Cataloging Futures

Essential reading: Cataloging and Metadata Education report

I didn't get to read as much as I'd hoped to during the holiday break. One thing I did read that wasn't even on my list was Ingrid Hsieh-Yee's report Cataloging and  Metadata Education: A Proposal for Preparing Cataloging Professionals of the 21st Century [pdf]. (Like the better known Calhoun report its impetus was an action plan that grew out of the Library of Congress's Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium.)

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that I have a strong interest in cataloging education (particularly continuing education) and yet this is the first time I've encountered this report originally issued five years ago. So, it's been quietly hovering under the radar in the future of cataloging debate, but deserves to be noticed.

Hsieh-Yee cogently argues for the necessity of all LIS students getting a foundation in cataloging and metadata issues as a prerequisite for understanding information organization in the digital age.

Via Off the Mark

Cataloging education: LC report to address this issue?

I've watched the webcast and read the PowerPoint slides. But I'm going to hold off commenting until the full LC working group report is presented to Deanna Marcum (and the library community) on November 30th. (Although it's hard not to weigh in on the provocative recommendation about FRBR and RDA.)

In the meantime, I'm re-reading the public testimony from the few brave souls who distributed their comments publicly on electronic lists, wikis, and blogs. First up, is Dr. Shawne Miksa, professor and researcher. I found her testimony [pdf] particularly interesting since she teaches teachings cataloging, etc. (an area of concern for me since I'm hoping to teach someday also). Here's a quote where she discusses the lack of attention the working group's background papers gave to cataloging education:

The absence of any real discussion in any of the background papers on the education of catalogers was puzzling, but not surprising. I do not have hard data on the most current state of library cataloging education but I strongly suspect that we are seeing now in our catalogs the result of the disturbing lack of knowledge of many cataloging librarians and library administrators that resulted from relegating traditional courses to the back burner over the past decade or so. (As well, I believe our cries of woe concerning users abandoning library catalogs for Google or Yahoo! really originate in our feeling guilty about not providing a good enough reason to use the catalogs in the first place.)

If MLS students are not pushed (whether by faculty or accreditation standards) to take the courses then we are failing our profession by not producing well-rounded graduates no matter what library position they occupy. Given the coming changes to cataloging that will ride in on the new Resource Description and Access (RDA) due to be completed in 2009, we are facing a choice to either be proactive and prepared or suffer the consequences of belated reactions.

I think it's encouraging that the working group's final report will be addressing the LIS education issue (even though they did not discuss this in their preliminary report last week). I'm looking forward to hearing their recommendations.

Cataloging Education: Moving Forward After the MLIS

I've been encouraging my new colleague, Nicole Engard, to jump right into continuing education even though she's just finished her MLIS degree. I'm not being a meanie. My reason is based on my own experience of not getting enough cataloging training in library school. Anyway, here's a comment from Nicole reflecting on her recent experience:

On the subject of teachers - I have had two great instructors at PALINET continuing ed courses over the last month and it makes me wonder why these aren’t the kind of instructors I had in library school. Is it because they’re actually out there doing the work? Is it because they love their jobs (which you can really tell?) or is it just the setting? I don’t know, but I do think that if you’re just out of library school and feel like you’re maybe missing something or if you’re a librarian who wants to beef up your skills, taking a course from a librarian who is out there doing what they’re teaching is the way to go!

Wondering where to begin on your own post-degree educational journey? Start with the Library of Congress website, The Cataloger's Learning Workshop. I've taken many of these courses and they're excellent!

Cataloging, Training, and Self-learning

You'll want to read Training-wheels culture over on the Caveat Lector blog. Dorothea Salo weighs in on an issue important to the future of cataloging and metadata education. She writes about librarians who are resistant to self-learning--that is, learning by doing.

I emailed Dorothea to let her know that a lot of catalogers responded to Nicole's survey (it was announced on AUTOCAT). So she might have taken a slightly different take if she knew that at the time of writing.

However, her main point is an important one.

Technical Competencies for Catalogers/Metadata Librarians

In Adding New Skills to our Skillset, Diane Hillmann continues the conversation about what catalogers need to do to prepare for metadata librarianship. She expands on some of the discussions on cataloging blogs and lists (including this one). It's essential reading for our metadata future!

Earlier posts on this topic:

• More Resources on Upgrading Catalogers' Skills
• Resources on Upgrading Catalogers' Skill Set
• Upgrading Catalogers' Skill Set

Call for Papers: JELIS Special Issue on Cataloging Education

Via A Library Writer's Blog:

"CFP: Journal of Education for Library and Information Science (special issue on cataloging education)
Deadline October 15, 2007

Because the education and training of catalogers concerns all types and sizes of libraries and information organizations, this call is for papers for a special issue of the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science (JELIS), the official scholarly publication of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), http://www.alise.org/publications/jelis.html). Papers should focus on education and continuing education in an age of Google, electronic resources, digital libraries, shifting standards, and metadata developments."

