Indeed. I've become a broken record on this subject, but I think a large
part of the solution to our "NGC" needs to lie on the merging of the
cataloging and library systems fields. I think many of these articles
we're talking about were succesful precisely becuase their authors
(whether individually or in collective) had both these expertises (and
certainly Soergel, who I have a huge amount of respect for, can hold his
own in both communities).
Catalogers and techies NEED to work together more---I think it needs to
become a single discipline in the library world, cataloging/metadata and
library systems are in fact part of the same thing! That can mean
individuals with both expertises, but it can also mean people working
together to form groups with both expertises. On catalogers lists I see
catalogers disparaging systems people and suggesting that they have no
right to comment on what are 'cataloging issues', and catalogers need to
'take control'. But I think this is in large part a reaction to techies,
on lists such as this one, disaparaging catalogers and suggesting that
their lack of 'systems' expertise is what has gotten us in this mess,
and gives them no right to comment on what are really 'technological
issues'. Neither of these things are true, and it's very frustrating.
The system and systems we are dealing with are systems including
technological elements and metadata elements (and 'cataloging' is
nothing but metadata since before there was 'metadata'), and the
solutions need to involve both communities--melded into one new community.
Jonathan
Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
> On Mar 22, 2007, at 9:41 AM, Christina Pikas wrote:
>
>> Pollitt, A. S., & Ellis, G. P. (1994). HIBROWSE for bibliographic
>> databases. Journal of Information Science, 20, 413-426.
>>
>> A. Steven Pollitt (1998). The key role of classification and
>> indexing in view-based searching. International Cataloguing and
>> Bibliographic Control, 27, 37-40. Retrieved from
>> http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla63/63polst.pdf
>
>
> What's really cool about these sorts of articles is that they outline
> processes and algorithms for such features. They are just shy of to-
> do lists. If libraries where add to their staffs people who can
> implement these processes and algorithms in software, then those
> libraries will have less of a need for licensed software. Moreover,
> those libraries would be in a better place for evaluating solutions
> as they presented themselves, whether they be licensed or not
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
> University Libraries of Notre Dame
>
> (574) 631-8604
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Sr. Programmer/Analyst
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Thu Mar 22 2007 - 08:18:12 EDT