RDA and FRBR: Next Bib things in Cataloging

When Library of Congress librarian Barbara B. Tillett speaks about RDA & FRBR she talks about saving time, sharing information ("interfilable and usable"), and serving the user better at the international level. Emphasis is on changing the terminology and simplifing the concepts. New elements will effect MARC21, especially the GMDs (material descriptions).

July-September 2008 - Draft due to be available.
Early 2009- First release
View/listen to a 3-minute demo of RDA Online: http://www.rdaonline.org

RDA (Resource Description and Access) will:

• replace AACR2
• simplify cataloging code
• encourage worldwide use
• provide consistency
• address current problems with types of materials
• be principle-based
• support FRBR
• be web-based ("not linear, but a we-tool")
• be multinational
• enable users
• uses "take what you see" approach

AACR2 uses old terminology and does not include the concepts for moving into a more electronic world.

Why present these standards? Because in the real world, what has been known as "cataloging" is being done by authors, publishers, students, etc. It is not all MARC21, but we need to use other schemas.

See Drafts and Docuements: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rda.html

• Informal discussion: subscribe to RDA-L
• Formal comments: http://www.ala.org/ALCTS

FRBR (Fundamental Requirements for Bibliographic Records) is a thorough examination of anything that might ever be cataloged by thinking in terms of:

• work
• expressions
• manifestions
• items

FRBR User Tasks, which are the reasons people use libraries:

• Find
• Identify
• Select
• Obtain

Change is coming. Stay tuned.

Future of MARC: Challenges and opportunities of 21st century cataloging

Dr. William E. Moen, SLIS, Univ. of North Texas

Presentation will be available on the MLA website after the conference.

We'd better be showing our value to our users. What services do we need to provide in order to keep us from becomming marginalized.

Focus on the methods - what we don't want to do is to expose our really complex structures to our users. Don't need to know - we will marginalize ourselves even more if we insist on telling out users how these systems work.

Discussion is only partially about MARC

broader digital info landscape
oops - slide changed!

Catalogs are limited in light of all sorts of other resource discovery tools that are out there. if we don't accept this, we are not placing oursleves effectively in the market.

What do we mean when we say MARC?
>>>structural elements of the format - this may go away in favor of mark up language

>>>Metadata scheme as defined by MARC 21
Fields, subfields, indicators and their semantics.

Approaching MARC's future
>requirements for a record format / metatadata scheme

>Resonding to recent developments

>Looking at empirical data.

Thinking about requirements

what metadata scheme is appropriate? Granularity - lossless data mapping - don't want to lose the finer shades of meaning intrinsic to the original data. XML will be the basis for this
Transparency

McCallum/s 10 format attribures of MARC forward
XML
Granularity
Versatility
Extensibility
Modularity
Hierarch support
Crosswalks
Tools
Cooperative management
Pervasive

AT ALA 2007 there will be a program on furture of marc

Recent developments
FRBR - conceptural model for the bibliographic universe, according to Barbara Tillett
The aim of the frbr study was to produce a framework that would provide a clear, precistly stated understanding of bibliogrpahic info.

frbr model
entity-relationship modeling

what is it that the bib record aims to be about
User tasks - what is it that we expect the record to achieve in terms of answering user needs?
Find? Identify? Select? Obtain?

frbr is having an amazing impact on catalogs - new terminology and conceptural modes incorporated in
RDA
Statement on cataloging principles

Assisting in understandning better the range of relationships in the bib universe

Implementation in catalogs to improve user experience.

Next generation of description
RDA - Resouce description and access
Focus on guidelines fo rcontent creation
Separation from syntax or record format

move in RDA to be totally separate from record format.

Grassroots effort to address next generation loibrary catalog and data format (wikis for example)

Key development - use of the term metadata. how do we link up with other sources of metadata, commercial, museum descriptions, etc. We need to acknowledge that we don't have enough catalogers in the world to mark up everything that is good out there. We need to learn to accept metadata from other sources.

What do catalogers actually do with the MARC record?
a record is an artifact that can be examined. it's a result of the cataloging enterprise and includes loads of decisions that were made as to history of description in your library.
ou follow rules, standards, encode it in a MARC structure. MARC is very rich; it has over 2000 data structures. How do we use all of these? Is the richness exploited? There are about 500 places within MARC that can hold author/title info!

