My esteemed, gracious and talented colleague Mr. Jackson is not happy.
He’s not happy because I’ve asked him to do something which he thinks is an awful, depressing, retrograde step. I’ve asked him to add a MARC export function to Jerome.
Nick’s argument in a nutshell (he won’t mind me paraphrasing):
- MARC is awful: truly awful. It’s holding back humanity’s (and libraries’) progress. We shouldn’t be doing anything to prolong its life. #marcmustdie
My argument in a nutshell:
- For better or worse, libraries still use MARC, and this will be a useful facility for libraries who want to consume our open data straight into their existing Library Management Systems.
What does the studio audience think? Should Jerome serve up MARC (actually, MARCXML. I’m not a monster.) because someone, somewhere might want to consume it, or should we take a stand and insist on providing only decent, sane data formats from now on?
For anyone who’s blissfully unaware of MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) formats, read this. Then read this, this, and this. Then go and have a lie down in a darkened room.
I don’t love MARC. More than anything, I don’t really understand it (I have a cataloguer to do that for me). But it still has currency in libraries. #shouldmarcdie?
