Francis Miksa

The Cultural Legacy of the "Modern Library" for the Future

The cultural legacy of the library to contemporary society is examined in order to provide a basis for discussing present changes taking place in the LIS field and in LIS education. By viewing the manifestation of the library over time as an “era-specific” societal phenomenon, the modern library, which began in the mid-19th century and is still present, will be seen as replacing an earlier era-specific library, but also as currently being challenged by the beginnings of a new library era. The modern library is next contrasted with the library it replaced, after which three significant features of the modern library now being challenged are explored and contrasted with the emerging library—how the library is viewed as a social institution; how its normative target public is conceptualized; and what is acceptable as its normative funding. Lastly, speculations are provided as to how LIS education might respond to the challenges and changes that the emerging library is bringing.

The columbia school of library economy, 1887-1888

Early library education, including Melvil Deweys School of Library Economy at Columbia College, has traditionally been thought to have em phasized vocational-technical skills rather than substantive intellectual issues. New evidence for the first two lecture sessions of Deweys school raises ques tions about that view. The schedule of the school, its faculty (including regular Columbia College professors), and the way the schools topical con tent of library economy and bibliography was approached strongly suggest an educational venture with unexpected intellectual substance. More evidence is needed before extrapolating these findings to early library education in general.

The Legacy of the Library Catalogue for the Present

The specter of impending change in library catalogues is strong but not very clear. In an attempt to help the clarification process, the first part of the present report discusses historical themes from the modern library catalogue legacy that has developed since the mid-nineteenth century—the origins and subsequent dominance of the dictionary catalogue for more than a century, considerations of library catalogue users and use over the same period, developments apart from the library catalogue during the twentieth century that have affected it, and aspects of the idea of the objects of a catalogue. In a second part, the general environment for the most recent period of library catalogue development is described, after which aspects of the historical legacy are used as a basis for raising questions relevant to impending library catalogue change.

Chan, Taylor, and the Future of Cataloging Texts

William Arms, Clifford Lynch, Roy Tennant, Deanna Marcum, Karen Calhoun, Karen Coyle, Diane Hillmann, and the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control [1–8] are only some of the voices who for some time now have been calling if not for the demise of library cataloging as currently practiced then at least for its definitive deconstruction and revision. Given their growing numbers, one may rightfully wonder why much effort should be spent at all in reviewing two

The DDC relative index

SUMMARY The “Relative Index” of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) is investigated over the span of its lifetime in 22 editions of the DDC as to its character as a concept indexing system, its provision of conceptual contexts for the terms it lists, and the way in which the index intersects with special tables of categories used in the system. Striking features of the index that are discussed include how the locater function of an index is expressed in it, its practice of including concepts that have not been given specific notational locations in the system, its two methods of providing conceptual contexts for indexed terms (by means of the notation of the system and by the insertion of enhancement terms that portray conceptual context), and how the index has intersected with three types of special tables of categories in the system. Critical issues raised include the indexing of constructed or synthesized complex concepts, inconsistencies in how enhancement terms are portrayed and the absence of them in some instances, the problem of equating conceptual context with disciplinary context, and problems associated with not indexing one type of special table. Summary and conclusions are extended to problems that arise in studying the index.

The 19th Dewey: A Review Article

The nineteenth edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and its companion volume, the eleventh abridged edition, are no exceptions to the trend during the last three decades toward improving the classification scheme by making extensive changes in it. Some of the most significant of those changes will be commented upon here. However, since most of the changes affect the unabridged and abridged editions alike, the primary discussion here will focus on the larger edition, with a final section on the unabridged edition alone. There are, of course, many particular changes that could be focused upon, especially if single locations of individual subjects are included. Among the most general changes, however, the following appear to be the most important.

Building a digital teaching commons to enhance teaching, learning and research: The MERIC experience and challenges

This panel is designed 1) to share with the ASIST community the development of an innovative project, MERIC, the Metadata Education and Research Information Center, 2) to discuss MERICs potential for improving and enhancing cataloging and metadata education for LIS students, cataloging practitioners and others involved in metadata projects, and 3) to explore with the audience various issues and challenges related to educating a diverse community of metadata creators and turning MERIC into a virtual teaching commons and research center. MERIC originated from an action plan of the Library of Congress to prepare future information professionals to control digital resources in the 21st century. Initially conceived as a digital information clearinghouse (Hsieh-Yee, 2003), the MERIC Advisory Board recognized the value of a “teaching commons” as recommended by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Huber and Hutchings, 2005), the need to provide users with the knowledge, skills and tools to process digital resources (Soergel, 2002), and the benefits of collaborative research in this emergent field. The vision and scope of MERIC have evolved beyond a repository for teaching and learning objects to embrace the concept of a collaborative research center and to expand the target audience beyond information professionals to include anyone interested in increasing their metadata knowledge. The project is a joint initiative of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services and the Association for Library and Information Science Education. As a portal-based information center, the initial objectives of MERIC were to promote understanding of metadata within the LIS community, integrate metadata into LIS education, and encourage metadata research. The next foci of the MERIC project are building a diverse community of users and collaborators and providing fora and tools for collaboration in metadata teaching and research among these communities. As the co-chair of the MERIC Advisory Board, Ingrid Hsieh-Yee will facilitate the discussions. Sherry Vellucci, co-chair of the MERIC Board and a highly respected metadata expert and educator, will present the background and development of MERIC. William E. Moen, a well-known researcher who specializes in metadata, interoperability, and system design, will present the beta version of MERIC and the lessons learned from working with students to develop the prototype. Francis Miksa, a historian of library cataloging and a cataloging educator for more than 30 years, will discuss the challenges of teaching cataloging and metadata and MERICs potential in enhancing such education. Diane Hillmann, another expert in metadata implementation and an experienced educator in building curriculum and materials for metadata education, will discuss the needs of students and practitioners and suggest ways for MERIC to make its resources more readily accessible to users. We will reserve 20 minutes to discuss issues and questions raised by the panel.

Classification across disciplines: The same, only different. Sponsored by SIG CR, STI, MED, HFIS

This session seeks to bridge the recognized gap between information science understandings of classification and the applications of classification techniques in various disciplines and the corporate world. Classification experts in the information sciences are challenged to look at classification from several perspectives: how do we serve different disciplines in the arts and sciences, whose discourse traditions vary?; what can we learn from the understandings of classification as it is used implicitly and explicitly to organize information in other fields?; and, from a corporate case, on the way an artificial intelligence technology approaches the problem of knowledge representation and classification.