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.

 

"This new report summarizes the findings of research conducted by OCLC on what constitutes quality in library online catalogs from both end users' and librarians' points of view. Key findings:

* The end user's experience of the delivery of wanted items is as important, if not more important, than his or her discovery experience.
* End users rely on and expect enhanced content including summaries/abstracts and tables of contents.
* An advanced search option (supporting fielded searching) and facets help end users refine searches, navigate, browse and manage large result sets.
* Important differences exist between the catalog data quality priorities of end users and those who work in libraries.
* Librarians and library staff, like end users, approach catalogs and catalog data purposefully. End users generally want to find and obtain needed information; librarians and library staff generally have work responsibilities to carry out. The work roles of librarians and staff influence their data quality preferences.
* Librarians' choice of data quality enhancements reflects their understanding of the importance of accurate, structured data in the catalog."

 

Summary:
The WorldCat Special Collections and Archives Task Force final report includes an executive summary with four major recommendations. Specific issues identified by the task force are prioritized as high, medium, and lower significance. A separate group of problems with data was
also identified.

This response to the report begins with background on the task force and then treats each major and specific recommendation. OCLC provides a timeline for development or other activity for all the major recommendations and nine of the fourteen specific recommendations (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 12). The timelines range from April 2009 into the future. Two recommendations (numbers 6 and 9) have been assigned problem reports to be investigated and resolved as part of monthly maintenance. Two recommendations (numbers 11 and 14) have no OCLC action, as the system is working as designed. Recommendation 13 has been fixed.

 

"The WorldCat Local (WCL) Special Collections Task Force was convened by OCLC to make recommendations to improve discovery of special collections and archival materials in local implementations of WCL."

"Scholarly Information Practices in the Online Environment: Themes from the Literature and Implications for Library Service Development" by Carole L. Palmer, Lauren C. Teffeau and Carrie M. Pirmann.

"This report provides an expert review of the burgeoning literature on disciplinary research behaviors, synthesizes findings from decades of research on scholarly information practices and identifies key implications for libraries.

It was commissioned by OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership to increase awareness of the diverse evidence base on this topic and to stimulate further reflection on its importance for the research library community."

 

KAren Calhoun's blog on the new OCLC policy

"The goal of the terminologies services meeting was to determine which components of a terminologies service the participants (drawn from the RLG Programs partnership and representing a wide range of different communities and roles) find the most compelling. Desired meeting outcomes included a list of the most important features and use-cases in order to help prioritize efforts of RLG Programs and OCLC Research in this area of work."