INTERESTING TIMES M OLLY T AMARKIN D UKE U NIVERSITY Connecting RDA to the Catalog.
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Transcript of INTERESTING TIMES M OLLY T AMARKIN D UKE U NIVERSITY Connecting RDA to the Catalog.
INTERESTING TIMES
MOLLY TAMARKINDUKE UNIVERSITY
Connecting RDA to the Catalog
1. Me2. AACR2, MARC & the catalog3. RDA & the catalog4. Outside the library: search & description5. The future6. Implications for administrators
Overview of Talk
About me
1982: 1st library job as work study: Univ. of Chicago Library
Tech services & development
1990: got MLS: St. Louis Public Cataloging & collection development
1992: Brooklyn Public reference 1996: Marlboro College librarian 1999: Marlboro IT director 2001: Duke Asst./Assoc Dean for
IT 2007: CTO, Univ. of Puget Sound 2009: Assoc. Univ. Librarian, IT,
Duke
AACR2AACR2 MARCMARC
Began in 1960s, revised in 1970s
Provides standard for description of physical objects
More like a conceptual data model (but MARC isn’t really a logical data model)
Early 1960s to create catalog cards
Predates relational databases
More like a transport protocol and markup than a data model Like HTTP / HTML
AACR2 and MARC
AACR2 & MARC
Both were created in an era where information was obtained through a physical medium (books, journals, documents)
Both are used to represent a physical item in a condensed form: information about information (metadata)
Both are used when representing a physical item digitally
MARCMARC The CatalogThe Catalog
Allows us to transfer information about our inventory
Allows us to represent a physical item electronically
Is the structure of necessity in today’s ILS
Provides inventoryProvides locationProvides statusAggregates items
around pre-defined vocabularies
Traditionally composed of MARC records
MARC & The Catalog
Reflections on MARC and the Catalog
Our catalogs are limited by our ILS systems
If your only tool is a hammer, every problem can be a MARC record
Our catalog is of limited utility—who does it really serve: us or our users?
RDA & MARC
RDA can be interpreted in MARC records in the same way AACR2 serves as a descriptive standard for MARC
RDA & MARC are not incompatible, though MARC 21 has been revised to incorporate RDA elements
But is the relationship between RDA and MARC relevant to our future?
RDA & the Catalog
If your catalog is a bunch of MARC records, then RDA can have minor effect on your catalog. But is this good?
If RDA can genuinely contribute to the semantic web, then why have a local catalog of MARC records?
WWW and the development of search
What happened?
To structured topics?
To controlled vocabulary
Has search gotten better or worse?
Recall the directories of yore (Yahoo, Alta Vista, even AOL)
What’s happened to search as a result?
How have users changed? Their expectations Their search strategies
Good enough is better than perfect Good, fast, or cheap:
pick twoBig business
commercially (Google, Bing!) and academically
What’s happening with description?
RDF = W3C standardOptimized for search
engines Best data format for
linked data (naturally builds a “web”)
RDA vocabularies can be viewed as an RDF subset
WHAT IS UNIQUE TO LIBRARIES?
WHAT CONTENT REQUIRES A LIBRARY-SPECIFIC APPROACH?
Print materials?Physical objects?
What is the difference between web resources and
information resources?
Future of Content
Print as the sole format is decreasing
Digital content is becoming unbundled, or bundled arbitrarily
Printed acquisitions are likely to be “special”
Digital content is getting less owned and more leased
Effects of content change on the catalog
More and more silos
More and more “discovery” tools
Less and less control
More and more “good enough”
Less and less value in the catalog?
Thinking ahead…Thinking ahead…
Access provided by identity services
Local catalog for special collections
Local catalog of value internally
Content discoverable via web standards
Continue to need a way to represent physical items
MARC record retired, converted
Descriptive standards apply to minority of objects available
Future Role of Catalog
Current Trends in [Library] Systems
Kuali OLE (Open Library Environment) Community-sourced ILS for higher education Building more of a system to model data and less of a
data model
Cloud services expand Library as pioneer in this area Effect on local systems Effect on local silos
Collaborative development continue Again, library is a pioneer here
•CONTENT GROWING MORE FRAGMENTED
•CURRENT SYSTEMS DO NOT SUPPORT P TO E CHANGES
•CURRENT PLANNED CHANGES MAY SUSTAIN US
•CURRENT PLANNED CHANGES MAY NOT BE THE RADICAL DEPARTURE WE COULD HAVE
What we know for sure
Library Administration
Are you Bleeding edge? Leading edge? 3rd to none? Laggard?
What is your culture?
Where should you be?
ParetoPrinciple
For many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes
This is a law about optimizing resources
Are you building a system for 20% of your resources or 80%?
Are you building a system to handle exceptions or to manage the rule?
CURRENT AND FUTURE
What is best for your community?
FOLLOW THE MONEYQUESTION REALITY
What is best for industry?
RDARDA CatalogCatalog
Useful relation to RDF
Won’t solve the silo on its own
May be an important change for 20% of your resources?
Of internal use as local inventory
No longer authoritative for resources provided
Content must be exposed to 3rd party services
Summing It Up
Consider the following
Univ. of Phoenix For profit education
growing at about 10% year
DIYU Edupunk movement
Google Constant innovation
Blockbuster vs Netflix…. Deal making vs
customer-focused innovation?
Does anyone use: AOL Dogpile Altavista
INTERESTING QUESTIONS?
Interesting Times
Image Credits
Slide 3: photo of Regenstein Library from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Regenstein_Library_entrance.jpg (creative commons license)
Slide 7: photo of silos from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allegany_Township_silos.jpg (creative commons license)
Slide 9: photo of pig from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lipstick_on_a_pig.jpg (creative commons license)
Slide 10: Altavista screenshot taken from http://www.solecontrolsolutions.com/blog/ . Reproduced here for purposes of commentary under fair use.
Slide 11: photo of March 2009 Computer cover from http://www.qmags.com/Magazines/PubHomePage.asp?publication=116&issue=3960&sessionID=9803ED4ABED8D09C248779E94; reproduced here for purposes of commentary under fair use
Slide 12: RDF illustration from http://www.semanticfocus.com/blog/entry/title/introduction-to-the-semantic-web-vision-and-technologies-part-3-the-resource-description-framework/ . Reproduced here with permission.
Slide 14: table from http://dwarfplanetpress.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/book-publishing-industry-statistics-part-4/ Reproduced here with permission.
Slide 15: catalog card photo from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LA2-katalogkort.jpg (creative commons license)
Slide 19: wave photo from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ocean_surface_wave.jpg. Photo in the public domain.