SU10Q2Response

a. What is cataloging? Identify TWO skills/competencies information professionals need to be a successful cataloger in your selected environment and provide specific examples to prove your point. Cataloging - the process of identifying and describing (Mehra's notes F2007) - attention to detail -intellectual curiosity -problem solving

From the Glossary (p. 358) of Arlene Taylor's The Organization of Information (2nd ed. 520 text Mehra F2008) - "cataloging: the acts of creating surrogate records for information packages, choosing appropriate access points, and maintaining the system through which the records are made available. Such work done in nonprofit agencies is usually called //cataloging//, while such work done for commercial enterprises is usually called //indexing//."

Skills/competencies of a successful cataloger - Again, from Taylor's glossary, a cataloger is a "person in an archive, a library, or other such organization who creates surrogate records for the information packages collected by the organization and who works to maintain the system through which those surrogate records are made available to users." Catalogers/indexers should be meticulous, organized, persistant - searching LCSH for appropriately formated access points is a painstaking activity. (must look at lecture slides to finish this part - dd)

b. What is the connection between cataloging and metadata? Why is cataloging and metadata crucial to organizing and representing information objects? "The generic term for the information librarians traditionally prepare about materials to make them available to those who want to read, view, and hear them is cataloging. Another term with a similar meaning is metadata, which means "data about data." However, metadata has a more precise meaning, referring solely to information added to electronic documents that identifies them and makes them retrievable" (from //Standard Cataloging for School and Public Libraries// by Sheila S. Intner and Jean Weihs).

From the Glossary (p. 371) of Arlene Taylor's The Organization of Information (2nd ed. 520 text Mehra F2008) - "metadata: an encoded description of an information package (e.g., an AACR2 record encoded with MARC, a Dublin Core record, a GILS record, etc.); the purpose of metadata is to provide a level of data at which choices can be made as to which information packages one wished to view or search, without having to search massive amounts of irrelevent fulltext." For example, if you have an author's name as a metadata element attached to electronic (surrogate) records of a collection of books, you can search by author.

(IS 510 notes): "Metadata is an important component of the research and retrieval functions in today's information environment. Metadata is structured information that describes the attributes of inormation packages. Wit so many information packages in existence today, having structured information organized into searchable fields allows a user to retrieve information much more easily.

Both cataloging and metadata help get the right information to the right users -- provides access points.

I associate cataloging as identifying, describing, and classifying hard copy works (print/images/scuptures) according to an authority MARC & LOC). Assigning metadata is cataloging electronic works (print/images/video/audio), also according to authority (Dublin Core). c. Why is knowledge of cataloging important for ALL information professionals in the 21st century? Knowledge of cataloging is vital for information retreival. Identify TWO challenges in developing effective cataloging practices in contemporary times.

-Challenges: international standards controlled vocabulary vs. user/social tags authority control