Recently in Future of Cataloging Category

If you missed the free webinars "RDA and OCLC" that were presented during the last couple of weeks, you can view the recording here.

OCLC has also scheduled one more live session, which will take place on Nov. 19, 12pm (central). You can register for that here.

There is a brief write up about the webinar and the post includes screenshots of some of the poll results from those attending the two webinars. It can be found on Karen Calhoun's blog, Metalogue.

The Library of Congress recently released the results of its analysis of the creation and distribution of bibliographic data in U.S. and Canadian libraries.

The Library commissioned R2 Consulting LLC to search and describe the current marketplace for cataloging records in the MARC format, with primary focus on the economics of current practices, including existing incentives and barriers to both contribution and availability.

Paired with the study online is a report of an internal working group indicating how recommendations from "On the Record: Report of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control" may be implemented at the Library. Both reports are available on the LC website here.

R2 summarizes its 10 findings concerning Library of Congress cataloging and how it supports bibliographic-description needs across the U.S. and Canada. Below are the first five findings from the R2 Study. This should make for an interesting read! Read the other findings and the full report here.

1.
Library of Congress cataloging continues to be widely valued: Libraries, vendors, and cooperatives speak with their actions. There is heavy reliance on LC's output throughout all segments of the profession and industry. This is demonstrated by 500,000 searches per day against LC's Z39.50 servers and WebOPAC; by extensive re‐sale and re‐use of records distributed by the MARC Distribution Service (MDS); and by the variety and scale of use across all library sizes and types, and all vendor sizes and types. LC records are the cornerstone of the entire market. School and public libraries are especially reliant on them, but all market segments have built services on the foundation of inexpensive and easily obtainable LC records.

2.
The Library of Congress subsidizes portions of the market: LC catalogs many titles that ultimately are not retained in its collections. As a result, LC bears significant costs from which it receives no direct benefit, for activity that is not explicitly in support of its core users. The 1902 law that governs distribution of its records deliberately excludes the cost of production from the pricing for those records. There is no revenue to offset those costs, other than the value of the free copies of the CIP books provided by publishers. The market relies to a surprising degree on LC's willingness to bear these costs and forgo this revenue. If LC were to redirect its catalogers' efforts solely to materials deemed necessary by its users, CIP production would diminish significantly. Other organizations would need to assume those costs. At present, libraries and vendors enjoy the largely unrecognized benefits of an LC subsidy.

3.
LC records are significantly underpriced: Not only does LC bear a disproportionate share of the costs associated with producing records for titles it may not retain, the law governing its sale of those records allows only the cost of distribution (plus 10%) to be recouped. The cost of production is assumed to be part of LC's ongoing operations. Such low prices contribute to the impression that cataloging should cost less than it actually does.

4.
Cataloging backlogs continue to grow in many areas and market segments: As outlined in the library survey responses, non‐Roman languages, maps, and DVDs pose particular problems. But to our surprise, many libraries are also losing ground on mainstream materials such as English‐language monographs.

5.
There is adequate cataloging capacity in North America to meet the collective need: This finding surprised us, especially given the aging of the profession and imminent retirements. However, a conservative interpretation of survey data shown on pages 9‐10 strongly suggests that there are more than enough catalogers to handle everything. In the academic market alone, for instance, the survey indicates that more than 8,000 original catalogers are employed. If each original cataloger produced on average one record per work day (or 200 per year), that would indicate capacity for 1.6 million original records annually. Unfortunately, that capacity is not well distributed, disciplined, or coordinated, despite decades of experience with cooperative cataloging.

Registration is open for NISO's October webinar on Bibliographic Control Alphabet Soup: AACR to RDA and Evolution of MARC, to be held on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern Time).

Librarians, ILS vendors, and commercial cataloging service providers--as well as a wide variety of related service providers--all know that the proverbial, heavily acronym-spiced "bibliographic control alphabet soup" involves the intelligent and well informed use of many ingredients. Chief in these are constantly evolving standards, combined with more than a sprinkling of creativity and insight. Three expert metadata chefs will analyze and discuss specific alphabetic ingredients already in use or soon to be implemented in the bib control kitchen.

