The Changing Faces of Catalogs: Accelerating Access, Saving Time Karen Calhoun NC Serials Conference March 29, 2007

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 2 My Report to the Library of Congress Calhoun, Karen. The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools Washington, DC: Library of Congress, March

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 3 My Thesis: We Need to Rethink the Catalog in Light of a Changed World Users are not getting what they need from online libraries and catalogs Content has changed Users have changed The library service model must change The catalog must change WHO? WHAT? HOW? WHERE?

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 4 Agenda Section 1: Questions about the catalog Section 2: Library service model and the role of the catalog Section 3: New service model Section 4: Revitalizing the catalog Section 5: What’s possible today and tomorrow

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 5 Unanswered Questions 1. Who uses online catalogs and library Web pages? 2. Compared to what? 3. Are users getting what they need from online catalogs?

From Tim Burke’s Blog, Easily Distracted: Burn the Catalog! “I’m to the point where I think we’d be better off to just utterly erase our existing academic catalogs and forget about backwards- compatibility…” Tim Burke, Swarthmore College, Jan. 20, tburke1/perma12004.html

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 7 More Unkind Words About the Catalog As information systems, catalogs are hard to use Quote from Yu, Holly and Margo Young “The impact of Web search engines on subject searching in OPAC.” ITAL 23 (4). “In spite of many studies…many of the original ideas about improving user success …have yet to be implemented. Ironically, many of these techniques are now found in Web search engines.”

Who Uses the Online Catalog? Surveying the Students: the 2005 Student Survey On the University of Virginia Library. p. 15

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 9 The Net Generation = Millennials Net Generation Lippincott, Joan “Net Generation Students and Libraries”

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 10 Lippincott: The Net Generation & Library Services: A Disconnect They like Multimedia environments Figuring things out for themselves Working in groups Multitasking Active engagement & learning directly related to courses We offer Text-based environments Systems that require prior understanding (or librarian help) Services for individual use Catalogs, databases, etc.

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 11 Review of Unanswered Questions Who uses the online catalog? faculty and graduate students (comparatively more) students (comparatively less) librarians Who uses library Web pages? How much? strong preference for search engines

Where Do You Begin a Search for Information on a Topic? Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources: a Report to the OCLC Membership.

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 13 Competition for Catalogs? FigureThis!

Full Text: Digital Repositories and Interactive Learning

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 15 More Competition? Social Networks ‘Linked in’ appears to be the next widespread social network… The site, which claims 9 million worldwide users, is a way to foster business connections.”

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 16 Review of Unanswered Question 2: Compared to What? Strong preference for full text and media, other Web content Some are familiar with bibliographic data/tools, many are not (and find what they want anyway?) Personal and professional networking are important aspects of information seeking

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 17 We Need to Rethink the Catalog in Light of a Changed World Users are not getting what they need from online libraries and catalogs Content has changed Users have changed The library service model must change The catalog must change WHO? WHAT? HOW? WHERE?

VIVO: Connecting Life Sciences Researchers Combining social networking, traditional library services, and more

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 19 The Well “They come and go and draw from the well” I Ching, hexagram 48, Ching – The Well The Library as a center of collections The Library as a center of experts and tools to guide users to appropriate resources

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 20 The River

The Way We Worked Books Journals Newspapers Gov docs Maps Scores AV Dissertations Special collections Manuscripts Papers Univ records Journal articles Conference proceedings Etc. Library catalogs Archives Abstracting & Indexing services

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 22 Boundaries and boundary-breaking Libraries Communities of users Analog collections Library buildings Library org. “silos” Cultural heritage orgs. Technology centers

Geocentric/ Aristotelian view: The local catalog is the sun Heliocentric/ Copernican view: The local catalog is a planet

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 24 Being a 21 st Century Librarian Starting points: Technology-driven research, teaching and learning Disintermediation (users perceive they are self-sufficient) Accelerating shift in information seekers’ preferences for Web-based information and multimedia formats Librarianship: “There are few professions which contribute so much to the saving of time and to the progress of science.” –Library Journal, 1890

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 25 Making Library Collections and Services Visible Librarians must be where the users are Library must be where the users’ eyes are Interconnections, interoperability, and information delivery Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships “2 ½ cheers for Google.” --Paul Duguid, May , Cornell University

A New Kind of Library Be more involved with research and learning materials and systems Be more engaged with user communities Make library collections and librarians more visible Move to next generation systems and services An online social network

A multidimensional framework for academic support: a final report submitted to the Mellon Foundation from the University of Minnesota Libraries, June 2006, p

