Van wyk trends and changes in technical services and the impact on cataloguing

GAELIC SUMMER TRAINING
CAMP 2010
Trends and changes in Technical Services
and the impact on cataloguing
Nonnie van Wyk
vwykac@unisa.ac.za
17 November 2010

1. Trends in the new user environment
2. External trends influencing libraries
3. Trends in Technical Services
3.1. A new bibliographic utility
3.2. Changing library systems
CONTENT

CONTENT, cont.
3.3. The name “cataloguers”
3.4. The location of the Technical Services Division
in the Library structure
3.5. Building better relationships up and down the
supply line
3.6. Digital metadata creation

3.7. Retooling of cataloguing staff
3.8. Less descriptive cataloguing
3.9. More authority control
3.10. Outsourcing services for print resources
3.11. New standards
CONTENT, cont.

CONTENT, cont.
3.12. Contributions to international shared
cataloguing cooperatives
3.13. The building of capacity despite the
shrinking pool of cataloguing professionals and
budgets

The following client expectations were identified:
1. One system or search to cover a wide information
universe (e.g. seamless searches from this one
system to Google, etc.)
2. Enriched metadata (e.g. ONIX, table of contents,
summaries, reviews, cover art)
3. Full-text availability.
TRENDS IN THE NEW USER
ENVIRONMENT

4. To move easily and seamlessly from a
citation about an item to the item itself—to
find, identify and select is not enough. The
need to obtain the resource is a must.
ENVIRONMENT, cont.

5. Systems must provide a lot of intelligent
assistance:
5.1. Correction of obvious spelling errors.
5.2. Results must be sorted in order of relevance
to their queries.
5.3. Help in navigating large retrievals through
logical sub setting or topical maps or hierarchies.
ENVIRONMENT, cont.

5.4. Help in selecting the best source through
relevance ranking or added commentary from
peers and experts or “others who used this also
that” tools.
5.5. Customisation and personalisation services.
6. Authenticated single sign-on.
7. Security and privacy.
ENVIRONMENT, cont.

ENVIRONMENT, cont.
8. Communication and collaboration.
9. Multiple formats available: e-resources (books,
e-journals), MPEG, JPEG, RSS and other push
technologies, along with traditional, tangible
formats.
10. Direct links to e-mail, instant messaging, and
sharing.

ENVIRONMENT, cont.
11. Access to online virtual communities
12. Access to what the library has to offer without
actually having to visit the library.

EXTERNAL TRENDS INFLUENCING
LIBRARIES
1. In the 20th century libraries made a huge financial
investment in the organization and description of
information, inventory, workflows and staff. Today
this investment is under intense scrutiny as libraries
realise they no longer have a monopoly on
information. They are only one of the players in the
new information marketplace

LIBRARIES, cont.
2. To survive libraries need to move aggressively
forward into the digital environment to showcase
and present their unique information resources
and one-of-a-kind collections to the world.
3. Shrinking budgets for resources and staff
required libraries to apply business models to
workflows that have previously not been
questioned or challenged.

LIBRARIES, cont.
4. The appearance of WorldCat Local and the
impact it will have on proprietary vendor OPACs.
An inventory list, acquisitions and circulation
modules could in future be integrated with
WorldCat Local, which can lead to the demise of
integrated library systems and their chunky
OPACS and huge budgetary lines. Bibliographic
utilities are likely to be the centralised node for
all data.

LIBRARIES, cont.
5. The declining demand for library catalogues.
Studies indicated that 80% of users bypass library
OPACS in favour of search engines when beginning
a search.
6. The power of Web 2.0 tools and services to
better position libraries in the new information
marketplace.

LIBRARIES, cont.
7. The influence and effect of the mass Google
digitisation of print resources project and other
associated ventures on the new information
marketplace. Yes, there are concerns about
quality, copyright, the disappearance of all print
and the time and cost to digitise all print. The
impact on the relevance of libraries will have to
be managed very carefully.

LIBRARIES, cont.
8. More and more published printed information
will be available in full-text online. It will have a
big impact on the physical collections that all
libraries maintain, in terms of circulation, use of
space, preservation and collection development.
Strategically libraries should develop new
directions and options.

LIBRARIES, cont.
9. Automatic metadata generation without human
intervention, using new technologies and tools, and
the integration thereof into library workflows, can
be viewed as a viable option to replace certain
traditional functions in libraries and to maximise
staff and budgetary resources.

LIBRARIES, cont.
10. Libraries should develop new mantras in the
new information environment, such as:
10.1. Be available everywhere
10.2. Be designed to get better through use
10.3. Be portable
10.4. Know where they are

LIBRARIES, cont.
10.5. Help people learn
10.6. Be tools of change
10.7. Offer paths of exploration
10.8. Help forge memory
10.9. Speak for people
10.10. Study the art of war

TRENDS RELATED TO TECHNICAL
SERVICES
1. A new bibliographic utility
1.1. A new bibliographic utility has come into
existence to oppose OCLC, namely SkyRiver.
2. Changing library systems
2.1. Continuous changing of Library systems to
adapt to new technologies

SERVICES, cont.
3. The name “cataloguers”
There is power in a name. Users and colleagues
should understand what “cataloguers” do. They
are structuring metadata. All over the world the
name “cataloguers” are changed to Metadata
Librarians to fit into the new work environment:
3.1. They think about descriptive data without
preconceptions around descriptive level,
granularity, or descriptive vocabularies.

