Knowledge organization

Since Svenonius analyzed the research base in bibliographic control in 1990, the intervening years have seen major shifts in the focus of information organization in academic libraries. New technologies continue to reshape the nature and content of catalogs, stretch the boundaries of classification research, and provide new alternatives for the organization of information. Research studies have rigorously analyzed the structure of the Anglo- American Cataloguing Rules using entity-relationship modeling and expanded on the bibliographic and authority relationship research to develop new data models (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records [FRBR] and Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records [FRANAR]). Applied research into the information organization process has led to the development of cataloguing tools and harvesting ap- plications for bibliographic data collection and automatic record creation. A growing international perspective focused research on multilingual subject access, transliteration problems in surrogate records, and user studies to improve Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) displays for large retrieval sets resulting from federated searches. The need to organize local and remote electronic resources led to metadata research that developed general and domain-specific metadata schemes. Ongoing research in this area focuses on record structures and architectural models to enable interoperability among the various schemes and differing application platforms. Research in the area of subject access and classification is strong, covering areas such as vocabulary mapping, automatic facet construction and deconstruction for Web resources, development of expert systems for automatic classifica- tion, dynamically altered classificatory structures linked to domain-specific thesauri, crosscultural conceptual structures in classification, identification of semantic relationships for vocabulary mapped to classification systems, and the expanded use of traditional classification systems as switching languages in the global Web environment. Finally, descriptive research into library and information science (LIS) education and curricula for knowl- edge organization continues. All of this research is applicable to knowledge organization in academic and research libraries. This chapter examines this body of research in depth, describes the research methodologies employed, and identifies areas of lacunae in need of further research

Linking to Our Future: Cataloging & Metadata in Transition

This slide presentation gives a very brief overview of the development of the Web from its inception as ARPANET to the Semantic Web. The presentation then discusses Linked Data and its uses on the Web. It also gives a scenario of how linked data would work in libraries and its potential to expand access to library resources by making them discoverable through Web search engines such as Google. The presentation focuses on the metadata transition necessary to accomplish this type of global access

Research Data and Linked Data: A New Future for Technical Services?

This book chapter examines two futures for academic librarians working in access (technical) services: deeper collaboration on data management with faculty and student researchers and expanded access to library resources on the Semantic Web. Both are concerned with data organization, discovery, access, and support of shared data beyond the library. The chapter examines many aspects of research data from the perspectives of researchers and librarians. It briefly examines events prior to the library\u27s greater involvement with research data, looks at how librarians gained fundamental knowledge and skills to assist with the tasks involved with research data curation, and discusses why researchers began to place more emphasis on data management. It then examines the stages of the data life cycle, the components of a data management plan, the purpose of application profiles, and the usefulness of standardized vocabularies and ontologies. The chapter then discusses the connection between the Semantic Web and linked data and how this integrates with research data, standards, the library catalog and its future for the shared library. Metadata is a common factor among all these topics. The chapter concludes with a discussion of options for librarians to expand their data expertise or retool for a new future

The Metadata Education and Research Information Commons (MERIC): A Collaborative Teaching and Research Initiative

The networked environment forced a sea change in Library and Information Science (LIS) education. Most LIS programs offer a mixed-mode of instruction that integrates online learning materials with more traditional classroom pedagogical methods and faculty are now responsible for developing content and digital learning objects. The teaching commons in a networked environment is one way to share, modify and repurpose learning objects while reducing the costs to educational institutions of developing course materials totally inhouse. It also provides a venue for sharing ideas, practices, and expertise in order to provide the best learning experience for students. Because metadata education has been impacted by rapid changes and metadata research is interdisciplinary and diffuse, the Metadata Education and Research Information Commons (MERIC) initiative aims to provide a virtual environment for sharing and collaboration within the extensive metadata community. This paper describes the development of MERIC from its origin as a simple clearinghouse proof-of-concept project to a service-oriented teaching and research commons prototype. The problems of enablers and barriers to participation and collaboration are discussed and the need for specific community building research is cited as critical for the success of MERIC within a broad metadata community

The Metadata Education and Research Information Commons (MERIC): A Collaborative Teaching and Research Initiative

Article dicsussing the Metadata Education and Research Information Commons (MERIC), a collaborative teaching and research initiative

Reading Redaction: Symptomatic Metadata, Erasure Poetry, and Mark Blacklock’s I’m Jack

In this article, through a reading of Mark Blacklock’s 2015 novel, I’m Jack, alongside the history of erasure poetry, I suggest that an apt literary-critical metaphor for reading redaction in contemporary literature comes from the term “metadata”. The article schematizes the ways in which redaction can work in literary contexts and points to the modalities through which supposedly blank surfaces are, in fact, textured depths that can be read

Commercial Services for Providing Authority Control: Outsourcing the Process [English version presented at the International Conference] = I servizi commerciali per l’authority control: dare in gestione il processo [Versione italiana presentata alla Conferenza internazionale]

I have focused on the vendors and processes that are now available in the United States and Canada, but I do not claim to know the state of commercially provided authority control here in Europe and elsewhere in the world. I do know that there are serious issues that must be worked out before authority control vendors can cope with the types of international authority control that we have discussed during this conference. Before we can begin to approach commercial processing using a virtual international authority file, the FRANAR issue needs to be resolved. Many interoperability problems must be solved, including issues of MARC/UNIMARC authority format harmonization, and methods that will allow libraries to use a variety of national authority databases for the matching process, and provide the flexibility to select the authorized form that is appropriate for the local users

OCLC/AMIGOS Collection Analysis CD: Broadening the scope of use

Examines the OCLC/AMIGOS collection analysis CD (CACD) and its potential applications that can assist in the labour-intensive process of evaluation and collection development. Identifies three categories of potential uers of the qualitative and quantitative data analysis provided by the CACD. Shows that the CACD affords the opportunity for better informed decision making