Australian Committee on Cataloguing State Library of Queensland

September 7, 2007Karen Calhoun

On Competition for Cataloguers

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 2

Miles Franklin, 1879-1954Author ofMy Brilliant Career

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 3

30+ Years of Technological Advances in Technical Services

MARC Record

Ohio College Library Center (OCLC)

Online cooperative cataloging

Local library systems

The Internet

Digital Libraries

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 4

Early 21st Century Technical Services LandscapeBibliographic

Control & Metadata

Desktop (TS Workstation)

Data Management

The Web

New sources/types of records

Network, hardware and software administration

Relational Data Management

Authoring

New workflows Transitions to new library systems (Windows, Web

clients)

SQL: queries and reports

Publishing

New metadata standards

Macros; impt. of ergonomics

More data manipulation, less

data entry

Web site organization and

management E-resources and digital collections

Growing number of applications

Global change Digital library management

systems

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 5

My Report to the Library of Congress Calhoun, Karen. The Changing Nature

of the catalogue and its Integration with Other Discovery Tools Washington, DC: Library of Congress,

March 17 2006 http://www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-fin

al.pdf

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 6

My Thesis: We Need to Rethink the Catalogue in Light of a Changed World

Research indicates the catalogue is hard to use

Content has changed Users have changed The library service model must

change The catalogue must change

WHO?

WHAT?

HOW?

WHERE?

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 7

Library catalogues, cataloguing, and cataloguers

MARC, AACR, and LC Cooperative

cataloguing Affordability and

scalability More than descriptive

metadata Metadata is a strategic

issue for libraries

“Save the time of the reader.”--S.R. Ranganathan, 1931

Affordability and Scalability

Expense of cataloguingRapid growth of Web resources and digital assetsNeed more than descriptive metadataInteroperability issues

Competition for Resources to Develop New Library Services

Shrinking tech services departmentsStreamlining tech services workflowsIncreasing use of external sources of data; automated cataloguing methods

Changes in Information-Seeking Behavior

Preference for online informationReliance on simple keyword searchDecline of subject searchingExpectation of seamless linking

Table 1: Challenges Facing Traditional cataloguing

Availability of Catalogue Librarians

In U.S.:LIS grads not choosing cataloguingGraying of the library profession (demographics)

Significance of the Catalogue

Catalogue is one part of a much larger infosphereMany new types of scholarly information objects not covered by catalogue

Future of Individual Library Catalogues

Less emphasis on one catalogue per libraryShift toward multiple catalogues appearing as one catalogue; shared catalogues; cataloguing or indexing interwoven into the Web (e.g., Google Scholar, Open WorldCat, Libraries Australia)

Table 1, Continued: Challenges Facing Traditional cataloguing

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 10

Being a 21st Century Librarian Starting points:

Technology-driven research, teaching and learning

Disintermediation (decrease in guided access to content)

Global “infosphere” Accelerating shift in information seekers’

preferences for Web-based information and multimedia formats

Librarianship: “There are few professions whichcontribute so much to the saving of time and tothe progress of science.” –Library Journal, 1890

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 11

Geocentric/Aristotelian view:The local catalogue is thesun

Heliocentric/Copernican view:The local catalogueis a planet

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 12

A New Kind of Cataloguer

Start by examining assumptions

Information objects of all types

Make collections more visible and easier to use

http://vivo.library.cornell.edu/

What is “Full”?Examining Assumptions

+ 3 more screens

ProductDescription& PurchaseInformationMore like this

EditorialReviews &Author Info

Inside theBookTags, RatingsCustomerReviewsListsMore

With thanks to David Lankes: http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/Presentations/2007/ALCTS.pdf

BibliographicInformation

Library HoldingsDetailsSubjectsEditionsReviews

BibliographicInformation

AustralianLibrary Holdings

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 14

Opportunities for “New Age” Cataloguers

Metadata recycling and reuse

•Leadership•Project management•Workflow analysis and

quality improvement

AND MORE!

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 15

The Continuing Importance of Books

Books and serials are not dead, and they are not yet digital

ARL libraries spent the lion’s share of US$665 million on books and serials in 2004

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 16

The Rise of Special Collections and Archives

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 17

Digitization Projects

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 18

A New Way to Work

“Instead of being a hoarder of containers, thelibrary must become the facilitator of retrievaland dissemination.”—William Wulf, 2003

Blakeley, Daniel H.

Cornell Center for Materials Research Facility Staff page

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 19

Library Collections on the Network

Library must be where the users’ eyes are Interconnections, interoperability, and

information delivery Offsite storage and the challenge to

browsing Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships Much more robust and interconnected

discovery and content delivery systems

“2 ½ cheers for Google.”--Paul Duguid, May 5 2003, Cornell University

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 20

Picture Australia

Libraries Australia: A World of Information

ORAL HISTORIES

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 22

Libraries Australia, CBS and WorldCat

1 July 2007 All Libraries Australia subscribers Access to WorldCat for cataloguing Search access for end users Governing members of OCLC http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustr

alia/questions.html#oclc

LibrariesAustraliaTeratext

LibrariesAustralia

CBS

LOG

PUSH

SRU UPDATE M21

WorldCat identifiers,FRBR work id

WorldCat

SRU UPDATE

Synchronization: A Case Studyof Metadata Exchange and Reuse

Increasing investment in access systems

Help build new kinds of systems for IR and delivery; many new kinds of metadata; emphasis on re-use, interconnections, interoperability

Active participation in the university community

Blurring of lines between what has been public services and technical services; project and team-based workplaces; involvement in constituents’ projects and digital asset management; consulting work; decreasing involvement in traditional cataloguing duties

Technology-driven research, teaching and learning

Need for “IT fluency,” esp. metadata specialists; increasing involvement in large-scale digital library research, development, and production projects

Table 2 : Forecasts and Implications for Metadata Specialists

Disintermediation and user self-sufficiency

Catalogue librarians have always served those who want to work autonomously; metadata specialists will also enhance ease of use through expertise in indexing, data organization and management, access vocabularies, taxonomies, ontologies, etc. Rising need for understanding of visualization and other techniques to support browsing. Increasing use of metadata for linking of wide array of information objects

Global infosphere, Web-based information, and multimedia

Metadata specialists will develop/lobby for standards and best practices, but proliferation of systems and object types will continue; continued need for integrating frameworks and interoperability tools

Table 2 Continued: Forecasts and Implicationsfor Metadata Specialists

September 2007 Calhoun - ACOC Conference 26

Thank You! Being a Librarian: Metadata and

Metadata Specialists in the Twenty-first Century

Library Hi Tech, v25 n2 (Summer 2007) Preprint 17 December 2004 http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/handle/181

3/2231