OLA Quarterly

Industrializing the Work Flow: New Trends in Technical Services

In This Issue

Beyond MARC: New Trends for the Library of the Future

The Craft of Local Practice: How Catalogers are Gaining Efficiency but Losing Control

Authority Control is Alive and … Well?

Handcrafted or Mass Produced: What are You Willing to Pay and What is it Worth?

I am Cataloger—Hear Me Roar

Dressing the Part …

Training—the Missing Step in the Industrialization of Technical Services OLAQSpring  Vol • No " OLA Quarterly Oregon Library Association Spring 2003 http://www.olaweb.org Vol 9 • No 1 ISSN 1093-7374

The OLA Quarterly is an Industrializing the Work Flow: official publication of the Oregon Library Association. New Trends in Technical Services Please refer questions and input regarding the Quarterly to: Table of Contents

Fred R. Reenstjerna  OLA Publications Chair Beyond MARC: Douglas County Library New Trends for the Library of the Future Bessie Mayes 1409 NE Diamond Lake Blvd. Roseburg, OR 97470 6 phone 541-440-6007 The Craft of Local Practice: fax 541-440-4317 How Catalogers are Gaining Efficiency but Losing Control [email protected] Lloyd Jansen

Graphic Production: Tobias Weiss Design Authority Control is Alive and … Well? 7345 SW Deerhaven Drive Richard V. Jackson Corvallis, OR 97333 " phone 541-738-1897 Handcrafted or Mass Produced: fax 541-738-1897 What are You Willing to Pay and What is it Worth? [email protected] Gary Houk and Alane Wilson "7 I am Cataloger—Hear Me Roar Mary T. Kalnin  Dressing the Part … Upcoming Nelia C. Wurangian-Caan Issues 8 Training—the Missing Step in the Industrialization of Technical Services Summer 2003 Deborah Fritz OLA President-elect’s Issue: Diversity in the Profession 9 Fall 2003 An Exchange on: Life with the USA PATRIOT Act Energizing Young Cohn Swales, Robert Truman, Ronnie Lee Budge, Adult Services Fred Reenstjerna, and Anna Grzeszkiewicz Editorial

elcome to Oregon, military library, cataloging “the Arizona, to New York, implores us not now let me figure essence of volumetric technology … to give up on standards in our haste to “W out a way to put you (as in) one submarine looking at give the “average Joe/Jane” what s/he to good use!” That’s pretty much how another submarine hiding behind an wants. And my favorite Canadian Fred Reenstjerna greeted me at last iceberg.” Let me welcome Richard colleague, Trina Grover, insists the craft year’s Oregon/Washington Library Jackson, who once challenged me to of cataloging can live in harmony with Association Conference. I think that articulate the value of PromptCat to a the technological tools that ease the was because, after the initial introduc- library school class and is now the process. Daniel CannCasciato, a NACO tions, Fred and I discovered that we Catalog Librarian/Database Manager trainer, insists we really belong in both shared a passion for libraries as at the prestigious Huntington Library. “public” or “patron,” rather than well as a determination that technical Then there is Lloyd Jansen who writes “technical” services. Two librarians I services managers use their wealth of eloquently about his struggle to carry met in my own seminars have unique human resources in the most cost- on his mentor’s high cataloging perspectives about technical services effective manner. From our shared standards while coping within current from their managerial point of view. history on the front lines of a catalog- economic realities. Sharon Walbridge sees cataloging as a ing unit, as filtered through our How could we not include a hybrid activity—“part productivity and different employment perspectives, we spokesperson from a bibliographic part intellectual process,” Felicia Uhden think we have put together a remark- utility in this theme issue? Gary Houk believes there could be something able release for the Spring 2003 issue. and Alane Wilson, whom I know more. The woman who once told me All of the authors are people with from her years as OCLC’s library she considered the MARC record the whom I’ve had personal contact in consultant in the northwest, provides “finest creation of human beings” takes my professional activities. Each of an authoritative look at its past and us into the future with an OPAC that them made such a positive impres- future plans. Mary Kalnin shares how blends the “art” with the “science,” and sion on me that I could hardly wait to she takes advantage of OCLC’s more maybe even a bit of “magic.” Finally, challenge them to share their views sophisticated interfaces at the Univer- Oregon’s own outspoken public about the changing nature of the sity of Washington. Since I know librarian, Fred Reenstjerna, insists, cataloging process. In fact, out of the Mary as the listowner of LIBSUP-L, an “There’s no magic in the drinking water twenty-three prospective contributors electronic discussion list for library in Dublin, Ohio, that turns people into I contacted last August, we are support staff, I would expect no less Super Librarians.” Fred’s lively com- overjoyed with thirteen completed from this early-adopter of new mentary asks why managers have articles. I view it as a remarkable technology. I know Deborah Fritz as turned technical services “into a pre- testament to the ability of busy an excellent cataloging instructor industrial cottage industry” rather than people to get the job done! traveling throughout the U.S. as well Eli Whitney’s “American factory sys- One of the busiest people I know as a small businesswoman who has tem.” You won’t want to miss any of it! is Nelia Wurangian-Caan. At many invented new employment opportuni- We hope you will enjoy these library events she is the center of ties for librarians. She begs us not to stimulating essays, in print and on the organizational action—yet her forget the training component in our Web, at http://www.olaweb.org/ thought-provoking essay shows she rush to embrace technology and quarterly has time to imagine a public catalog increase productivity. that can “walk or talk or sing.” I am As a bonus, the electronic version proud to introduce Bessie Mayes, of this issue of OLAQ will present six —Joy A. Wanden who shared her vision of creating a additional articles that simply would not Library Analyst conference for library paraprofession- fit within the limitations of this print OCLC Western Service Center als in San Diego back in the early journal. “Maggie” Horn, whose career I wandenj@oclc.org 1990s and is now, in her role in a have followed from California, to Guest Editor OLAQ 1 Beyond MARC: New Trends for the Library of the Future

