Cataloging

About: Cataloging is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4770 publications have been published within this topic receiving 32489 citations.

Faceted Vocabularies for Music: A New Era in Resource Discovery

Abstract: The Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus (LCMPT) and the music portions of the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT) are long-anticipated products in a history of problem-solving approaches toward faceted access to music resources. MLA’s Cataloging and Metadata Committee has collaborated with the Library of Congress for the past several years in a multiphase endeavor to design and build out these new vocabularies. Implementation within the Anglo-American music cataloging community began in 2014, and retrospective implementation (the programmatic assignment of faceted terms to legacy metadata) is currently being studied and pursued.

Assessing Information on the Internet

Abstract: In the new and rapidly expanding Internet environment, users have unprecedented access to information and computing resources, but locating, accessing, and using information resources on a global computer network of networks can be difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes impossible. Development and implementation of systematic methods of describing and providing access to information lag behind deployment of the Internet itself, and the ability for network users to share information far exceeds their ability to discover what information is on the Internet. Traditional library services such as cataloging have yet to find widespread application in this environment. The OCLC Internet Resources project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Library Programs, is investigating the types of electronic textual information accessible via the Internet. This empirical study explores the practical and theoretical problems associated with providing traditional library services for electronic texts in t...

The Ship Has Sailed and We Aren't On It: How Catalogers Could Support User Tasks and Why We Won’t

Abstract: The article begins by describing the possible characteristics of a catalog interface built to leverage a future FRBR bibliographic framework and discussing the viability of a FRBR-ized catalog interface. The author then examines current trends in interface design, which leverage conventional cataloging data structures. This survey of the literature is followed by recommendations for adapting cataloging practices to enhance the efficacy of current interface designs. The author concludes by proposing that catalogers have a choice to make about the direction of functional cataloging initiatives.

Meta-Information Structures for Networked Information Resources

Abstract: This article develops a model of meta-information architectures (header, local index, and directory) and presents three current or proposed meta-information structures for networked information resources with applicability to organization and access in libraries and networked information environments. Special emphasis is given to the Text Encoding Initiative's TEI Header and Independent Header as a model for meta-information for academic and library needs. Recommendation is made for the specification of a generalized SGML meta-information header based on the principles of the TEI Independent Header, to address the needs of cataloging, automatic processing, and serving of networked information resources.

The Catalog Department in the Library Organization

Abstract: -tmyiHE topic assigned for this paper was "The Organization of ProcessI ing for Efficient Library Service," the intent being to review that form of administrative organization which combines the catalog and acquisition departments into a single processing division. Since my observations about this form of organization tend to be somewhat negative, I have also included a discussion of the relations of cataloging with bibliography. If cataloging is to be associated administratively with some other process, I am inclined to believe that an affiliation with the bibliographical operations of the reference department might be more rewarding than one with the bookcollecting operations of the acquisition department. It may be, of course, that no administrative affiliation of any kind is desirable -that the catalog department, as now conceived and organized, is still the most effective unit which can be devised. Let us grant that at the start. Yet a little speculation from time to time about possible realignments of our library organization is effort well spent. Because of the nature of my experience this paper is slanted toward university and research libraries. How much of what I have to say is applicable also to public libraries is left to the readers' judgment. The form of organization which combines the catalog and acquisition departments into a single processing, or technical processes, divison, usually under an assistant librarian, is now fairly common and appears to have received the general approval of the profession. As long ago as I938, Donald Coney was able to write of this "emergent trend toward a divisional head."2 It is probably safe to say that in recent years few university libraries have not considered the appointment of a chief of the technical processes. This trend is in keeping with a conception of library functions which permeates professional thinking todaythat of technical, as opposed to service, functions. The service departments, as a group, including reference, circulation, and special-subject departments, are conceived as those which distribute library materials and assist readers in their use. In so doing they meet the public. The technical departments do not meet the public. They acquire materials for the library and organize them for use by means of cataloging, classification, and related processes. This dichotomous pattern of thought is by now so deeply intrenched in our professional habits that it finds expression in our daily conversations; it determines the outlines of our textbooks and library surveys; it shapes our library school curriculums; and it affects our judgments of personnel and positions. Even in libraries which have not formally organized technical and service divisions, the various depart-