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Jennifer BowenUniversity of Rochester

jbowen@library.rochester.eduChicago, IL May 9, 2007

Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control

Second Public Hearing

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My perspectives

International descriptive cataloging standards development (RDA)

Defining/developing a next generation “catalog”

Cataloging manager at a smaller ARL institution

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My topics Current structures and standards

vis-à-vis RDA development Future of controlled data New requirements for bibliographic

data What’s needed for future standards

development

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Current structures and standards vis-à-vis RDA

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RDA development structure

Committee of

Principals

AACR FundTrustees/Publishers

Joint SteeringCommittee

ALACC:DA ACOC BL CCC CILIP LC

RDA Project Manager

RDA Editor

JSC Secretary

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What can RDA accomplish? More flexible, up-to-date standard to

replace AACR2 Create a useful tool for catalogers Easier to train new catalogers Facilitate cataloging digital

resources in a library environment Promote international adoption of a

common standard

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What has hampered RDA development?

Too much hype! Need for backwards compatibility Tight funding and timeline Success of standard tied to success

of the commercial product Consultation process needed

improvement

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Consulting other communities

Which communities to consul? What do we gain? Ensuring successful

consultations

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Which communities to consult?

Those with similar missions to our own Archives, museums

Others whose metadata we want to share Publishing, metadata communities

Communities that can assist us

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What do we gain?

Metadata interoperability Envision technology trends and

opportunities Improve standards development

process Help us undertake user research

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Ensuring successful consultations

Must be at the appropriate level Often will need to be on-going, not

one-time events Need organizational structures and

funding to maintain relationships Allow for serendipity (this needs

funding too!)

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Recommendations for RDA

Move forward with first release in 2009

Aggressively pursue development of RDA application profile, related efforts

Restructure JSC work to focus on consultation, not document editing

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Future of controlled data

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Controlled data: what’s needed

Need identifiers! Evaluate potential based on well-

designed systems Provide better tools for catalogers Facilitate faceted browsing

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New requirements for bibliographic data

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Creating richer interfaces

Web services to enrichment data Metadata to support faceted

browsing FRBR-informed navigation

Relator information Controlled access points

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Testing environments Encourage experimentation and

research Opportunities to develop new

system functionalities User research and usability testing Support open-source community Feed “lessons learned” into

standards development

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Sharing metadata Between repositories, similar

discovery environments Share local augmentation, results of

experimentation Distinguish standard from local

metadata, but share both Within other discovery environments

Components to “connect” systems

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What’s needed for future standards development?

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What is our vision? Users have a positive experience

locating library resources Users are led to library resources

from wherever they happen to be online

Library “solutions” are seen as useful in the broader world

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A positive vision for bibliographic control

Catalogers/metadata professionals… Have effective tools, can focus on

intellectual work Participate in designing how systems

use metadata Contribute widely to improving shared

metadata Are confident that systems will use

their work effectively

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What’s needed right now?

Positive, decisive future action Clearly redefine roles and

responsibilities Explain, justify trade-offs Articulate a positive vision for the

future of bibliographic control