SERVICES, cont.
3.2. They consider the entirety of the discovery and
access issues around a set or collection of
materials.
3.3. They consider clients and uses beyond an
individual service when making design decisions—
not necessarily predetermined.
3.4. They are aware of changing client needs.

SERVICES, cont.
3.5. They understand the evolving information
environment.
3.6. They work collaboratively with staff in other
divisions to cultivate new relationships.
3.7. They work closely with external service
partners on evolving needs.
3.8. They are familiar with all metadata formats
and encoding metadata.

SERVICES, cont.
3.9. They view data as collections, sets, streams.
3.10. They approach the task as designing data to
“play well with others”.
3.11. They repurpose data.
3.12. Metadata creation will become more
decentralised:

SERVICES, cont.
3.12.1. They will create original metadata for
resources that would not otherwise be accessible
to clients.
3.12.2. They would enhance shared metadata at
its source by expanding their expertise into more
varied and sophisticated metadata to improve
seamless provision of access to clients.
3.12.3. They will take responsibility to quality
control metadata through different approaches.

SERVICES, cont.
4. The location of the Technical Services Division in
the Library structure
4.1. Where the Technical Services Division should
be placed in the library structure is currently a very
hot topic.

SERVICES, cont.
4.2. Technology has the effect of integrating
processes. The Library of Congress has placed
there Cataloguing and Procurement operations
together. There are other examples in the
literature where Cataloguing, Collection
Development and Procurement form one
operation, etc.

SERVICES, cont.
5. Build better relationships up and down the
supply line with:
5.1. Business partners
5.2. Administrators
5.3. Colleagues
5.4. Customers

SERVICES, cont.
6. Digital metadata creation
6.1. Integrate digital library metadata into the
workflow of Cataloguing. It is a natural extension
of cataloguers existing skills.
7. Retooling of cataloguing staff
Additional training is needed to enable staff to:

SERVICES, cont.
7.1. Work in both print and digital worlds.
7.2. Understand and use new and changed
standards.
7.3. Create non-MARC metadata using a variety of
schemas.
7.4 Map among various metadata schemas.

SERVICES, cont.
7.5. Review and analyze data.
7.6. Identify strategies to extend and reuse
existing metadata.
7.7. Collaborate in the development of cost-
effective, efficient best practices.
languages.

TRENDS RELATED TO TECHNICAL SERVICES,
cont.
7.8. Manage digital metadata projects, in and
outside the library.
7.9. Enhance specialised skills such as foreign
7.10. Work both in digital and web-based
technologies, in order to expand computing and
technology skills.
7.11. Build expertise in digital asset management
and problem-solving analytical skills.

SERVICES, cont.
7.12. Adapt to new processes and workflows.
8. Less descriptive cataloguing
8.1. More catalogue records are selected by
machines.
8.2. More catalogue records are being captured
from publisher data or other sources.

SERVICES, cont.
8.3. More updating of catalogue records is done
via batch processes.
9. More authority control
9.1. Skilled cataloguers will be used to provide
access to the intellectual content through
controlled vocabulary and authority control to
enhance retrievability for client.

SERVICES, cont.
10. Outsourcing services for print resources
10.1. The description, authority control, item
information and physical processing of print
resources are outsourced to service partners to
create capacity for digital metadata challenges.
10.2. Expand outsourcing to other carriers such
as audiovisual material when needed.

TRENDS RELATED TO TECHNICAL SERVICES,
cont.
11. New standards
11.1. Participate in the national implementation of
new standards:
11.1.1. Resource Description and Access (RDA)
standard (that will simplify the cataloguing process
and suit the needs of clients more), as well as the
alignment with the conceptual models Functional
Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and
Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD).

11.1.2. Changed MARC21 standards (Format for
Bibliographic Data (FBD) and Format for Authority
Data (FAD)).
11.1.3. Changed International Standard for
Bibliographic Description (ISBD, consolidated
edition).
11.1.4. Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), 23rd
edition
SERVICES, cont.

SERVICES, cont.
11.2. Manage the resistance to the new standards
in order to minimize the impact on the
implementation (through training, different
communication modes, etc.)
12. Contributions to international shared
cataloguing cooperatives

TRENDS RELATED TO TECHNICAL SERVICES, cont.
12.1. Expand the contributions of cataloguers by
participating in international cooperatives such as
NACO, SACO and BIBCO
13. The building of capacity despite the shrinking
pool of cataloguing professionals and budgets

SERVICES, cont.
13.1. The fact that a third of skilled cataloguing
professionals will retire in the next ten years,
continuing the trend of:
13.1.1. The shrinking pool of cataloguing
professional
13.1.2. The shift away of Library Schools to
incorporate cataloguing as part of their curricula

SERVICES, cont.
13.1.3. The shrinking of cataloguing experience
and material budgets, necessitate the
investigation of other options to sustain quality
cataloguing.
13.2. Revive the concept of shared cataloguing
training on consortium level, or on other
platforms. This must include “how to catalogue on
a shared library system”.

SERVICES, cont.
13.3. Lobby for a pool of South African retired or
other expert cataloguers, to maintain knowledge.
An example of such a group is the LAC Group
(http://www.lac.com)

SERVICES, cont.
13.4. Introduce shared projects between 2 or
more South Africans libraries to share cost and
expertise, e.g. Cataloguing of government
publications, cataloguing of specific subjects such
as foreign languages, music, digitization of material
on a specific subject, etc.

SERVICES, cont.
I leave you with this thought:
High quality cataloguing (metadata) is
priceless, because it is becoming more
important for the discovery of appropriated
resources.

Van wyk trends and changes in technical services and the impact on cataloguing

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