Code4Lib 2011, February 8

Critical CollaborationsProgrammers and catalogers? Really?

Old Familiar Cataloger Tools

Obviously not a real cataloger

I’ve been working with computers in libraries since 1973 …

But is that enough?

P.S.: I don’t write code …

WHY ME?

I Programmers

I Programmers

Naomi Dushay

I Programmers

Naomi Dushay

George Kozak

I Programmers

Naomi Dushay

George Kozak

Pete Hoyt

I Programmers

Naomi Dushay

George Kozak

Pete Hoyt

Jon Phipps

So … Why Am I Here?

Catalogers and programmers have a history of talking past one another

How can we change that?

I have ideas!

XML

MARC

RDF

SPARQL

OY

Separate Tables

What do we need to do to start sitting together?

Only some of the stereotypes you’ve heard about catalogers are true

Like in most professional groups,there are important variations

On the other hand, maybe all thestereotypes about programmers

are true?

But I’m sure I’ve talked about theweather with programmers!

Quiz: Which group is more likely to want to go to the ‘nitty gritty’ first (whether or not they’ve had a chance

to agree on the basics)?

▢

▢

▢

Catalogers

Programmers

All of the above

Are We Getting Anywhere?

Small Starts/Big Goals

Starting to talk about change within your institution

What are our priorities? Do we have common priorities?

Inside the Cataloger Brain

Real catalogers think (and talk) in MARC

tags.

Their job is to fit the thing in their hands into the panoply of

other cataloged items

The happiest catalogers are those who are at

one with their rules and practices

Ergo, look for competent, but frustrated catalogers

Finding Frustrated Catalogers

Clue: May be a catalog maintenance or

authorities librarian

Clue: May have had some experience with data that isn’t MARC

Clue: May have done some crosswalking and

mapping

Are we waiting for some 800 lb. Gorilla to teach us what we need to learn?

Or can we learn from one another what we need to know?

One model: http://metadata-wg.mannlib.cornell.edu/

Setting Priorities

Changing the conversation

Building new tools

Doing it together

Better Data = Better Services for Users

Current OPAC users (internal and external)

LegacyData

ProspectiveData

POINTS OF TENSION

Libraries

What about all this other stuff?

Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net/

Where we are now?

What are we doing about it?

RDA Testing Theater

What we tested: whether the RDA rules could be crammed into MARC

What we should have tested: whether we can meet the needs of our users better with a different approach to data

Result: The cataloging world outside the US thinks we’re nuts

Libraries currently live in a top down world—

how well is that working for us today?

If we want a bottom-up world, we need to build

it ourselves

Consider the RDA Vocabularies--built by a small group, with the potential to change

how we work

Waiting for the Gurus to speak

ReadMe

Where Are The Tools?

Label (Domain/Range)Subproperty

RDA FRBRSameAs

ISBD

FRBR lite ISBD lite

RDA/IFLA/other properties (minimal linkage)

DCT

Extent (/S)

DC

format

Extent

Extent of text

Extent of text (M/)

Extent (M/) has extent of the carrier (M/)

has extent (R/)

has extent of the carrier

has extent

BIBO

numPages (D/l) numVolumes (C/l)

Classes: Manifestation, Resource, Collection, Document, SizeOrDuration, literal

Note: Document sub-class-of Resource

New World Data

✤ Reusing legacy data in a different environment will require significant investments in data improvement, and systems that will provide support for that transition

✤ XC has started, but others need to work in this area

✤ We need to look at the issues of prospective data creation and reuse of legacy data in parallel

✤ Our new world is more distributed, more diverse, offering us data that hasn’t been vetted by catalogers

✤ The only rational way to deal with that data is at the statement level, not the record level

Our Challenges

✤ Managing statements, not records

✤ Integrating data from a multitude of providers, including users

✤ Developing new models of distribution and data sharing, less centralized

✤ This includes identifying and sharing more granular WEMI info, with relationships!

✤ Demonstrate that the costs of NO CHANGE are significantly more than the costs of CHANGE

Can We Get More Comfortable With One Another?

Can We Do More Than Get Along?

Thanks for your attention!

Email: metadata.maven@gmail.com

Blog: Metadata Matters http://managemetadata.com/blog/

Thanks to Gordon Dunsire for the ‘FR’ slide, and to Flickr members clover_1 and annagoben (among others) for the photos. Thanks to the Virtual Museum of Cataloging and Acquisitions Artifacts and the RDA Happy Fun Time Companion.