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Cataloguing policy and practice – 2007 and beyond: a view from the British Library
Caroline BrazierHead of Collection Acquisition and DescriptionBritish Library
Cataloguing 2007Reykjavik, Iceland, 1–2 February 2007
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Outline of my talk today
1. The changing environment in which we catalogue
2. Cataloguing in the British Library Introduction Recent developments Current challenges
3. Key issues for future cataloguing policy and practice
4. What does the future hold for cataloguers?
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Outline of my talk today
1. The changing environment in which we catalogue
2. Cataloguing in the British Library Introduction Recent developments Current challenges
3. Key issues for future cataloguing policy and practice
4. What does the future hold for cataloguers?
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What’s the problem with cataloguing?
Library catalogues are seen as increasingly irrelevant
Cost and usefulness of cataloguing is questioned
Decline in formal skills teaching in UK library schools
Cataloguing undervalued by “the best students”
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What’s the problem with cataloguing?
The good news ...
There is still a growing demand for the skills, knowledge and understanding that comes as a result of creating and working with bibliographic data and databases.
But we will not be able to satisfy this demand unless we adapt and develop in line with a rapidly changing world.
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The cataloguing environment in the age of Google – growth and diversity in collections
Growth in publishing output Both physical and digital formats
Digital publishing (duplicating print / born digital) Formal digital publishing – ejournals etc Informal e-publishing – web sites, blogs, wikis etc
Libraries collecting in new formats – web archiving
Growing numbers of mass digitisation projects
We need new models of organising and giving access to content
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The cataloguing environment in the age of Google – resource discovery
Rise of Google – the search engine model Ability to link directly to much more digital content
Web 2.0 changes user expectations Transactional data to track user behaviour Social and community tagging
Communities can work together to share and create information in new ways without intermediaries
We need to tap into the potential of the IT developments
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The cataloguing environment in the age of Google – what do library users want?
Key issues Traditional catalogues still valued by researchers, BUT…
Want integration of multiple discovery services
Prefer to use large-scale integrated service
Want better join-up between discovery and delivery services
Want improvements in quality and consistency of data
Want improvements in “look and feel”
Want something “more like Google”
We need to understand users and adapt quickly to stay relevant
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Some current debates on cataloguing and library catalogues
Cataloguing is too expensive and unsustainable We must find efficiencies
Cataloguing is unnecessary for digital content and does not offer users effective access
We must review our standards and policies to enrich digital access
Our catalogues offer a poor user experience We must develop improved search and navigation tools to expose
our collections We must enrich the content and introduce Web 2.0 functionality We must integrate into large-scale services rather than a plethora of
local catalogues We must integrate delivery services with discovery
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Outline of my talk today
1. The changing environment in which we catalogue
2. Cataloguing in the British Library Introduction Recent developments Current challenges
3. Key issues for future cataloguing policy and practice
4. What does the future hold for cataloguers?
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Cataloguing organisation in the British Library
Cataloguing in the British Library
Boston Spa Cataloguing
London Cataloguing
Development and support
English language
Western European Grey Literature, Conferences, Theses Serials
UK ISSN Centre
Data Quality
Authority Control
Retrospective Conversion Bibliographic and Metadata standards and policy Training and documentation
Slavonic Asia, Pacific and African Early Printed, Archives and Manuscripts Maps Music
Sound
Newspapers
Digital
Statistics
350 000 records per year
90 full-time staff
80 part-time staff
200 support staff
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Departments related to cataloguing
Current awareness – journal table-of-contents indexing(23 000 titles)
Health Care Indexing Services (Alternative Medicine Database)
Data production for the British National Bibliography and other bibliographic journals
Data export to union catalogues (COPAC, SUNCAT, OCLC) and commercial services
Data import services
XML mark-up services for UKPubMedCentral
Bibliographic systems development
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Recent developments in cataloguing at the British Library
2004 New integrated library system (Aleph) Replaced 23 separate catalogues and databases Massive data migration and enrichment projects
2005 – 2006 Acquisitions and Cataloguing process re-engineering Reduction of 10% in staff costs Expansion of our deriving strategy Introduction and development of quality measures Further database integration and retrospective catalogue
conversion (e.g. ESTC)
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Current and future issues in cataloguing at the BL
2007 – Ongoing process re-engineering and efficiencies review Further development of deriving and data sourcing initiatives Further development of quality initiatives Definitions of metadata structures and standards Planning for RDA implementation Future funding of retrospective conversion projects Explore potential for new data services Review of resource discovery strategy and database integration in