by Bessie Mayes Introduction from HGML and SGML, and is better suited Senior Cataloger It is vitally important that the library to describe the attributes of the technologi- and Map Specialist profession keep pace with new technolo- cal offerings of the private sector, colleges, gies being developed for the public by hospitals, and institutions. XML is exten- Technical Research Library industries across the world. The library has sible, interoperable with other ML lan- Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego to adapt to changing trends and life-style guages, and its use has opened the collec- issues. Some changes may necessitate a tions of libraries across the world for [email protected] different approach to the traditional roles viewing, unlike a unique program or stand- and methods of operation. Most libraries alone application could. are meeting a host of challenges presented by industries and new technologies, and X-MARCs the Spot are incorporating new ideas into the My attention was first drawn to XML when I profession to better serve their clients. The began to read e-mails on AUTOCAT discuss- influence of recent industrial changes has ing the concept of using XML languages to resulted in some libraries experiencing replace the traditional MARC language. XML change in their methods of operating. advocates argued for the new language and For example, some functions of the opportunity it provided to be more technical services are being outsourced to descriptive with the emerging technology private businesses. Some libraries find and resources. Those opposed to XML outsourcing easier and more cost effective proposed that traditional MARC could be than hiring personnel to perform these modified to accommodate the ever-changing traditionally held functions. Another data formats or electronic resources. MARC profound change that has already affected was also considered to have a proven track how libraries operate as service providers record, whereas no one knew if XML would is the change in how they present and work well with established rules and describe content. MARC, once the tradi- procedures that had been a part of library tional language of choice for libraries in tradition for some time. After much research describing format and content, is now on XML, my conclusion is that both sides being questioned as to its relevance. As a are correct. library-specific language, it lacked interoperability with other more modern And the winner is … languages used on the Internet such as While attending the American Library Cata- HTML, SGML, and XML. MARC’s inability loging and Metadata Institute conference in to be offered as an industry-wide standard Washington DC, in November 2002, one of was cause for concern among vendors that the presenters commented that “Dublin Core historically provided service to libraries. is so yesterday news.“ Dublin Core was Unlike MARC, however, XML is derived OCLC’s first attempt at migration from MARC to an extensible markup language. However, with formal standardization of Dublin Core- XML, OCLC had taken the next step in accommodating a broader industry in a rapidly expanding market in format language MARC once the traditional on the Web. OCLC developed an XML language of choice for libraries schema that preserved many MARC elements, but made the language extensible. Users in describing format and content could retain the traditional standards of 2 is now being questioned as to MARC or move on to the DC-XML for the more advanced digital library or special its relevance library integrated needs. Vol  No • SPRING %&&'

This was confirmed in communications these attributes, the only language that with Richard Greene, Metadata Director for could currently be utilized for this type of OCLC. He stated that DC-XML is available new technology would have to be exten- for use by libraries that need it now for sible. It would be difficult at best for their special collections (movie, museum, traditional MARC language to be utilized medical, etc.). Libraries can migrate from in providing a basic description of this MARC to DC-XML via portals. But libraries device. Part of the structure itself is a primarily using XML schemas cannot be computer with specialized plug-ins, migrated to MARC. Round-tripability does accompanied by a highly technical not exist between the two because of reflective device. This illustrates the MARC’s non-extensible structure. limitation of traditional MARC, which is good when providing descriptive content The Volumetric/DC-XML/SMIL Theory for books, videos, sound recordings, etc. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center But DC-XML provides the extensible tags San Diego (SSC San Diego) is on the for the objects themselves. leading edge of technological advances. I In theory, DC-XML could be linked in provide original descriptive cataloging for application with SMIL (Synchronized all formats and reports produced by the Multimedia Integration Language 2.0). SMIL Center and other agencies of the federal incorporates audio and textual content government. The Center is involved in data. Viewing objects directly from a 360- developing state-of-the-art technologies. degree angle, like the human pelvis, could An example is volumetric technology. take on a totally new meaning. The only Volumetric technology allows a total view of an object. All sides of a volumetric projected object can be seen with the naked eye, as opposed to the 2-D or 3-D projected image that requires special glasses or eye wear to view. As a Cata- loger with a self-described title of De- scriptive Data Format Specialist, my dilemma at times is finding subject Ebsco ad to go here headings for new technology in LC Subject Headings or science thesauri resources. Consequently, when this new technology is finally introduced into the public sector, which format and catalog- ing language will be better suited to describe these new phenomena? Since DC-XML can link with a few other Internet-based languages, I won- dered what data structure could capture the essence of volumetric technology. Again, the volumetric concept allows for 360-degree viewing of an object. That object could be a human pelvis, an airplane on the monitor of an Air Traffic Controller, one submarine looking at 3 another submarine hiding behind an iceberg, or a molecule formation. Given OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

