Cataloging Futures

Cataloging: what's the core?

Back in November we started using the project management system called Scrum for our work in Digital Collections. It requires that you work in designated time periods called "sprints" and at the end of each sprint you complete a deliverable product. Anyway, we've done four sprints, each in a two-week period, since then.

I really like this agile methodology and our digital team is adjusting to Scrum pretty well. But I've found it requires the same kind of intensity and focus that's also need for persistent blogging. So, blogging has gotten off-track at bit, but hopefully I can do a little catching up.

For starters, I really liked this post from last month by Roy Tennant: The Core of Bibliographic Description. Over the years, I've always been interested in this question of what are the core elements for bibliographic description. OCLC Research has been doing some evidence-based work in this area and the results are quite helpful.

RDA test, OCLC, and the opposing petition

Last month a Memorandum Against RDA Test was posted to the web and a call for signatures was put out on the cataloging discussion lists. As of this writing there are 298 signatures.

So, what's the complaint? There is concern that the RDA test records being input into the OCLC WorldCat database are going to cause problems for local libraries' cataloging workflows and systems.

There is particular concern about the authority records and the new headings created using RDA as the cataloging code instead of AACR2. People are concerned that the new headings being used in the test bibliographic records (when there is already an established AACR2 form) will cause a lot of conflict and, if RDA is implemented, a lot of authority changes will need to happen in local systems.

Since this is only a test that's adding a limited dataset in WorldCat, it does not seems like an insurmountable problem in the short run. If we're going to be practical when implementing RDA, however, we should just pick a date, stop using AACR2 rules to establish headings, and start using RDA rules for anything new. The problem the test has revealed (and why catalogers are so upset) is that it makes no sense to use new headings when, they argue, there's a perfectly good heading already established.

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."

Webinar: Implications of MARC tag usage on library metadata

The webinar to accompany the new MARC tag usage report is now available:

Implications of MARC Tag Usage on Library Metadata

In this webinar, some of the authors of the recently published report, Implications of MARC Tag Usage on Library Metadata Practices (.pdf), presented evidence gathered and analyzed by the RLG Partnership MARC Tag Usage Working Group to inform library metadata practices, with a focus on machine applications.

A transcript of the webinar chat (.pdf) is provided below as a supplement to the recordings.

Contact Karen Smith-Yoshimura with questions or comments.

•.pdf of webinar chat transcript (36.7K/4pp.)

•.wmv (65.3MB/1:00min.)

Found at the OCLC Research events webinar page.

New OCLC/RLG cataloging report on MARC tag usage

This new OCLC Research/RLG Partnership report looks like a must-read: Implications of MARC Tag Usage on Library Metadata Practices[pdf].

There will be a free webinar about this report on March 18th.

h/t TSLL TechScans

Cataloging conversation at Library 2.0 Gang

Don't miss the latest Library 2.0 Gang 11/09 podcast: The Cataloguing Services Landscape. Excellent discussion on a wide range of cataloging and metadata issues.

ONIX to MARC and back again: OCLC's Metadata Services for Publishers

Interesting metadata news! OCLC is now offering a program to enrich publishers' ONIX metadata, an XML metadata standard used by publishers.

OCLC now offers Metadata Services for Publishers, a new service that takes publishers' ONIX title metadata, enriches it using WorldCat mining and mapping techniques, and delivers the enhanced ONIX metadata back to the publishers for use in their systems. The publishers' enhanced metadata is then made available early in the data creation process to libraries for use in selection, acquisition and technical services workflows. Information seekers also benefit from Web discovery of this metadata via WorldCat.org, the Web destination for discovery of library resources.

OCLC also offers Contract Cataloging for Publishers.

OCLC Contract Cataloging for Publishers is another service that creates MARC records using publishers' electronic title data as a starting point. OCLC offers cataloging solutions for publishers and vendors that need to provide MARC records to libraries. More information about OCLC services for publishers can be found on the Web site.

If you want to learn more about this, check out the ALA Midwinter 2009 program, From ONIX to MARC and Back Again: New Frontiers in Metadata Creation at OCLC. It's a very informative presentation by Renee Register of OCLC. Her description of the crosswalking of ONIX to MARC and MARC to ONIX illustrates exciting possibilities for ehanced, enriched metadata creation if libraries and publishers work together. Renee respectfully emphasizes the intellectual contribution of both publisher and library metadata creators.

SkyRiver bibliographic utility to compete with OCLC

Interesting cataloging development. Take a look at Marshall Breeding's Library Journal article, New Company SkyRiver Sparks Cataloging Competition with OCLC.

A new company called SkyRiver has launched a bibliographic utility, directly challenging long-dominant OCLC. Over the last 18 years, strategic acquisitions by OCLC have narrowed competition, but SkyRiver—founded by Jerry Kline, the owner and co-founder of Innovative Interfaces—aims to expand the market and offer an alternative bibliographic utility for cataloging that could save libraries up to 40 percent off their expenditures for bibliographic services.

Notice that "quality" will be one of the hallmarks of this new service.

SkyRiver will kick off with an initial database of about 20 million records, in contrast to some 144 million claimed by OCLC’s WorldCat bibliographic database. This seed collection includes complete record sets from the Library of Congress and the British Library, and has Library of Congress Subject Headings and NACO authority records. It will grow through the current cataloging performed by librarians, receiving newly cataloged records from both libraries that participate directly in its service and others.

According to Kline and SkyRiver president Leslie Straus, the service will compete on quality, not on the size of its bibliographic database alone. They say the initial database has been populated with high-quality MARC records, omitting substandard, skeletal records that often confound cataloging processes. [emphasis added]

New NISO/OCLC report: Streamlining book metadata workflow

I just started this one, but can already tell it's a must-read.

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and OCLC Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) have just issues this white paper: Streamlining Book Metadata Workflow[pdf].

The white paper was commissioned by NISO and OCLC as a follow-up to the Symposium for Publishers and Librarians held by OCLC on March 18-19, 2009 to discuss book metadata. This paper analyzes the current state of metadata creation, exchange, and use throughout the book supply chain. With the number of book formats multiplying and the amount of digital content growing rapidly, the metadata required to support the discovery, sale, and use of content by a global audience is increasing exponentially. At the same time economic pressures on all stakeholders in the supply chain from publishers, wholesalers, booksellers, metadata vendors, and librarians present greater challenges to providing quality and comprehensive metadata at every point in the cycle. Through interviews with over 30 industry representatives, Luther has created a book metadata exchange map illustrating the process and has identified opportunities for eliminating redundancies and making the entire process more efficient.

OCLC record use policy: important updates

May 11, 2009: The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) issued their Statement on the Proposed OCLC Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records.

May 18, 2009: OCLC Review Board on Shared Data Creation and Stewardship reported to the OCLC Members Council and advised that the proposed policy be withdrawn and a new policy be developed.