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Showing posts from 2016

Metadata Update # 35 Change and the Future of Libraries

I've noticed that there has been a lot of talk lately about the future of libraries.  The idea that a profession would think and talk about where they are going and what changes will occur is nothing new.  What does seem to be remarkable in the last year or so is that there is a more formalized movement to understand and start to map out that future.  For example, I recently spent some time reading the information on the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries website ( http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/future ).  While the blog, articles and other resources collected up on this web page appear to be just starting to pick up steam, the fact that this Center exists at all is an indicator of the growing interest in the future direction of libraries.  In addition, the San Jose State iSchool annual world wide virtual conference (mini-conferences are being tested this year) has the topic of "Libraries of the Future" http://www.library20.com/ .  It seems that the more tha

Metadata Update #34 - Remembering Mac Elrod and a Life-Long Love of Cataloguing

For the last few months my blog has taken some different twists and turns.   In reality, I have felt quite overwhelmed by my workload and other aspects of my personal life that it has been a challenge for me to focus on the types of things I would typically write about in this blog.   In fact, some days it’s hard to concentrate on anything at all.   The recent passing of well-known cataloguer Mac Elrod has lead me to do more reflection on how what we write online can be read by more people than we could ever imagine and can impact individuals and the profession in ways that we will never know.   I have also spent some time wondering about why it is that some people carry such a deep interest and love for their work which even advanced age and failing eyesight have difficulty diminishing. For those who follow any of the many cataloguing and metadata listservs, the name Mac Elrod will likely be at least familiar.   Years ago I followed the famous/infamous “autocat” listserv and th

Metadata Update #33 - Responses to Upate #32 and more reflections

It’s been 3 weeks since I posed Update #32.    I’ve had a surprising amount email and other feedback since then.    Update #32 came as close to going viral as anything I’ll likely ever write….   It got shared on a number of social media sites, including some that were previously unknown to me.    There were some interesting discussions to be had.   However, most of the comments weren’t posted on my blog but came to me via email, took the form of in-person discussions or were made on social media websites where the post was shared.   Of course, the email sent directly to me was by and large highly supportive and/or contained details of similar experiences reported by other librarians.   The social media discussions displayed greater variety of opinions.    I’ve found the latter to be particularly useful in sorting out the bigger picture of where my own experience fits on the spectrum of what is happening in libraries elsewhere.   It’s hard to summarize all of what I read but I can

Metadata Update #32 - Reflections on the status of the metadata librarian

Ever since I had the chance to change my focus in library work 8 years ago, I wanted to be where the action was.   I had spent many years working in public services and had enjoyed doing reference work in the era before people Googled everything.   However, when the reference desk started to get quiet, I knew that it was time to move on.   I didn’t know where I was going to but I knew that I was going to go to a place where I was needed and could help to be part of building whatever the future would be.   I kept my mind open to opportunities and felt that I likely would work in the area of electronic resources or electronic information in general.   When an opportunity came up to develop my skills in the area of cataloguing and metadata librarianship, I jumped on it.   At the time it made sense to me that if people want to do most of their searching for themselves, we have to have better and more agile metadata than we did at the time and I wanted to be part of the movement that wo

Metadta update # 31 FRBR and a World Wide Metadata Collaboration

When I was at ALA MidWinter 2015, I attended the FRBR Interest Group meeting which was discussing the topic of whether or not FRBR was dead.   At the meeting, it was revealed that while some felt that BIBFRAME supersedes the FRBR model and makes it irrelevant, there are others who feel that FRBR is an essential model for teaching RDA and linked data concepts (at least as it relates to library data) as well as for using "cataloguer's judgement".  I tend to fall into the latter category of librarians.  At the end of the meeting, the conclusion was that the interest group should not fold and that FRBR still lives - although it is need of updating and enriching. I attended the same interest group meeting at Midwinter 2016 to find another discussion of FRBR and the new Library Reference Model (LRM).  As it turns out, some attendees were aware the LRM had been released a few months earlier but nobody who spoke seemed to be knowledgeable about the document contents beyond bein

Metadata Update #30 Pollution vs. Perfection - why trying to get the metadata right is a challenge

Wow, time sure goes fast.   No wonder I got behind in writing my posts in the last year or so.   Now I have a bit list of topics which I have intended to write about but never got around to, some of which have since become irrelevant.   So, a few are easy to cross off the list. There’s one topic which I see has been mentioned in some form more than once on the list.   As I was making an attempt to preview the April updates to the RDA Toolkit, I realized that I had not yet looked at the February 2016 updates.   (for those of you who want to check-out the April changes, they are found here:   http://www.rda-rsc.org/sites/all/files/RDA-changes-2015-proposals.pdf ).   As I got over various twinges of frustration at my realization that I remain forever behind in reading the updates, I was reminded of the theme that I had found running across the various possible blog topics I had listed.   This theme was essentially the challenge of keeping up with things in times of change.   It defi

Metadata Update # 29 - Strings Versus Things

Strings versus things – this is a common debate/discussion in cataloging circles lately.   The idea that a string of text which represents or describes something is more difficult to construct and less versatile relative to an assigned code which can be mapped to represent the “thing” is not a new idea. The reality is that there is a long tradition of “string creation” in the realm of library metadata.   The science of creating metadata for libraries had its origin in a time before the invention of electronic computers.   The earliest metadata was recorded by human beings on paper or in a paper-based location; coded using human language; and read and interpreted directly by the human eye.   Humans read and can readily make sense of words and sentences.   Words and sentences are made up of strings of text.   In order to make sense of the strings of text, they are typically organized in a certain way (e.g. ISBD).    When the MARC standard was developed in the late 1960s, it was built

Metadata Update #28 - Identifiers, 3 years later

Way back in Metadata Update #13 (Feb 14 2013 http://donnaefrederick.blogspot.ca/2013/02/metadata-update-13-identifiers.html ), I spoke briefly about the role and importance of identifiers in online electronic information.   Three years later, it has proven that the talk about identifiers wasn’t a splash in the pan. They were the talk of the town at ALA Midwinter once again.   As libraries experimented with BIBFRAME and moved from BF 1.0 to BF 2.0 and linked data work moved from the theoretical LD4L to the practical LD4P, certain things about library data and the wider information environment, things that we have “sort of known” for a long time, have gradually started to come into much clearer focus and we are starting to understand what they really mean for the day to day work of creating and managing metadata.   One of those “things” is the importance of identifiers. Libraries have long made use of the concept of controlled vocabularies where a single word, phrase or form of a

Metadata Update #27 - Key messages from ALA

It's been a little over a month since I was at ALA Midwinter in Boston and I've been thinking about the key messages that I came away with this year.  I don't think that there is any question that there was a lot of talk about "strings v things" and the increasing importance of "identities".  However, what were the bigger messages?  I did have to take my time and think through the issues and discussions!  There was a lot to consider.  In the end, this is what I concluded: 1)  Libraries have talked about modernizing their metadata, replacing MARC and entering the global information environment for a very long time.  Now we are actually doing it.  It is real, things are happening.  You don't even have to look too long to find evidence of it - if you know what you know where and how to look. 2)  Libraries have used the same models and concepts for a very long time and have massive amounts of metadata which reflect the traditional way of thinking abou