Cataloging Futures

New book: Conversations with Catalogers in the 21st Century

2010 had been heralded as the year of cataloging research. But I think it was actually the year of cataloging conversation. Whether on discussion lists such as OCLC-CAT and, the mother-of-all-lists, AUTOCAT or the social media vehicles, Twitter and blogs, in 2010 there was a lot of catalogers talking about the pressing issues in our profession. With RDA, the new cataloging code, being the topic du jour for most of the year.

This new book, Conversations with Catalogers in the 21st Century, published by Libraries Unlimited and edited by Elaine Sanchez picks up on this trend. Elaine was kind enough to approach me to write an essay for this book. So, I am grateful to her for the opportunity to get off the Web and actually write something a little more substantial and in print.

If you get a chance to read my brief essay: Changing Mind-Set, Changing Skill Set: Transitioning from Cataloger to Metadata Librarian, please let me know what you think.

I am excited to dig in and read the other essays in this book, not so much a book of cataloging experts, but rather a group of catalogers who write and think with passion and verve on these discussion lists and blogs, the cataloging conversationalists among us.

XQuery for library metadata: no. 1

Here's the first post in what I hope will be an occasional series on using XQuery code with library metadata.

I wrote this query to create controlaccess elements for EAD documents. It takes the value of persname element and creates a new node, the controlaccess element for each of our 227 EAD documents. Using a MarkLogic update function, xdmp: node-insert-after, it also inserts the new controlacess nodes after each first did element.

NOTE: For unprefixed names (our EAD documents have unprefixed names) I needed to declare default element namespace, otherwise new elements will go into no namespace. This is what happpened when I first tested the controlaccess elements.

The next step will be editing by hand the altrender attribute putting the names in direct order and removing dates and parenthetical qualifiers. We'll be using this value for display purposes.

xquery version "1.0-ml";

declare default element namespace "urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9";

let $docs := xdmp:directory("/EAD/")

let $newNodes := for $doc in $docs
                 let $name := fn:string($doc/ead/archdesc/did/
origination/persname)
                 order by $name ascending
                 return <controlaccess>
                         <persname encodinganalog="100" role="creator"
 source="lcnaf" altrender="{$name}">{$name}</persname>
                        </controlaccess>
                        
let $topNodes := for $doc in $docs
                 let $sibling := ($doc/ead/archdesc/did)[1]
                 order by fn:string($doc/ead/archdesc/did/origination/
persname) ascending
                 return $sibling

return for $topNode at $x in $topNodes
       return xdmp:node-insert-after($topNode, $newNodes[$x])

RDA angst and the future of library metadata

I find myself reluctantly in the RDA fan club. There's a lot of things I wish RDA was (or wasn't) and if someone made me cataloging queen-for-a-day, I'd definitely make some changes to RDA. It'd be a leaner, meaner, simpler cataloging code for one.

But, I can honestly say--I'm for RDA. I'd like to see it become the foundation for future library metadata: implemented, revised, and improved.

A recent outburst among catalogers on a discussion list got me thinking. The unhappiness with RDA is bringing to light just the type of dysfunction found in traditional cataloging that we need to get away from: it's rigid, inflexible, and overly complex. To move metadata to the web we need the opposite: agility, flexibility, and, where possible, simplification. In the complex world of library metadata, we should not underestimate this task. But we need to accept it and stop kicking against the goads of digital technology.

My hunch is that within 10 years you won't even recognize library cataloging it will have changed so much. Maybe not the fundamental purpose--to organize and provide access to library resources--but who creates metadata and how it's created will be very different.

If you look at the metadata workflows of digital repositories/collections the picture emerges of metadata created by authors, users, outsourcers, computer algorithms, you name it, fill in the blank. You see metadata partially created or generated and later refined or enhanced by metadata specialists (i.e., former catalogers).

You also see metadata worked on in large batches: hacked, harvested, mined, analyzed, linked together, etc. Working on metadata is (and will be) done in a world of links and relationships on the web. In the future, we'll be using new tools (that we often develop ourselves) and implementing technologies that haven't yet been thought of.

If it remains, traditional library cataloging--the fine art of crafting an individual record--will be reserved for the most precious of resources, a niche area in our profession, and seldom the preferred method for metadata creation.

It's taken me a long time to fully embrace this new type of cataloging, but there's no doubt this is the direction our work is taking. Those librarians out in the digital realm creatively trying new things (and sometimes failing) are paving the way for everyone else. And one of those new things is RDA. So, yeah, I'm a cheerleader for RDA, for FRBR, and the digital future of libraries.

h/t I borrow this blog title from a cataloging Twitter friend (hope she doesn't mine :) )

Another cataloging blog: Scarlettlibrarian's Blog

I've really enjoyed reading the recents blog posts at Scarlettlibrarian's Blog. Two in particular are worth reading:

• I am Metadata Management. What can I do for Subject Librarians?
• What will happen to cataloguing and catalogers?

