CATALOGING DIGITAL DOCUMENTS (fwd)

["R. Russell Neuswanger" <rrne _at__ loc.gov>]

	Ein bisschen viel Englisch auf einmal, vielleicht, aber ich 
zweifle kaum, dass ihr Computer-Honchos es der Muehe wert findet werdet 
-- besonders diejenigen, die sich mit Katalogen oder Publikumsdienst 
befassen ...
	Nebenbei: ich bin jederzeit dankbar, wenn man mir gaengigeres 
Deutsch beibringt fuer Sachen, deren eigentliche Aequivalente mir noch 
unbekannt geblieben sind.


R. R. Neuswanger, Ph.D., NRA life      Edel sei der Mensch,
Balto-Fennic, Germanic, Romance        Hilfreich und gut
AcqBibSuppProj (ABSP), LC              Denn das allein
Washington, DC 20540-4120              Unterscheidet ihn ...
202.707.8747 (shared line)                  -- Goethe
rrne _at__ loc.gov or neuswang _at__ mail.loc.gov

No  teratobibliotic  entity   avows   *my*  emanations.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 18:38:18 GMT
From: GERALD R WAGER <WAGER _at__ MAIL.LOC.GOV>
To: Multiple recipients of list COOPCAT <COOPCAT _at__ IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU>
Subject: CATALOGING DIGITAL DOCUMENTS

This report is also being cross-posted to EMEDIA AND AUTOCAT.
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            Seminar on Cataloging Digital Documents
                  Sarah E. Thomas, Ph.D.
                  Director for Cataloging

     Over 75 North American librarians attended a seminar on
cataloging digital documents coordinated by the Library of Congress on
October 12-14.  The seminar, which focussed on the emerging area of
providing access to electronic texts and other media, commenced with
a field trip to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where
the University Library hosted the participants and organized tours of
five centers actively engaged in the creation and use of electronic
data and a session on the cataloging and organization of electronic
materials.  Included in the tour were the Electronic Text Center, the
Digital Image Center, the Social Science Data Center and Geographic
Information Systems Lab, the Music and Special Collections centers, and
the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.  Visitors saw
firsthand some of the equipment used for capturing and viewing the
data, and more importantly, heard center experts describe the
philosophy of their efforts and some of the challenges they face.
Among the most critical issues are standards for digitizing, access
issues, and methods of conversion.  The centers conducted a vigorous
outreach campaign to make faculty and students aware of the potential
of electronic texts, images, maps, and music for augmenting classroom
teaching and advancing understanding and knowledge.  Center staff
encouraged researchers to create their own interactive digital texts
and to assist in the conversion process.  An important element in the
provision of access to the digital materials was the TEI (Text Encoding
Initiative) header, a convention for imbedding codified information
about the digitized text in the document itself.  Edward Gaynor, Head
of Original Cataloging at the University of Virginia, facilitated the
visit to the electronic centers, which, for many participants, was the
highlight of the seminar.

     On the second day of the seminar, attendees convened at the
Library of Congress to hear a series of presentations by individuals
representing a broad spectrum of perspectives about how librarians and
others should provide access to digital materials.  Susan Hockey,
Director of the Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities, laid the
foundation for future discussion with an exposition of TEI and SGML
(Standard Generalized Markup Language).  The TEI and SGML are
metalanguages that offer a means of conveying information about the
texts in which they are contained.  Following Hockey was LC's Carl
Fleischhauer, who described some of the difficulties inherent in using
MARC bibliographic records as a basis for indexing materials in the
American Memory project.  Lynn Marko, University of Michigan Library,
explored the changing role of the cataloger in the electronic
environment, warning that if catalogers were not alert to the new
potential to perform the function of access to bibliographic materials
in innovative ways, they might find themselves as superfluous as did
members of the ice industry in New England following the introduction
of refrigeration.  Marko drew the attention of the audience to the
lessons in business professor James M. Utterback's book entitled
Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation, in which he examines the demise
of this enterprise in detail.

     In the evolving field of electronic cataloging, there is a clear
need for standards and guidelines.  Joan Swanekamp, Head of Original
and Special Materials Cataloging at Columbia University, discussed the
Guidelines for Bibliographic Description of Interactive Multimedia
(Chicago:ALA, 1994), recently published by the American Library
Association, and their utility for catalogers working with such
materials.  This extension of traditional cataloging is a candidate for
a new chapter in the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules,  or for
incorporation in revisions of either Chapter 9 (computer files) and
other appropriate chapters.  Also building on a tradition, this one of
the MARC format and AACR2 and LCSH, was a demonstration of Text Capture
and Electronic Conversion (TCEC), a program developed by Richard
Thaxter and David Williamson at the Library of Congress.  TCEC enables
a cataloger to retrieve electronic texts via the Internet, and using
the power of the bibliographic workstation and OS2, to cut, paste, and
quickly convert data to the MARC format.  These procedures vastly
reduce keystrokes, increase the accuracy of transcription, and
eliminate much of the clerical aspect in the creation of a
bibliographic record.

     Edward Gaynor next engaged the participants in an exercise of
cataloging an electronic image, with many present discovering to their
chagrin that the task was more difficult than they imagined.  Numerous
choices for main entry led some to question the value of adhering to
this practice for electronic materials.  Should a photograph of a
Palladian villa be entered under Palladio, the photographer, the
creator of the digital image, or the villa?  The problem confounded the
group and underscored the need for more documentation and training.
Closing out the afternoon was Diane Vizine-Goetz, Consulting Research
Scientist, OCLC, who described an OCLC project to catalog Internet
resources and the incidence of bibliographic records for electronic
resources in the Online Union Catalog.  David Bearman, Museum and
Archives Informatics, challenged the audience to think critically about
the application of traditional bibliographic control to digital
documents, strongly suggesting that new technologies bring with them
a means of obviating cataloging as it is practiced today.

     On Friday, October 14, following intensive small group
discussion, critical issues for an action plan emerged.  Because there
is yet no consensus concerning how best to provide access to electronic
materials, participants called for increased communication and
analysis, including an email network, a videoconference, white papers
on specific topics, and possible follow-up ALCTS (Association of
Library Collections and Technical Services) regional institutes.
Another recommendation called for the mapping of SGML to MARC and vice
versa.  With changing modes of publication and distribution, there is
a need to explore whether cataloging these items using MARC and
traditional bibliographic description is sufficient or whether there
are other methods of intellectual access that will be essential.  One
certainty is that it is necessary to draw colleagues in public service
and collection development areas into the discussion.  OCLC, which
helped sponsor the seminar, is embarking on a pilot to catalog Internet
resources.  Funded by the Department of Education, OCLC seeks
collaborators to participate in the project, which will help provide
access to electronic resources while examining issues of maintenance
and utility.  Many libraries, including the Library of Congress,
expressed interest in cooperating in this endeavor.  The seminar
participants benefitted from the exposure to many new ideas and
perspectives, as well as developed a network of individuals and
institutions with which they share a common interest that will endure
as they strive to prepare themselves for organizing digital resources.

     The Seminar on Cataloging Digital Documents is one in a series
of meetings the Library of Congress is sponsoring on aspects of the
digital library.  The Cataloging Directorate will make the proceedings
available through MARVEL and over the Web (World Wide Web) in December.