requirement for other extensible languages Descriptive Data Format Specialists. I am to be used with SMIL is that the “textual confident the library profession will content include mark-up tags for the continue to evolve within its niche, by desired elements and that those elements utilizing new industry standards and include unique identifiers that can be emerging technology. referenced in the SMIL files.” DC-XML in theory could work with SMIL with regard References to this technology in the future, or even David Berger, Principal Engineer: Motorola now with electronics books and sound Inc. San Diego, CA recordings at music libraries. Currently, the technology to view the Rich Greene. Senior Consulting Database volumetric objects only allows for a height Specialist. OCLC Inc., Dublin Ohio. of up to 36 inches a low of 12 inches under a dome. Be assured that the capabil- Lasher, M., Soltan, P., Dahlke, W., ity for this technology to expand to the Acantilado N., McDonald, M., 1996. Laser nearest virtual reality 360-degree “interac- Projected 3-D Volumetric Displays. SPIE tive-viewable theatre” near you is fast v.2650, Projection Displays II. Space and approaching. Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego.

Conclusion Michael C. Parmenter, Network Systems The library profession has historically Engineer: Space and Naval Warfare Systems adapted to shifts in technology and Center, San Diego. worldwide industries. The entire profession has met many challenges with great Tennant, M., MARC Must Die, http:// courage and determination to survive as a www.libraryjournal.com/ unit. Within the last decade, however, new challenges such as downsizing, D-Lib Forum and D-Lib Magazine: http:// outsourcing, and cost cutting measures by www.dlib.org/ federal, state, and local governments have resulted in some libraries closing their SDSC Data Intensive Computing (DICE): doors forever. Still, some advances allow http://www.sdsc.edu/DICE/>Building the profession to change and re-invent digital libraries. itself as specialized providers of informa- tion. For Reference Librarians, the URL replaced the encyclopedia and a host of other reference aides. For Technical Services, the new methods of describing content and text may now include new language structure. XML, like MARC, can become just as familiar as MARC. Tech- niques on Connexion™ such as constant data and text stream could help in initial use of DC-XML. XML utilizes start and end tags (elements) and attributes (fixed or variable in MARC). Theoretically, creating macro text streams in Connexion for XML 4 tags and attributes could increase effi- ciency. The growing popularity of XML will present more challenges for future The Craft of Local Practice: How Catalogers are Gaining Efficiency but Losing Control

