Cataloguing and Organizing Digital Resources: A How‐To‐Do‐It Manual for Librarians

Citation

Yeates, R. (2006), "Cataloguing and Organizing Digital Resources: A How‐To‐Do‐It Manual for Librarians", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 100-102. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330610646861

Many librarians have been learning the hard way how to catalogue and organise electronic resources. This book, published both in the US and in the UK, may be a shortcut to some of the wisdom gained by the university‐based authors.

Such is the expansion of the scope of online resources that “digital resources” can here reasonably exclude CDs and DVDs on the grounds that they may be handled in a similar manner to conventional physical library materials. After a decade or more of experience with internet‐based remotely accessible scholarly materials, this book brings together some general guidance with detailed advice of a practical nature for cataloguers. It will be useful for any library willing to adopt the now increasingly global standards used in the US, which tends to lead not merely in the development of widely adopted new techniques, but also in their documentation.

At first glance, this looks like a book about MARC cataloguing rules for e‐books and e‐serials. On closer inspection it provides a thoughtful and coherent analysis of the general problem of how to migrate current library cataloguing practices to new methods that deal adequately with remote internet resources. It also leads from a general analytical discussion to specific examples of the use of MARC21 templates (OCLC standards especially) which allow existing MARC cataloguers to appreciate in general some of the new issues raised by born‐digital and “integrating resources”.

One of the strengths of the guide is that it does not make too many assumptions. It starts by asserting that “online information resources are defined by their mode of delivery rather than the nature of their content”. The authors then examine contrasting workflows for physical and online formats while taking account of monographic and serial works and referring to recent research. Throughout the book they tend to select a salient point about recent developments and then elaborate appropriate responses to this.

There is a risk of frightening inexperienced staff by mentioning an extensive structured list of content selection criteria for online resources, including usability, technical requirements, pricing, licensing and reliability. It soon becomes clear, however, that many of these issues can be dealt with by a wider library management team rather than just by cataloguing staff and, although important, these issues are not the main focus of this work.

The authors state clear definitions, such as for “web lists” and refer to authoritative (but almost entirely US‐based) sources for further information on topics such as administrative metadata, licensing and usage analysis. They also address some of the complex issues arising from the differing needs of shared centralised, distributed and local services. A chapter on exploring alternatives to cataloguing goes into more detail (which is likely to date), for example on federated searching tools, than some parts of this work. It nevertheless shares the reflective approach with other chapters and includes tables, a few illustrations and margin fact boxes as well as a concluding summary.

Many of the issues surrounding the isolation of online collections from catalogues or their integration are skilfully summarised, with the recommendation that libraries should think carefully before committing significant resources to specific bibliographic control tools. This chapter is followed by three separate ones on the handling of main types of issuance: monographs, serials and integrating resources such as the CNN.com and US Geological Survey websites. These include very specific guidance and instruction of how to code such resources, without straying much into areas of subject access. Readers will need to supplement this work with additional UK information, for example the ideas and plans for a Common Information Environment, which are completely absent here.

As the work progresses through the detail of MARC schemas and online work forms, the authors display a commendable openness towards future changes, mentioning the possibility that the current central importance of library catalogues may change with the introduction of new, more complex and more explicit forms of bibliographic analysis and description. The work ends with an introduction to the significance of the IFLA Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) hierarchical model. The FRBR should be explored and understood by all cataloguers as the most important contribution to cataloguing in the last decade, even though it is not yet widely in use.

There is a thorough basic index as befits a manual, and clear worked examples for those using MARC21.

The overall intention of the book does not appear to be quite the step‐by‐step guide to “bibliographic” control of remote online digital resources that the publishers promote on the cover. However, the more limited book is none the worse for that and does certainly address some challenging issues faced by library practitioners in a logical progression and with an illuminating mix of advice, guidance and factual information.

This guide is expensive (although no more so than other professional monographs) but could be shared amongst both experienced and novice digital resource management staff in a library, and may well be of most value in public libraries where experience is so far more limited than in, say, the higher academic sector. It should not date too rapidly. Although not a manual that can be used on its own, it does provide reasoned guidance on how to go about cataloguing remote digital resources such as websites, e‐journals and databases – a task that is becoming a necessity for most libraries. It is also much easier to read than most of the standard documents themselves and the local policy documents that may or may not exist to supplement them.