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CS3255Information Organization

Lecture 5:Library Catalogues:

From Traditional to Next-Generation

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References Breeding, Marshall, “Next-Generation Library

Catalogs,” Library Technology Reports, v.43, n.4 (Jul/Aug 2007), available online at http://www.techsource.ala.org/ltr/ (accessed 11 Sep 2007)

Taylor, Arlene G., Introduction to Cataloging and Classification, 10th ed. Westport, Conn. : Libraries Unlimited, 2006.

Furrie, Betty, Understanding MARC Bibliographic: Machine-Readable Catalogs, 7th ed. Washington, D.C. : Cataloging Distribution Services, Library of Congress, in conjunction with The Follett Software Co., c2003, available online at http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/ (accessed 11 Sep 2007)

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Today’s Agenda Traditional Library Catalogue

Scope of the Library Catalogue Purpose of the Library Catalogue Underlying Standards Problems with TLC

Next-Generation Library Catalogue Federated Search or Metasearch Delivering Content to the User Enriched Content Faceted Navigation Web 2.0: Enabling User Contributions Other Features Putting Them All Together

Q&A

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TraditionalLibrary Catalogue

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Scope of the Library Catalogue Books – includes print and electronic books Multimedia materials – CDs, DVDs, etc. Newspapers, magazines, and professional

& scholarly journals – described at title level, not individual issues/articles

Others – such as musical scores, microfilms, etc.

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Purpose of the Library Catalogue 4 user tasks:

To find entities that correspond to the user’s stated search criteria …

To identify an entity … To select an entity that is appropriate to the

user’s needs … To acquire or obtain access to the entity

described …

Extracted from: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, Final Report, IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (Munchen: K.G. Saur, 1998); also available: http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr.htm (accessed 6 Sep 2007).

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Underlying Standards Descriptive Cataloguing:

AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, version 2)

Subject Cataloguing: Library of Congress Subject Headings Library of Congress Classification Scheme

Encoding: MARC21 (MAchine Readable Cataloging) –

Bibliographic, Authority, Holdings, Classification & Community

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Underlying Standards:Descriptive Cataloguing AACR2

Part I – Description Chapter 1 – covers description in

general and is applicable to all types of materials

Chapters 2-12 – cover in detail various types of materials

Chapter 13 – covers a special topic: analysis

Part II – Headings, Uniform Titles, and References

Chapter 21 – covers how access points are selected

Chapters 22-25 – cover how headings & uniform titles are formed

Chapter 26 – covers how and when references are to be created to link headings

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Underlying Standards:Subject Cataloguing Subject Headings

Controlled list of subject concept term or phrase used in catalogue records to:

Identify pertinent material on a given subject Enable user to find material on related subjects

E.g., Library of Congress Subject Headings Classification

Provides orderly access to the shelves by bringing related items together in a helpful sequence from the general to the specific

E.g., Library of Congress Classification Scheme

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Underlying Standards:Encoding (1)

Extracted from MARC21 Formats - http://www.loc.gov/marc/marcdocz.html (accessed 6 Sep 2007)

MARC = MAchine Readable Catalog

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Underlying Standards:Encoding (2) Understanding MARC Bibliographic

http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/ (accessed 6 Sep 2007)

Part III: MARC Terms and Their Definitions (http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/um01to06.html#part3)

Part VII: A Summary of Commonly Used MARC21 Fields (http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/um07to10.html#part7)

Part XI: A Sample Record in Various Formats (http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/um11to12.html#part11)

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Problems with TLC Complex search interface

Not consistent with user interface conventions Unable to rank results by relevancy

Limited in scope Tied more to print materials Unable to deliver online content

Lack social network features

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Next-Generation Library Catalogue

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Federated Search (1) or Metasearch Before – search

individual information resources separately

Now – one interface to search multiple information resources simultaneously

Taken from NISO’s website. Presentation by Andrew Pace: http://www.niso.org/news/events_workshops/OpenURL-05-ppts/2-1-pace.ppt (date: 21 Mar 2007)

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Federated Search (2) How it works?

Back-end communication through search protocols to send query and receive results

ANSI/NISO Z39.50 (http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/) XML Others

Front-end processing and presentation of result sets Presenting results in a standard format and structure De-duplication – i.e. consolidation of identical entries from

multiple targets Sorting and display

Sample Site

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Federated Search (3) Issues

Speed of performance limited by slowest responding target

Time-outs Minimal no. of targets Limiting no. of items requested

Sorting & ranking Based on initial set of records retrieved

Separate from the Library Catalogue

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Delivering Content to the User Using a link resolver

based on the OpenURL standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.88) (http://openurl.info/registry)

Provide users with contents that they can actually access

Sample Site Taken from Serials Solutions’ website: http://www.serialssolutions.com/alOURL04.

asp (date: 21 Mar 2007)

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Enriched Content Contents include:

Cover art images, such as book jackets, movie cases, etc.

Table of contents MARC or Non-MARC Searchable or Not

Summaries Reviews

Sources: Syndetic Solutions (http://www.syndetics.com)

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Faceted Navigation Using facets to narrow down results Facets derived from bibliographic

information in the Library Catalogue Visual appeal Sample Sites

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Web 2.0: Enabling User Contributions User ratings & reviews

Expressing opinions regarding works in the catalogue

User tagging Assigning informal terms to items of interest “Folksonomy” as a supplement to traditional

subject headings provided by libraries Blogs & RSS

Means to deliver information to users Lists of new items Lists of relevant items

Sample Sites

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Other Features Keyword Searching

Google-like simple search box Relevancy

Most important items appear first followed by those of diminishing relevancy

“Did you mean …?” Detect common spelling errors Suggest a term that will work

Recommendations “Users that borrowed X also borrowed Y”

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Putting Them All Together New discovery & delivery interface providing

access to all of the content and services offered by a Library Through harvesting additional contents into local index Through incorporating federated-search into interface

Interface characteristics Simple search box AJAX technology to dynamically request and present

additional information without having to redisplay the entire page

Incorporate features such as Relevancy ranking, Popular choices, Faceted navigation, Tag cloud, “Did you mean …?”, User-contributed content, Enriched content, etc.

Sample Site

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Q & A

Thank you!

Tan Kah ChingSenior Librarian

Automation & Asset OrganisationNUS Libraries

clbtkc@nus.edu.sg