The Changing Faces of Catalogs: Accelerating Access, Saving Time

1. The Changing Faces of Catalogs:Accelerating Access, Saving Time Karen Calhoun NC Serials Conference March 29, 2007

2. My Report to the Library of Congress • Calhoun, Karen. The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools • Washington, DC: Library of Congress, March 17 2006 • http://www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

3. My Thesis: We Need to Rethink the Catalog in Light of a Changed World • Users are not getting what they need from online libraries and catalogs • Content has changed • Users have changed • The library service model must change • The catalog must change WHO? WHAT? HOW? WHERE? Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

4. Agenda • Section 1: Questions about the catalog • Section 2: Library service model and the role of the catalog • Section 3: New service model • Section 4: Revitalizing the catalog • Section 5: What’s possible today and tomorrow Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

5. Unanswered Questions • Who uses online catalogs and library Web pages? • Compared to what? • Are users getting what they need from online catalogs? Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

6. From Tim Burke’s Blog, Easily Distracted: Burn the Catalog! “I’m to the point where I think we’d be better off to just utterly erase our existing academic catalogs and forget about backwards-compatibility…” Tim Burke, Swarthmore College, Jan. 20, 2004 http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/tburke1/perma12004.html

7. As information systems, catalogs are hard to use Quote from Yu, Holly and Margo Young. 2004. “The impact of Web search engines on subject searching in OPAC.” ITAL 23 (4). “In spite of many studies…many of the original ideas about improving user success …have yet to be implemented. Ironically, many of these techniques are now found in Web search engines.” More Unkind Words About the Catalog Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

8. Who Uses the Online Catalog? Surveying the Students: the 2005 Student Survey On the University of Virginia Library. p. 15 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/mis/reports/stusurv05/ultra_short_final.pdf

9. The Net Generation = Millennials • Net Generation • 1982-1991 • Lippincott, Joan. 2005. “Net Generation Students and Libraries” http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

10. They like Multimedia environments Figuring things out for themselves Working in groups Multitasking Active engagement & learning directly related to courses We offer Text-based environments Systems that require prior understanding (or librarian help) Services for individual use Catalogs, databases, etc. Lippincott: The Net Generation & Library Services: A Disconnect Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

11. Review of Unanswered Questions • Who uses the online catalog? • faculty and graduate students (comparatively more) • students (comparatively less) • librarians • Who uses library Web pages? How much? • strong preference for search engines Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

12. Where Do You Begin a Search for Information on a Topic? Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources: a Report to the OCLC Membership. http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm

13. Competition for Catalogs? FigureThis! Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

14. Full Text: Digital Repositories and Interactive Learning http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/

15. More Competition? Social Networks ‘Linked in’ appears to be the next widespread social network… The site, which claims 9 million worldwide users, is a way to foster business connections.” Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

16. Review of Unanswered Question 2:Compared to What? • Strong preference for full text and media, other Web content • Some are familiar with bibliographic data/tools, many are not (and find what they want anyway?) • Personal and professional networking are important aspects of information seeking Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

17. We Need to Rethink the Catalog in Light of a Changed World • Users are not getting what they need from online libraries and catalogs • Content has changed • Users have changed • The library service model must change • The catalog must change WHO? WHAT? HOW? WHERE? Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

18. VIVO: Connecting Life Sciences Researchers Combining social networking, traditional library services, and more

19. “They come and go and draw from the well” I Ching, hexagram 48, Ching – The Well The Well • The Library as a center of collections • The Library as a center of experts and tools to guide users to appropriate resources Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

20. The River Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

21. The Way We Worked Books Journals Newspapers Gov docs Maps Scores AV Dissertations Library catalogs Special collections Manuscripts Papers Univ records Archives Journal articles Conference proceedings Etc. Abstracting & Indexing services

22. Boundaries and boundary-breaking Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

23. Geocentric/ Aristotelian view: The local catalog is the sun Heliocentric/ Copernican view: The local catalog is a planet

24. Librarianship: “There are few professions which contribute so much to the saving of time and to the progress of science.” –Library Journal, 1890 Being a 21st Century Librarian • Starting points: • Technology-driven research, teaching and learning • Disintermediation (users perceive they are self-sufficient) • Accelerating shift in information seekers’ preferences for Web-based information and multimedia formats Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

25. “2 ½ cheers for Google.” --Paul Duguid, May 5 2005, Cornell University Making Library Collections and Services Visible • Librarians must be where the users are • Library must be where the users’ eyes are • Interconnections, interoperability, and information delivery • Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

26. Be more involved with research and learning materials and systems Be more engaged with user communities Make library collections and librarians more visible Move to next generation systems and services A New Kind of Library An online social network

27. SEE HANDOUT A multidimensional framework for academic support: a final report submitted to the Mellon Foundation from the University of Minnesota Libraries, June 2006, p. 47. http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon/docs.phtml

