Chapter 14 Instructor Supplement:
Metadata, Cataloging, Linked Data, and the Evolving ILS

Chapter 14 Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter, readers should have a better understanding of:

• Metadata: the structured data that gives access to information.

• Cataloguing: both descriptive and subject cataloging, authority control, and shared standards.

• Linked Data: information architecture that will replace how cataloging data is organized.

• The Evolving ILS (Integrated Library Systems): the current state of, and coming changes, to ILS and its software modules.

Chapter 14 Instructor PowerPoint

Downloadable PowerPoint presentation and PowerPoint notes for course instruction. These files are only accessible to instructors who have adopted Information Services Today: An Introduction (3rd ed) for their course. To request access, please click on the images below or email Sandy Hirsh.

Chapter 14 Discussion Questions

The following questions are included in the textbook.

1. The LC online catalog is available at catalog.loc.gov. Search there for some specific items, and for a topic you are interested in. Look at the different displays provided, including “MARC tags,” which will show you the MARC record. In the non-MARC display, click on some of the hyperlinked name and subject headings. When you are finished, think about the things you encountered. What are the strong and weak points in searching, navigation, and display? What differences did you notice between the MARC display and the public display?

2. The “Calhoun Report” is an influential document from 2006 that is available at https://www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf. It predates the BIBFRAME project. Take a quick look through the report and think about how the issues presented there might have led to an overhaul of how cataloging is done in the current Web environment. Go to the LC catalog at catalog.loc.gov. Focus on the public display of information. How does it compare to the ways that you can search for information using Google?

Additional questions proposed by the author but not included in the textbook.

1. Take a look at the MARC to BIBFRAME comparison tool at https://id.loc.gov/tools/bibframe/comparebf-lccn/2018958785.xml. Try some of the search and display options to see the differences between MARC and BIBFRAME. To do additional searches, find records in the catalog at the Library of Congress site: catalog.loc.gov. Choose MARC display to find the “LCCN” (LC database number) in the 010 field.

2. Look at the list of Dublin Core Metadata elements in “Section 2” of this web page: http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/. The name of the element is in the area called “label” and below it is a definition. Can you picture how you might use these elements if you were doing something like creating metadata for a collection of photographs, digitized letters or other personal papers, or some other kind of web archive? Do some elements seem more useful than others? Are there any that you would add?

Handouts

The following documents are formatted to share with students as handouts.

Related Chapters

The following chapters are referenced in Chapter 14 and may assist in expanding your classroom instruction and discussions.

• Chapter 2: Libraries, Communities, and Information: Two Centuries of Experience

• Chapter 27: Managing Collections