I think the author accurately describes the kind of changes that are happening in our field.

Catalogers who Twitter

With the popularity of the recent post on catalogers who blog, I'm encouraged to pull together a similar list of catalogers and metadata librarians who actively use Twitter. So, I'll work on that.

In the meantime, Becky Yoose did a great write up about her Twitter list of cataloging and metadata librarians: A year of troublesome catalogers and magical metadata fairies. She captures the spirit of catalogers using this social networking tool to communicate among themselves and with others: cataloging questions, problems, rant, snark, coffee, chocolate, etc.

So, join in and have fun. Twitter really has turned out to be the professional development tool du jour!

Cataloging and metadata blogs in 2010

Later today I'm giving a presentation on cataloging and metadata blogs for my SEPTLA colleagues (we have a long-standing Catalogers' Interest Group). So, thought I'd share this list on the blog also. It represents English language blogs only and is not comprehensive, but rather a selection described in the next paragraph. I apologize if I missed a cool, active cataloging blog. Please add to the comments if you think of one.

This is a list of 31 cataloging and metadata blogs that have been currently active in 2010. The frequency of content varies depending on the author’s approach to blogging. This list also represents focused blogs whose content is cataloging, metadata, and related issues, rather than those that cover a variety of topics or are diary-like personal accounts. Just a reminder—the best way to keep up with blogs is to use an RSS feed reader such as Google Reader or the feed subscription function built into most web browsers, such as Internet Explorer.

• Planet Cataloging: http://planetcataloging.org/ “Planet Cataloging is an automatically-generated aggregation of blogs related to cataloging and metadata designed and maintained by Jennifer W. Baxmeyer and Kevin S. Clarke.”
• All things cataloged: http://allthingscataloged.wordpress.com/ Author, Saskia is a library cataloger currently based in Vienna, Austria, following stints in Stuttgart, Leipzig and London. This is a new blog, just started in August 2010.
• Bibliographic Wilderness: http://bibwild.wordpress.com/ Author, Jonathan Rochkind, is the Digital Services Software Engineer at Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries.
• Catalogablog: http://catalogablog.blogspot.com/ Author, David Bigwood, is the Cataloging Librarian at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, Texas.
• Cataloging Futures: http://www.catalogingfutures.com/ Author, Christine Schwartz, is the Metadata Librarian at Princeton Theological Seminary Library, Princeton, New Jersey. The focus of her blog is the future of cataloging and metadata in libraries.
• Cataloguing Aids: http://cataids.wordpress.com/ Author, Lynne LeGrow, is a cataloguer at the Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia, Canada.
• Celeripedean: http://celeripedean.wordpress.com/ Author, Jennifer Eustis, is a Cataloguing & Metadata Librarian, at Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Cooperative Cataloging Rules Blog: http://coopcatwiki.blogspot.com/ Author, James Weinheimer, is the Director of Library and Information Services at the American University of Rome. This blog accompanies the Cooperative Cataloging Wiki.
• Coyle’s InFormation: http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/ Author, Karen Coyle, is a “librarian with over thirty years of experience with library technology. She now consults in a variety of areas relating to digital libraries.” (http://www.kcoyle.net/reach.html)
• First thus: http://catalogingmatters.blogspot.com/ Author, James Weinheimer, is the Director of Library and Information Services at the American University of Rome. He is an active contributor to cataloging discussion lists such as AUTOCAT.
• From the catalogs of babes: http://catalogsofbabes.wordpress.com/ Author, Rachel “Ivy” Clarke, was a cataloger at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Library in Los Angeles, California during the time she wrote this blog. She recently left this position to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Washington’s iSchool in Seattle, WA. She recently stopped writing this blog in September 2010.
• Inquiring Librarian: http://inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com/ Author, Jenn Riley, is a Metadata Librarian in the Digital Library Program at Indiana University. She just accepted a new position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to be Head of the Carolina Digital Library and Archives.
• Learning About RDA: http://learningaboutrda.wordpress.com/ Diane Hillmann’s blog for a class she taught on RDA in the spring of 2010. See more about Diane Hillmann at her blog, Metadata Matters, described below.
• Local Weather: http://mlbeacom.blogspot.com/ Author, Matthew Beacom, is a Metadata Librarian at Yale University.
• Lorcan Dempsey’s Weblog: http://orweblog.oclc.org/ Author, Lorcan Dempsey “is currently working for OCLC as Vice President, OCLC Research and Chief Strategist.”
• Metadata Blog: http://www.alcts.ala.org/metadatablog/ “The official blog of the Metadata Interest Group (MIG), a discussion group of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services division of the American Library Association.”
• Metadata, cataloging, & various librarian-like stuff: http://carolslib.wordpress.com/ Author, Carol, a full-time cataloging trainer writes this "semi-anonymous" blog.
• Metadata Matters: http://managemetadata.org/blog Author, Diane Hillmann, is “currently Director of Metadata Initiatives for the Information Institute of Syracuse (formerly Research Librarian, Cornell University Library and Director of Library Services and Operations of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL))” (http://managemetadata.org/about.php).
• Metadata: How a Cataloger Views and Interprets the World: http://metadata.posterous.com/ Author, Jeffery Beall, is “a Metadata Librarian at the University of Colorado Denver in Denver, Colorado. [He mentions on his blog] I research the strengths of metadata-enabled search systems and the weaknesses of full-text searching. An example of a weakness of full-text searching is the synonym problem: when you search for "leprosy," you miss all the resources that refer to the disease only as "Hansen's disease."
• Metalogger: http://metalogger.wordpress.com/ Author, Neil Godfrey, is a metadata specialist who is currently a bibliographic consultant with the Singapore National Library Board.
• Metalogue: http://community.oclc.org/metalogue/ “Metalogue is a forum for sharing thoughts on all things related to knowledge organization by and for libraries, hosted by Karen Calhoun, Vice President, WorldCat and Metadata Services for OCLC. “ As of October 15, 2010, this blog is being retired and readers are directed to the OCLC Cooperative Blog: http://community.oclc.org/cooperative/.
• Panlibus: http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/ This is a multi-author blog written by the staff of the Talis library systems company. They do a lot of work in the area of the semantic web--cutting edge stuff.
• Quiescit anima libris: http://latinlibrarian.blogspot.com/ Author writes anonymously under the pseudonym “Scribe.”
• The Bib Blog: York University Libraries Bibliographic Services: http://www.yorku.ca/yul/bibserv/blog/ Author, F. Tim Knight, is Head of Technical Services at Osgoode Hall Law School Library, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• The Cataloguing Librarian: http://laureltarulli.wordpress.com/ Author, Laurel Tarulli, is the Collections Access Librarian at Halifax Public Libraries. Laurel is currently researching the social aspects of next-generation catalogs.
• The FRBR Blog: http://www.frbr.org/ Author, William Denton, is the Web Librarian at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• The Serials Cataloger: http://serialscataloger.blogspot.com/ Author, Lori Terrill, is the Principal Serials Cataloger at the University of Wyoming.
• Three Catalogers Walk Into a Blog: http://3catalogers.wordpress.com/ A multi-author blog. Richard Stewart, Jennifer B. Young, and Joy Anhalt focus on resources to help catalogers in their everyday work.
• TSLL TechScans: http://tslltechscans.blogspot.com/Blog for Technical Services Law Librarians.
• WadingIn: http://wadeatmac.wordpress.com/ Author, Wade Wyckoff, is the Associate University Librarian, Collections at McMaster University Library in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
• What’s the point?: http://www.pointsmean.blogspot.com/ An anonymous cataloger working in the U.K. Here from the first post:”Suffice it to say that I am a cataloguer (and have been for many many years - too many years, probably) and that I work in the United Kingdom. Although it hasn't always been the case, at the moment I am working in a public library. It's a fairly precarious position nowadays, and one of the things I want to explore through this blog is why this is so - why cataloguing is so little respected and valued. There will be lots of other things to say as well.”

