographic Framework Transition Initiative Forum
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Morris
> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 1:14 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [BIBFRAME] Next generation bibliographic data entry screens
>
> There have been a number of posts concerned about data entry for
> bibliographic data which are clearly motivated by the historic tight
> coupling between exchange formats and data entry editors, including
> Jeffrey's below. My comments are interspersed:
>
> On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 11:22 AM, Jeffrey Allen Trimble
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > I've been listening in for some time and this posting gave me pause
> > for thought.
> >
> > "but I'm not sure that the US library world is on board."
> >
> > I think that one of the issues I'M attempting to grappling with is
> not
> > the underlaying structure of the data (I.E. MARC21, marcxml, rdf,
> > etc.) it is the going to be the interface that the professionals use
> > to create the data and maintain the data.
> >
> > The historical hangup is going to be the fact that Catalogers have
> > been using input screens that represent the MARC record (more or less
> > raw, without the Directory data) and over the decades the editors
> have
> > become sophisticated enough for the user to gain help to the coding.
> >
> > What will be needed to get catalogers to "buy in" to the shift to a
> > new structure, is an editor which the data can be created,
> manipulated
> > and maintained without know how to use xml coding (or other
> > "<coding>") knowledge.
> >
> > A reminder that MARC was supposed to be "under the hood" and not for
> > the end user-cataloger. No one developed the interface any further
> > and it has become the "defacto" editor.
>
> This is a really bad, but it's not the way user interfaces work in
> other domains and it's no reason to stifle progress in bibliographic
> data systems. Software systems which assume this coupling may require
> a little more work to bring into the modern era, but it CAN be done and
> it's not black magic or particularly difficult.
>
> > This is where you will have major pushback from the Librarians that
> > are in technical services more than anything else. Of course, our
> ILS
> > vendors need to step up to the plate and show us some next-generation
> > models for the creation/maintenance/manipulation with input from the
> > users who create the data.
>
> One good path forward here might be the open source library software
> systems. Someone could prototype the data entry screen of the future
> in a real-live system.
>
> > I believe that this will be the *major* hurdle to overcome. Once I
> > see an input screen that is as efficient and easy to use as the MARC
> > record is, than I don't care how it lies underneath.
>
> 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