Cataloging Futures

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, the cool job

This tweet jumped out at me the other day: "All the cool kids want to be catalogers! One of ours tells you why it's the best job in the world." It linked to this post by Smithsonian Special Collections Cataloger, Diane Shaw: What It's Like to Be a Cataloger.

Diane's post reminds me a little of Richard A. Murray's The Whimsy of Cataloging (one of the best descriptions of what it's really like to be a cataloger). She expresses the joy of working with interesting, fascinating collections on a daily basis and describes where things are trending in the future at her institution.

Yes, cool job for the cool kids!

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.”

Are catalogers geeky enough?

Some good thoughts about just how much IT knowledge catalogers need to survive (and get the job done) can be found in this post: When cataloging isn't geeky enough. Contains some good ideas about how to stay technically literate, if not proficient.

New blog: Cataloger in Transition

Those of you who enjoyed reading Dodie Gaudet's Quick T.S. blog may want to follow her journey as an unemployed cataloger at Cataloger in Transition. It's very much a memoir, sort of cataloger-does-eat, pray, love without the exotic travel!

So far, the blog offers some good, positive advice for those catalogers who love what they do, but have lost their jobs due to restructuring, downsizing, or outsourcing.

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.

RDA in Europe, a seminar review

I've heard that there is more enthusiasm for RDA outside the U.S., in Europe and in the international cataloging community in general. That's my impression from reading this post: RDA in Europe: or the implementation domino effect.

The blog's author, Céline, has also written an earlier, related post: Recommended Daily Allowance: RDA.

Both posts provide a nice summary of RDA in Europe: making it happen! an EURIG-JSC seminar on RDA held on August 8, 2010 in Denmark.

New blog: all things cataloged

Just found a promising new blog: all things cataloged. Check out the latest post, Cataloging in the age of discovery systems. Words of wisdom for all those in LibraryLand de-emphasizing the importance of cataloging:

Discovery tools with search engine functionality are increasingly being introduced to replace traditional library OPACs. What does this mean for those creating or managing metadata, the catalogers? The role of catalogers gets more important, because however nifty the frond-end is, the underlying data has to be accurate to be useful and to enable findability, and this is even more true now than it was in the days of the OPAC. Catalogers thus have greater responsibility towards the user. Fill in fields correctly or not at all, but not carelessly – data has to be as reliable as possible for machine processing and for the display generated from it. Fields that seem insignificant today may be essential for tomorrow’s technology. We don’t create metadata just for current systems or tools, we also want it to be usable in the future that may yield possibilities we can’t yet foresee.

Insights from a cataloging trainer

Well, it's back-to-school and back-to-blog....

Note to self: never try to do a blog series. You may recall way back in July and August I was recommending some new cataloging blogs written by anonymous authors. Here's the last of this series: Metadata, cataloging, & various librarian-like stuff.

I guess this is really a semi-anonymous blog who's author is Carol. She's been writing the longest of the three since January 2010.

Carol mentions in her first post that as a full-time trainer she has the luxury to keep up on trends in the cataloging world during her work hours. Good for all us worker bees! So far, I've enjoyed reading her blog and look forward to more.

Catalogers, we get no respect!

The second anonymous cataloger I wanted to recommend is blogging at What's the point?

The author poses some interesting questions about the public persona of catalogers and cataloging. He or she argues that catalogers are not very good at advocating for themselves and suggests that we need to explain the value of cataloging to non-catalogers.

This blog is off to a good start and is definitely worth reading.

h/t Three Catalogers Walk Into a Blog