On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 2:03 PM, Eric Lease Morgan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>  "MARC must die. Long live MARC."
>

Speaking as a "non-library computer type," let me say "MARC must die. MARC
must die."

MARC21 bib data is a mess of "hopefully-unique" strings, inlined
punctuation, and arcane rules that do a good job describing data in a way
that will make any programmer weep into her cheep vodka.  MARC the data
format is a straightjacket that restricts not only the data we can put in it
but the ability to people schooled in its use to think about the data in any
other way. Both must go.


-- 
Bill Dueber
Library Systems Programmer
University of Michigan Library