BOOK REVIEWS
Vicki Toy-Smith, Column Editor
Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information:
Pitfalls and the Pendulum
Edited by Janet Swan Hill
The one class in library school that seems to be universally dreaded is The Cataloging Class, by whatever name it is called (Cataloging, Organization of Information, Bibliographic Control, etc.). Anecdotally, library school administrators do not seem very dedicated to cataloging class either--at many schools it has ceased to be a requirement. Meanwhile, the numbers of cataloging positions have dwindled, seemingly justifying this trend. Yet, with the proliferation of information resources, organization of information is more important than ever.
In Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information, Janet Swan Hill has gathered a collection of editorials and articles that study trends in cataloging education via library school and other sources, from many different angles. Many of the famous names in cataloging are present in this work, including a few OLAC members. The volume is organized into four sections that synthesize this mammoth subject. "A Matter of Opinion" includes essays covering fundamental philosophical questions regarding cataloging, such as its very purpose in a library science curriculum. "The Context" contains articles that provide an environmental scan. The demographics of technical services staff, the current curriculum in library school courses, the training materials available and most used, and the views of cataloging teachers and students are explored in-depth. "Education for Specific Purposes" explores the pillar subjects of cataloging education: format integration, subject cataloging, authority control and practical skills. "Alternatives for Instructional Delivery" studies how the classroom environment can be improved, distance learning, online learning, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, training of non-catalogers (an increasingly important topic as authors of electronic documents provide metadata for their own work), and on-the-job apprenticeship.
This volume collects and explores the issues facing cataloging educators. The information presented here makes it clear that almost anyone involved directly or indirectly in the task of cataloging is a potential educator and needs to approach that role thoughtfully. The library school instructor must balance the tension between theoretical and practical. The seasoned professional cataloger must take responsibility for a mentoring role. The new professional must accept an apprenticeship phase. The library school student not destined for a cataloging career should still learn that organization of information is critical to all of librarianship, even more in the Google world than before.
The wealth of material in this volume will be of good use to many. A colleague of mine who is teaching an Organization of Information class for the first time found it to be exceptionally helpful. Those studying cataloging, whether at the library-school level or those of advance academic interest will find this a thorough source of information and study. Last, and perhaps most importantly, the practicing professional will find this volume an education and an awakening to awareness of the factors affecting the profession’s present and future.
Published in 2003 by: The Haworth Information Press, Binghamton, New York. (xix, 398 p.) ISBN: 0789020289 ($79.95); ISBN: 0789020297 (pbk.-$49.95). Co-published simultaneously as Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, v. 34, nos.1-3, 2002.
Reviewed by:
Rebecca L. Lubas
Special Formats Cataloging Librarian
MIT Libraries
Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs : A Guide for Librarians and Archivists
By Fred R. Byers
This publication is an excellent resource for librarians and archivists. The author has taken his considerable experience with optical discs and created a very handy guide with many practical tips.
The document includes a "Quick Reference Guide for Care and Handling" which lists the things that should and should not be done when handling CDs and DVDs. The introduction provides definitions of terms used in the guide. Next follows an informed discussion on the importance of preserving digital content. The author points out that technologies change so rapidly that it is important to be able to provide access to digital collections in their current format as well as being able to transfer the contents to future digital technologies. He also recommends archiving one copy of the digital material and storing it separately from the one that is used.
The chapter on disc structure is fairly technical, although still understandable to the non-expert, with several accompanying charts and diagrams. The life expectancy of optical discs is discussed in the subsequent section. Conditions that affect CDs and DVDs are discussed next, with the conditions divided into three sections that examine each type in detail. The first section, environmental conditions, includes temperature and relative humidity, light exposure, moisture, organic solvents, magnetism, x-rays, microwaves, radiation, and disc storage. The second section covers surface handling effects and includes scratches on the laser-reading and label sides, fingerprints, smudges, dirt, dust, marking, flexing, and applying labels. The third section discusses wear from disc play. The final chapter discusses cleaning of CDs and DVDs and provides many practical and useful tips.
The remainder of the guide contains appendixes, an extensive bibliography and several more detailed tables.
This guide is highly recommended for its intended audience. The tips provided for everyday use are invaluable for institutions with CD and DVD collections.
