Cataloging Futures

Google Using LC Subject Headings

One can't help see the irony here. Just a little over a year ago, the Calhoun Report [PDF] predicted that we would be doing away with Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in favor of keyword searching a la Google and Amazon. Now it appears that Google is using LC subject headings to enhance the search capabilities of Google Book Search. Interesting. Jenn Riley takes a close look at this new feature over on her Inquiring Librarian blog.

Scanning, Metadata, and the Google Books Project

You'll want to read this article, Inheritance and loss? A brief survey of Google Books, by Paul Duguid. It illustrates what happens when the nature of books and their accompanying metadata are ignored when scanning and digitizing.

Duguid's main argument focuses on the quality of the scanning. But he also demonstrates how the lack of sufficient metadata--something as basic as volume numbers for multivolume works--can cause problems when searching. This gets to the heart of the "digital fundamentalist" argument that search algorithms will eliminate the necessity for structured metadata. As my source mentions it's "an eye-opening read."

Via Bradley P. Allen

Catalogers Using Google

I've been wanting to blog about cataloging and Google for awhile. Here's the perfect opportunity. You'll want to read this notable article by Jennifer Lang "Have You Searched Google Yet?" Using Google as a Discovery Tool for Cataloging.

I particularly enjoyed Jennifer's description of her thought/search process using Google to hunt down elusive information missing on electronic resources. (Anyone who's cataloged AV materials can relate!) I remember cataloging before the Internet and I never want to go back! In the past (especially in smaller libraries) one was cataloging in isolation limited to using the cataloging tools their institution could afford. Now the whole world is a cataloging reference tool! (By the way, this is one of the reason Karen Calhoun's argument that we're in "competition" with Google never rings true for me, because I see Google as a great information tool/resource that I can't imagine living without. Google is an additional tool in the library arsenal, but not replacing the library itself.)

Other catalogers reflecting on Google use:

• Wade Wyckoff's post, Google for Cataloguers?

• David Bigwood's post, Google in Cataloging

Via Catalogablog