Karen S Calhoun

Being a librarian: metadata and metadata specialists in the twenty‐first century

Purpose – This paper aims to forecast the changing roles of librarians – especially catalogers and metadata specialists – in todays technology‐driven research, teaching, and learning environments, in which information seekers behave more and more self‐sufficiently and move well beyond library collections in their pursuit of information.Design/methodology/approach – Places the roles of librarians and library collections in the larger context of knowledge management and campus information network processes, which occur in every knowledge community, with or without a library. Explores and provides examples of how knowledge creators can collaborate with information technology experts and librarians to transform how faculty members teach and conduct research; how students learn; and how libraries support these activities.Findings – Librarians need to make their collections and services much more visible through human and technological interconnections and greatly improved delivery of information content. Meta...

From information gateway to digital library management system: a case analysis

This paper discusses the design, implementation and evolution of the Cornell University Library Gateway using the case analysis method. It diagnoses the Gateway within the conceptual framework of definitions and best practices associated with information gateways, portals, and emerging digital library management systems, in particular the product ENCompass.

Technology, productivity and change in library technical services

Based on presentations to the ALCTS Leadership Development Committee and the Potomac Technical Processing Librarians, this paper explores the relationship of technology to productivity, describes early 21st century demands on library technical services, and evaluates the application of an organizational change model called “Future Search” to technical services at the Cornell University Library.

From Tech Services to Leadership

ABSTRACT The panel at this strategy session was composed of three distinguished women from technical services who currently hold leadership positions. The session topic was divided into two sections: 1) What is leadership?; and 2) How can technical services help you be a leader? Each panelist spoke to the first topic and then reversed order to explore the second. The panelists all spoke to a definition of leadership based on the personal, social, and professional skills possessed by leaders. The panel concurred that technical services staff are uniquely prepared for leadership for a variety of reasons because the personal, social, and professional skills discussed by the panel in the first half of the session are prevalent in technical services departments.

CORC and collaborative Internet resource description : A new partnership for technical services, collection development and public services

SUMMARY The author describes the “CORCat Cornell” project, undertaken by a small cross-functional team. Using CORC and Dublin Core (DC) as a framework, the team explored a distributed model for Internet resource description, in which catalogers, selectors, and reference specialists participated in producing DC and MARC metadata for the librarys OPAC and gateway. After describing the experimental workflow that was developed and tested in the project, the author employs systems analysis techniques to model and discuss the Internet resource description process. The findings indicate that distributed resource description is both feasible and beneficial, and that staff from various functional areas can readily use DC and CORC. The article concludes with a discussion of issues that warrant further research.

Next Generation Cataloging

During the past several years the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) noted increasing concern from the library community regarding the future of cataloging. In response to this concern and to the rapidly changing metadata environment, OCLC is taking steps to further a paradigm shift toward early acquisition of metadata in WorldCat directly from the entities responsible for content purchased by libraries—chiefly the publisher supply chain. This shift in thinking requires the acknowledgement that metadata is dynamic and will change over time and relies upon the automated capture of metadata early in the publishing cycle as well as automated processes to help make the early metadata “good enough.”

Il ruolo sociale della biblioteca digitale

L’articolo indaga il valore sociale delle biblioteche digitali. Inizia esplorando le concezioni passate e presenti del valore delle biblioteche per le loro comunita. Prendendo come punto di partenza la cornice concettuale ben nota che delinea il ruolo sociale delle biblioteche, l’articolo propone un possibile nuovo quadro concettuale per descrivere quello delle biblioteche digitali. Il resto dell’articolo descrive questo potenziale ruolo sociale delle biblioteche digitali, esplorandone i singoli aspetti. Ricorrendo ad esempi specifici, il testo prende in considerazione benefici e sfide e fa riferimento a letture chiave di studiosi e professionisti della biblioteca digitale.