This book looks at the pervasive naming of information that libraries undertake as a matter of course through representation of subjects. It examines the 19th century foundations, current standards, and canonical application of internationally used classification (Melvil Dewey and his decimal scheme) and subject headings (Charles Cutter and the Library of Congress Subject Headings). It will be of interest to librarians, information scholars, professionals, and researchers.
Is the quality of subject access significantly better with the online catalog than with the card catalogs? For many years, librarians have been discontent with the quality of subject access in card catalogs, and they hoped that the online catalog would offer significant improvements. This new book addresses this question from five different perspectives--research studies, opinion pieces from public and technical services librarians, special needs, the international perspective, and a comprehensive annotated bibliography of previous work. By exploring the progress of the online catalog to date and making suggestions for future research, the contributors to Subject Control in Online Catalogs provide important reading for public services and technical services librarians, as well as systems librarians. In one this single volume, you will find research studies promising new paths for systems developments, descriptions of international developments that have vital implications for American subject access, and the valuable perspectives of innovative public and technical services librarians.
A new edition of this best-selling textbook reintroduces the topic of library cataloging from a fresh, modern perspective. Not many books merit an eleventh edition, but this popular text does. Newly updated, Introduction to Cataloging and Classification provides an introduction to descriptive cataloging based on contemporary standards, explaining the basic tenets to readers without previous experience, as well as to those who merely want a better understanding of the process as it exists today. The text opens with the foundations of cataloging, then moves to specific details and subject matter such as Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD), the International Cataloging Principles (ICP), and RDA. Unlike other texts, the book doesn't presume a close familiarity with the MARC bibliographic or authorities formats; ALA's Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd Edition, revised (AACR2R); or the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). Subject access to library materials is covered in sufficient depth to make the reader comfortable with the principles and practices of subject cataloging and classification. In addition, the book introduces MARC, BIBFRAME, and other approaches used to communicate and display bibliographic data. Discussions of formatting, presentation, and administrative issues complete the book; questions useful for review and study appear at the end of each chapter.
This volume contains the proceedings of a special conference held in Florence, August 2009. The theoretical and methodological aspects of rethinking semantic access to information and knowledge are explored. Innovative projects deployed to cope with the challenges of the future are presented and discussed. This book offers a unique opportunity for librarians and other information professionals to get acquainted with the state of the art in subject indexing.
Collection of papers by one of the leading researchers in the redesign of catalogues and indexes to provide improved online subject access in libraries and information services.
Integrating the disparate disciplines of descriptive cataloging, subject cataloging, indexing, and classification, the book adopts a conceptual framework that views the process of organizing information as the use of a special language of description called a bibliographic language. Instant electronic access to digital information is the single most distinguishing attribute of the information age. The elaborate retrieval mechanisms that support such access are a product of technology. But technology is not enough. The effectiveness of a system for accessing information is a direct function of the intelligence put into organizing it. Just as the practical field of engineering has theoretical physics as its underlying base, the design of systems for organizing information rests on an intellectual foundation. The subject of this book is the systematized body of knowledge that constitutes this foundation. Integrating the disparate disciplines of descriptive cataloging, subject cataloging, indexing, and classification, the book adopts a conceptual framework that views the process of organizing information as the use of a special language of description called a bibliographic language. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is an analytic discussion of the intellectual foundation of information organization. The second part moves from generalities to particulars, presenting an overview of three bibliographic languages: work languages, document languages, and subject languages. It looks at these languages in terms of their vocabulary, semantics, and syntax. The book is written in an exceptionally clear style, at a level that makes it understandable to those outside the discipline of library and information science.