Co-published in 2003 by: Council on Library and Information Resources, Washington, DC and National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland. (42 p.) ISBN: 1932326049. It can be found online at:
<http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/pub121.pdf>
"Additional copies are available for $15 per copy. Orders must be placed through CLIR’s Website"- -p.ii
Reviewed by:
Marianne D. Muha
Automation Cataloger
Buffalo State College
Buffalo, NY
High-level Subject Access Tools and Techniques in Internet Cataloging
Edited by Judith R. Ahronheim
When the World Wide Web was developed in the 90s, libraries began making up lists of online resources for their patrons. These lists were compiled manually, took much time to create and went out of date rapidly. Next, librarians cataloged Websites and put them into their online catalogs, but this also took a great deal of time. Now libraries are trying to make automated interfaces to these resources that can be customized by the user. Libraries are trying some traditional cataloging techniques in organizing these interfaces. This book is a series of articles on different methods libraries are using to try to do this.
In the first article, "Classification Schemes for Internet Resources Revisited", Diane Vizine-Goetz (Consulting Research Scientist in OCLC’s Office of Research) compares the Dewey Decimal Classification system to the subject trees of Internet directory services. She found that prospects are good for applying browsing structures based on the Dewey Decimal system to large collections. In the next article, "HILCC: a Hierarchical Interface to Library of Congress Classification", Stephen Paul Davis (coordinator of Columbia University Libraries’ Digital Initiative) describes a project at Columbia University Libraries to use Library of Congress classification numbers to generate a structured, hierarchical menu system for subject access to the libraries’ electronic resources. The libraries’ systems, cataloging, and reference staff worked together to create the classification mapping table. Classification numbers and other metadata were taken from the libraries’ OPAC every week and were matched against the mapping table and used to create browsable subject category menus for subject content of electronic resources.
Next, Kathleen Forsythe (Electronic Resources Cataloging Librarian in the Monographic Services Division of the University of Washington Libraries) and Steve Shadle (Serials Cataloger in the Serials Services Division of the University of Washington Libraries), in their article, “University of Washington Libraries Digital Registry”, discuss the transfer of online services in their libraries to the Web. A database called the Digital Registry of electronic resources was created. Web resources were cataloged using existing workflows and data elements were transferred from the OPAC to an SQL database. In this database, records were mapped to subject categories by Library of Congress classification numbers and organized within the categories by resource type. Their article discusses design, workflows, maintenance, and use of the registry.
Jonathan Rothman (Senior Systems Librarian/Analyst at the University of Michigan University Library), wrote the next article, "Bridging the Gap Between Materials-Focus and Audience-Focus: Providing Subject Categorization for Users of Electronic Resources". Rothman talks about mapping local subject terms from Library of Congress classification numbers in catalog records in order to produce hierarchical, browsable Web-based lists. These local subject terms were based on the departmental structure of the University of Michigan initially. Later they used mapping from Library of Congress call numbers to broad topics.
Keith A. Morgan (Client Services Librarian in the Digital Library Initiatives Department at North Carolina State University) and Tripp Reade (Media Resources Librarian at North Carolina State University) wrote the next article, "Competing Vocabularies and ‘Research Stuff’". The authors discuss the framework of their libraries’ portal, which allows students customization and personalization options. They also discuss procedural and political problems that designers of library portals should take into account.
The last article is "HILT: Moving Towards Interoperability in Subject Terminologies", by Dennis Nicholson (Director of Research, Information Resources Directorate, Strathclyde University and Director of the Centre for Digital Library Research), Gordon Dunsire, (Research and Projects Manager, Napier University Learning Information Resources and chair of the Cataloguing and Indexing Group in Scotland), and Susannah Neill, (New Technologies Development Officer, Department for Life-long Learning, University of Wales, Bangor). HILT stands for High-Level Thesaurus and was a United Kingdom study of the problems associated with searching by subject and cross searching in a cross-sectional and cross-domain environment in libraries, museums, archives, and electronic resource collections. It tried to solve problems caused by the use of different subject terminologies.
Each article includes footnotes and all but one of the articles include charts, tables, and other illustrations. The book has an index. All the articles are well written, and the authors present thought-provoking ideas for using traditional classification schemes in non-traditional ways to provide more access to electronic resources with less time spent by library staff members.
Published in 2002 by: The Haworth Information Press, Binghamton, New York. (115 p.) ISBN: 0-7890-2024-6 ($39.95); 0-7890-2025-4 (pbk-$24.95). Co-published simultaneously as Journal of Internet Cataloging, vol. 5, no. 4, 2002.
Reviewed by:
Katherine L. Rankin
Special Formats Catalog Librarian
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
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Last updated: March 8, 2004
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