# URCs and the world into which they are born

Erik Jul (jul@oclc.org)
Tue, 27 Sep 1994 15:28:34 -0400

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    From: jul@oclc.org (Erik Jul)

    Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 15:28:34 -0400

    Message-Id: <199409271928.PAA00704@ws20-02.dev.oclc.org>

    To: uri@bunyip.com

    Subject: URCs and the world into which they are born

Hello all:

It has been some time since I've comented on this list, although I do follow
the traffic (and such traffic there is!).

As the discussion now moves to URCs I wish to interject some thoughts.

<J.P.Knight@lut.ac.uk> writes:

> Am I right in thinking that there may be some mileage in trying to bring
> IAFA templates and URCs together?
URCs, meta-data, IAFA templates, CNI Top-Node templates, InterNIC data service
registration forms--whatever the manifestation, and my short list is only
representative--all of these efforts or proposals attempt to do one thing:
provide information *about* an information object to facilitate its discovery,
location, access, and use.

What is evident by these and other schemes is that creating, managing, sharing,
and using information *about* information is universally recognized as
valuable and, in fact, essential to the efficient use of information resources.
This is not a novel observation. In fact, it's so basic as to be forgotten
by many save those who attend to the complex problems of information management
on a daily basis.

Among those concerned with "meta-information" are the many librarians and other
information specialists worldwide who assist scholars, students, and citizens
alike to make use of the world's information stores.

Some would say that librarianship has elevated the creation of description and
access records to a "science." Others may assert that the record formats and
rules used by libraries are arcane, unnecessarily difficult, and obtuse. The
truth may lie between these poles.

Regardless of our view of library systems and methods, the fact remains that
systematic methods to create, share, access, and use machine-readable records
have arisen and been adopted worldwide in the past quarter century. These
records and systems, and the institutions they support, facilitate
international access to a great bulk of the world's scholarly, artistic,
cultural, and governmental information.

Again, regardless of our view, the fact remains that libraries, library systems,
and their underlying standards and protocolsw represent the underpinnings of
a significant information infrastructure upon which countless millions rely
daily. Moreover, the fiscal and physical commitment to this infrastructure
can be measured in the billions of dollars.

Fortunately, the formats and protocols used in the library community are not
proprietery; they are widely known and distributed. They are not linked to
a particular commercial enterprise. They have been developed over time with
considerable (some would say too much) deliberation, and they have been
successfully deployed internationally. A structure exists to maintain and
modify these formats and rules based on user demand, and a process is in place
to safeguard the cumulated intellectual effort they represent.

All of this brings me to the following point: It seems incumbent upon the IETF
URI WG to pay due consideration to the larger academic and informational
community that will ultimately be served by URCs. This community is a superset
of Internet users and includes all who use, directly or indirectly, the world's
resources of libraries and library systems.

I exhort that every effort be made, with all due dilligence, to ensure that the
development of URCs is informed by and harmonious with the systems, methods,
formats, and protocols that now undergird a significant segment of our
information infrastructure. I know that representatives of the library
community stand ready to facilitate this important next step in the
integration of electronic information into a unified system of information
discovery, access, and use.

Respectfully yours,

--Erik

Erik Jul
OCLC
jul@oclc.org

"These are my own thoughts, but I wouldn't be surprised if my employer agreed
with some of them."

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