DR 10-0026 ? OPC: dc:creator only once within a coreProperties element

[Arms, Caroline]

All,

This is a comment on the discussion thread on DR 10-0026 (now closed but with an anticipation of being re-opened later as a separate activity).  Even during the original standardization process, I questioned the usage of dc: for coreProperties, since the specification of DC says clearly that all elements are optional and REPEATABLE.   Allowing only one instance of each element would encourage all sorts of bad practices.  When I last checked, there was no recommended (interoperable) way in regular DC to indicate unambiguously that two names are different representations of the same person's name.  At the Library of Congress we've run into the need to do similar things with places (wanting to represent places in more than one encoding, textual, coded, and coordinates, for example).  But if a work is about more than one place, you do want to group the equivalent terms for the same place together.  However, I do know plenty of DC experts (and critics) who could clarify this and possibly contribute, if informally, to a later activity.  I thoroughly agree that this is worth spinning off into a more focused activity and not limiting to consideration of dc:creator.

   Happy New Year.      Caroline


Caroline Arms
Library of Congress Contractor
Co-compiler of Sustainability of Digital Formats resource
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/

** Views expressed are personal and not necessarily those of the institution **
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