CILIP Cataloguing & Indexing Group Conference 2014
Metadata - making an impact
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| Certainly made an impression on me! |
However, the Cataloguing and Indexing Group conferences are always so inspirational – and this year’s (2014) is no exception – so it’s well worth me taking the time to blog about it, so here goes …
This was my fourth CIG conference: I dipped my toe in the
waters way back in 2000 when the conference was held in Hereford, but found the
lure of small children (aged 8, 6 and 3 at that time) was too great for me to
take in much of the conference content. Time, as they say, flies, and it wasn’t
until 2010 that I was able to make it to another conference, but I sure am glad
I did! It was inspiring: It was beyond inspiring!! The people, the conference
content, even the location was inspiring and eye-opening, even though being
away from home for the first time in yonks was rather daunting (and, if I’m
honest, I’m still not hugely keen on being away from my family). The 2012
conference was no less inspiring, and despite RDA looming overhead (and the
knowledge that our OPAC would not be able to cope with changes to fields) I
managed to take away such a lot from that conference, so much so that I ended
up with a huge “to do” list, and am still, today, working towards achieving
some of those things!
To 2014! As ever, the conference was well-attended, the
programme interesting and varied and the location excellent! More than 70
cataloguers, librarians and a variety of other information professionals
gathered at the University of Canterbury for three days of intense debate and
discussion around the cataloguing and related issues of the day.
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| The university library extension |
If there was ever any doubt about the contribution and impact that cataloguers, metadata specialists, or whatever you wish to call people who work in this area of our profession, make to the overall experience of the library user, then this doubt was completed expunged by the talks that were presented and the discussion that were had at this CIG conference, entitled: “Metadata – Making an Impact”. This three-day event, taking place on the beautiful campus of Canterbury University, was divided into four themes:
1. Impact
of Metadata Standards
2. Impact
on the Organisation
3. Impact
of Metadata on Users
4. Impact
of Metadata Professionals
and the presentations within these themes were a mixture of
full-length papers, and shorter, lightning talks, with a selection of poster
sessions on the afternoon of the 2nd day. The hard work of
participating in the conference was punctuated by the fun quiz on the first
night, the conference dinner on the second, and a choice of activities on the
final afternoon, including a demo of RIMMF, a visit to the University Archive to see the British Cartoon Archive, and a
visit to Canterbury Cathedral Library.
Attendees came from all walks of
library life – academic libraries, National libraries, public libraries and special
libraries – and also included suppliers of services to libraries. This meant
that there were opportunities to network with colleagues from many backgrounds
during the breaks – and boy, did we network, well, I certainly did, having
chatted with almost exactly half of the people who came along!
To review each of the
presentations in this blogpost would be too ambitious: It would make for a very
long read, and my time is limited. So, I shall try and pick out what were the
highlights of the conference for me: These may well be different from your own
highlights, so I’m looking forward to reading about your experiences too! I
believe presenters’ own write-ups of their presentations will be appearing in
an issue of Catalogue & Index, later this year.
1.
Impact of Metadata Standards
So, we were worried about the impact of RDA on our work. We
spent many hours reading and learning about it, discussing it and being trained
in it, and now we’ve adopted it. So just when you thought it was safe to come
look out from your RDA bib record, along comes something else to scare you:
BIBFRAME (and just in case you thought I was shouting, I’m not really, this is
how the phrase appears on LoC website (amongst others)).
Thomas Meehan, from UCL went out of his way to explain to us
exactly what BIBFRAME is and to put our minds at rest and reassure us that it
really isn’t as complicated as we might have thought! I love the idea of
triplets, for it appeals to my musical inclination, but I also love the idea of
linked data and all the opportunities that this brings to our world. It was
announced at the conference that Thomas was the well-deserved recipient of the
Alan Jeffreys Award for his fantastic work on demystifying linked data. Follow
these links for a very basic description of BIBFRAME and for a more detailed introduction to the concept and its applications.
Chris Biggs from the OU talked to us about the challenges
that were faced when trying to combine metadata from many different sources to
create the OU Digital Archive (OUDA). His description of adding various fields
to MARC records struck a chord with me, and it was somehow a relief to know
that I am not alone!
The focus of the next two talks was on RDA: Great to hear
that there are moves afoot to simplify the standard!!!
2.
Impact on the Organisation
Gosh, who’d ever have believed all
the work that goes on behind the scenes of television screens! Listening to
Laura Williams, we learned that the metadata managers at the BBC certainly have
their work cut out in making sure that every little bit of filming is easily
retrievable, because you just never know when someone might want it! And the
very idea of persuading other, non-metadata, staff to provide good quality
metadata in the first instance is simply admirable!
Your library service may well
contribute your serials holdings to SUNCAT, but did you realise how much work
goes on to get your data into a suitable format for sharing?! I know I
certainly didn’t, and, if I’m honest, I’m somewhat ashamed, listening to Natasha
Aburrow-Jones, of what little attention our serial records actually get. They
deserve more: Metadata matters. Food for thought for me.
As cataloguers we all want to get
it just right, but I’m sure none of us are under such pressure as Arwen Caddy
to get it right first time: As soon as she and her team have created a record
it is locked down, and can never be edited!
