Gossamer Forum
Home : Products : Links 2.0 : Discussions :

Suggested Links add on

Quote Reply
Suggested Links add on
It's beyond my capabilities, but I'd love to see an add-on to Links that would convert the raw Links data file to MARC format. Once in MARC format, Links databases could be dumped into local library automated catalogs or served via the Z39.50 protocol to web-based library catalogs around the world.
Quote Reply
Re: Suggested Links add on In reply to
Now that's an interesting idea!

I do see some problems in doing this, however. First of all, the raw Links data files do not contain any structural metadata, so simply using links.db will not be very useful.

A solution might be to generate SGML from the links.db (following the MARC DTD), and then use the MARC-SGML/SGML-MARC Conversion Program - a Perl script available from http://www.loc.gov/marc/ - to create the MARC records.

That seems to be the solution. How to get there, I have no idea whatsoever :-(

A general comment: I am wondering whether MARC is being replaced, in due time, by newer and more humane standards, such as RDF and Dublin Core. Just as XML seems to be the SGML for the 21st century, something must happen to the metadata, it seems to me. Why the LOC has gone 'all the way' to SGML seems a but strange today, but it must be because their work on this took off before XML came around. Why they stick with SGML, I cannot understand, but this might just be a matter of time ...

OK, this is not really a Links-relevant dicussion, I know. Or is it? Next generation Links could be based on XML instead of ASCII-flatfiles, XSL instead of CSS, and RDF/Dublin Core instead of "keywords" ...

Now that's an idea, isn't Alex? ;-)

John