1. INTERESTING TIMES M OLLY T AMARKIN D UKE U NIVERSITY Connecting RDA to the Catalog

2. 1. Me 2. AACR2, MARC & the catalog 3. RDA & the catalog 4. Outside the library: search & description 5. The future 6. Implications for administrators Overview of Talk

3. About me 1982: 1 st library job as work study: Univ. of Chicago Library Tech services & development 1990: got MLS: St. Louis Public Cataloging & collection development 1992: Brooklyn Public reference 1996: Marlboro College librarian 1999: Marlboro IT director 2001: Duke Asst./Assoc Dean for IT 2007: CTO, Univ. of Puget Sound 2009: Assoc. Univ. Librarian, IT, Duke

4. AACR2 MARC Began in 1960s, revised in 1970s Provides standard for description of physical objects More like a conceptual data model (but MARC isnt really a logical data model) Early 1960s to create catalog cards Predates relational databases More like a transport protocol and markup than a data model Like HTTP / HTML AACR2 and MARC

5. AACR2 & MARC Both were created in an era where information was obtained through a physical medium (books, journals, documents) Both are used to represent a physical item in a condensed form: information about information (metadata) Both are used when representing a physical item digitally

6. MARC The Catalog Allows us to transfer information about our inventory Allows us to represent a physical item electronically Is the structure of necessity in todays ILS Provides inventory Provides location Provides status Aggregates items around pre-defined vocabularies Traditionally composed of MARC records MARC & The Catalog

7. Reflections on MARC and the Catalog Our catalogs are limited by our ILS systems If your only tool is a hammer, every problem can be a MARC record Our catalog is of limited utilitywho does it really serve: us or our users?

8. RDA & MARC RDA can be interpreted in MARC records in the same way AACR2 serves as a descriptive standard for MARC RDA & MARC are not incompatible, though MARC 21 has been revised to incorporate RDA elements But is the relationship between RDA and MARC relevant to our future?

9. RDA & the Catalog If your catalog is a bunch of MARC records, then RDA can have minor effect on your catalog. But is this good? If RDA can genuinely contribute to the semantic web, then why have a local catalog of MARC records?

10. WWW and the development of search What happened? To structured topics? To controlled vocabulary Has search gotten better or worse? Recall the directories of yore (Yahoo, Alta Vista, even AOL)

11. Whats happened to search as a result? How have users changed? Their expectations Their search strategies Good enough is better than perfect Good, fast, or cheap: pick two Big business commercially (Google, Bing!) and academically

12. Whats happening with description? RDF = W3C standard Optimized for search engines Best data format for linked data (naturally builds a web) RDA vocabularies can be viewed as an RDF subset

13. WHAT IS UNIQUE TO LIBRARIES? WHAT CONTENT REQUIRES A LIBRARY-SPECIFIC APPROACH? Print materials? Physical objects? What is the difference between web resources and information resources?

14. Future of Content Print as the sole format is decreasing Digital content is becoming unbundled, or bundled arbitrarily Printed acquisitions are likely to be special Digital content is getting less owned and more leased

15. Effects of content change on the catalog More and more silos More and more discovery tools Less and less control More and more good enough Less and less value in the catalog?

16. Thinking ahead… Access provided by identity services Local catalog for special collections Local catalog of value internally Content discoverable via web standards Continue to need a way to represent physical items MARC record retired, converted Descriptive standards apply to minority of objects available Future Role of Catalog

17. Current Trends in [Library] Systems Kuali OLE (Open Library Environment) Community-sourced ILS for higher education Building more of a system to model data and less of a data model Cloud services expand Library as pioneer in this area Effect on local systems Effect on local silos Collaborative development continue Again, library is a pioneer here

18. C ONTENT GROWING MORE FRAGMENTED C URRENT SYSTEMS DO NOT SUPPORT P TO E CHANGES C URRENT PLANNED CHANGES MAY SUSTAIN US C URRENT PLANNED CHANGES MAY NOT BE THE RADICAL DEPARTURE WE COULD HAVE What we know for sure

19. Library Administration Are you Bleeding edge? Leading edge? 3 rd to none? Laggard? What is your culture? Where should you be?

20. Pareto Principle For many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes This is a law about optimizing resources Are you building a system for 20% of your resources or 80%? Are you building a system to handle exceptions or to manage the rule?

21. CURRENT AND FUTURE What is best for your community?

22. FOLLOW THE MONEY QUESTION REALITY What is best for industry?

23. RDA Catalog Useful relation to RDF Wont solve the silo on its own May be an important change for 20% of your resources? Of internal use as local inventory No longer authoritative for resources provided Content must be exposed to 3 rd party services Summing It Up

24. Consider the following Univ. of Phoenix For profit education growing at about 10% year DIYU Edupunk movement Google Constant innovation Blockbuster vs Netflix…. Deal making vs customer-focused innovation? Does anyone use: AOL Dogpile Altavista

25. INTERESTING QUESTIONS? Interesting Times

26. Image Credits Slide 3: photo of Regenstein Library from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Regenstein_Library_entrance.jpg (creative commons license)http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Regenstein_Library_entrance.jpg Slide 7: photo of silos from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allegany_Township_silos.jpg (creative commons license)http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allegany_Township_silos.jpg Slide 9: photo of pig from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lipstick_on_a_pig.jpg (creative commons license)http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lipstick_on_a_pig.jpg Slide 10: Altavista screenshot taken from http://www.solecontrolsolutions.com/blog/. Reproduced here for purposes of commentary under fair use.http://www.solecontrolsolutions.com/blog/ Slide 11: photo of March 2009 Computer cover from http://www.qmags.com/Magazines/PubHomePage.asp?publication=116&issue=3960&sessionID=9803ED4ABED8D09C248779 E94; reproduced here for purposes of commentary under fair use http://www.qmags.com/Magazines/PubHomePage.asp?publication=116&issue=3960&sessionID=9803ED4ABED8D09C248779 E94 Slide 12: RDF illustration from http://www.semanticfocus.com/blog/entry/title/introduction-to-the-semantic-web-vision-and- technologies-part-3-the-resource-description-framework/. Reproduced here with permission.http://www.semanticfocus.com/blog/entry/title/introduction-to-the-semantic-web-vision-and- technologies-part-3-the-resource-description-framework/ Slide 14: table from http://dwarfplanetpress.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/book-publishing-industry-statistics-part-4/ Reproduced here with permission.http://dwarfplanetpress.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/book-publishing-industry-statistics-part-4/ Slide 15: catalog card photo from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LA2-katalogkort.jpg (creative commons license)http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LA2-katalogkort.jpg Slide 19: wave photo from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ocean_surface_wave.jpg. Photo in the public domain.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ocean_surface_wave.jpg