Did an analyis - 4% of all fields used accounted for 80% of occurences
96% of all fields acount for only 20% of occurrences

Dr.Moen did a project called MCDU (MARC content designation utilization)
Looked at the artifiact created and look at what is used, not used, how fields are used. Used the entire world cat database of over 56 million records. Set up a procedure to take apart the bib records in a mySQL databaswe. Needed to break down the records so they could meaningfully look at all parts of the records. Divided into LC records and non LC records. Separated out records by item type because some MARC tags are relevant only to the type of material they dscribe. See the slide presentation on the MLA website for details on the findings of this study.
Lots and lots of fields not used regulary. 16 fields are used commonly across all 10 formats. they are the usual ones 020, 050, 082, 100, 245, etc. Use this info to develop a core of kinds of info that is the most useful

Trying to conceptualize a change in trends of utilization

This report will be published within the next couple of months.

To consider -whatis needed in a bib record? What is needed to support user tasks? Management of info resources? How do systems use the infrequently used data. What do we do about the 62% of all fields used in less that 1% of all records in OCLC WorldCat? Coding has to be done to prepare for these little used fields.

We need to rethink MARC in light of value? How can we justify the high cost of MARC? What is a 'real good' MARC record? How can we deal with the shrinking budgets if we are focus on this highly priced format? There are lots of metadata schemes; MARC won't be one of the choices!

Questions

What is the next step in the decision making process - in that 62% of fields used in 1% of records - who will decide if these should be kept or not? Who will make the decision?

Dr.Moen is doing these presentations, trying to get the info out to the community and the cataloging rules people. Start by looking at your own cataloging practices. To what extent do you use certain fields. Hopes for an open discussion even thoough we might not have a vote on the national level. Dr. Moen would like to 'freeze marc' right at this point so it can be further examined.

Question - can you map your commonly used fields to dublin core

Yes, can be done.

"Focus on the needs that they meet, not the methods that they use."

That quote from Karen Calhoun, in her presentation On Competition for Catalogs and Catalogers.

Some notes from her talk this morning:

Rethink the catalog in light of a changed world: the current model is broken.

• Users not getting what they want
• Content has changed, users have changed
• Library service model must change
• Catalog must change, and cataloging must change

Disintermediation: decrease in guided access to content; users are more self-sufficient
How do we save users' time in this new arena, when the service model is not longer library-centric?
Shift in user preferences for Web-based info & multimedia formats

Popularity of digital resources as primary sources (e.g. Valley of the Shadow, http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/)

Social networks can fulfill information needs (e.g. LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/)

"Catalogers have been through hell in the past ten years."

A new kind of cataloger:

• examines assumptions
• involved w/ all types of info objects
• moves to next gen systems & services
• make info more visible and easier to use
• metadata and beyond

Focus on the needs of particular disciplines & communities
Example: http://vivo.library.cornell.edu - both a resource portal (through a curated index) and social networking site for life sciences at Cornell
(Blogger's note: this looks like a great resource!)

Opportunities for cataloging and catalogers:

• More digitization --> more full-text search --> more metadata. Metadata recycling & reuse will be crucial.
• Digitization projects are an opportunity for catalogers
• Archives and special collections are on the rise; there's likely to be "a ton of work" for interested catalogers

Increasing visibility of collections and services

• We need to be where our users' eyes are; their eyes aren't on library webpages
• Offsite storage as a challenge to browsing
• Partnerships
• Robust, interconnected discovery & content delivery systems

Metadata is a strategic issue, yet 'library-type' metadata will need to be reexamined

Blurring of lines between public services & technical services

For more on this topic, check out the forthcoming piece in Library Hi Tech - Being a Librarian: Metadata and Metadata Specialists in the Twenty-first Century: http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/2231

Karen's report to the LOC: www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf

On competittion for catalogs and catalogers

Karen Calhoun - how cool it is that MLA Tech. Services got Karen here to speak. I went to the NETSL annual conpsyched ference in April and her report was a main topic of conversation. I'm really psyched to be able to hear her talk. I'll try to do it justice here

Karen's presentation will be on the MLA web site after the conference - go look at it - it's been great!

