A Has-Been Cataloger Looks at What Cataloging

Will Be … (after her next retirement)

Diane I. Hillmann Director of Metadata Initiatives

Information Institute of Syracuse

Converging Trends

  More catalogers work at a support staff level than as professional librarians

  More cataloging records are selected by machines

  More catalog records are being captured from publisher data or other sources

  More updating of catalog records is done via batch processes

  Libraries continue to de-emphasize processing of secondary research products (books & serials) in favor of unique, primary materials

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What Are Our Choices?

Door #1 Door #2 6/29/08 ALA 2008 Anaheim

Behind Door #1

The Extinction Model 6/29/08 ALA 2008 Anaheim

Behind Door #2

The Retooling Model

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How It’s Done

  Extinction

  Keep cranking about how nobody appreciates us

  Assert over and over that we’re already doing everything right—why should we change?

  Adopt a “Chicken Little” approach to envisioning the future

  Retooling

  Consider what catalogers already do—and what they will need to do—and map the training needed to get from one to the other

  Look for support for retraining at many levels

  Find a new job title

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How About THIS New Job Title?

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What Catalogers Do   Operate within the boundaries of detailed standards

  Descriptive levels pre-defined

  Granularity level of description pre-determined

  Vocabularies largely pre-determined

  Items described one-at-a-time

  Items intended to fit carefully within a specific application (“the catalog”)

  Ignore the rest of the world of information

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What Metadata Librarians Do

  Think about descriptive data without pre-conceptions around descriptive level, granularity or descriptive vocabularies

  Consider the entirety of the discovery and access issues around a set or collection of materials

  Consider users and uses beyond an individual service when making data design decisions

  Leap tall buildings in a single bound

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The New Metadata Librarian

• Aware of changing user needs

• Understands the evolving information environment

• Works collaboratively with technical staff

• Familiar with all metadata formats and encoding standards

• Seeks out tall buildings

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The Cataloger Skill Set

  AACR2, LC Rule interpretations, LCSH guidelines

  MARC 21

  Name authority creation guidelines

  ILS vendor specific formats, guidelines, and work-arounds

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The Metadata Librarian Skill Set

  Views data as collections, sets, streams:

  Familiar with a variety of metadata formats (DC, VRA Core, MODS, etc.)

  Understands basics of data encoding (XML, RDF, etc.), but is generally NOT a programmer

  Understands the various ways that data can be created (by humans and/or machines) and manipulated (crosswalked, augmented)

  Approaches the task as designing data to “play well with others”—no matter its origin or provenance

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Characteristics of Our New World

  No more “Integrated Library Systems”

  Bibliographic utilities are unlikely to be the “central node” for all data

  Creation of metadata will become far more decentralized

  Nobody knows how this will all shake out

  But: Metadata Librarians will critical in forging solutions

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Disintegrated Library Systems

  All metadata will not be managed in and delivered from one central store

  Discovery is the first function that is being disaggregated from the ILS—there will be others

  Metadata may be managed in a variety of databases, structures and systems (some will be content management systems, not optimized for metadata)

  Discovery mechanisms may draw from a multitude of data stores

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Role of Bibliographic Utilities

  Optimized to be the “middleman” of the traditional data sharing system

  Currently limited to handling MARC data, not sure whether or when that will change (RDA will be the first challenge)

  New services are contemplated, but most are not finalized

  The push to open web data is a distinct challenge to the hegemony of the bibliographic utility

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New Models of Creation

 All data will not be created by librarians

  Some will originate from machine processes

  Some will originate from users or user activities

 Metadata Librarians will shift from creating data to managing, improving and distributing data

 Multiple metadata services will emerge to assist in maintenance and improvement strategies

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New Models of Distribution

  Traditionally we exchanged only with one another through bibliographic utilities

  If the Web is now our platform, we need to exchange data based on a more open model

  We’ll need to avoid commoditizing DATA, instead encourage our organizations to base their business model on building necessary SERVICES

  Broader use of OAI-PMH is a good start towards opening data beyond applications and “bespoke” portals

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More On Open Data

  Nobody knows how rich our data is unless we make it fully available

  Without open data we cannot adequately compete as data providers

  Disabling our data to control re-use outside established channels disables US in the eyes of the rest of the Web

  Promoting a climate of innovation requires that data be easily available for newly developed improvement services

  Promoting innovation is essential for us as we seek to participate in the information commons

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Let Us Chill Thanks for your attention!

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