[Metadatalibrarians] "The Changing Metadata Arena and Its Practitioners" - ALA Annual 2017 ALCTS Cataloging Norms Interest Group Program Announcement

[Sai Deng]

*** Please excuse cross-posting ***
The ALCTS CaMMS Cataloging Norms Interest Group is pleased to announce its program at the ALA Annual Conference to be held in Chicago, McCormick Convention Center S104, 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM, Saturday, June 24, 2017.

This year's theme is "The Changing Metadata Arena and Its Practitioners," featuring six speakers who will bring a variety of talks addressing authority control, identity management, vocabularies and linked data, and the changing role and practices of cataloging and metadata librarians. We'd like to present the following programs with a great deal of relevant information, and encourage follow-up with presenters as needed.

Featured Program (15 minutes)

Identity Management or Authority Control? (Jennifer Liss, Head of Monographic Image Cataloging, Indiana University)
With increasing frequency, the term Identity Management is being used in many settings, including libraries where the familiar term is Authority Control. Do you understand the conceptual differences between these two terms? Do you understand how a shift to Identity Management impacts the metadata practitioner's work and choices? The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Task Group on Identity Management in NACO is charged to investigate and foster discussion on issues regarding the differences between Authority Control and Identity Management. Come hear about the work of the task group, from the group's analysis of the emerging use cases for Identity Management, to actual projects that facilitate globally shared identifier management work in libraries, to some of the problems to be solved as Identity Management activities integrate into Authority Control workflows.

Regular Talks (10 minutes each)


*         Authority Control for Finding Aids: Changing Roles for Cataloging Staff (Miloche Kottman, Head of Cataloging and Archival Processing, University of Kansas Libraries)

The University of Kansas Libraries has moved from an archival finding aid creation system that lacked authority control to ArchivesSpace, an open-source archives information management system, which has some limited authority control capabilities. This presentation will discuss the benefits and challenges associated with evaluating and updating the close to 5,000 subject headings generated from our legacy finding aid (i.e. EAD) records, including the use of an Authorities Unit staff member more familiar with MARC cataloging.



*         Better Together:  Cataloging and Metadata Librarians, Archivists, and New Understandings for Description and Discovery (Ivey Glendon, Manager for Metadata Analysis and Design, University of Virginia Library)
The Metadata Analysis & Design team at the University of Virginia Library is planning a migration for manuscripts metadata (MARC records, EAD XML documents, and finding aids) to a single destination: ArchivesSpace. This presentation, relevant to cataloging and metadata librarians and managers, will highlight: Overlapping skillsets among archivists, metadata librarians, and catalogers; Cross-pollination in metadata philosophy: arrangement and description, More Product Less Process (MPLP), EAD3, BIBFRAME; Achievements and setbacks (successful data transformations, data encoding errors); Technical and interpersonal skills (XML, XSLT, patience, diplomacy, persuasion). This migration requires expertise from archivists, metadata librarians, and catalogers.  We are eager to share our successes and challenges with this initiative and in working together to imagine the future of archival description and discovery.



Lightning Round (5 minutes each)



*         The Nitty Gritty of Adding Subfield 0 to MARC Records (Mary Aycock, Database and Metadata Management Librarian, Texas State University)

One of the concrete actions we can take now to prepare our MARC catalog records for the linked data environment is to add URIs in subfield 0 to our existing catalog records. This subfield is also popping up in vendor records and MeSH records from the National Library of Medicine. It sounds simple to add and incorporate these fields, but anyone who has worked with catalogs or other databases knows that seemingly straightforward changes often result in unintended consequences. This brief talk will present an overview of the process and point out specific issues that our institution encountered.



*         Imposing Authority: Using OpenRefine to Control Uncontrolled and Out-of-control Vocabulary Terms (Rachel Jaffe, Metadata Librarian, University of California, Santa Cruz)

The University Library at UC Santa Cruz is currently undertaking an effort to remediate our existing Dublin Core digital repository metadata in both anticipation of a possible DAMS migration and a transition to linked data.  Part of our work had been to control our uncontrolled and local vocabulary terms, and to develop a standardized authority control workflow around our digital repository metadata.  In this lightning presentation, I will outline our wrangling efforts, introduce OpenRefine's reconciliation tool, and discuss issues encountered as well as future directions.



*         An Existential Crisis for Cataloging? (Brian Falato, Associate Librarian, University of South Florida)

Acquisition trends are changing, and cataloging practice is changing with it. The increasing reliance on patron-driven acquisition (PDA) and electronic books bought in packages typically means catalog records are batch loaded. Frequently, these records come from the vendor selling the e-books or sponsoring the PDA program, and the quality of the records supplied varies greatly.  Given this situation, catalogers may feel they are functioning as file managers instead of practicing the skills they originally learned through their schooling and training. Will cataloging of individual items become obsolete except for special circumstances and collections, or will the transition away from MARC to standards such as BIBFRAME provide renewed energy for catalogers?



Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in the session!


ALCTS CaMMS Cataloging Norms Interest Group
Sai Deng (Sai.Deng at ucf.edu<mailto:Sai.Deng at ucf.edu>) and Jessalyn Zoom (jiwu at loc.gov<mailto:jiwu at loc.gov>), Co-Chairs
Elizabeth Bridges (ebridges at txwes.edu<mailto:ebridges at txwes.edu>) and Debra Skinner (dskinner at georgiasouthern.edu<mailto:dskinner at georgiasouthern.edu>), Co-Vice Chairs