Knowledge organization standards are important community artifacts that set forth agreed upon specifications and protocols, and though they may appear neutral they have been shown to harbor specific perspectives. These perspectives are often covert but hold implications for the ways in which knowledge is conceptualized, organized, and represented. Values are deeply held preferences for ways of acting and ways of being, and represent an effective lens for examining the perspectives embedded in societal practices and artifacts. To date, however, knowledge organization standards have not been approached through formal value analysis. This study addresses this gap through an examination of the influential library standard Resource Description and Access (RDA), specifically focusing on what values are present within this standard, how these values are communicated, and how they are recognized and responded to by practitioners. To address these questions, a qualitative, exploratory, multiphase study was conducted, utilizing value and rhetorical analyses of the text of RDA as well as open-ended interviews with RDA practitioners focused on their interpretations of the document. Findings show that RDA upholds its design principles through the expression of principles-based values and values associated with user needs, communicated through a set of routine structures such as directives and conditionals. In their usage of RDA, catalogers place greater emphasis on values associated with users and their perspectives, and see access as the most important value within this standard. At the same time, the relative absence of asserted community values such as privacy and autonomy illustrates the challenged nature of human values in knowledge organization standards. Findings from this study demonstrate the integral nature of values in standards, and position value analysis as a useful methodology in the critical study of standards in all domains. For the knowledge organization and cultural heritage communities, this work reveals the ways in which standards and their enactments serve to mediate key community values. In raising questions about the role of human values in knowledge organization standards, this study also contributes to ongoing discussions of information ethics and professional values. Values in Knowledge Organization Standards: A Value Analysis of Resource Description and Access (RDA)

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Values in Knowledge Organization Standards: A Value Analysis of Resource Description and Access (RDA)

This research explored the implementations and perceptions of the Resource Description and Access (RDA) cataloguing standard in Europe. It refers to the development and implementation of the standard among Anglo-American libraries and draws comparisons between them. It examines the spread and application of RDA throughout Europe both by analysing the available literature and by conducting interviews with professionals at 12 European national libraries. The results highlight the issues faced by the European institutions and the unique perspectives that emerge from implementing RDA in different languages and cultures. European institutions demonstrate a higher level of involvement and interest in the development of RDA and a stronger desire to work towards RDA interoperability and alignment with the cultural heritage sector. The European implementation drives forward the internationalisation of RDA by actively seeking solutions to the issues in the new standard arising from the cultural and linguistic diversity.

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RDA in Europe : Implementations and perceptions

Purpose




Deeni Madaris of Pakistan and their libraries are playing an important role in educating the large fraction of society. They have always been engaged in the development of social and cultural values of the Pakistani society. This study aims to investigate the organization of information resources and their utilization at Deeni Madaris libraries in the central Punjab, Pakistan.




Design/methodology/approach




Quantitative research approach was adopted for this study. A questionnaire was developed on the bases of related literature and discussions with experts of librarianship as well as Islamic studies in Pakistan. The questionnaire was sent to 49 Deeni Madaris, of which five did not have libraries and four did not respond. Forty (81.6 per cent) Deeni Madaris responded and provided the relevant data about their libraries. The collected data were analyzed through SPSS 22. Mostly descriptive statistics were applied to calculate the frequencies, percentage, means and standard deviations. A two-tailed t-test was applied to check the impact of cataloguing and automation on the use of information resources.




Findings




It was found that majority of the respondents developed their own classification and cataloguing methods for the organization of information resources and did not have a proper retrieval system. Majority of the respondents were providing lending services to readers. Teachers and final-year students were the key users of the libraries. They mostly referred to books, theses and serials written in Urdu and Arabic language. The situation of library computerization was very weak; only 19 libraries had computers and 11 of them have partially automated the library activities. Library automation and catalogue put positive effects on the use of library resources.




Originality/value




The exploration of the literature showed that libraries of Madaris in Pakistan have always been a priority, but these libraries did not get a position in the library literature as they deserve. This study will fill this gap.

Organization and usage of information resources at Deeni Madaris libraries in Pakistan

Knowledge organization systems (KOSs) are social constructs that represent the needs and knowledge of specific communities at specific times and places (Olsen, 1998; Svenonius, 2000; Hunter, 2009) Libraries use knowledge organization systems like cataloging codes, classification schemes, and languages of aboutness to describe the information objects they hold These structures are central to library cataloging (Farnel, 2017) Because library KOSs reflect the biases of the time periods and places they were created, applications of these systems outside of those contexts are potentially problematic in terms of gender, culture, and ethnic exclusion (Olsen, 1998; Alemu & Stevens, 2015) Many of the systems used in libraries throughout the world originated in the United States or Europe It is time to consider the impact that these systems have outside of their designated contexts and how to integrate other perspectives 

The purpose of this paper is to question the cultural suitability of the systems and procedures libraries have in place to organize materials As stated by Berman, the systems and approaches that catalogers adhere to are “so slavish” (Berman & Gross, 2017) When librarians talk about changes to codes and standards that are currently in use, it is often at the micro-level These micro-level changes include submitting a term addition or term change request to the Library of Congress Subject Headings; or adding/revising a rule to Resource Description and Access What may be needed are not these micro-level changes, but changes at the macro-level Librarians need to feel empowered to go beyond the Euro-American models of library cataloging work, without feeling that they are violating the integrity of their relationships with networks and consortia Structures need to be in place to allow libraries and catalogers to vary the way they apply the necessary guidelines Specific examples—with an emphasis on Southeast Asia -- is presented to argue these points

Decolonizing the Way Libraries Organize

This study aims to explore the roles and skills of Omani academic cataloguing librarians in facilitating access to various kinds of traditional and digital information resources and challenges confronting them in fulfilling that task.,Data for this research were gathered from 37 academic libraries in the country through a questionnaire sent to their cataloguing librarians. Google Docs format was used for cumulating and presenting quantitative data, whilst content analysis was utilized for gathering the qualitative data in specific themes according to the research questions.,The obvious findings are that Omani academic cataloguers still perform the traditional cataloguing functions, including copy and original cataloguing, and maintain authority files. Moreover, more than half of the respondents have the skills required for working in groups and are familiar with cataloguing tools such as RDA rules and BIBFRAME. However, cataloguers lack familiarity with computer languages (XML, PMH, OAI, RDF) and metadata.,The research concludes with suggestions to libraries for improving librarians’ skills and performance through such as provision of proficient training and establishment of a collaborative body.,This research addresses an area of interest to most librarians. However, few researchers in the authors’ region have focused on this topic. The study, therefore, aims to contribute to filling this gap through assessing whether cataloguers in Oman have the skills and roles required for organizing various information resources in the digital era.

Roles of cataloguing librarians in the digital era

Purpose – This study aims to investigate Malaysian catalogers’ awareness, familiarity and understanding of the new bibliographic content standard, i.e. Resource Description and Access (RDA). Design/methodology/approach – The survey method was adopted in this study. Questionnaires were used to gather data from respondents. The study included catalogers from higher education institutions in the area of Klang Valley, Malaysia. Purposive sampling method was used to identify the respondents. Findings – The results revealed that, in general, though Malaysian catalogers were aware of the RDA, they were only familiar with the basics of RDA and its related topics. They were mainly aware of topics regarding the overview and development of RDA, and indicated low understanding of other topics, such as Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), related to RDA. The study found that respondents acknowledged the inadequacy of their basic understanding of RDA. The study also identified the catalogers’ needs...

Emilia Ramdzan

Papers

RDA perceptions among Malaysian catalogers