light of new technology options
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Outline of my talk today
1. The changing environment in which we catalogue
2. Cataloguing in the British Library Introduction Recent developments Current challenges
3. Key issues for future cataloguing policy and practice
4. What does the future hold for cataloguers?
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Ongoing efficiency reviews
Constant review of cataloguing practice
Develop better functionality in core cataloguing systems
Explore potential for automating parts of the process
Review operational workflows (streamline, centralise, derive)
Focus on professional skills
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Deriving and data engineering
Review and expand data sources
From libraries, library cooperatives, library aggregators Shared cataloguing, COPAC, OCLC
From publishers and supply chain aggregators Cataloguing in Publication contract Acquisitions supply contracts Use other standards, e.g. ONIX
Review and revise record levels Fast tracking of fiction Batch upgrade
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Data quality initiatives
Quality and consistency An issue in integrated / large-scale services
Current data quality projects – BL examples De-duplication and enhancement of migrated legacy data
Serials records enrichment (UK SUNCAT)
Increased use of analysis tools (MARC Report and FRBR quality measure) To award data supply contracts To assess quality of the database by sampling In performance management of teams and individual cataloguers
Annual quality survey Measuring the usefulness of the catalogue to the user
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Development of metadata standards and structures
Long-term management of digital objects Core descriptive metadata
Metadata for preservation, access and rights management
Work towards common or interoperable standards Efficiencies through deriving and reuse of data (ONIX)
Enriching information value and content (social bookmarking and tagging)
Seamless searching and linking (OAI-PMH, z39.50, RSS, Open URL)
Development of standards to promote and enhance usage (expression of rights, licensing terms, COUNTER and SUSHI, author and library identifiers)
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Resource Description and Access (RDA) implementation
Development of application profiles
Review the potential for improvements in workflows
Review any impact on products and services
Consider benefits from any retrospective change to data
Recalibration of our internal quality model
Revision of documentation and training courses
Collaboration – British Library / Library of Congress / Library and Archives Canada
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Retrospective catalogue conversion
Key objectives Make items available via online data Enhance and enrich data where possible
Problems of funding Need to free up resource from other cataloguing activities Explore funding sources
Why not just digitise? Cost Future priorities for mass digitisation are not yet known No effective metadata to support digitisation projects An option for the future
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Authority control in a digital world
Rights – a new impetus
Work with Authors’ Licensing and Copyright Society to update and retrospectively align data for top UK authors
Explore proposals for a UK naming agency to manage data on authors or creators in digital scholarly research as well as traditional publishing
Authority standards developments to achieve better join-up Between different communities (libraries, archives, publishers, authors
rights organisations, etc.) Between bibliographic and authority record content Supporting IFLA in FRANAR development through ICABS Monitoring ISPI and ISTC developments
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Resource discovery strategy
Five interrelated strands
Develop existing OPAC services and improve core descriptive data
Identify and introduce appropriate Web 2.0 services
Explore and apply new search technologies
Develop discovery services for large-scale digital content streams
Integrate end-to-end discovery and delivery solutions for all types of materials
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Outline of my talk today
1. The changing environment in which we catalogue
2. Cataloguing in the British Library Introduction Recent developments Current challenges
3. Key issues for future cataloguing policy and practice
4. What does the future hold for cataloguers?
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Training and development
Ensure consistency through development of core skills Multi-skilling of paraprofessional staff Training to support new system functionality Training to support workflow efficiencies Holistic understanding of the core data structures
Succession planning Digital cataloguing Database management Better IT skills
Challenges Building confidence Overcoming fear and complacency
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Continuing professional development
External and internal
Practical training, but also broadening horizons
Current topics (BL examples) Resource discovery strategy (e.g. new portals)
Collection development reviews (e.g. increasing shift from print to e-content)
Standards development (e.g. RDA implementation, Dewey)
Core cataloguing systems and OPAC functionality
Data quality
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Future roles for cataloguers?
Metadata creation/manipulation/management
Develop, manage and quality-assure automatic metadata generation processes
Auxiliary data services and data enrichment Management of data mark-up services Authority control to support rights management Content mapping, interpretation and groupings of digital content,
taxonomy development
Database and data management
Standards development, training, user education
Building and managing relationships with authors, publishers, data aggregators
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Conclusions
Can we do without cataloguing? For physical materials?
Not until there are cost-effective (and legal) ways of digitally scanning and discovering them through scanned content
For digital content? Not until there is adequate accompanying metadata
Not until full-text searching on huge quantities of digital content provides users with high-quality discovery solutions
Does cataloguing need to change?
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A White Paper on the Future of Cataloging at Indiana University, 2006
“The need for cataloging expertise … will not be
diminished in the coming years. Rather, catalogers
of the future will work in the evolving environment of
publishing, scholarly communication, and
information technology in new expanded roles.
Catalogers will need to be key players in addressing
the many challenges facing libraries and the overall
management and organization of information.”
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Thank you for listening
Any questions?
