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maybe bibliophiles shouldn't catalog
Nov. 10th, 2009 04:28 pmOMG, self.
I have this class project which involves importing/creating a whole junkload of MARC 21 records into a Class Site version of Koha, with a minimum of ten different materials formats, and the option of creating some new formats, if the class site doesn't have something we want. My partners and I decided to create ebooks and ebook readers, which is kind of a challenge, because although you can adequately describe those things in a MARC framework, there's not a predefined format for them, and, well, there are a LOT of MARC fields to choose from, and I have to manually go through the default framework and eliminate fields one by one. And I don't really know what fields I do want; I've never catalogued or copy-cataloged either one, and I don't know how libraries typically handle them--inconsistently, weirdly, and sometimes just badly is my impression; the readers in particular are just so new.
Anyway, after a couple of weeks of avoiding the issue, I finally started poking around at the libraries I use to see who has 'em, and how they're making them available in the catalog, what the records look like, if they have them at all. No luck yet on the readers--as I said, they're just too new--but the Boston Public Library offers some ebook services from some external vendors with DRM-locked stuff, which I can access with an electronic card.
After some fussing, I finally got the PC electronic reader installed, checked out and downloaded a few books...and then, being me, got totally sucked into reading them instead of examining them or the software needed to read them.
Records imported into our Koha class site: 0.
MARC frameworks defined for ebooks and ebook readers: 0.
MARC records for ebooks examined: 0.
Ebooks read: Three manga and a Harlequin romance since yesterday (surprisingly, the romance novel was the best of the lot).
Fail, self.
~edit~ Frickity frack.
This whole "make up ebook catalog records" thing is very hard, because all the ebooks I see in libraries right now are from third-party vendors, and even when they DO catalog their third-party electronic resources, it's weird and inconsistent. I found an electronic version of Pride and Prejudice with the title as the main entry (that is, the main point of collocation, how the book would have been arranged in a physical card catalog that had much more limited points of access than an online catalog), and Jane Austen as an added entry--in cataloging terms, that is a statement that in this format or version of P&P, Austen's contribution is not considered significant enough to list her as the author of this text, although her name is still significant enough to warrant listing. Even taking into account the metadata best practices approach of cataloging the resource you have in hand--that is, cataloging a digital image of the Mona Lisa as a digital copy, not the actual painting, meaning that Da Vinci is not the creator of the digital version, although he remains an intellectual contributor to it--I am confused about this treatment, particularly as I also found a Sherlock Holmes book offered by the same third party vendor, in the same library's catalog, with Doyle listed properly as the author. And even though both books are in the public domain, they're still locked up in DRM, and I see no evidence of any library offering ebooks that they own in the traditional sense that they own physical books; it's all third party services, and of course, my group's fake library doesn't have any contracts with third-party e-resource providers. Maybe we should make one up?
Anyway, I am EXTREMELY troubled by the apparent library non-ownership of ebooks. Is this going to be the future of ebooks in libraries--just like other e-resources, it's all rented, DRM-locked stuff? Even the material that isn't under copyright? That's bad. It's really, really bad.
I have this class project which involves importing/creating a whole junkload of MARC 21 records into a Class Site version of Koha, with a minimum of ten different materials formats, and the option of creating some new formats, if the class site doesn't have something we want. My partners and I decided to create ebooks and ebook readers, which is kind of a challenge, because although you can adequately describe those things in a MARC framework, there's not a predefined format for them, and, well, there are a LOT of MARC fields to choose from, and I have to manually go through the default framework and eliminate fields one by one. And I don't really know what fields I do want; I've never catalogued or copy-cataloged either one, and I don't know how libraries typically handle them--inconsistently, weirdly, and sometimes just badly is my impression; the readers in particular are just so new.
Anyway, after a couple of weeks of avoiding the issue, I finally started poking around at the libraries I use to see who has 'em, and how they're making them available in the catalog, what the records look like, if they have them at all. No luck yet on the readers--as I said, they're just too new--but the Boston Public Library offers some ebook services from some external vendors with DRM-locked stuff, which I can access with an electronic card.
After some fussing, I finally got the PC electronic reader installed, checked out and downloaded a few books...and then, being me, got totally sucked into reading them instead of examining them or the software needed to read them.
Records imported into our Koha class site: 0.
MARC frameworks defined for ebooks and ebook readers: 0.
MARC records for ebooks examined: 0.
Ebooks read: Three manga and a Harlequin romance since yesterday (surprisingly, the romance novel was the best of the lot).
Fail, self.
~edit~ Frickity frack.
This whole "make up ebook catalog records" thing is very hard, because all the ebooks I see in libraries right now are from third-party vendors, and even when they DO catalog their third-party electronic resources, it's weird and inconsistent. I found an electronic version of Pride and Prejudice with the title as the main entry (that is, the main point of collocation, how the book would have been arranged in a physical card catalog that had much more limited points of access than an online catalog), and Jane Austen as an added entry--in cataloging terms, that is a statement that in this format or version of P&P, Austen's contribution is not considered significant enough to list her as the author of this text, although her name is still significant enough to warrant listing. Even taking into account the metadata best practices approach of cataloging the resource you have in hand--that is, cataloging a digital image of the Mona Lisa as a digital copy, not the actual painting, meaning that Da Vinci is not the creator of the digital version, although he remains an intellectual contributor to it--I am confused about this treatment, particularly as I also found a Sherlock Holmes book offered by the same third party vendor, in the same library's catalog, with Doyle listed properly as the author. And even though both books are in the public domain, they're still locked up in DRM, and I see no evidence of any library offering ebooks that they own in the traditional sense that they own physical books; it's all third party services, and of course, my group's fake library doesn't have any contracts with third-party e-resource providers. Maybe we should make one up?
Anyway, I am EXTREMELY troubled by the apparent library non-ownership of ebooks. Is this going to be the future of ebooks in libraries--just like other e-resources, it's all rented, DRM-locked stuff? Even the material that isn't under copyright? That's bad. It's really, really bad.