I agree with all the others who've said that embedded punctuation as a way
to delimit fields is inherently evil.
That doesn't mean that it can't be re-inserted when rendering for display
if it really makes people more comfortable and allows for more constructive
feedback on the substance of the BIBFRAME specs. Might be something to
consider for the prototypes...
Tom
On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 4:59 AM, Ed Summers <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I agree with Nate and Ralph here. In my experience punctuation that is
> used as markup, and which is not being transcribed, typically gets in
> the way of working with bibliographic data.
>
> I can't count the number of times I've had to strip out punctuation
> for indexing, or modeling, and then selectively put it back in for
> particular displays. It would be much easier if the necessary
> structure is present in the data, and punctuation were added as part
> of particular displays. I would really prefer us not to carry over
> this particular part of our MARC/AACR2 legacy.
>
> Also, it may be that machines will make mistakes adding punctuation
> for display: they do just what we tell them to do. But does relying on
> people to markup bibliographic data with punctuation correctly really
> safe guard us against these errors---I think it actually diversifies
> them.
>
> //Ed
>
> On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 4:53 PM, LeVan,Ralph <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > I have exactly the opposite reaction. Punctuation is either a leftover
> > from producing cards from MARC records and is irrelevant now, or
> > indicates that multiple values have been composed into a single string
> > and the punctuation delimits those values. Either way, I want that
> > punctuation gone.
> >
> > Ralph
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bibliographic Framework Transition Initiative Forum
> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of J. McRee Elrod
> > Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 4:12 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [BIBFRAME] Punctuation
> >
> > Nate said:
> >
> >
> >>We're leaning toward not having punctuation in the data ...
> >
> > Too bad. I find ISBD punctuation very helpful when dealing with records
> > in scripts or languages I do not read. Also, having "/" makes the data
> > clearer in the absence of "by", "par", etc.
> >
> > I suspect ILSs would make mistakes inserting punctuation for display.
> >
> > I hope you rethink this.
> >
> >
> > __ __ J. McRee (Mac) Elrod ([log in to unmask])
> > {__ | / Special Libraries Cataloguing HTTP://www.slc.bc.ca/
> > ___} |__ \__________________________________________________________
>