by Lloyd Jansen Introduction wonder that one is hard pressed to find two Head Cataloger, Ever since the Library of Congress (LC) catalogers who would catalog the same item Stockton-San Joaquin County began distributing catalog cards to libraries in in exactly the same way. This is because all Public Library the early 20th century, catalogers have found the standards in the world are no match for Stockton, CA new ways to decrease redundancy and the vagaries that my cataloging professor in improve efficiency. Automation in the form library school called “cataloger taste and of time saving devices such as bibliographic judgement.” It is this taste and judgement, utilities, outsourcing with third-party vendors, coupled with a solid foundation in the rules and sophisticated editing capabilities in and standards, that moves cataloging from Integrated Library Systems have moved being merely a mechanical exercise and into cataloging light years beyond the days of the realm of a craft. Rules and standards can filing cards written meticulously in “library light the way for the cataloger, but strict hand.” The Anglo-American Cataloging Rules adherence to these standards does not (AACR2) and LC’s companion rule interpreta- necessarily result in a catalog record that is tions, LC subject headings, the development helpful to the catalog user. Only the skilled of the MARC format, continual revision of the imposition of judgement by a trained Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress cataloger can transform a motley collection classification schemes, the growth of the of individual records into a coherent, Program for Cooperative Cataloging, and the cohesive work more valuable to library development of Z39.50 are all intended to customers and staff than most purchased make it easier for libraries to share catalog- reference books and databases. ing, and, in theory, to catalog things more or At the Stockton-San Joaquin County less the same way. But with the increased Public Library in California, we have a productivity also comes a loss of autonomy. tradition of local practices for copy catalog- While these advances have allowed even the ing that have evolved over the years, and smallest libraries to boast quality catalogs, the that go well beyond just accepting copy more catalogers rely on centralized catalog- found on OCLC. These practices allow us ing and vendor outsourcing, the less control to craft our catalog to be of the most use to they wield over their local databases. our customers. Yet, as is the case with Yet with so many rules, interpretations, many libraries, a myriad of factors all standards, and policies to monitor it is little conspire against the continuation of these practices and threaten to squeeze the craft out of our catalog in the name of effi- ciency. This paper will look at some of these factors, including loss of staff, a new ILS system, non-English and non-book While these advances have materials, consortium partners, and author- allowed even the smallest ity control, as we attempt to maintain the old craft while maintaining productivity. libraries to boast quality catalogs the more catalogers Loss of Staff Much of a catalog’s effectiveness depends on rely on centralized cataloging the skill and experience of those building it. and vendor outsourcing the 1999 saw the retirement of our Head Cata- loger, a Margaret Mann Citation recipient less control they wield over who once sat on the Joint their local databases Steering Committee for AACR2, 5 was active in the Association for Library Collections and OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Technical Services (ALCTS), and was an jackets and book reviews in the OPAC, it early advocate for what became the Program was only later that we discovered shortcom- for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC). During ings of how the catalog works—elements her seventeen-year tenure she crafted many that fly in the face of fundamental cataloging of our local practices, and upon her retire- principles. For instance, one vendor’s OPAC ment this legacy was passed down to me. is completely driven by keyword out of the One of my biggest challenges is moving box. If no local modifications are made forward with efforts to streamline our upon installation, keyword searches are cataloging work while staying true to the performed with no obvious option to high standards that my mentor instilled in perform an authority search. Even if the user me. We not only lost her experience and chooses the author, title, or subject search knowledge when she retired, but also her buttons, the search performed is a keyword productivity. While I received the title of search within those fields. Just try doing a Head Cataloger, we lost a cataloger when subject search for “baseball” in this environ- her position was not filled. ment and you’ll quickly see how difficult it is In late-2002 we suffered another major to find something useful without the aid of loss with the retirement of one of our three controlled subject headings to help users Cataloging Library Assistants. Most of her narrow down their search. With this kind of thirty-one years of experience in the library catalog the years of diligent work that system was spent in Cataloging, and not catalogers put into building authority control only was she highly trained in cataloging and useful cross-references is tossed out rules and standards, but with formal with the bath water. education and training as a musician she More troubles lie in wait for those who cataloged all of our music materials. Partly manage to navigate their way to authority as a result of a severe budget crisis, it was searching in this particular OPAC. To my decided not to fill her position. Even if we shock, no link is made between the MARC could hire someone, it takes more than just 100 and 240 fields when you have a uniform a warm body to replace the kind of skill, title main entry. If you search for the experience, and institutional memory she uniform title for Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, developed over the past three decades. the only hits you retrieve in this particular catalog are cases when that work in entered Integrated Library Systems: as a 700 name-title added entry. If there is a With Us or Against Us? recording that has that work entered as the In 2002 my library selected a new Integrated main entry (i.e., 100/240 combination) you Library System (ILS). As we got deeper into do not retrieve that record as one of the hits the process, it became clear that many ILS under the uniform title search. Yet, AACR2 vendors are more concerned with luring customers with sexy bells and whistles than with providing catalogs built solidly upon principles. In our case, it was difficult to separate the promises made by the vendors With this kind of catalog the from the reality of what their products really can do. Attempts at onsite visits and confer- years of diligent work that ence calls with other libraries were only catalogers put into building moderately helpful since few existing customers have upgraded to the latest authority control and useful 6 versions of software that we were being cross3references is tossed out peddled. While we were being razzle- dazzled with alluring features such as dust with the bath water Vol  No • SPRING %&&'

