Cataloging

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

Subjecting the catalog to tagging

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the implementation of LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL) in an academic library and analysis of usage of LTFL data and their potential for resource discovery in the catalog.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the literature on social tagging and incorporation of third‐party user‐generated metadata into the library catalog. It provides an assessment based on the analysis of total absolute usage figures and frequency of use of LTFL data.Findings – Based on the data available, usage of LTFL data in the catalog is low, but several possible contributing factors are identified.Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature on the implementation of LTFL in an academic library and provides usage statistics on LTFL data. It also provides directions for future research about tagging in the catalog.

Author-assigned keywords versus library of congress subject headings: Implications for the cataloging of electronic theses and dissertations

Abstract: This study is an examination of the overlap between author-assigned keywords and cataloger-assigned Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) for a set of electronic theses and dissertations in Ohio State University’s online catalog. The project is intended to contribute to the literature on the issue of keywords versus controlled vocabularies in the use of online catalogs and databases. Findings support previous studies’ conclusions that both keywords and controlled vocabularies complement one another. Further, even in the presence of bibliographic record enhancements, such as abstracts or summaries, keywords and subject headings provided a significant number of unique terms that could affect the success of keyword searches. Implications for the maintenance of controlled vocabularies such as LCSH also are discussed in light of the patterns of matches and nonmatches found between the keywords and their corresponding subject headings.

Object-oriented cataloging

Abstract: Catalogs have developed from lists of physical items present in particular libraries into computerized access and retrieval tools for works dispersed across local and national boundaries. Works themselves are no longer necessarily constrained in one physical form. Cataloging rules, however, have not evolved in parallel with these developments. This paper reanalyzes the nature of works and their publication in an approach based on object-oriented modeling, and demonstrates the advantages to be gained thereby. It suggests a strategic plan to enable an organic transformation to be made from current MARC-based cataloging to object-oriented cataloging. Finding Books in Libraries Catalogs began as listings of particular books on specific shelves. My own institution, the Bodleian Library, compiled the first such published catalog in the English-speaking world nearly four centuries ago (Bodleian Library 1986). Over the centuries since then--but slowly--ideas such as relative location, consistent description, and catalog headings (i.e., access points) have been developed. This process came to full flower with the publication of the first edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules in 1967. In the following year, MARC was initiated. Here were a complete set of cataloging rules and a comprehensive way of coding catalog entries for computer use, arriving more or less one right after the other. The revision of the rules for the second edition in 1978 and its official adoption in 1980 by the two major sources of bibliographic records in the United Kingdom and the United States spread that florescence yet further. As a result, AACR2 has taken firm root all over the Anglophone world and beyond. The revision of the second edition of AACR in 1988 was not felt to be radical enough to warrant its identification as a full new edition. It really does seem that with the 1988 revision of AACR2 we have reached a plateau of maturity, with comprehensive rules based on firm theoretical foundations. In reality, of course, we have reached no such plateau. The problems arise from the fact that library catalogs do not function solely as descriptive lists of books: they function also as elements in library management systems and, in the electronic age, as sophisticated information retrieval tools. The catalog as a list of books is centered on the physical objects contained in a library. The structure of AACR2 makes it very clear that description is the first priority and that, once the description of an object is complete, one's attention may be turned to attaching "handles" to it so that readers may gain access to the material. The handles--the access points---arise from the description. The description itself is a stage on the road leading to the full text. In some environments in which AACR2 is used, different aspects of it may be considered important. In most booksellers, catalogs, there is only one access point for each work, and the bibliographic description is the main element; after all, attention is being focused on the physical item that is being offered for sale. In a company research library, classified access may be more important than access by personal author. How valid is AACR2 for all of these situations? Is the code really equally suitable for all environments? Access based on bibliographic description is historically grounded in the development of library catalogs. Until this century each library was self-contained and each catalog truly reflected the library's contents. If a requirement could not be met within the library, that was the end of the matter. The user had to be satisfied with the library's contents. But how many users enter a library looking for particular physical items. In the case of subject searches, the answer is obviously "None." Even in the case of what are generally called "known item" searches, most users are looking for any item which satisfies the request "an edition of Hamlet," rather than "the Macmillan edition of Hamlet. …

E-Books and New Library Service Models: An Analysis of the Impact of E-Book Technology on Academic Libraries.

Abstract: This article will analyze the implications of e-book technology on academic libraries. Although we are at a very early stage of e-book evolution, business models, standards, and supporting technology are under development that will dramatically affect libraries and librarians. Librarians and administrators therefore must understand thoroughly these trends in order to apply effectively the resulting innovations within their institutions. As Martrell states, "... librarians must begin to design an imaginative, easily identifiable space in cyberspace as the centrality of the library as a physical phenomenon slowly fades."[1] Improving library service by extrapolation from existing services, doing the same things faster and better, will provide incremental improvements but will not move us quickly to that "identifiable space" of which Martrell writes. Effectively introducing e-books into a library has significant implications on our users, our existing services, and how we do business. The capabilities and the limitations of the e-book and related technologies therefore are used in this article to provide a framework for examining the implications of this technology on service in academic libraries. It is the author's view that we must understand not only the technology but also the end-to-end process that will transform the capabilities of the technology into an effective service. An example will help illustrate how we cannot just "plug-in" a digital innovation into existing services without addressing the broader process and technological environment. An Example--Large Digital Objects Most university libraries are beginning to amass a sizable collection of digital materials that include e-books, dissertations, journal articles, numeric data, and digital maps. [Note: The term "e-book" will be used in this paper to designate the content of the book that is represented in some digital format such as PDF or the XML-based Open eBook Publication Structure.[2] For simplicity, in situations where the context is clear, the term "e-book" also will be used to refer to the reading device. In cases where the context is not clear, "e-book reading device" will be used to refer to the hardware/software platform which is devoid of content.] Much of this digital material comes in the form of what could be called a "large digital object." For purposes of this article, a large digital object is a library information source that is contained in a computer file which is larger than 1.4 MB (i.e., the object won't fit on a diskette). From a user's perspective, these large digital objects are difficult to access and use, given existing processes and technological capabilities within libraries. Recently, a patron came to the reference desk at Rutgers University Libraries (RUL) and asked how she could get a copy of one of the books from EEBO (Early English Books Online--www.lib.umi.com/eebo), a collection of some 125,000 titles from the medieval period that RUL has licensed from Bell and Howell. The EEBO service allows patrons to search and actually download a copy of a book to their local computer. The books are typically in PDF or djvu (www.djvu.com) format and often can be in the order of 10 to 20 MB or larger in size. The choices for this student to "check out" the digital book were: (1) go to her home computer and download the file over a slow voice-grade telephone line; (2) buy a zip disk and then find a public computer at the university that had a zip drive and download the book; or (3) print the book (perhaps several hundred pages) at one of the computer labs on campus. None of these solutions was very satisfactory for the patron. In this advancing digital library era, we are tantalizing our users by offering rapid access to digital sources and simultaneously frustrating them by not providing effective end-to-end processes that enable ease of use. The student scenario described above will occur more frequently as we buy more digital book collections. …