Date:         Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:56:23 +0000
Reply-To:     Metadata Object Description Schema List <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:       Metadata Object Description Schema List <[log in to unmask]>
From:         Mike Rylander <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: MODS in Evergreen [was: [MODS] MODS search points]
Comments: To: Tod Olson <[log in to unmask]>
Comments: cc: Metadata Object Description Schema List <[log in to unmask]>
In-Reply-To:  <[log in to unmask]>
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On 12/28/05, Tod Olson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> On Dec 22, 2005, at 10:19 PM, Mike Rylander wrote:
>
> > We (PINES/OpenILS/Evergreen) are using MODS as an intermediate format
> > for indexing our catalog.  The records are stored in MARCXML, but we
> > transform them to MODS for indexing and display (or, more properly,
> > displayable data extraction) because MODS /greatly/ simplifies working
> > with records when you're a programmer that's not also an experienced
> > cataloger (however, our scheme has been vetted by our catalogers).
>
> I'd like to follow up on this off-list a bit.
>

Sure.  mrylander AT gmail.com, or you can join our mailing lists at
http://open-ils.org/listserv.html . :)

> Does the Evergreen MARCXML to MODS transformation strip out the ISBD
> punctuation, or leave it in? And what mechanism are you using for the
> transformation? The XSLT provided by LC?
>

We are using the LC XSLT for MARCXML->MODS.  We do attempt to strip
the ISBD punctuation for display purposes, mainly for aesthetic
reasons.  The stripping is done in Perl by looking for punctuation
that doesn't materially benefit the user (trailing "/"s and whatnot,
mostly in titles) and simply removing it.  It's just part of the
MARC->MODS->metadata->normalize process we've built. The punctuation
doesn't affect our indexing as we use PostgreSQL's tsearch2 extension
for full text indexing, which ignores punctuation.

> I ask because in my own use of MODS, I find losing the ISBD punctuation
> to be difficult to achieve, but greatly improves reuse of the data in
> different contexts.
>

Must ... refrain ... from ... commenting ... on ... ISBD ..... aaarrrggghhh! ;)

> Tod Olson <[log in to unmask]>
> Programmer/Analyst
> University of Chicago Library
>

--
Mike Rylander
[log in to unmask]
GPLS -- PINES Development
Database Developer
http://open-ils.org