rule 25.1 says that one of the purposes of a Another pressure that challenges the uniform title is “for bringing together all craft we put into our cataloging is the catalogue entries for a work when various explosion of non-print media. For many manifestations (e.g., editions, translations) of years we only had VHS videotapes and it have appeared under various titles.” So, audiocassettes to reckon with. Now we have this fundamental cataloging principle is compact discs, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and Web- undermined by deficiencies in the structure based subscription databases to contend of the OPAC. Examples such as this make it with. Popular music compact discs are now hard to believe vendors who promise that further complicated by the introduction of their products are fully compatible with the “edited” and “explicit” versions of titles, both MARC record and cataloging standards. In of which we purchase, and require separate the case of this particular vendor, a represen- records. As non-print materials receive a tative assured me that the 100/240 link higher proportion of our materials budget, it would be functional in a future version of means more attention must be devoted to the software. the more complex and time-consuming cataloging of these formats. Non-English and New Formats Our library actively collects materials in Catalog Partners Spanish, Vietnamese, Cambodian/Khmer, In 1998 our library entered into an arrange- Laotian, Hmong, Chinese, Tagalog, and ment with a small public library in the Thai. Unfortunately, our catalogers are all region. That library was not yet automated, English-only speakers, making it a challenge but was under pressure to do so in order to to provide quality access to these materials. participate in our regional consortium’s Even if we had a Khmer, Laotian, and/or shared Z39.50 catalog. Rather than acquire Thai speaker on staff, our current ILS and maintain a separate system on their cannot accommodate those non-Roman own, it made financial and logistical sense scripts. As a result, titles in these languages for them to contract with our library to go into our collection uncataloged. share our ILS and receive training and The cataloging for our Spanish, Chi- technical support from us. nese, and Vietnamese materials is con- All the staff at this small system wear tracted out to a third party. While this many hats, with no one trained or working service is a godsend in giving us the ability exclusively as a cataloger. Catalog cards to load quality records into the database for were basically accepted as is from OCLC these materials, and despite careful atten- and their primary book vendor. With such tion to detail in our written guidelines, there limited resources, it was immediately clear are inevitably inconsistencies with our our that it would be impractical to expect them own in-house cataloging that arise, both in to conform to the same local cataloging description and in classification and subject practices that we developed. We gave their analysis. We do some spot-checking of staff some rudimentary training in copy records to make sure our guidelines are cataloging and some of our local practices, being followed, but close examination of all with an emphasis in basic authority control, records would defeat the purpose for but with little time or resources on their end contracting out this cataloging. If we have to do much more than dump records into the time and skill to look at the records that our shared database we knew we would see closely, why not just do the cataloging a new era of inconsistencies in our catalog ourselves and save the money? While we as a result of this arrangement. While their trust the cataloging is done well, it does not customers now have the benefits of auto- 7 necessarily dovetail consistently with our mated circulation and an OPAC, flipping the own in-house cataloging. switch on the long anticipated sharing of OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

materials through the ILS’s request system appear on videos and sound recordings. has yet to take place. Our customers can While there are services that can automati- see the other libraries holding in our OPAC, cally deliver and update headings in a but still must place an ILL request for those catalog, we are hesitant to use such a materials. More often, the presence of these service for fear of losing countless cross- bibliographic records and holdings in our references that we have added locally to catalog is a source of confusion and/or authority records over the years. These frustration. While only one of countless cross-references are another added value to examples in the trend of new consortial our customers that make the catalog easier arrangements between libraries, our case to use for our customers; a value that could has resulted in a catalog less friendly, and be lost if we outsourced this critical aspect as a result less useful, to our customers. of our cataloging workflow.

Authority Control Conclusion Authority control has been a top priority for I do not intend this paper to merely be a our database since it was first automated in forum in which to complain about the woes our library in 1990. We perform authority and troubles we Catalogers face. I merely control for virtually every heading on every hope to illustrate how cooperative catalog- record we download into our catalog, ing efforts, third party cataloging services, checking for and exporting new and revised and automated methods to make cataloging headings from OCLC or the LC Authority more efficient do not by themselves neces- File. This work is simply folded into our sarily lead to a better catalog for our users. A other cataloging work, but can still take a key to the usefulness and effectiveness of a considerable amount of time, especially catalog is in applying our cataloging tools considering the number of names that can and standards consistently across the database, while adding value to our catalogs locally to meet the specific needs of each catalog’s users. That application, which I consider a major aspect of the “craft” of our profession, is what turns the catalog from a potential jumble of individual bibliographic records into a wholly understandable, predictable, and useful tool. Automation alone cannot produce a catalog that can be logically understood and be of maximum utility to all customers. It takes the skill and expertise of local staff to take the building blocks automation and cooperative efforts provide to craft a catalog that provides the greatest and most comprehensive access to our collections for our customers.

References Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd ed., 2002 rev. American Library Associa- tion, Chicago. 8 Authority Control is Alive and … Well?

eports of the demise of authority need for authority control, has begun to do by Richard V. Jackson control have been greatly exagger- much both to improve its benefits and to Catalog Librarian/Database Rated. Although such features as reduce its costs. In more and more catalogs, Manager keyword searching, truncation, and the benefits of authority control are being Huntington Library Boolean coordination have greatly en- extended to users—not only the “invisible” Art Collections and hanced the possibilities for retrieval, they benefit of having consistent headings, but Botanical Gardens have not eliminated the need for authority also the very visible use of references, San Marino, CA control. In fact, as our databases have complex reference notes, and scope notes grown, merged in consortia, and expanded to aid and enhance the searching process. [email protected] their scope, the need for authority control At the same time, more sophisticated has never been greater. automated authority control systems, and The primary functions of authority better services from authority control control are well known: it assures that all vendors, are bringing the costs of authority access points are consistent, and it helps control down to within the reach of even guide searchers to the correct heading by small libraries. means of references from other terms one In the past, a cataloger who encoun- might search under (Taylor, 1984). An tered a newly authorized heading that additional function has become more differed from the library’s existing headings prominent in recent years: that of facilitat- may have been reluctant to adopt the ing the automatic clean up and mainte- established form, because the time and nance of headings in a database. It is this resources needed to update the existing function that concerns us here. records were not available. Likewise, when Arguments against authority control are an authorized heading was updated, older often based not so much on its inefficacy, records might be left unchanged, resulting but on its infeasibility, that is, that the costs in a split catalog and confusion for users. of authority control outweigh its potential This need no longer be the case. benefits. Thus it is encouraging that com- Authority control systems, using the same puter technology, while not eliminating the syndetic structure that guides searchers to valid headings, can also automatically map headings from invalid or earlier forms to the correct ones. For example, recently some 600 subject headings beginning with “Afro-American” were changed to forms In more and more catalogs beginning “African American.” At the time, my library had just implemented an in- the benefits of authority house automated authority control module, control are being extended to and what would have been a tedious and time-consuming project was performed users—not only the “invisible” correctly and almost effortlessly overnight. benefit of having consistent The use of authority records to correct and maintain headings is not a new idea— headings but also the very Michael Gorman spoke of it in 1979 at visible use of references complex institutes held by the Library and Informa- tion Technology Association (Gorman, reference notes and scope 1982)—but in recent years it has grown notes to aid and enhance the into a widely used and indeed essential part of database 9 searching process maintenance. Automated OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

