Hello ARLIS:
This is very interesting in light of many issues that came up
at the ARLIS conference about cataloging visual materials,
conceptions of shared cataloging, and the use (or lack) of
authority control.
Claire Dannenbaum
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The End of LCSH? Provocative Report Stirs Up Cataloging Discussion
Should the Library of Congress jettison Library of Congress Subject
Headings (LCSH), the longstanding professional taxonomy? That's one of
the provocative suggestions in a new report announced Tuesday by the
Library of Congress (LC). But "The Changing Nature of the Catalog and
Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools
<http://www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf> ," commissioned by
LC and written by Associate University Librarian Karen Calhoun
<http://www.library.cornell.edu/Adminops/libhumres/instructor/KarenCalho
un.htm> of Cornell University, was already making waves weeks earlier,
thanks to a critical review
<http://www.guild2910.org/AFSCMECalhounReviewREV.pdf> of a draft of her
paper, written for AFSCME 2910, the Library of Congress Professional
Guild, by Thomas Mann (author of The Oxford Guide to Library Research).
The summary in LC's press release doesn't mention LCSH, but states that
libraries should reduce the costs of producing catalogs; enrich the
catalog with Amazon-like features like reviews and images; and offer
rush delivery of materials and other services. Mann criticized the
premises behind the report, warning of "serious negative consequences
for the capacity of research libraries to promote scholarly research."
Calhoun, who oversees the acquisition and cataloging of books, online
library resources and special-format materials for Cornell's 20
libraries, has an MBA and a career history with OCLC, but she says the
interviews with 23 experts-from libraries, vendors, and LIS schools-had
the most significant influence on the report. "Libraries are going to
move at many different speeds," she said, noting that the members of the
Association of Research Libraries for which the report is intended could
participate in three potential strategies. The first, "Extend," would
involve improved interfaces and simplification of cataloging for
libraries maintaining a local catalog for a locally-housed and
-circulated collection. For the second, "Expand," shared regional
catalogs could serve more users. For the most ambitious strategy,
"Leadership," she said, "There is no fully realized version anywhere. I
think the Google Five [Stanford, Univ. of Michigan, Harvard, Oxford, and
New York Public Library] have some elements of what it's going to take."
An aggregated supply of library resources on search engines like Google
could then support speedy delivery of materials in multiple formats,
include digital and print-on-demand.
Mann argues that the solutions proffered hamper scholarship, since
scholars seek an overview of all relevant sources and wish to become
aware of cross-disciplinary connections to their work. LC Associate
Librarian Deanna Marcum said, "Tom [Mann] quite rightly points to the
superiority of doing searches the library way. He knows that people
would get better information, more targeted information, if they used
all the tools we made available." However, she said, "Instead of trying
to force the users into our systems, are there ways we can take our vast
resources to where the users are?" Calhoun said that it's not simply
that students choose Google first, and scholars don't. The latter pursue
different strategies depending on their discipline and their generation.
"If we don't put [library materials] where the scholars' and students'
eyes are, many of them are going to bypass the collection," she added.
"If people know how to use catalogs, they get terrific results. Most
people do not know how to use catalogs; they're too complicated."
end*
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