Margaret Mering

Library Personnel’s Role in the Creation of Metadata: A Survey of Academic Libraries

ABSTRACT The digital age has caused the paradigm to shift in academic libraries both in terms of their collections and the roles of their personnel. As academic libraries begin to digitize objects in their collections, how and who in the library creates access to these resources has become a hot issue. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries (UNL Libraries), taskforces were formed to study metadata schemes used at UNL Libraries. The taskforces identified the various metadata schemes in use and the role of various departments within UNL Libraries in the creation of metadata. They made recommendations about how to document decisions relating to metadata and how to coordinate metadata creation and digitization projects. As a result, the authors decided to survey American Research Libraries (ARL) and other peer libraries to determine their metadata workflow. This paper discusses the results of the survey and provides insight as to how libraries may meet the challenge of creating metadata through the reorganization of departments and staffing responsibilities.

Bibliometrics: Understanding Author-, Article- and Journal-Level Metrics

ABSTRACT Numerous types of metrics are available to assist in the evaluation of scholarship. The focus for this column of In Lay Terms is bibliometrics, the quantitative analysis of publication data using article-, author-, and journal-level data. Citation analysis is the most commonly used bibliometric method. It includes analyzing the number of articles published by an author, the number of citations from those articles, and the ranking of the journals in which those articles were published. This column compares bibliometrics found in Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar and considers the relationship of these metrics to the field of library and information science.

Correctly Linking Researchers to Their Journal Articles: An Overview of Unique Author Identifiers

ABSTRACT A number of factors can make it difficult to consistently and accurately identify individual researchers and their scholarly activities. One solution is to use unique author identifiers. Many author identifiers are available from inside and outside the library community. This column will, in lay terms, compare Scopus Author ID, ResearcherID, ORCID identifier, and ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier)—some of the more commonly used author identifiers—and explore the advantages and disadvantages of each. It will examine the differences among the four identifiers and their relationships to one another.

RDA and Serials: Theoretical and Practical Applications

This preconference examined Resource Description and Access (RDA) and the cataloging of serials from both theoretical and practical points of view. It focused on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and the Functional Requirements for Authority Data, the conceptual models upon which RDA is based. It discussed the RDA elements applicable to the FRBR entities work, expression, manifestation, and item, as well as the roles played by entities, persons, families, and corporate bodies in connection with serials. It studied the relationship between the entities that are common to serials.

Newspapers; Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Abstract This workshop detailed the United States Newspaper Program (USNP), covered the efforts of some state newspaper projects, and examined newspaper preservation issues. The workshop also dealt with the newspaper cataloging module recently issued by the Cooperative Online Serials (CONSER) Program and with electronic newspapers (e-newspapers).