Are We There Yet? A Look Back at The Future of Bibliographic Control Robert Wolven June 18, 2010

On the Record Report of The Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control January 9, 2008

Framing Vision (Re)Defining Bibliographic Control (Re)Defining the Bibliographic Universe 5 Major Themes Increasing efficiency of record production Enhancing access to unique and special materials Positioning our technology for the future Positioning our community for the future Strengthening the library profession

On the Record: what it is, and is not Commissioned by the Library of Congress Recommendations to LC and to the library community Group effort, consensus report Global scope, US focus All libraries, not just academic Broad scope, but not all metadata

Redefining Bibliographic Control When books were books … 20 th Century Research Process Library as metadata repository Library as content repository

Indexes Bibliographies Finding Aids Research Question Library Catalog Archives Journals Books Metadata Content

Research Question Library CatalogBooks

Research Question Library Catalog Books Web Search Digital Collections Data News Books Articles Digital Collections Data News Books Articles

Google Search: Shakespeare tercentenary

Conference Paper Google Book Preview IA Book NY Times Article Journal Article Google Book Full view

Research Question News Articles Digital Collections Library Catalog Books Web Search Digital Collections Data News Books Articles Digital Collections Data News Books Articles

Library Super-Catalog: Web-Scale Discovery Articles, News, Images, Data, Chapters … Name Authorities, Subject Headings …

Increase the Efficiency of Bibliographic Production What we said: Re-use data from other sources (ONIX, IMDB, etc.) Automate processes (CIP submission) Share responsibility more broadly Expand the Program for Cooperative Cataloging Increase incentives for record creation Reduce barriers to sharing

Increase the Efficiency of Bibliographic Production What’s happening: OCLC pilot use of ONIX data More, better records from book vendors R2 study of bibliographic marketplace

Increase the Efficiency of Bibliographic Production But: Economic downturn, stable or decreased production Metadata as commodity, increased competition OCLC policy on record use Sky River Merging of content provision and discovery Expansion of e-resources from journals (CONSER) to books So …

Enhancing Access to Rare, Unique and Special Materials What we said: Increase priority, resources allocated Streamline processes, standards Integrate access with other materials Encourage digitization

Enhancing Access to Rare, Unique and Special Materials What’s happening: “More Product, Less Process” (Greene-Meissner report) Adding OAIster, digital collections to WorldCat RLG, ARL initiatives Flickr Commons

Enhancing Access to Rare, Unique and Special Materials But: Limited opportunity for growth Controversy over streamlining Integration exposes differences Digitization transforms “unique” to “ubiquitous” So …

Google Search: Shakespeare tercentenary

Position our Technology for the Future What we said: Replace MARC Suspend RDA Use Web infrastructure Increase use of identifiers Improve the standards process

RDA: What’s a Code For? What’s happening: Longer process, more examination, discussion Coordinated plan for testing and evaluation Formal definition of RDA vocabularies MARC format changes Some questions: Integrating data from external sources Selective use of RDA elements Relationship to larger bibliographic universe

From MARC to … ? What’s needed: Separation of carrier from presentation Expression within common web standards Consistent coding of actionable data What’s happening: Merger into “common data format(s)” Development of use cases for non-MARC applications What’s likely:

Increase Use of Identifiers Names: VIAF, ISNI, ORCHID, ResearcherID … xISSN, xISBN Ever-more-OpenURL Linked Data applications GIS applications ORE, Memento, Moving data vs. Linking data vs. Parsing data

Improve the standards process Rigorous cost/benefit analysis early on Integration of standards development with testing and evaluation Modular development and deployment of “big” standards Engagement of software engineers throughout So far …

Position our Community for the Future What we said: Let everyone do it (user-contributed metadata) Let the computer do it (computationally derived metadata) LCSH: subject analysis is important, could be better FRBR: really? No, really?

User generated metadata Explicit: flickr Commons, WorldCat Lists, tags, reviews, … Imported: delicious tag groups, LibraryThing API Derived: recommender services based on use Issues of screening, sharing, privacy, intelligence derived from user attributes Attracting interest – competing with Amazon for attention

Subject analysis Bridging communities of practice (linking vocabularies) Navigating massive result sets (facets) Terminology vs Taxonomy (subject headings vs classification) Machine-assisted analysis Minority view: abandon LCSH

LCSH, LC Classification, FRBR and Web-Scale Discovery Articles, News, Images, Data, Chapters … Subject Headings, FRBR …

Strengthen the Library and Information Science Profession Encourage more and better research Build solid evidence on which to base decisions Increase communication between libraries and LIS educators Further develop continuing education opportunities

Focus on Content: Analog to Digital From: units in which resources are managed (published, purchased, stored …) To: units in which resources are accessed (chapter-level DOIs, i-Tunes, article-linking …)

Library focus on content (cont’d) From: published vs unique (shared cataloging, standards vs local access, practice) To: limited access vs open access (outsourced responsibility vs no responsibility?)

When the print is no more … E-Neuroforum Only Koninklijke Bibliotheek Paladyn Erasmus University Rotterdam Koninklijke Bibliotheek

The case of Refugee Watch WorldCat: LC: no. 32 CRL: no. 24/25, 28-30, 32 UConn: no. 5/6-8, Oxford: no. 2, 4 Sydney: no IISH: no. 4 On the Web: No available to download “online edition” as a blog

Library focus on content (cont’d) From: mediated access via metadata (metadata as surrogate) To: searchable content vs viewable content (metadata as supplement)

Library focus on metadata creation and management From: emphasis on discovery To: emphasis on access From: design for homogeneous, controlled environment To: design for blended, web-scale environment

Some implications for metadata practice Design metadata for primary audience Deprecate consistency as a value Use identifiers to compensate for lack of consistency Maximize use of linked data Apply expertise based on mission, not ownership Focus on metadata to bridge communities of practice Focus on improving ability to parse large results

Some challenges: Consistent discovery across heterogeneous objects Defining appropriate “targets” of discovery Enhancing retrospective metadata Parsing ambiguous data to improve retrieval

Who Will Shape the Future? Whose technology? Whose standards? Whose research? Who’s responsible? How fast is fast enough?