[MEI-L] physLoc & provenance

[Axel Teich Geertinger]

Hi all,

working with source metadata encodings, my colleague Sigge and I are wondering why <physLoc> and <provenance> are children of <physDesc>, not its siblings. From our point of view, the physical description of an item focuses on describing the object itself, i.e. its dimensions, the medium etc. independently of its location or history. Where it is located or who has owned it does not change the physical object in this sense (except that the circumstances may have left some physical traces on the object itself, of course, but that is hardly the point...).
It seems like <physDesc>, as it is, is to be understood somewhat like the FRBR "item" level, containing all item-specific data, but then the tag name "physDesc" does not seem very accurate. The issue becomes even more apparent in our current customization of the schema, which actually introduces the FRBR item level in <source> (as <itemList><item>, where <item> has almost the same content model as <source>).
What would be the arguments against moving <physLoc> and <provenance> out of <physDesc>?

All the best,
Axel


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