Competency G
Demonstrate understanding of basic principles and standards involved in organizing information such as classification and controlled vocabulary systems, cataloguing systems, metadata schemas or other systems for making information accessible to a particular clientele.
Introduction
It is a human instinct to organize things. It makes it easy to find, identify, select and access items that we are searching for. Information professionals, in addition to collection management, must have an understanding of the basic principles and standards involved in organizing the physical and digital resources that their libraries house. These standardized organization schemes, which include classification and controlled vocabulary systems, cataloging systems, and metadata schemas, were created to organize and represent each resource for ease of discovery.
Data becomes information when it gains context, information becomes knowledge when we integrate the information into our own body of knowledge. We as a society organize representations of knowledge. The main reasons we organize information resources include (Taylor & Joudrey, 2018):
Identifying the existence of new resources
Identifying works within those resources
Create collections of information resources within information organizations
Producing bibliographies, indexes, catalogues, and databases
Providing access points (i.e. name, title, and subject) to these resources
Provides the means for locating a resource (i.e. catalogues, URLs)
Traditional vs. Digital Libraries
Traditional libraries currently exist alongside digital libraries, which are information organizations with collections that are stored in information retrieval systems and accessed using computers and other devices. Knowing what type of information environment the metadata is for is important when creating metadata.
Traditional library environments agree upon and commit to using information organization standards (either specification of metadata content or metadata encoding). Cataloguers are attempting to fit new materials into an existing collection of materials. In the case of digital libraries, metadata practitioners are working to aggregate things to make them searchable. These standards are still developing due to the fact that the technology is relatively new. Meaning that there is variety in formats, variability in quality expectations, and less documentation and training available.
What is metadata?
A popular definition for metadata is data about data, where for the most part an attribute is paired with a value. Metadata is information that is both computer-processable and human-interpretable. Another definition, metadata is “structured information that describes, explains, locations, and otherwise makes it easier to retrieve and use an information resource.” Metadata also aids in managing documents, certifies authenticity, controls IP rights, mark content structure and identifying versions, indicate status, and describe processes (Library of Congress, 2009).
The Library of Congress (LOC) and the American Library Association (ALA), along with other national libraries and library associations, have been major forces in the creation and adoption of cataloging practices and metadata standards. There are several key principles that are the foundation of all of these practices and standards, including aggregation (like with like), discrimination (find the things that are unlike the others), disambiguation (items that are the same are recognized as distinct entities), interoperability (use of the metadata by any system that uses the same standards), and aboutness (recording the attributes of the resource) (Bolin, 2021).
There are several types of metadata including descriptive, administrative, preservation, structural, and meta-metadata. When selecting the metadata standard to use, some pertinent questions to ask include (Library of Congress, 2009):
Who: Who will be the users of the system?
What: What is the type of resource being recorded? How much detail about the resource do we need?
Where: How would users access the content?
When: Is there an existing project or are we starting a new one?
Why: What is the purpose of this project?
How: Is there a community practice in place for this resource type? Are there tools/ systems available?
When learning about the different metadata structures in INFO 202, I found that there wasn’t really a clear chart showing the classification system of metadata standards. There were also so many different minute details to remember for each standard. As a visual learner, I found it helpful when I created the following mind map to make sense of the different metadata types and most commonly used structures. Below are some descriptions of the metadata standards that I encountered during my MLIS and while working in a library environment.
Descriptive Metadata Structure Standards
MARC Format
The standard was created by the Library of Congress based on the way that catalogue cards were created when libraries used card catalogues. By using textual markup, this format encodes data through the use of field and subfield tags. Data types that are encoded include a bibliographic, authority (names, titles), holdings (location), and classifications. The MARC standard will soon be replaced by BIBFRAME (Bibliographic Framework Initiative) a model that is more user-friendly and better suited to the current digital environment.
Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
This standard, developed by the Society of American Archivists in response to the needs of the archival community, encodes archival and manuscript collections to make them discoverable, exchangeable, and useful. The descriptions are stored using XML and support archival descriptive standards and practices. EAC (Encoded Archival Creator) is a companion that stores creators’ information.
Dublin Core
This simple structure, based on MARC, supports efficient resource discovery and retrieval. The advantages of using this standard are that it is internationally used and recognized, is interdisciplinary, and provides a framework that helps manage information.
Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core
This metadata element set organizes descriptions and photos of the works of visual culture (work, collection, or image) that uses the Cataloguing Cultural Objects (CCO) content rules. The advantage of VRA is that it enables information professionals to create descriptions of original and digital objects.
Descriptive Metadata Content Standards
Anglo American Cataloguing Rules 2nd Edition (AACR2)
AACR2 is a descriptive content standard that creates consistent shareable information that can be repurposed for different uses.
Resource Description and Access (RDA)
RDA as a content standard contains guidelines for recording attributes and expressing relationships between entities. It does not specify how the elements will look to the user or provide a method for encoding the information. RDA relies on MARC for encoding.
Integrated Library Systems (ILS)
They are called integrated library systems because they are computer systems that combine different library functions: cataloging, acquisitions, circulation, serials, electronic resources and online public access catalogues (OPAC).
As mentioned earlier, changes are coming. The current dominant metadata format- MARC is not able to express relationships between different records with some kind of relationship (i.e. a novel and a film based on the novel). BIBFRAME will be introduced to change this by being able to deconstruct MARC and reconstruct it in a linked data format.
Digital Libraries And The Future of Metadata
Most of the metadata structures that we discussed above are suited for traditional library resources. With the increase in the number of digital resources, a variety of schemas with varying quality expectations are forming, with no dominant choice. This somewhat wild-west-like information landscape is because the digital world is not necessarily being organized by information professionals. There is also a lot more competition, as each digital library fights to remain relevant to users whose information wants and needs change in the blink of an eye. We cannot predict how information can be organized in the future, but we can know that the principles that we have been using to organize current information resources will evolve and create new organization methods.
Evidence
Final Website Project
INFO 240 Information Technology Tools and Applications with Raymond Dean
Description
For the final project in the INFO 240 class, we needed to combine all the skills we learned throughout the semester and create a website. We were responsible for all stages of website development, from design, content and coding. I made a portfolio website to display my past projects from work and school, my resume and other details. I used HTML to code the content, responsive CSS to alter how the information was presented depending on the user’s device, and Javascript for the interactive features, such as the Contact Me form.
Justification
I chose this website to demonstrate my attainment of competency G because it shows that I can apply different coding languages, technologies, and user experience principles to organize information. In addition, the accessibility considerations incorporated into the website design also show that I understand and am aware of accessible web design principles.
Project #2- Design Vocabulary for Target User Group
INFO 202 with Dr. Virginia Tucker
Group Members: Lisa Danes, Brayden Kelley, Lydia Lopez, Sabrina Weegar & Bailey Wells
Description
For this project, our group went through a vocabulary design exercise. We chose a target user group on to base our vocabulary choices. Next, we identified the central concepts of the nine records we had selected. We then turned the concepts into draft terms and then vocabulary lists. This list was then used on the list of records that we started with at the beginning of the exercise.
Justification
I chose this project to represent Competency G because it demonstrates that I am able to create controlled vocabulary systems to organize and represent resources so that they can be easily found within a collection.
Javascript Assignment #7
INFO 246 Javascript with Steve Perry
Description
We were asked to create a website with three different tabs for this assignment. Each website tab asks the users to input further information. This information is used to influence the results of subsequent page tabs. Users must enter their first and last names in the first tab and select a date from a dropdown calendar. The second tab asks them to pick between a Great Plan or a Poor Plan by dragging it into the indicated box. When a plan box is dropped onto the box, it will display a message dependent on the chosen plan, and the box colour will change. In the final tab, the user will click on the “Show my feelings” button to change the box below. Depending on the answer presented, the package will be animated.
Justification
I selected this coding project as evidence of Competency G because JavaScript is a powerful coding language that is capable of creating data structures/databases. This project illustrates that I can integrate Javascript with HTML and CSS to manipulate how information is organized and displayed on a webpage.
Conclusion
A primary part of an information professional’s job is searching through collections to identify and retrieve information resources that are of use to members of their communities. When collections are not well organized this job becomes infinitely more difficult (think: needle in a pile of needles). This is where organization standards come into play. They take the information, and give it attributes to make it findable. The organizational standards that are currently in use are slated for updates in the face of exponential growth in the amount of information available. The standards and the principles that form the foundation of these standards will have to evolve as well.
In my role at the Reader’s Advisory desk of my library, I am often asked by patrons to search our OPAC for the titles and topics they would like to access. Having even a basic understanding of the LIS standards that are in use for organizing different types of material has proven to be very useful when it comes to quickly retrieving library items that could fit their queries. For professional development in this subject, as someone who is interested in technology, I am interested to learn about XML, as it seems to be foundational to information organization.
References
Bolin, M. K. (2021). Metadata, Cataloguing, Linked Data, and the Evolving ILS [Print]. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information Services Today (3rd ed., pp. 142–155). Rowman & Littlefield.
Library of Congress. (2009, February). Metadata Standards & Applications. Library of Congress Catalogers Learning Workshop (CLW). https://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/courses/metadatastandards/index.html
Taylor, A. G., & Joudrey, D. N. (2018). Organization and Representation of Information [Print]. In K. Haycock & M.-J. Romaniuk (Eds.), Portable MLIS (2nd ed., pp. 153–170).
Tucker, V. M. (n.d.). Lecture #6 Document Description: Rules and Standards [Slide show; Powerpoint]. Lecture, United States of America.