Diane Hillmann (Director of Metadata Initiatives, Information Institute of Syracuse) will provide an overview of RDA Elements and Vocabularies: a Step Forward from MARC. RDA elements and vocabularies represent the distillation of library descriptive knowledge, optimized for use within an environment that speaks XML, RDF, and linked data, and expressed in an FRBR-aware manner.

Barbara Tillett (Chief, Policy and Standards Division, Library of Congress) will review There to Here to There -- AACR2 and RDA. Learn how what started as AACR3 evolved into an entirely new approach with a new name.

William Moen (Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Sciences, University of North Texas) will discuss results from the IMLS-sponsored research project: Data-driven Evidence for Core MARC Records. The project team examined 56 million WorldCat bibliographic records and analyzed patterns of use by catalogers of available fields/subfields.

For more information and to register, visit the event webpage. Registration is per site (access for one computer) and includes access to the online recorded archive of the webinar. NISO and NASIG members receive a discounted member rate. A student discount is also available. Can't make it on the 14th? Register and gain access to the recorded archive for one year.

The ACLTS CCS Copy Cataloging Interest Group will meet during the ALA Meeting in Chicago on Saturday, July 11, from 10:30 AM to 12 noon. We’re interested in all things copy cataloging, but for our next meeting we’re particularly interested in the following topics:

• Copy cataloging for Special Collections.
• How to train copy catalogers in FRBR and RDA, FRBR being here already and RDA on its way.
• Copy cataloging for special formats, such as electronic resources.
• Copy cataloging and vendor records.

Are you doing something in any of these areas that you’d like to share with an eager audience? Would you like to help us explore any of these topics? If so, the Copy Cataloging Interest Group is the place for you! We’re looking for people to speak to the group about any of these topics. If you would like to speak to the group, please contact Gene Dickerson, Chair, or Tatiana Barr, Vice-Chair/Chair Elect with your interest. We’re looking for people to speak for about 15-20 minutes on any of the topics listed above. If you’d like to propose another topic you’re interested in, let us know that, too. Tell us who you are and what topic you’d like to speak about. Don’t be shy! Give us a try! If you want to nominate someone else to speak, let us know who he or she is, along with contact information, and we’ll take it from there.

Gene Dickerson
DickersonEH@state.gov

Tatiana Barr
Tatiana.barr@yale.edu

Eugene Dickerson
Lead Librarian for Cataloging

Ralph J. Bunche Library
U.S. Dept. of State
dickersoneh@state.gov

The Library of Congress has decided to continue its investigation into the creation and distribution of bibliographic data in US and Canadian libraries - with the primary focus on the economics of current practices. LC has retained R2 Consulting, LLC to research and describe the current "marketplace" for MARC cataloging records, with a
report and "map" due at the end of June 2009. The LC press release is available on R2's Web site.

To keep people informed about the progress of R2's work, and to get input from time to time, R2 has constructed a social networking site at: http://bibrecords.ning.com

At this point, they are ready to promote the site and encourage membership from all segments of the cataloging community. The scope of the project is broad, including Public, Academic, School, and Special Libraries, cataloging cooperatives, bibliographic service providers, and materials vendors who supply MARC records.

So you are hereby invited to join your colleagues at: http://bibrecords.ning.com

And please don't hesitate to forward this invitation to others you think may be interested. If you have questions or ideas to share, please contact:

Ruth Fischer
Partner, R2 Consulting, LLC
ruth@r2consulting.org
603-746-5991

Registration is now open for the MINITEX/OCLC User Group meetings scheduled to be held in each of our 3 states this October. For the primary content, we have asked R2 Consulting, LLC, a firm specializing in workflow analysis and redesign for academic libraries, to present a workshop on Technical Services Workflow Analysis. We will also have time for MINITEX and OCLC updates and demos.

Register for the MINITEX/OCLC User Group Meeting

• A summary of the RDA Update Forum held on January 13, 2008, at ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia. 
• All the RDA working documents.