Report name: Changing nature of the catalog and its integration with other discovery tools

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf

Report has been controversial. KC will talk about why
Users are anot getting what they need from online libraries and catalogs
contect has changed
users have changed
library service model must change
catalog itself MUST change
implication - Cataloging MUST change

KC is doing a review of how we used to work - very divided among types of jobs. No longer relevant.

Being a 21st century librarian:
Technology driven research, teaching and learning
Disinntermediation (decrease in guided access to content)
Global 'infosphere'
Accelerating shift in information seekers' preferences for web-based information and multimedia formats.

Our current service mode is Geocentric - local catalog is the sun. New model is Heliocentric - local catalog is a planet. New is a use centered view rather than a library centered view.

Social networks - competition to catalogs. Next widespread network is "linked in" for business communities. These are not compatible with library catalogs. in april there were 5.8 million second life users. second life library and info island are 2 library related worlds within second life.

what we think of as cataloging has to change. Catalogers must change, too.
KC says that catalogers are the most flexible folks in the library profession - downsizing, local systems, constant rebuilding of serials checkins, batcholads, macros, etc. metadata, moving to offsite storage. Continue through all this to crank out the books and othermaterials that users demand.
Are we ready for the NEXT phase???????

A new kind of cataloger:
Examines assumptions
Be involved with information objects of all types
Move to next generation systems and services
Make info (inc. but not limted to library collections) more visible and easier to use
Metadata and beyond

Talking about Vivo at Cornel. http://vivo.library.cornell.edu/
Metadata pushed to the limit and even further

2% of students begin their information searches on their library web sites! the other 98% start with a web browser. Is this a crisis or an opportunity for librarians?


digitization projects are becomming more and more important - archival collections are becomming more important. Many libarians will begin to spend money on these. Catalogers need to learn about archives to reposnd to this.

A new way to work - Instead of being a hoarder of contations, the library muyst become the facilitator of retrieval and dissemination - William Wulf, 2003

Save the time of the reader - 4th law of Ranganathan, 1931.
Metadata - Cooperative cataloging - great time saver but geting more and more expensive. Metadata is a strategic issue for libraries. Library type metadata needs to be changed and this cannot be ignored.

Please see slides 24, 25 on the MLA web site - lots of info - too much to get down here.

Catalogers have accomplished much in the past successfully, but there is a danger of myopia in
the profession now. The catalog is not the only valid way to describe collections.

Slides 26, 27 talk about the future of the job of 'cataloging'. May not be called catalogers anymore - maybe metadata specialists. Lots of bluring of lines between public and technical services. Lots of team work that cross traditional lines. Great need for info technology knowledge.

See Library Hi Tech, v. 25, no2. Preprint 17 December 2004
Being a librarian: metadata and metadata specialists in the twenty-first century.

http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/2231

Karen's remarks today taken from this article.

Questions -
Is VIVO a public site?
Answer - Yes


Interesting that only 2% of students start with the library web site. However, it has been observed that 95% of librarians begin with a search engine, too.

Answer Karen agrees - important to look in the 'personalities' why people search how they search.

Question about metadata standards and what other kinds of skills and knowledge to future catalogers need.

Answer Reuse of metadata - stuf that comes from outside the library that we reuse - need to know how to do that. Workflow analysis and quality improvement (see slide 17 on the right hand side for an example) . People who can look at the big picture

Question about controlled headings - where is it going
LCSH - we can do better. If we can create tools that would link with LCSH and create an algorithmic approach that would be more creative. Move our approach away from one record at a time. Cataloging theory is becomming more relevant now that our 'tools' are expanding. Tradtional forms need to connect with new forms.

Comment - please get rid of 'Cookery'!

Question - What can Karen suggest as to how to train people who are working in cataloging right now to use metadata.

Answer - there are classes to be taken, but if you do that and come back and not use it of course you forget it. See article - Digital Collections on a shoestring. Try to find something in your library that you can digitize. try to figure out how to do something!

Comment: The mindset of metadata specialists - want to do the absolute best job - too often using blinkers and not looking at the process from beginning to end. Start at the beginning and work up to the 'handcrafted' best. Think of the process as a continuum to build up your skills. This is often a team based project - metadata specialst, librarian, IT.

Comments - we still are going to have to run the back end of things - ILL, patron links, all that functionality of the ILS, the behind the scenes management back ends. How will we link up to allthese back end workings?

This was a GREAT program. Thanks to MLA Tech.Services Section for getting it together.