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 28 Implications Citizens engage in information network processes with or without libraries Libraries, librarians, and the organizations that serve them need to design and align services with social networks and users’ information seeking behaviors Catalogs (that is, collections) need to be more visible in the user’s information space

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 29 Outward Integration “Integration should be outward rather than inward, with libraries seeking to use their components in new ways” --Interviewee for Calhoun’s LC report on future of the catalog

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 30 Second Life Library McMaster University Library (Canada) NMC Campus (New Media Consortium) Talis Cybrary City Second Life Library/Info Island San Jose State U. LIS School (virtual classes) Over 4. 8 million “residents” (March )

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 31 Integration with Learning Management Systems Links to “Ask a Librarian” Links to Web-based citation management tools (like RefWorks) Links to specific licensed e-resources & course reserves Links to library-created materials (like webliographies)

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 32 Integration with Search Engines: Google Scholar Why are online catalogs still hard to use?still hard to use? – Get it! Cornell … CL Borgman - Journal of The American Society for Information Science, 1996

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 33 Outward Integration of the Serial Literature: Some Anecdotal Evidence

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 34 CONSER Access Level Record “Access Level for Serials Working Group Final Report” CONSER July acq/conser/ alrFinalReport.html

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 35 Quiz: What Percentage of the World-Wide Printed Book Collection is Held by the Google 5 Libraries? A. 33% B. 10% C. 60%

The Next Retrospective Conversion: Mass Digitization Brian Lavoie et al. Anatomy of aggregate collections: the example of Google Print for libraries %

“Within the next five years … …there will no longer be a monolithic library Web site. Instead library data will be pushed out to many starting places on the Web and directly to users.” --Provocative Statement #6, Taiga Forum …we’ll be past the notion that the online catalog is the way you find things in libraries.” --Interviewee for LC report

EXTEND STRATEGY EXPAND STRATEGY LEADERSHIP STRATEGY “Outward integration” Improve the user’s experience Greatly enhance delivery (fast!) Standards development/compliance Recycle and reuse catalog data Innovate and reduce costs Invest in shared catalogs Link pools of scholarly data Seek partners Mass collections & catalogs Digitize Open access Participate in the substitute industry “Thirty-two Options & Three Strategies”— A Radical Abridgement SEE HANDOUT

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 39 Vision for Change: The Catalog – Leadership Strategy The catalog will evolve toward full integration with other discovery tools Shared catalogs and open information systems will radically democratize access to library collections and boost scholarly productivity to new levels

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 40 The Continuing Importance of the Catalog Books and serials are not dead, and they are not yet digital ARL libraries spent the lion’s share of $665 million on printed books and serials in 2004 The legacy of the world’s library collections is tied to the future of catalogs!

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 41 What’s Possible Today? - Innovate and Reduce Costs Much better linkages: ingest, convert, extract, transfer Simplify & exploit all sources of catalog data Automate and streamline workflows Explore automatic classification, subject analysis; reengineer and automate LCSH practice Mine catalog data for new uses

Are Innovation and Cost Reduction Really Possible? Comparison of Staff Size and Output Over Seven Years (Cornell) Percent Change to 02-03: FTE down 20% Acquisitions up 18% Cataloging up 64%

What’s Possible Today? – Updated Interface for the the Local Online Catalog Aquabrowser Lexington Public Library, KY

What’s Possible Today? - More Interactive and Visual Wordpress OPAC (WPopac) - Plymouth State University 2006 Mellon Award. plymouth.edu/library/opac/ plymouth.edu/library/opac/

What’s Possible Today? - Shared Catalogs with Improved Interfaces Georgia PINES’ Evergreen: 252 public libraries

What’s Possible Today? – Find Globally, Get Locally Worldcat.org / Find in a Library

What’s Possible Tomorrow? – Unifying System Model Other Catalogs Local Library Catalog Digital Collections Licensed Databases Other (e.g.,DSpace) Many diverse, separate interfaces Metadata/content aggregation layer Authentication layer Unified Web Interface (“Google-like”)

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 48 New Models for the Catalog: Linking Pools of Data Ex Libris – Primo Innovative Interfaces – Encore University of Rochester - eXtensible Catalog

The Catalog and Teaching, Learning, and Research, the Next Generation Phoenix detail from Aberdeen Bestiary (public domain) Deconstruction AND Reinvention

March Calhoun - NC Serials Conference 50 Thank You! Karen Calhoun, Cornell University Library