1 Jennifer Bowen University of Rochester Chicago, IL May 9, 2007 Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control Second Public Hearing

2 My perspectives International descriptive cataloging standards development (RDA) Defining/developing a next generation “catalog” Cataloging manager at a smaller ARL institution

3 My topics Current structures and standards vis-à-vis RDA development Future of controlled data New requirements for bibliographic data What’s needed for future standards development

4 Current structures and standards vis-à-vis RDA

5 RDA development structure Committee of Principals AACR Fund Trustees/ Publishers Joint Steering Committee ALA CC:DA ACOCBLCCCCILIPLC RDA Project Manager RDA Editor JSC Secretary

6 What can RDA accomplish? More flexible, up-to-date standard to replace AACR2 Create a useful tool for catalogers Easier to train new catalogers Facilitate cataloging digital resources in a library environment Promote international adoption of a common standard

7 What has hampered RDA development? Too much hype! Need for backwards compatibility Tight funding and timeline Success of standard tied to success of the commercial product Consultation process needed improvement

8 Consulting other communities Which communities to consul? What do we gain? Ensuring successful consultations

9 Which communities to consult? Those with similar missions to our own Archives, museums Others whose metadata we want to share Publishing, metadata communities Communities that can assist us

10 What do we gain? Metadata interoperability Envision technology trends and opportunities Improve standards development process Help us undertake user research

11 Ensuring successful consultations Must be at the appropriate level Often will need to be on-going, not one-time events Need organizational structures and funding to maintain relationships Allow for serendipity (this needs funding too!)

12 Recommendations for RDA Move forward with first release in 2009 Aggressively pursue development of RDA application profile, related efforts Restructure JSC work to focus on consultation, not document editing

13 Future of controlled data

14 Controlled data: what’s needed Need identifiers! Evaluate potential based on well- designed systems Provide better tools for catalogers Facilitate faceted browsing

15 New requirements for bibliographic data

16 Creating richer interfaces Web services to enrichment data Metadata to support faceted browsing FRBR-informed navigation Relator information Controlled access points

17 Testing environments Encourage experimentation and research Opportunities to develop new system functionalities User research and usability testing Support open-source community Feed “lessons learned” into standards development

18 Sharing metadata Between repositories, similar discovery environments Share local augmentation, results of experimentation Distinguish standard from local metadata, but share both Within other discovery environments Components to “connect” systems

19 What’s needed for future standards development?

20 What is our vision? Users have a positive experience locating library resources Users are led to library resources from wherever they happen to be online Library “solutions” are seen as useful in the broader world

21 A positive vision for bibliographic control Catalogers/metadata professionals… Have effective tools, can focus on intellectual work Participate in designing how systems use metadata Contribute widely to improving shared metadata Are confident that systems will use their work effectively

22 What’s needed right now? Positive, decisive future action Clearly redefine roles and responsibilities Explain, justify trade-offs Articulate a positive vision for the future of bibliographic control