On 4/13/2015 3:19 PM, Kathleen Lamantia wrote:
> BIBFRAME needs to be rigorously tested and studied to see if it delivers
> on its promise.

I agree that testing needs to be done, but still, I think that creating
a SPARQL endpoint(s) to provide developers who want to use library
catalog data in BIBFRAME, can have only positive benefits.

Of course, there are pitfalls. There are no guarantees that developers
will want to use our data; they have gotten along without our data for a
long time and may see no need for it. Or it may turn out that the
developers will not be able to create anything that their own public(s)
will find useful. I've mentioned some others in earlier posts.

The answers to such practical questions are completely unknown and no
research has been done to find out, at least to my knowledge. Still, I
will grant that the only way to know if developers will want to use our
information for their own purposes is to provide it to them in a format
they can use. Setting up a SPARQL endpoint is not all that
expensive--much less expensive than switching to RDA for instance or
retooling our catalogs for FRBR-type structures. So I am all for
BIBFRAME. I just think it should have been step 1 or 2 of the changes in
cataloging and catalogs instead of one of the last, but that is "water
under the bridge".

As far as the "innards" of library catalogs changing substantially, and
changing into directions of BIBFRAME, I see no reason why that has to
happen--at least, not for a long time. Records can be created and
maintained in our current catalogs just as they are today--maybe some
minor changes will be needed occasionally--and then exported to whatever
SPARQL endpoints the library chooses.

If the idea is to create more FRBR-like structures so that the author
entity will be linked to the work entity, the work entity to the
expression entity ... (it all reminds me of that old song "Dry Bones"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYeQUXXYvK0), then in that case, there
probably would be major expenses.

James Weinheimer [log in to unmask]
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