authority control systems can be used to along with a file of all the authority clean up an existing database, provide records to which bibliographic headings ongoing authority control for current were linked. Vendors can also keep track cataloging, and keep the entire database of which authority records a library already synchronized with changes in headings. has, so that future work will result in only Very often, this involves the use of new authorities being sent. The entire outside vendors. At first, it might seem process can be made routine, and is quick surprising that such a specialized area as and inexpensive enough that many librar- authority control would be amenable to ies have eliminated authority checking outsourcing. However, one must distin- during cataloging. It would seem that guish here between authority work and outsourcing authority control is an ideal authority control. The former involves solution to an otherwise expensive and determining the forms of new headings time-consuming procedure. and establishing them according to the Or is it? How effective is the service rules. The latter refers to maintaining provided by vendors? The surprising bibliographic headings in accordance with answer is that it seems no one really established forms (Taylor, 1984). Authority knows. Certainly, there have been many work is an intellectual endeavor requiring reports of experiences with vendor- research and a high level of expertise; provided authority control, and generally authority control can often be achieved these have indicated a successful and through automated means. satisfying result. (See for example Lam, Vendors who provide authority 2001; Tsui and Hinders, 1998; Johns, 1997; control services (Library Technologies, Bailey and Deemer, 1997.) Vendors are Inc., Blackwell North America, and OCLC sometimes reported as having been able to to name a few) can perform quickly and link over 95 percent of the headings in a relatively inexpensively work that many database to an authority record. However, I libraries would be unable to do at all in was unable to find a single report indicat- house. This is particularly true for libraries ing how many of the headings were that have not practiced authority control correctly authorized. The assumption seems in the past, have not retrospectively to be that once a bibliographic heading is maintained headings, or have outsourced either matched to an authorized heading, a large retrospective conversion project. or flipped to one via a “see” reference, it is Local systems are not designed to autho- considered to be correct. rize en masse the headings in a large My own experience leads me to bibliographic file; authority records must believe this is often not the case. I recall still be individually identified and loaded being surprised to see the heading Kool G into the local system. Authority control Rap (Musician) as a main entry for a legal vendors, however, can run vast numbers report from 1903. The name in the title of bibliographic records against the entire statement was Nathaniel Wilson, which, it national authority file, linking headings turned out, is the singer’s real name, and and flipping those that match “see” naturally appears as a “see” reference in references to the authorized form. They his authority record. Without dates to may employ special matching algorithms differentiate the headings, and without a to link headings that would otherwise be human checker to spot the error, our missed because of minor errors or differ- authority control vendor had automatically ences. The corrected bibliographic flipped the heading. I changed it back to 10 records can be returned to the library in a Wilson, Nathaniel. However, after I had short time (minutes to weeks, depending loaded the authority records provided to on the number of records) for reloading, us by the vendor, our own in-house Vol  No • SPRING %&&'

authority control system performed the Does this really matter? Does the same procedure, and the rap singer was occasional wrong heading make that back. At this point, our principal rare much difference? I strongly believe that it book cataloger did the necessary research does. First, even if the percentage of and established Wilson, Nathaniel, 1836 errors is tiny, when there are millions of to 1922 through NACO. headings, that is still a lot of errors. Stories like this have been around. The Furthermore, these are errors that directly most famous example is the mapping of affect a record’s retrievability, without Madonna (the singer) to Mary, Blessed which nothing else matters. Second, there Virgin, Saint (DeCandido, 1990). Unfortu- is no systematic way to find these errors. nately, most such errors are not nearly so Most can be found only by chance, and egregious and easy to spot, but if you few are as obvious as Kool G Rap. Third, search through OCLC or RLIN long a record with an incorrect heading may enough, you will find some very interest- be uploaded to a bibliographic utility, ing things. For example, Edgar Powell, an where other libraries may copy catalog English historian born in 1853, also appar- from it until the error begins to acquire a ently performed in The King and I in the kind of truth. 1960s. Cartwright, David W., 1939– Vendors certainly do not carry all the somehow managed to write Natural history blame. Automated authority control in of western wild animals … in 1875. local systems operates on the same Subject headings are not immune. principles and will create the same errors Under China painters you will find, as if not carefully monitored. Authority expected, works on the painting of porce- control is subtle and complex, and unso- lain plates. However, you will also find works on painters who live in China. (Automated systems have apparently confused the perfectly valid heading Painters-China with the “see” reference Painters, China, and flipped the heading inappropriately.) Oddly, New York (Colony) appears in many subject headings, al- though it is only valid as a name; many of Blackwell 1/4 page ad to go here these are followed by corporate bodies (e.g., New York (Colony) Public Library) that did not exist until after New York became a state. Errors like this are explain- able as a by-product of automated author- ity control; it is unlikely that a human cataloger would have made such mistakes. How many headings are linked in error by automated systems? That is difficult to say. Much certainly depends on the sophistication of the system or vendor used, the nature of the collection, and the library’s past cataloging practices. Clearly the vast majority of headings are being correctly authorized. But it is also clear that 11 some damage is being done to the integrity of our bibliographic files. OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

