Quoting Alexander Johannesen <alexander.johannesen_at_GMAIL.COM>:
>
> So, here's the thing. Why aren't you mapping knowledge?
This is something that frustrates me greatly, but it also seems to be
a huge problem of communication within our profession. Library
cataloging, although it calls itself "description and access" is about
describing "things" (books, CDs, DVDs) and making it possible to find
those things. But there is very little action in libraries around
helping users get to information, or to discover the informational
relationships that those things represent. It's like we've stopped at
the inventory level of the catalog, and haven't gone on to the
knowledge level. We spend more time trying to figure out what the
proper title is than creating knowledge organization. Look at all of
the energy going to RDA -- and how little is going to replacing LCSH,
or to investigating new ways to provide information discovery.
It seems so obvious to me that we are still primarily working on 19th
century problems ("What books does my library have?") when we should
be serving 21st century users.
kc
--
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet
Received on Fri Dec 24 2010 - 10:33:10 EST