[Dspace-general] Broad concept question

[MacKenzie Smith]

Hi Glen,

Here's my take on your question:

Since DSpace is an archive/repository rather than a full-blown cataloging
system, this is a little bit hard to answer. DSpace happens to have its own
metadata store and a UI that lets you search, browse, navigate and display
that metadata, but only as a convenience... you could just as easily 
replicate
all the DSpace item metadata in your OPAC and let users find it and link to
the DSpace item from there. MIT is strongly considering doing just that,
or else aggregating all the metadata into some other system so that users
don't have to search for it in separate silos.

It's sounds like the issue you want to resolve is partly "MARC vs qualified
DC" which is a very different question, of course. It's easy enough to map
from one to the other, so the issues are how much labor to put into the
metadata creation, and what functionality you require from the UI.

With add-ons like Manakin and DWell, the DSpace UI can look just as
pretty as you want it to, and support most (but not all) of an OPAC's
functionality. Will DSpace replace OPACs? Very unlikely...
Will something else replace local OPACs soon? That's a good bet.
Should qDC replace MARC? Interesting question... point your catalogers
at the Calhoun report (www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf)
to get that conversation going...

MacKenzie
> If you will bear with me, I have a question only peripherally about Dspace
> but one I think this community can really help me with.
>
> I work in a general liberal arts university library so you know the
> environment from which this question arises. Obviously in such an
> environment the integrated online information system (online catalog) has
> been the pre-eminent information access and management system in use. While
> I don't know "real" numbers I suspect a significant, if not majority, of
> similar libraries hold the same perspective of the online catalog being, if
> not the be-all end-all information access system then at least being the
> focal point for everything the library provides.
>
> My question, then, is this. How does one answer the question of why
> something like Dspace (or any other repository or information management
> software) be used instead of just dumping everything into the online
> catalog? Catalogers, of course, argue they can put anything into MARC with
> a little effort and online catalog vendors are more than willing to sell
> all kinds of add-on modules for big bucks that supposed do everything.
>
> Thanks in advance for any ideas. I've been fighting this battle for years
> and have run out of ideas of my own.
>   

-- 
MacKenzie Smith
MIT Libraries