Transcript RDA
Developing catalogues for customers (not cataloguers) Gordon Dunsire Presented at Branch/Group Day, CILIP in Scotland 5th Annual Conference, 13th June 2007, Peebles, Scotland Overview Recent international developments will lead to significant improvements for the users of catalogue services This presentation describes two specific initiatives: FRBR and RDA And discusses some of the benefits they will bring to library customers FRBR Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records Eff-are-bee-are Fur-burr Verb: fur-burr-eyes (FRBRise): to make a catalogue compliant with FRBR Developed for IFLA from 1992 to 1997 Common understanding of the aims and purpose of bibliographic metadata User-centric User tasks Find an information resource Matching the user’s search criteria Identify a resource Confirming it meets the user’s criteria Distinguishing similar resources Select a resource Meeting the user’s needs Obtain a resource Accessing the information in the resource What metadata supports these tasks? Find Title, author, subject, etc. Identify Title, edition, date, abstract, notes, etc. Select Language, format, etc. Obtain Electronic location, access conditions, etc. Organising the metadata (1) Metadata for a single resource fall(s) into 4 logical groups Item Metadata about a specific copy of the information resource; e.g. location, access Manifestation Metadata about a specific format of the resource; e.g. physical characteristics, edition Organising the metadata (2) Expression Metadata about a specific presentation of the resource; e.g. form of content, title, language Work Metadata about the intellectual or artistic concept of the resource; e.g. subject, title, audience Metadata relationships Work Symphony no.1 Is realised through Expression 1 Expression 2 LSO recording Is embodied in Manifestation 1.1 Manifestation 2.1 Manifestation 2.2 DVD-A Is exemplified by Item 1.1.1 Item 2.1.1 Item 2.2.1 Item 2.2.2 Copy on shelf Improving the user experience (1) The hierarchical structure allows the catalogue user to more easily navigate metadata Especially when there are a lot of expressions, such as translations and audio-books, and manifestations, such as multiple editions, recorded in the catalogue Because the higher up the tree, the fewer the records to display Ideally, just one Work to begin with Then a few Expressions of the Work Then a few more Manifestations (for each Expression) Then all the Items (copies) Improving the user experience (2) Interfaces can give the user the choice to expand or contract the catalogue display to different levels Just Works Works and their Expressions Works, Expressions, and their Manifestations Everything in the collection, including multiple Items The display of duplicate information is reduced Only one title is displayed no matter how many Expressions or Manifestations use it Example: OCLC FictionFinder OCLC research project Metadata for fiction resources taken from WorldCat ... OCLC FictionFinder ... Results of initial search are Work titles “Full” record for Work identifies all languages (Expressions) and editions and formats (Manifestations) and copies held in member libraries (Items) From here to there Existing MARC records can be displayed in FRBRised catalogues Hierarchical displays can be automatically created from rich metadata Varying degrees of success, but almost always an improvement Other metadata formats (e.g. Dublin Core) probably not detailed enough Further development required And, as always, Garbage in – Garbage out RDA Resource Description and Access A new standard for creating bibliographic metadata Based on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules In development since 1841 (Panizzi’s rules for the British Museum) And FRBR and other more modern stuff User-centred features of RDA (1) Improves the FRBRizability of catalogues Covers all types of user Those who need to find, identify, select, obtain, use, manage and organize information Covers all media Print-based, digital; textual, visual, etc. Equal, even treatment gives more control to the user in finding and choosing the most appropriate resources User-centred features of RDA (2) Clearly distinguishes content from carrier E.g. Moving pictures on DVD; text on CD-ROM Helpful for users with special needs E.g. restrict search to non-visual resources Multinational Anglo-centricity (and cataloguer-eccentricity) removed Abbreviations and acronyms avoided Latinisms removed Farewell s.n., s.l., et al. [Still arguing about square brackets!] User-centred features of RDA (3) Independent of technical metadata formats Can be used with MARC, DC (Dublin Core) And a whole bunch of other acronyms Gives user familiar metadata regardless of what system is used Designed for the digital environment RDA will be published as an online product So could be incorporated in user help facilities Good/Bad news Library catalogues may (just) become userfriendly A (true) complement to Google RDA won’t be published until early 2009 And it will take some time to implement RDA re-professionalises cataloguing And is easier to use by para-cataloguers Many cataloguers like RDA … … but by no means all No deaths have been reported, so far Thank you FRBR http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr.htm RDA, via CILIP-BL Committee on AACR http://www.slainte.org.uk/aacr/index.htm More stuff in SLAINTE digital library http://slic1.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/ipac20/ipac.jsp?/profile=slainte OCLC FictionFinder http://fictionfinder.oclc.org/ Me [email protected]