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The Metadata is the Interface: Better Description for Better Discovery of Archives and Special Collections,
Synthesized from User Studies
Jennifer Schaffner
Program Officer OCLC Research
About this Site and How to Use It:
This is a cooperative site originally created by James Weinheimer as an alternative to accepting RDA. The basic idea is to have a site where the current rules can continue to be updated. There are also the related Google Groups site, and the Blog. For more information, see the Official Announcement
Nice presentation on RDA from Rick J. Block, Head, Special Collections Metadata and Cataloging, Columbia University
Streamlining Book Metadata Workflow
by Judy Luther (Informed Strategies)
Abstract: 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.
Videos now available:
May 22-23, 2009
Milwaukee Central Library, Centennial Hall
Milwaukee, WI
Information organization (IO), like other major functions of the information profession, faces many ethical challenges. In the IO literature, ethical concerns have been raised with regard to, for example, the role of national and international IO standards, providing subject access to information, deprofessionalization and outsourcing of IO, education of IO professionals, and the effects of globalization. These issues, and others like them, have serious implications for quality and equity in information access. The Center for Information Policy Research and the Information Organization Research Group at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee join in presenting this conference to address the ethics of information organization.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Clare Beghtol, Professor
University of Toronto, Canada
José Augusto Chaves Guimarães, Professor
Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil
Janet Swan Hill, Professor, Associate Director for Technical Services, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, USA
"In a series of webcasts, Dr. Barbara Tillett, Chief, Policy and Standards Division of the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate, presents information about Resource Description and Access (RDA), the next generation cataloging code. Presentations currently available include one providing background and an overview of RDA, and one on the cataloging principles of RDA. Future presentations will focus on Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records (FRBR), Functional Requirements of Authority Data (FRAD), and the content and structure of RDA. "
A 3-part blog on the OCLC record-use policy and what steps we could take
Problem statement: Cultural heritage, bibliographic and archival communities use different controlled vocabularies for the resources that they manage. These controlled vocabularies may not be recognized by very diverse user communities, and ignored by large commercial information hubs and Internet search engines. Metadata needs to flow among diverse environments and reach users wherever they are. The semantic, hierarchical, and granular relationships in controlled vocabularies are often lost when retrieved outside the environment in which they were created.
Problem statement: Creating metadata that suits local needs, readily aggregates across communities, and is easily exposed to Internet search engines remains a costly enterprise. Metadata created by libraries, archives and museums is generally not available to the user communities that look first to Internet search engines. Although mapping data structures has become a commonplace solution to integrate descriptions, real interoperability across the libraries, archives and museums communities cannot be achieved without addressing differences of description at the data-content level.
Objective: Engage the RLG partnership in adapting descriptive practice to economic realities, user expectations, and the requirements of network-level services. Set new expectations for investing in metadata creation and maintenance, model attendant workflows, and facilitate the discovery of research institutions' resources by users wherever they are.
"Cataloger's Learning Workshop is a clearinghouse portal for cataloging and metadata training resources for information workers. The scope of Cataloger's Learning Workshop includes bibliographic information training in the context of formal library and information science degree programs, as well as continuing education for library practitioners. Cataloger's Learning Workshop is a cooperative project of the Library of Congress, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, and the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association.
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"Planet Cataloging is an automatically-generated aggregation of blogs related to cataloging and metadata"
A new blog on the future of cataloging.
"The focus of this blog is the future of cataloging and metadata in libraries. The preparation of the new cataloging code, RDA: Resource Description and Access, is a significant issue. The future of the MARC 21 format will also be explored. ILS/OPAC's future will be touch on also, but will not be the central focus. Also, I hope to use this blog to collocate some of the important papers, articles, websites, etc. that deal with the future of cataloging and metadata.
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