28. Implications • Citizens engage in information network processes with or without libraries • Libraries, librarians, and the organizations that serve them need to design and align services with social networks and users’ information seeking behaviors • Catalogs (that is, collections) need to be more visible in the user’s information space Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

29. Outward Integration “Integration should be outward rather than inward, with libraries seeking to use their components in new ways” --Interviewee for Calhoun’s LC report on future of the catalog Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

30. McMaster University Library (Canada) NMC Campus (New Media Consortium) Talis Cybrary City Second Life Library/Info Island San Jose State U. LIS School (virtual classes) http://secondlife.com/ Over 4. 8 million “residents” (March 21 2007) Second Life Library Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

31. Integration with Learning Management Systems • Links to “Ask a Librarian” • Links to Web-based citation management tools (like RefWorks) • Links to specific licensed e-resources & course reserves • Links to library-created materials (like webliographies) Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

32. Integration with Search Engines: Google Scholar Why are online catalogs still hard to use? – Get it! Cornell … CL Borgman - Journal of The American Society for Information Science, 1996 Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

33. Outward Integration of the Serial Literature: Some Anecdotal Evidence Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

34. CONSER Access Level Record “Access Level for Serials Working Group Final Report” CONSER July 2006 http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/ alrFinalReport.html Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

35. Quiz: What Percentage of the World-Wide Printed Book Collection is Held by the Google 5 Libraries? A. 33% B. 10% C. 60% Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

36. The Next Retrospective Conversion: Mass Digitization 33% Brian Lavoie et al. Anatomy of aggregate collections: the example of Google Print for libraries. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september05/lavoie/09lavoie.html

37. …there will no longer be a monolithic library Web site. Instead library data will be pushed out to many starting places on the Web and directly to users.” --Provocative Statement #6, Taiga Forum …we’ll be past the notion that the online catalog is the way you find things in libraries.” --Interviewee for LC report “Within the next five years … http://www.taigaforum.org/docs/ProvocativeStatements.pdf

38. “Thirty-two Options & Three Strategies”— A Radical Abridgement Mass collections & catalogs Digitize Open access Participate in the substitute industry LEADERSHIP STRATEGY “Outward integration” SEE HANDOUT EXPAND STRATEGY Invest in shared catalogs Link pools of scholarly data Seek partners EXTEND STRATEGY Improve the user’s experience Greatly enhance delivery (fast!) Standards development/compliance Recycle and reuse catalog data Innovate and reduce costs

39. The catalog will evolve toward full integration with other discovery tools Shared catalogs and open information systems will radically democratize access to library collections and boost scholarly productivity to new levels Vision for Change: The Catalog – Leadership Strategy Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

40. Books and serials are not dead, and they are not yet digital ARL libraries spent the lion’s share of $665 million on printed books and serials in 2004 The Continuing Importance of the Catalog The legacy of the world’s library collections is tied to the future of catalogs! Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

41. What’s Possible Today? - Innovate and Reduce Costs • Much better linkages: ingest, convert, extract, transfer • Simplify & exploit all sources of catalog data • Automate and streamline workflows • Explore automatic classification, subject analysis; reengineer and automate LCSH practice • Mine catalog data for new uses Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

42. Are Innovation and Cost Reduction Really Possible? Comparison of Staff Size and Output Over Seven Years (Cornell) Percent Change 96-97 to 02-03: FTE down 20% Acquisitions up 18% Cataloging up 64%

43. What’s Possible Today? – Updated Interface for the the Local Online Catalog Aquabrowser Lexington Public Library, KY http://search.lexpublib.org

44. What’s Possible Today? - More Interactive and Visual Wordpress OPAC (WPopac) - Plymouth State University 2006 Mellon Award. plymouth.edu/library/opac/

45. What’s Possible Today? - Shared Catalogs with Improved Interfaces Georgia PINES’ Evergreen: 252 public libraries http://gapines.org

46. What’s Possible Today? – Find Globally, Get Locally Worldcat.org / Find in a Library

47. What’s Possible Tomorrow? – Unifying System Model Unified Web Interface (“Google-like”) Authentication layer Metadata/content aggregation layer Other Catalogs Local Library Catalog Digital Collections Licensed Databases Other (e.g.,DSpace) Many diverse, separate interfaces

48. New Models for the Catalog: Linking Pools of Data • Ex Libris – Primo • http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/primo.htm • Innovative Interfaces – Encore • http://www.iii.com/encore/main_index2.html • University of Rochester - eXtensible Catalog • http://extensiblecatalog.info/ Calhoun - NC Serials Conference

49. The Catalog and Teaching, Learning, and Research, the Next Generation Deconstruction AND Reinvention Phoenix detail from Aberdeen Bestiary (public domain)

50. Thank You! • Karen Calhoun, Cornell University Library • ksc10@cornell.edu Calhoun - NC Serials Conference