1. Living Up to One’s Digital Potential in a Traditional Cataloging Unit ALA Heads of Cataloging IG January 27, 2014 John Riemer

2. Digital Library Project Work Needs a Home A.The traditional cataloging unit takes on the new challenges B.The workload gets based elsewhere in the library C.The activity takes place outside the library

3. Preference for the First Option Possess long and deep history of organizing resources Get extra mileage from language, format, subject expertise Avoid “Cabinets of Curiosities”* Pave the way for uniform resource discovery: Support integrated searching in a single-search environment Revitalize your staff with new challenges Bolster administrative support for existing FTEs Improve odds of getting vacant positions back *Marija Dalbello. “Institutional Shaping of Cultural Memory: Digital Library as Environment for Textual Transmission” Library Quarterly 74(3) 2004: pp. 265-298.

4. Two variations within a cataloging unit Specialization within one segment of a cataloging unit Shared responsibility throughout

5. Preparing Staff to Take on New Work Dublin Core will not supplant MARC DC will likely only be used for materials unlikely ever to receive a MARC record Nothing in a schema inherently dictates fullness of metadata Crosswalks aside, Learn the language! “But DC is not a content standard”

6. Levels of Involvement in Digital Activity 1.Advice giving & Developing guidelines 2.Creation of metadata for a project 3.Metadata consultations

7. Levels of Involvement in Digital Activity 1.Advice giving & Developing guidelines 2.Creation of metadata for a project 3.Metadata consultations

8. Levels of Involvement in Digital Activity 1.Advice giving & Developing guidelines 2.Creation of metadata for a project 3.Metadata consultations

9. Finding the Capacity Work in shared files Cut out local variation Set targets for original cataloging time Catalog on receipt in acquisitions Obtain record sets Utilize and authority vendor Excel at batch processing

10. Measuring the work New titles cataloged Authority file headings established Records or names reviewed/changed Hours spent? Ratio of metadata descriptions to MARC records cataloged?

11. The role of authority data in the new metadata work Matching existing headings? Yes Establishing new names & terms? No?? Prioritize frequently recurring terms? NACO and SACO contributions? How to maintain currency in metadata?

12. Reconceptualizing Authority Work Differentiating entities Creating identifiers De-emphasizing heading construction FRBR Type 2 & Type 1 entities Enlarging the scope of who contributes authority data

13. Looking to the PCC for guidance Clearinghouse of metadata application profiles? Sharing advice on best practices? Problem solving? How to put metadata to new uses? Broadening the range of authority data contributors?

14. For more reflections … Riemer, John J. “The Expansion of Cataloging to Cover the Digital Object Landscape.” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly v. 48:551-560 (2010) “If cataloging units do not embrace the new role, the bibliographic control work will very likely go elsewhere; subtract what catalogers could offer and the odds are that the work will not be done as thoughtfully or as well.”

15. Your Comments & Questions Thanks! jriemer@library.ucla.edu