In effect, the descriptive portion of the record is designed to save the user's time by aiding in the decision whether or not to make that commitment . Changing Dynamic of Web Documents With web documents, this dynamic changes. With the constant variability of web documents, a catalog record can never be seen as a surrogate for a web document. As a result, the descriptive portion no longer serves to aid the user in the selection of the item. Problems for Catalogers One of the main reasons why catalogers are hesitant to take on the responsibility for cataloging websites is their concern for record maintenance .
Maintenance is nothing new for catalogers.
In the world of physical documents, items change constantly, e.g. a slight change is made to the text of a book, and results in an extra page. Everything is the same as the older items, except that all new books are printed with an extra page. Another book may have a very minor difference in the title from one printing to the next. Magazines arrive constantly and often change their titles. A new, revised version of a book is published, etc.