Cataloging Futures

Palinet symposium on the future of cataloging

You'll want to read John Ockerbloom's excellent summary of yesterday's The Future of Cataloging: A Palinet Symposium. It was a great day, I learned a lot and got to show off the blog a little bit, so that was nice.

Future of cataloging debate - any thoughts?

So after 3-4 years of talking about the future of cataloging--Where are we? That's the question I'm asking myself before next week's Palinet symposium on the future of cataloging. Have we moved further along in this conversation? Are we any wiser about the numerous issues and decisions that lay ahead (or are already present)?

I've been stewing on some ideas that I'll post next week after the symposium. But I'd love to hear what you think before my 15 minutes of fame!

RU into URIs?

Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) have become a regular part of my life as a metadata librarian. In fact, identifiers have become somewhat of an obsession. So, I was happy to find the URI Resource Pages via the Library of Congress standards website.

New book: Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front

I've been waiting for this one. Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front edited by K.R. Roberto is now available in paperback.

This collection of critical and scholarly essays addresses the state of cataloging in the world of librarianship. The contributors, including Sanford Berman, Thomas Mann, and numerous front-line library workers, address topics ranging from criticisms of the state of the profession and traditional Library of Congress cataloging to methods of making cataloging more inclusive and helpful to library users. Other essay topics include historical overviews of cataloging practices and the literature they generate, first-person discussions of library workers' experiences with cataloging or metadata work, and the implications behind what materials get cataloged, who catalogs them, and how. Several essays provide a critical overview of innovative cataloging practices and the ways that such practices have been successfully integrated in many of the nation's leading libraries.

JSC April meeting outcomes now available

Important reading for keeping up with the development of the new cataloging content standard, Resource Description and Access (RDA):

The Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA (JSC) has just issued outcomes from their most recent meeting. The meeting was held in Chicago in April 2008.

An important opportunity

Last week on the cataloging lists, Barbara Tillett writes:

As Chair of the IFLA Meeting of Experts on an International Cataloguing Code (IME ICC) I am pleased to invite comments from the worldwide library community on the final draft of the Statement of International Cataloguing Principles and its accompanying Glossary.

In order to provide the appropriate review period and to schedule adequate time to cumulate, analyze, and incorporate comments before the General Meeting of IFLA in August, the Statement is being posted today on a public Wiki. The IFLA Headquarters Office is closed for holiday April 30-May 5th, but as soon as they return we will move the files there and redirect from the Wiki. In the meantime please link to: http://catprinciples.pbwiki.com/ and view and/or download the Statement for your review; and please use the accompanying voting document for your response. [emphasis mine]

UPDATE: The draft and voting form have been moved to the IFLA website.

You might want to take a look back to a post I wrote last year on the Statement of International Cataloguing Principles. I'm looking forward to reviewing and commenting on this important document before the June 30th deadline.

Letter from Deanna Marcum on RDA

A letter from Deanna Marcum was just posted to the AUTOCAT list. It provides the joint statement of the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Agricultural Library on Resource Description and Access. Some excerpts:

The three national libraries agreed on the following approach: First, we jointly commit to further development and completion of RDA. Second, following its completion, a decision to implement the rules will be based upon the positive evaluation of RDA's utility within the library and information environment, and criteria reflecting the technical, operational, and financial implications of the new code. This will include an articulation of the business case for RDA, including benefits to libraries and end users and cost analyses for retraining staff and re-engineering cataloging processes.

Together, we will:

• Jointly develop milestones for evaluating how we will implement RDA
• Conduct tests of RDA that determine if each milestone has been reached; paying particular attention to the benefits and costs of implementation
• Widely distribute analyses of benefits and costs for review by the U.S. library community
• Consult with the vendor and bibliographic utility communities to address their concerns about RDA

Included among the tests that will be developed to assist in formulating implementation decisions:

• Usability testing with cataloging staff, i.e. librarians and technicians, experienced and newer staff from the three national libraries in consultation with representatives from the U.S. library community (including OCLC and library vendors) about its participation in the process
• Testing of records for a broad array of materials created during usability studies to determine compatibility with existing record sets and ensuring records are usable and understandable for our end users
• Testing the feasibility of integrating this new cataloging standard into all relevant technology systems

The three institutions agreed that these steps will be followed and, if there is a decision to implement RDA, that the implementation would not occur before the end of 2009.

UPDATE: Letter and joint statement [pdf] now available on the LC Working Group website.

LC using new content standard for rare books: DCRM(B)

I'm very interested in rare books, having been exposed to the wonders of rare book cataloging when I was a fledgling cataloger (circa 1991). At that time, Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books had just been published. Now, its successor is available: Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books).

LC's implementation decisions for DCRM(B) were just posted yesterday. One of the interesting thing about these decisions is how much they refer to cataloger's judgment.

The Library of Congress Rare Book Team has been using Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) (DCRM(B)) since October 2007 in its cataloging of rare materials. Implementation decisions at the Library of Congress related to options, etc., in DCRM(B) are available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/rarebooks.pdf.

DCRM(B), prepared by the Bibliographic Standards Committee, Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries in collaboration with the Cataloging Policy and Support Office of the Library of Congress, was published in 2007; it is the successor to the 1991 publication Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books.

Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) is published by the Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service.