Roy TennantCalifornia Digital Library

Roy Tennant

Life Beyond MARC:

The Case for Revolutionary

Change in Library Systems & Services

Life Beyond MARC:

The Case for Revolutionary

Change in Library Systems & Services

Where I’m Coming From

Challenges are merely opportunities viewed from below

There are three requirements for survival:– Having the right gear– Making the right decisions– Luck

We have far to go but we have a good start, and many models to emulate and improve upon

Key Messages

The game has changed

We can no longer simply do what we’ve always been doing

We must revisit our strategies & priorities…

…and reallocate resources to fulfill those new strategies & priorities

It may be painful, but it is certainly needed and overdue

Why We Must Get Our Act Together

How We Got in This Mess to Begin With

A Mini History of Library Automation

Automation began in the back room:– Circulation – Cataloging (where we now rest comfortably on our laurels)– Acquisitions

And moved into public areas almost as an afterthought (why do you think we call them OPACS?)Systems were optimized for librarians, not usersPaper journal indexes were simply replaced with electronic versionsFew accommodations for remote users were made

Key Problems

Conflated management and discovery purposesCreated (or allowed to be created) stovepipe information systemsRested on our laurels after card catalog retrospective conversionSlow to exploit new opportunitiesReluctant to collaborate deeply on profession-wide level

What We Must Do

Expand our catalogs beyond MARC

October 15, 2002

http://roytennant.com/metadata.pdf

http://texts.cdlib.org/escholarship/

http://www.loc.gov/standards/catenrich/

Brief record

(e.g., ONIX)

Full record

(e.g., MARC)

Enhanced record

(e.g., METS)

Full-text

The Continuum

We must build systems that do the best they can with what is available

Relevance ranking and FRBR-inspired displays become essential

Expand our search systems beyond our catalog

Library Discovery Systems

Must encompass everything that may be appropriate for a particular audience or needNeed to accommodate a continuum from a brief metadata record to the entire item [impact: acquisitions, cataloging, reference, systems]Must use weighting and ranking mechanisms to create more effective search results [impact: circulation, systems, cataloging, public services]

Build search systems with user needs in mind

Implications of All This

You will not be doing tomorrow what you are doing today (resistance is futile)Better to participate in the change than to have it inflicted upon youDoing new things may mean not having to do other things you’ve grown to hateAn exciting time that requires vision, imagination, and flexibility

COMMENTS / QUESTIONS?