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On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 2:17 PM, Wilfred Drew <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I did not mean to sound snarky in my earlier message but I do not > understand why no one is talking about standards and why we have them. > This includes standard ways to present and transmit data between systems. > That is oen of the big reasons for using MARC. > I think at least partially because the standard (MARC21 with AACR2) is incredibly arcane with an enormous learning curve. It's hard, it doesn't make sense in lots and lots of ways, and for many applications the initial cost is just plain too steep, no matter what the eventual benefits. MARC/AACR2 is the standard I spend most of my time with, but that doesn't mean I find it easy to defend. Personally, I don't find it hard to imagine bibliographic applications where MARC cataloging is way over the top. If you only have a few thousand volumes, even something as simplistic as an RIS record for each item that includes a shelf-number will get you an awfully long way. Whether or not it gets your far enough is a different (and more difficult) question that can only be answered by the people on the ground, who know what they have and can guess at what's coming.