I don’t know about you, but in my cataloguing team there is a certain
degree of checking of work that goes on: Hopefully, there is not (and I’m sure
there isn’t!) a culture of “it’s ok to make mistakes as they’ll be picked up
later” but rather a desire to ensure we also get it right first time!
Before the start of sessions
pertaining to the third theme of the conference, there was a panel discussion
on e-book metadata. As you might imagine, there were many chestnuts here, old
and new, including use of ISBNs and eISBNs, overwriting of records, de-duping,
the repeated 020 field and $z, and the use of 035, 040 and 590! The overall
messages were: Analyse feedback from users; and we need to shout louder!!
3.
Impact of Metadata on Users
In a fit of pique I recently
deleted my own Pinterest account, but learning from Claire Sewell about the use
Cambridge libraries make of Pinterest, I now wish I hadn’t. Well, actually,
maybe now would be a good time to create an account for my own library, or even
hook into our institutional account? Claire has also produced a Storify of the conference.
Ruth Jenkins gave us an absolutely
fascinating talk on her analysis of the use of LCSH and social tagging to help
in the retrieval of sources based around LGBTQ issues – so, perhaps novels
aimed at the teenage market, where the central character is lesbian. There is
so much that can be learned from reading about people’s experiences, but this
can only be done if the reading material can be easily retrieved in the first
place. C’mon cataloguers: We have a responsibility here, to be inclusive!
We may think all our library
systems work just fine together, but what does a real researcher make of them?
Anne Welsh described the many frustrations she found, particularly with output
from our catalogue to our referencing software, whilst she was researching for
her PhD. Words I would use to describe Anne’s experience are: Gobsmacking;
Shocking; Probably preventable! Anne questioned the validity of feedback from
users: How do we know how representative those views are? [And I’d add,
particularly when those views come from a tiny proportion of our users.] She
asks, do we know what users are actually doing or trying to achieve when they
sit staring at a screen? Probably not, but shouldn’t we?
There followed the poster session.
This was held just outside the lecture room, and quite frankly, I was staggered
and so envious of the creations, which were just soooo visual. I’m afraid I
didn’t take any photos, so I’ll just list the titles of the posters from the
conference programme:
o
Using metadata from the
Institutional Repository for the REF submissions
o
Metadata quality checking:
Integration of workflows in relation to reading list software
o
The impact of
reclassification
o
Changing positions: New roles
making an impact
o
The impact of RDA in
Cambridge
4.
Impact of Metadata Professionals
If you’re using RDA at the moment
it’s likely that you learned this after having been trained to use AACR. But
what of those folk new to cataloguing who are starting their cataloguing
careers, and RDA is their first encounter with a cataloguing standard – digital
RDAers, perhaps? Deborah Lee set about analysing results from her experience of
training of two, new cataloguers in using RDA: How much training was needed?
How did this training differ from training that had previously been offered?
Some useful conclusions shared, and definitely something to think about when
embarking on training for new cataloguers.
So, mentions of the READ-ability
Initiative abound on my blog, but I realise I never got round to sharing the
whole thing! Record Enhancement to Aid Discoverability
was about improving LCSH, authorising name headings, re-classifying, separating
e-books from their hard copy records, submitting bib records to the
institutional repository, and acting upon Typos of the Day!
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| My best attempt at being visual! |
I have written phrases in my notebook like: “rigorous application of project management methodology”; “appetite for appropriately managed risk”, but I can’t do justice, in this short blogpost, to the talk given by the Chair of CIG, Robin Armstrong-Viner, in which he wowed us all with his complete turnaround of backlogs of incoming stock, changing the way this was handled. With the systematic introduction and application of project management skills (and a generous supply of money) the work of the metadata department has become a shining example of what can be achieved.
The theme of project management
was continued by Celine Carty, who explained how she had applied the principles
of project management at Cambridge. She stressed the importance of
communication , especially with staff involved in doing work towards the
project, particularly if they were unsure of the benefits.
The final speakers of the
conference were from the university of Canterbury. Josie Caplehorne and Clair
Waller who explained how they had come from different library backgrounds to
work at the university and how their new role as metadata assistants was both
challenging and rewarding. For me, this
was a very uplifting and positive end to the conference.
It would be totally out of character for me not to apologise, so, having avoided the temptation at the beginning of this article, I will do so now: Please accept my apologies if you feel I have not done justice to your presentation: This is entirely my own failing, partly because my capacity for actually writing notes for the duration of the conference was not as great as in previous years, and the delay in me writing up those notes has meant that some hieroglyphics that made perfect sense at the time, are now completely unfathomable!
My final activity of the conference was a visit to Canterbury Cathedral Library where we were treated to some really choice items! Look, but don’t touch was very much the order of the day, and we did! We peered through the glass with awe at the collections of material the librarian had kindly unearthed for us: And were thrilled to be able to touch some of the bookcases that so very, very old! Many thank to CIG for organising this visit, and to the cathedral librarian for taking the trouble to show such a large group of us around!
As I stepped out of the cathedral into
the busy town of Canterbury, a plan formed in my mind: A cataloguing plan?
Well, yes, but also a plan to re-visit Canterbury as a tourist rather than a conference-goer!
Looking forward to CIG16 – wherever that may be!
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