Demonstrate understanding of basic principles and standards involved in organizing information, including classification, cataloging, metadata, or other systems.
Introduction
One of the things that is often associated with libraries (even if they are no longer in use) is the card catalog. Those hulking islands with their endless rows of tiny drawers holding scores of cards representing a library’s collection might be a thing of the past, but their spirit lives on. Without a system for organizing information, a library can go from a place to gather research materials to a building full of unorganized bookshelves. As intimidating as the card catalog might have been to someone who had never used one, it is a far more daunting task to find needed information without any kind of marker to lead the way.
A library might opt to use one of the major established classification systems such as the Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress systems, but a different institution with different information organization needs may opt to use one of the many available metadata schemas or even design one from scratch. In SJSU’s Visual Resource Library, we use a metadata standard written by the Visual Resources Association called VRA Core 4.0, written specifically for the cataloging of cultural heritage objects. One of the things that makes the VRA Core standard unique (and the right fit for our situation) is that it was designed specifically for situations where catalogers do not have the actual object they are cataloging, but must use another source for information. Unlike books, works of art are often described by other sources, rather than the art itself. For example, in the VRL’s image-only collection we as catalogers do not have access to Michelangelo’s David and must rely on a book or other resource to give us its details. Further, even if we did have access to David, it would not list its measurements, media, or technique in an easy to find page. In order to get this information, we need to use a book or museum website. VRA Core was designed with this in mind, so we can keep track of the information about a work of art and the source of that information, whereas AACR or Dublin Core might need to be stretched and modified quite a bit to be able to handle this information.
Information organization is not easy, but it is essential to providing a usable product. Using standards specific to the information or task ensures that others will be able to use and add to a collection. Standards also provide guidance on acceptable authorities or how to handle complicated scenarios. The likelihood of finding relevant information is increased when collections are cataloged and described properly.
Evidence
DACS-compliant Multi-Level Descriptive Inventory
In this exercise, I reviewed a finding aid (available here) and made suggestions for missing elements according to the Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS). Additionally, I made changes to the finding aid’s series titles to make them more descriptive and useful to those accessing the materials. Working on a DACS-compliant finding aid required me to really think about who might be using this collection and what they might be looking for, going beyond just cataloging and requiring me to put myself in the researcher’s shoes. I had to think about what I would want to see and what would frustrate me if I were looking for something in the collection. The biggest change I made to the finding aid was adding dates so that users could tell at a glance whether the information they wanted was there or not. Though it seems like a small detail, changes like this can make a big difference in accessing or not accessing relevant information.
Exploration of a Metadata Scheme
This is an in-depth analysis of the VRA Core 4.0 metadata scheme. I am interested in this particular scheme because of its relevance to the work I do currently and the work I hope to do in the future. I researched the history of the scheme and its changes over the past 18 years, including how it has changed to meet the evolving needs of visual resources professionals. The current version was written with an eye toward information exchange, and so it was designed to be expressed in XML. In doing my research, I was fascinated by the amount of thought that went into the various iterations of the scheme and how flexible and adaptable it is.
Professional Development
No matter what kinds of changes librarianship sees in the coming years, one of the things that will remain the same is the need for good information organization practices. Whether this is in a physical space or a virtual one, access to information needs to be easy and the information provided must meet the user’s needs. There are well-established standards for this task, but I must always think about how information needs change and be able to adapt to this. The solutions we have currently might not be perfect forever and I will need to use resources such as the Library of Congress’ collection of standards to access the most up to date information on any cataloging or metadata standard I use.