Catalogers and coders, perfect together

If you have time to read only one thing this week, make it Kelley McGrath's thoughtful introduction to the new issue of the Code4Lib Journal: A Cataloger's Perspective on the Code4Lib Journal.

Kelley succinctly lays out the important issues the library community now faces as we move forward with cataloging, metadata, and information technology challenges in the 21st century.

Google Books metadata redux

The Google Books metadata controversy resurfaced recently in a Salon article by Laura Miller, The trouble with Google Books.

I focused a lot on this issue last year. It's fascinating to watch non-librarians, in this case UC-Berkeley professor Geoffrey Nunberg, arguing and explaining the importance of bibliographic metadata. Every cataloger/metadata librarian who wants to feel good about what they do should read this article.

One of my takeaways from the Google Books metadata "mess" is that full-text searching is not a substitute for accurate metadata. If it was, Google would not be spending any time or energy creating or providing metadata for Google Book Search.

It seems we need both full-text searching and metadata working in unison for optimal discovery of digital resources.

Cataloging and beyond: the year of cataloging research

Really interesting summary of the ALA Annual Conference panel presentation, Cataloging and Beyond: The Year of Cataloging Research (found at the American Libraries' ALA membership blog).

Digital information seekers: briefing paper and report

Yesterday, Jeffrey Beall blogged about a 2-page briefing paper, Digital Information Seekers: How academic libraries can support the use of digital resources. [pdf]

The briefing paper summarizes the full 61-page report: The Digital Information Seeker: Report of findings from selected OCLC, RIN and JISC user behaviour projects. [pdf]

It's encouraging that among the findings is the desire for high-quality metadata: "High-quality metadata is becoming more important for discovery of appropriate resources."