There has been a lot of buzz around “next generation catalogs” in the past couple of years. Many of the next generation projects out there focus on updating the user interface to the catalog, but don’t do much about updating the guts of the systems that feed that interface. Now, in many cases this is a direct result of the developers not having access to the guts of their legacy ILS systems to change anything, and given that constraint, developers have been able to do some really cool stuff.

Those who say that this interface work is simply putting lipstick on a pig have a point, however. The emergence of the web has radically changed the information environment and it is simply impossible to aggregate metadata for all resources that might meet users’ information needs in a single database cum catalog. I believe that structured metadata remains vitally important in the web environment, but it will be distributed. We need to find ways to uniquely identify resources in the web environment and utilize extant metadata as much as possible, no matter where it lives.

For those who focus on building collections for a discrete group of users, “cataloging” work in the future will focus on manipulating and extending extant metadata in order to define relationships that guide users to resources. In order for this to happen, “catalogers” need a platform upon which build resource discovery tools that help users find information relevant to their needs, regardless of format or storage location.

If this is going to happen, “cataloging” has got to involve more than painstakingly creating individual metadata records that describe individual resources. Catalogers need systems that support the higher-level intellectual work that facilitates resource discovery. Right now, human catalogers must devote way too much effort to making sure that the correct alphanumeric code is in the correct sequential position in an individual record. How can we get beyond this?

I attended the world premiere of the documentary film The Hollywood Librarian at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC on June 22, 2007. I was really disappointed. I had seen an earlier cut of the film at a conference two years ago that looked much more promising. The final cut really lost touch with the original premise of the film as I saw it: enabling regular people (non-library users especially) to get to know librarians as people, rather than as a stereotype. (more…)

Sometimes, it feels like my main job as a librarian these days is just to buy stuff. Books and other materials for the library collection, library support services, library technology, etc. It’s not very satisfying. I’d like to feel like I’m producing or at least delivering some services myself, not just buying stuff produced by others. Yes, there is value in putting together disparate products into a coherent whole that responds to patron needs, but is that the main/only thing that librarians have to contribute to society? That’s not what I got into librarianship for.

I’ve been away from home for the past few days attending some work-related training. The training was pretty intense, but it only ran for two days, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Beyond that, I had free time on my own. I’m proud to say that I kept up with my exercise routine in my spare time by doing yoga and walking around town. I did some window shopping and didn’t watch much TV (as usual, there was nothing on worth watching). With my new laptop along and free wireless Internet access in my hotel room, I wanted to spend more time blogging and catching up on stuff that it’s hard to get to at work, but I found that I just couldn’t focus. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself because I did spend a fair amount of time keeping up with my e-mail and writing up ideas generated by the training. Still, I feel like I wasted a lot of time that I could have spend producing something, or at least reading/learning about stuff that I don’t normally have time to do. I feel like I’m surrounded by so many people who aren’t necessarily smarter or more motivated than me, but they produce so much more. What do I produce? I spend a lot of time observing and even contemplating things, but I can’t seem to muster the focus required to produce anything myself. I feel like there’s stuff inside me that I want to express and that I have the potential to contribute a lot to this world, but I just can’t figure out how to do it. I guess that’s the main difference between people who make a mark on the world and those who don’t. I’ve always wanted to be one of the people who made a mark, and I’m not yet ready to accept that I won’t.

Don’t know why I got to thinking about this, but 7 years ago today (February 8, 2000) was the day I had a bicycle accident and fractured my jaw in three places. I’m all healed and have been for quite some time, but once in awhile I reflect on that time, which was probably the biggest medical crisis of my life. To remember how it felt to forget about all of those mundane concerns that get me down every day and just focus on healing my body and mind. Having a fractured jaw was a pretty miserable experience, but being forced to withdraw from the world for a few days was very nice.