Cataloging at its core: the minimum viable record

Cataloging simplification. It's a gospel I preach for a lot of reasons (which I won't tackle here). We can struggle with this issue in the isolation of library land or get out and see what others think. For me, nothing beats listening to those who work with library metadata from the outside. A fresh set of eyes on a perennial cataloging issue.

Here's a post from the lead developer at the Internet Archive's Open Library, George Oates. She's been wrangling with a wide variety of library metadata and lives to tell about it. Her recent post, Minimum Viable Record?, is a must-read for all you catalogers and metadata librarians who think (like me) that in order to more forward, we need to cut back.

h/t Reading 2.0

Update: See also Saskia's posts: Simplification as an opportunity and Simplification as an opportunity - redux

Comments

[Roy Tennant]

I also preach the simplification gospel, just about any chance I get. In order to have the time to do higher-order work, such as assigning subject headings, we need to rethink some of the nit-picky details we painstakingly record. Also, it should be "her recent post," as George Oates is female.

[Christine Schwartz]

Thanks, Roy. Did not realize that. Will correct.

[George Oates]

*waves* :)