Re: Errors in USCO database

From: Spectrum Press <specpress[_at_]earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 11:04:32 -0600

Terry Carroll wrote:
>
> I would be shocked to find that there were not errors in the Copyright
> Office database.
>

snip
>
> I think errors in government databases are a fact of life, and the
> Copyright Office database is no exception.

Yes, of course. But the point is what's to be done? I don't think anything can be done with the errors already in the database (except to await accidental discovery and reporting). But for entries that have not yet been made, I'm suggesting an error code algorithm be used to at least flag errors caused by twitches in the computerized search engine. That's the third source of errors. The trio is initial data, entry of data, and data retrieval. The first two are human errors, the second is machine error. Machine errors can be prevented, or at least flagged.

Dan Agin

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Spectrum Press Inc.
http://users.aol.com/specpress
specpress[_at_]earthlink.net Received on Thu Oct 31 1996 - 17:07:37 GMT