phisticated matching algorithms have must own the process and demand more of certainly caused many errors. But the real both our systems and our vendors. problem lies in the assumption that any bibliographic heading that matches a “see” References reference can be positively identified with Bailey S. and Deemer S., 1997. Authority the heading pointed to by that reference. control: outsourcing retrospective and This assumption is often incorrect, particu- ongoing processing at the Emory University larly with common names that are undiffer- Libraries. In Wilson K. and Colver M. entiated by dates. (eds.), 1997. Outsourcing Library Technical Most libraries that contract with a Services Operations: Practices in Academic, vendor for authority control want to see as Public and Special Libraries: 56–67. many of their headings authorized as American Library Association, Chicago. possible. As long as quantity instead of quality remains the more important DeCandido G.,1990. What’s authority criterion by which vendors are evaluated, control? or, The tale of the Virgin vs. the and as long as no one is really checking material girl. Library Journal, October 1, on the results, competitive pressures will 1990: 45. lead vendors to try to link as many head- ings as possible, increasing the likelihood Gorman M., 1982. Authority control in the of inaccurate matching. There are still prospective catalog. In Ghikas M. (ed.), many names for which no authority 1982. Authority Control: the Key to records exist, and these will sometimes be Tomorrow’s Catalog: 166–180. Oryx Press, linked to someone else who happens to Phoenix. have a similar name. Many libraries opt for vendor-supplied Johns C., 1997. Authority control and authority control because the cost can be record enrichment outsourcing at the considerably less than that of doing it University of California, Santa Barbara. In locally, although many administrators fail Wilson K. and Colver M. (eds.), 1997. to consider the additional costs of main- Outsourcing Library Technical Services taining the system, and monitoring and Operations: Practices in Academic, Public cleaning up the results. Unfortunately, the and Special Libraries: 28–37. American inadequacies of local systems also leave Library Association, Chicago. many libraries with no choice but to outsource authority control or do without. Lam V., 2001. Outsourcing authority Better systems would allow more libraries control: experience of the University of to perform authority control in house. Saskatchewan Libraries. Cataloging & Authority control remains essential in Classification Quarterly 32(4): 53–69. meeting the objectives of a catalog. It is what sets our catalogs apart from almost Taylor A., 1984. Authority files in online every other kind of information retrieval catalogs: an investigation of their value. system (need I mention the Web?), and as Cataloging & Classification Quarterly such we should embrace it. The more than 4(3): 1–17. 6 million authority records created by the Library of Congress and the cooperative Tsui S. and Hinders C., 1998. Cost-effective- programs represent an immense intellec- ness and benefits of outsourcing authority tual achievement and a treasure in which control. Cataloging & Classifica- 12 we all have a share. Full authority control tion Quarterly 26(4): 43–61. is at last becoming achievable. Automated systems are a necessary part of this, but we Handcrafted or Mass Produced: What are You Willing to Pay and is it Worth it?

