The Catalog of the Future: Integrating Electronic Resources By Dana M. Caudle Cataloging Librarian Auburn University Libraries

The Catalog of the Future: Integrating Electronic Resources

By Dana M. Caudle

Cataloging LibrarianAuburn University Libraries

[email protected]

Electronic ResourcesTo catalog, or not to catalog, that is the question.

How can we provide useful access to these resources?

Electronic books/ journals Aggregator databases Digital materials Web sites

Options

Put them in the catalog.

Use several different types of access:• Web page of electronic resources• Multiple aggregators• Internet search engines for web sites

Something new??

What’s best for the user?

One-stop shopping!!

Users look in one place for everything regardless of format.

Equal access to print and electronic resources.

The Catalog as Portal

A new purpose for the catalog:

To provide systematic access to information in whatever form it takes, not just to inventory a particular library’s print collection.

Can our catalogs handle the load?

YES!!

If we tell ILS vendors what we want!

AND

We add primarily those things we pay for!

How??

Single record approach:

CONSER/AACR2 approach:

All print, microform, and electronic holdings on ONE bibliographic record.

ONE bibliographic record for print.ONE bibliographic record for microform.ONE bibliographic record for all electronic.

Auburn’s Approach:The Single Record

WHY? Less confusing for user to tell what library has. Don’t have to maintain separate catalog and web list. Can generate web list from catalog.

BUT Hard to use vendor-supplied records for aggregators. Very labor intensive to maintain links and holdings.

Library journal

710 “Q codes” identify electronic resources attached to the bibliographic record. 710 makes them searchable. The subfield $b

identifies the source of the electronic resource.

CONSER/AACR2 approach

WHY?

Can use definitive electronic record customized by vendors like SerialsSolutions and TDNet.

BUTMore confusing for user who has to deal with multiple records for multiple formats.

What about digitized materials and free web sites?

Even the catalog cannot contain ALL electronic resources. Cataloging with MARC and AACR2 is not always appropriate.

Digital materials are constantly being added.

Too many web sites to select manually.

We need more types of metadata!

“As libraries digitize collections, metadata is required to organize and provide access to this content, outside of, or in association with, the library catalog.”

-- Roy Tennant

Metadata for Libraries Dublin Core EAD TEI ONIX GIS

Each has a use! Each also uses XML as its mark-up language.

MARC vs. XML?NO! It’s like apples and oranges.

MARC is BOTH a mark-up language and a content standard.

XML is strictly a mark-up language. It does NOT determine content.

The Real Question

The debate should not be one of whether to replace MARC with XML, but rather how to define MARC as one more metadata schema that can be manipulated in XML.

How do we do this? With cross-walks that automatically convert one metadata schema to another.

Cross-walks : Library of Congress

MARCXML, MODS, and Mapping

http://www.loc.gov/marc/marc.html

Cross-walks : OCLC

CORC and Connexion

http://connexion.oclc.org/

100-085-322

******

xml,in,li,/2002

Same record automatically converted into Dublin Core marked up with XML.

The Catalog as Hybrid (The Portal with a Twist)

An alternative to putting everything exclusively in the catalog:

Make the catalog one database in a larger collection of databases all using metadata appropriate to the types of items they are representing.

EnCompass : Putting it all together!

Uses XML and dynamic linking to serve as an interface for searching across multiple databases and the Internet.

civil rights

MARC record from catalog automatically wrapped in XML.

This time the record is actually in Dublin Core instead of MARC.

SFX : Links and more links!

Uses dynamic linking to integrate multiple electronic resources, including the catalog and Internet searching.

http://www.sfxit.com

The Catalog of the Future

Depending on the library’s needs, integrating some electronic resources into the catalog and using EnCompass or SFX to integrate the catalog with other electronic resources could very well be the best method of all for providing seamless, one-stop access to electronic and print resources.

To our users, this will be the catalog of the future.

Bibliography

Kyle Banerjee. “How Does XML Help Libraries?” Computers in Libraries 22.8 (Sept. 2002): 30-34.

Barbara Baruth. •“Is Your Catalog Big Enough To Handle The Web?” American Libraries 31.7 (August 2000): 56-59.• “Missing Pieces In The Academic Library Puzzle,” American Libraries 33.6 (June/July 2002): 58-63. 

David Dorman. “Metadata Preconference Views Post-MARC World (at ALA 2000),” American Libraries 31.8 (Sept. 2000): 70.

Norm Medeiros. “Liberating Online Catalog Records” OCLC Systems & Services 16.3 (2000): 100-101.

Roy Tennant. •“MARC Exit Strategies,” Library Journal 127.19 (15 Nov. 2002): 27-28.•“MARC Must Die,” Library Journal 127.17 (15 Oct. 2002): 26, 28 •“Metadata As If Libraries Depended On It,” Library Journal. 127.7 (15 April 2002): 32-34.•“The Print Perplex: Building the Future Catalog,” Library Journal 123.19 (15 Nov. 1998): 22.•Editor, XML in Libraries. New York, Neal-Schuman, 2002. Sarah E. Thomas. “The Catalog As Portal To The Internet.” Library of Congress. Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium. Final version (Dec. 2000) available at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/thomas_paper.html

Auburn University Libraries web site: http://www.lib.auburn.edu/

Endeavor EnCompass web site http://encompass.endinfosys.com/

Library of Congress MARC Standards http://www.loc.gov/marc/marc.html

OCLC Connexion web site http://connexion.oclc.org/

SerialsSolutions web site http://www.serialssolutions.com/home

SFX web site http://www.sfxit.com

Web sites: