Next-gen cataloging

Moving metadata capture upstream to enhance technical services workflow

By Tom Storey

When Frederick G. Kilgour founded OCLC in 1967, he saw libraries across the U.S. doing the same, repetitive tasks in cataloging—rooms full of typists entering the same information on catalog cards. The OCLC online union catalog (now called WorldCat) and shared cataloging system dramatically reduced these inefficiencies by making it unnecessary for more than one library to originally catalog an item. Records in the online union catalog could be shared and used by others to produce catalog cards.

Today, the drive to streamline the cataloging process continues. In December 2007, OCLC rolled out an early prototype of its next generation cataloging system in a field test involving both libraries and publishers. The pilot will evaluate the viability of metadata capture, creation and enhancement using publisher/vendor ONIX metadata. ONIX is a standard format that publishers use to distribute electronic information about their books to wholesale, e-tail and retail booksellers. Metadata created and enhanced will be output in MARC and ONIX for use in library and publisher supply chain systems and processes.

During the pilot, publisher and vendor partners are providing title information in ONIX format. OCLC will map the data to MARC and enrich the new record by mining existing WorldCat metadata and by data-mapping between existing data elements. Library pilot partners will review MARC data created from publisher ONIX for quality and sustainability for use in library technical services processes. MARC records created during the pilot will be available for library use in technical services processes and library systems.

“It’s crucial to the future of cataloging to find collaborative ways to take advantage of publisher ONIX metadata and find efficient and centralized ways to store, enhance and normalize the metadata for the benefit of both library and publishing communities,” says Renee Register, Global Product Manager, OCLC Cataloging and Metadata Services.

Right now, Register says, many libraries are tackling this on their own by developing ingest and manipulation of ONIX data as part of their cataloging processes. “We find ourselves again in the position of creating local solutions and duplicating effort across the library community to handle metadata for the same set of titles published each year.

“Finding ways to streamline this process would certainly result in cost savings and workflow efficiencies as well as greater upstream availability of metadata for use in library technical processing and end-user interfaces.

“There is also duplication of effort and expense in the creation and enhancement of metadata across the publisher supply chain. Cooperative work in this area will only enhance the metadata we all use.”

The pilot will run through June 2008.

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