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Cataloguing - Huh! What is it good for? Absolutely …

Cataloguing - Huh! What is it good for? Absolutely …. Gordon Dunsire Presented at Information Skills and Competencies, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, on 9 November 2006. Overview. Cookery Games The G-spot Star Trek (the few and the many) Arithmetic Global domination

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Cataloguing - Huh! What is it good for? Absolutely …

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  1. Cataloguing - Huh! What is it good for? Absolutely … Gordon Dunsire Presented at Information Skills and Competencies, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, on 9 November 2006

  2. Overview • Cookery • Games • The G-spot • Star Trek (the few and the many) • Arithmetic • Global domination • Saving the planet • The Beatles

  3. Cataloguing, … • … metadata, and the organisation of knowledge – • What’s that got to do with libraries? • Less and less (overall) • Archives, museums • Information-rich commerce (business, tourism, etc.) • Citizenship (politics, current affairs, etc.) • Saving the planet

  4. The raw and the cooked • What cataloguers do for the information user is similar to what commis chefs do for the head chef • Or saliva does for the stomach • Pre-digest information (save time) • What is this book about? (without reading the whole thing) • How big is it? (without going to the shelves) • Is the author the same as that bloke on the telly? (without checking their national ID card)

  5. Playing games • Writing is a creative act … • … and writers like to be “creative” • Ceci n’est pas une pipe • (It’s a painting) • And “The blind watchmaker” isn’t a visually-challenged horologist • It’s a book • About genetics • J. Smith = Jane Smith = Jane A. Smith? • New! Improved! (Publishers like to sell) • Not everything is Ronseal

  6. Functions of bibliographic metadata • Assist people (and machines) to … • Find • Identify • Select • Obtain • … information resources to suit their needs

  7. Google? • Very effective when you know what you are looking for • Useless when you don’t know what you are looking for • Results 1 - 10 of about 442,000,000 for what we don’t know. (0.13 seconds) • It’s in there somewhere • “… there are known unknowns … there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know” (Rumsfeld)

  8. Cost-benefit • Creating reliable metadata is expensive • Computers are necessary to reduce costs • But not sufficient • At best, 60% accuracy in a controlled, focussed information environment • Any improvement requires an earth-shattering breakthrough in artificial intelligence • Reliable metadata is useful to many, many people over long periods of time

  9. Create once, use many times • A “good” record costs £8-10 (fec!) to create • A good record is effective • When it is relevant and retrieved (recall) • When it is not relevant and not retrieved (precision) • So what is a good record worth?

  10. What is cataloguing worth? • Time saved with good record per user search = 10 seconds • No. of copies of good record used = 100 • No. of searches involving a copy = 1000 • Total time saved = (1000x100x10)/3600 hours = 277 hours of users’ time • Rate = 277 hours for £10 = 0.04p per hour • Slightly below the minimum wage

  11. Cooperation, Collaboration • Cataloguing is a cooperative and collaborative activity • Records are shared and recycled • Regional, national, international • Lots of people creating records for lots of resources • Effectiveness and efficiency requires standard approaches for assured quality control • Consistency, coherency, completeness

  12. Cataloguing standards • Developed through practice and theory for over 100 years • Old age does not imply uselessness • Recent developments to meet needs and demands of the digital age are international in scope • Multi-lingual • Multi-cultural • Multi-community (technical)

  13. International standards • Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records (FRBR) • Improving catalogue structure • Resource Description and Access (RDA) • Improving catalogue content • Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) • Improving catalogue access • Big changes are in the offing • Tomorrow never knows: the end of cataloguing? • http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla72/papers/102-Danskin-en.pdf

  14. De-professionalisation • Inevitable • Trained, experienced metadata creators are expensive • But less expensive than authors • And a lot more effective than folksonomists • Globalisation, cooperation creates a bigger pool of good records • Higher proportion of copy-cataloguing • Paraprofessional skills required

  15. Transferring skills • Metadata isn’t just for bibliographic retrieval • Preservation and digitisation • Formats, technical metadata • Administration • Data protection; freedom of information • Recycling • Reusing parts of resources (e.g. graphics)

  16. Want to know more? • Join the Cataloguing and Indexing Group in Scotland • Join the CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group • Check out the SLAINTE digital library • Reports, presentations, papers, articles supporting continuing professional development • Lots of stuff about cataloguing developments • http://www.slainte.org > digital library

  17. Thank you • Me • g.dunsire@strath.ac.uk • The presentation • http://cdlr.strath.ac.uk/pubs/dunsireg/catisc.pps • The metadata for the presentation • OCLC WorldCat • SLAINTE digital library • Strathprints (University repository) • … real soon now

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