"... manuscripts for the JELIS issue should be double-spaced, with ample margins, and follow JELIS manuscript guidelines http://www.alise.org/publications/jelis_submission_guidelines.html). The deadline for submission is October 15, 2007. A committee of experts will referee all of the submitted papers. Contributors will be notified of the referees’ decision by December 1, 2007.

For further information, contact: Dr. Sylvia D. Hall-Ellis
Library and Information Science Program
University of Denver
Denver, Colorado 80208
shellis@du.edu
303-871-7881 – voice
303-871-2709 – FAX"

More Resources on Upgrading Catalogers' Skills

Last week we had a good conversation about what catalogers need to do to upgrade their skills for the future. I mentioned that I'm working on gathering resources on this issue.

A couple of days ago I featured some resources from Karen Calhoun, perhaps best known for the Library of Congress "Calhoun Report" [PDF]. Here's a second in the series on resources, It's a summary of comments from that earlier conversation:

• Learning systems analysis/theory 
• Learn new technologies 
• Learning to read code: XML, SQL, and CQL
• Openness to play and experimentation with new technologies
• Learn about what makes the web work
• Talk to people who are making the Semantic Web work
• Find a way to get your data onto the Semantic Web
• Understanding more about how computers work, what they can do, what they can't do
• Develop a fundamental understanding of computer systems and modern technology 
• A willingness to learn new technologies/standards and to experiment/play with them

I put this together as a to-do list for myself, but thought that others would find it helpful. I left out attribution to keep it simple. So, check out the original post for the authors of these excellent comments!

 

Resources on Upgrading Catalogers' Skill Set

I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days, so my blogging energy is down. But there's been a lot of great posts to read. I discovered a way to read blogs on the the train without an Internet connection using Google Reader offline. So far it works okay, but it's kind of a truncated way to read blog posts (with links that don't go anywhere!).

Continuing on the theme of an earlier post about upgrading catalogers' skill set, I want to look at resources that discussed this issue. Here's one by Karen Calhoun that I found about a month ago, Being a Librarian: Metadata and Metadata Specialists in the Twenty-first Century [PDF]. It's more philosophical, less nitty gritty practical. However, in the footnotes is a slide presentation with text also by Karen Calhoun, Technology, Productivity and Change in Library Technical Services. Some selections:

"Clearly, the technical services landscape is a challenging one, one in which we must ask our people to know more about computers, data sets, the Web, and how they work than ever before."

"Computer literacy is the foundation of both information literacy and IT fluency. It is the basis for getting control of your computer, rather than letting it control you. It is the basis for maximizing computer-based productivity gains in our departments. It is however, limited, as computer literacy tends to involve learning about specific hardware and software applications, at a given point in time. Nevertheless, without computer literacy, people cannot gain either information literacy or IT fluency."

"The concept of IT fluency is more germane to this paper. It goes beyond computer literacy in that it involves an understanding of the concepts of information technology, especially applying problem-solving and critical thinking to using information technology. The result of IT fluency is a graduated, increasingly skilled use of information technology."

"Another important aspect of IT fluency is the ability to apply resourcefulness and critical-thinking to using technology. These characteristics are the engine of innovation and creative-problem solving. "

Via MLA: Massachusetts Library Association Conference Blog

Upgrading Catalogers' Skill Set

If you've been reading this blog for a while you probably know that I have a positive take on the future of catalogers and metadata librarians. Rather than being outsourced or eliminated, I think our skills are going to be in high demand.

Most catalogers have the important skill set already: experience with structured data and standards, good analytical skills, the ever necessary discipline of being attentive to details, etc. But these skills have to be upgraded. We definitely can't rest on our laurels.

So, here's what I've done so far to prepare for the future now:

• Every time they're offered locally, I take the Cataloging for the 21st Century workshops. So far I've taken Rules & Tools for Cataloging Internet Resources and Metadata Standards & Applications (a must if you want to acquire metadata-speak)
• I've been teaching myself XML using O'Reilly computer books
• As time permits, I read about different metadata schemas (especially the ones we use at the library)
• I've collaborated with the staff in Special Collections on a digital project (of course, this is the ideal, but not always possible)

What I'd like to do in the future:

• My colleague, Nicole Engard, suggested learning systems analysis/theory

• I'd actually like to try my hand at a little computer programming

I'm working on gathering resources on this issue as our profession takes this digital turn. What are the essential skills we need? What do you think?