by Gary Houk he Industrial Revolution gets bad Mechanical inventions changed how textiles were made, and how library Vice President press. The phrase tends to conjure Cataloging and Metadata Services Tup images of fields and teams of catalog cards were produced. OCLC Online Computer Library oxen giving way to factories belching In the world of libraries, the mechaniza- Center, Inc. smoke into the once clear rural skies. tion of the production of a library catalog [email protected] Dehumanized workers toiling at boring, was revolutionary, changing fundamentally repetitive tasks while they dream of the the nature of the catalog. The first library and by bucolic, agrarian past. catalog goes back to the Great Library of Alane Wilson So, the theme of this issue of OLAQ Alexandria. The Alexandrians from [email protected] must be considered somewhat provoca- Callimachus onwards tried to keep track of tive. For the artisans and craftspeople what the Library owned by means of a known as catalogers Industrializing the subject catalog. In this they followed Work Flow: New Trends in Technical Aristotle’s divisions of knowledge. The first Services is likely to suggest that a new recorded Librarian was Zenodotus of trend in technical services is an increasing Ephesus, holding that post from the end of dependence on bland bibliographic Ptolemy I’s reign until 245 B.C.E. His succes- records, not well made, received from sor Callimachus of Cyrene was perhaps some cataloging factory thousands of miles Alexandria’s most famous librarian, creating away. And you can have those records in for the first time a subject catalog in 120,000 any color as long as it’s black. scrolls of the Library’s holdings, called the As a long-time staff member of what Pinakes or Tables (Bevan, 1968). And for to some is a big cataloging factory, I’d like about 2,000 years, things pretty much stayed to suggest that industrializing workflows in the same. A librarian would record by hand technical services would bring many the information about items in a library’s benefits, just as the first and second collection creating, in essence, an inventory Industrial Revolutions did. Without the list. The first Revolution in Cataloging Industrial Revolutions, for example, this allowed the hand crafted catalog to give way journal might not exist, OCLC definitely to the typewritten one, in 1901 when the wouldn’t exist, and there’s a very good Library of Congress began its card program chance that the public library wouldn’t thus extending, multiplying and leveraging either. Before mechanization, factories— the work of the individual cataloger, and even libraries—were cottage industries. ushering in the era of shared cataloging. Work processes were generally carried on The second Revolution in Cataloging by means of hand labor and simple tools. came a relatively short time later but it was another giant leap forward. With the birth of the Ohio College Library Center’s online- shared cataloging service in 1971, librarianship was poised to reach another level of bibliographic efficiency. Without the Industrial In 1965, when Fred Kilgour proposed an Revolutions for example this online-shared cataloging system, you must appreciate the fact that computerized library journal might not exist OCLC systems did not exist, networked computers definitely wouldn’t exist would not exist until 1972, and there was no agreed-upon standard for communicating and there’s a very good bibliographic data. There were chance that the public library no cathode ray tube terminals 13 with lower-case characters wouldn’t either and there were no retrieval OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

systems that could retrieve single entries from an online catalog. It is no exaggeration to say that the OCLC Online Union Catalog and Shared Automation in cataloging in Cataloging System pioneered the computer revolution in libraries. It enabled libraries particular still is and has been to rapidly and efficiently catalog books and used as a tool to get old tasks print customized catalog cards. The database was not only an electronic card accomplished more productively catalog; it was an electronic union catalog rather than as a tool to create that provided location information for the materials listed in the catalog by participat- more productive ways of getting ing libraries. It was a new library tool that things done was dynamic (Smith, 1994). The shared cataloging system made it unnecessary for more than one library to tasks accomplished more productively, originally catalog an item. The system made rather than as a tool to create more produc- copy cataloging not only practical, but also tive ways of getting things done. In other widely available. Presently, most libraries words, collectively, we’ve done a fine job have to do original cataloging for only of using machines to share, extend, lever- about six of every 100 items they acquire. age and multiply the work of individual The shared cataloging system also increased catalogers. The cataloging tools and productivity of catalogers. For example, services OCLC has provided to catalogers Ohio University reported that the first year it for decades allowed WorldCat to become used the OCLC system, it was able to the huge, rich metadata repository that it is, increase the number of books cataloged by and all librarians should take great pride in a third, while reducing its staff by 17 that accomplishment. positions through attrition (Smith, 1997). But OCLC founder Fred Kilgour asked For the year ended June 30, 2002, in 1977 “are we automating nineteenth- libraries cataloged 49.4 million items on century librarianship?” Phrased another way, the OCLC system and added 2.7 million have we extended, multiplied, and lever- records to the OCLC database. Imagine the aged human mental abilities in cataloging? cost of originally cataloging 49.4 million Probably not. Cataloging is still a labor- items! At this writing in 2003, WorldCat intensive activity, focused on the physical contained more than 51 million records manifestation of a printed work. Even and more than 884 million location listings. “copy” cataloging often is not. Local fields However, more than 30 years after the and data are added by local employees to introduction of shared cataloging, the address the perceived requirements of the second Revolution in Cataloging has yet to local communities served. This is as if the fully impact the work of most catalogers. employees of John Smith’s Ford Dealership Cataloging is still a mostly mechanized in Columbus, Ohio took each shipment of cottage industry. “Hand crafted one at a Explorers that arrived on their lot and added time to last a lifetime.” Although this is a a window on the control panel that dis- phrase from a modern advertisement for played Ohio State University football scores, handmade furniture, it could very well be as well as replaced the rear window with an the motto of many a cataloger working in extra long tailgate for tailgating parties. Do 14 these early years of the 21st century. all Explorer buyers in Columbus, Ohio want Automation in cataloging in particular still these local features? No. Does it add to the is and has been used as a tool to get old cost of the Explorers in Columbus? Yes. Vol  No • SPRING %&&'

The cost of cataloging, whether it’s copy our communities of users are more cataloging or original cataloging, is not just discerning consumers now. They have the cost of a record from OCLC or RLG. It is used many inventory control systems with also the cost of training and paying catalog- user interfaces designed for the user not ers, office space, computers, networks, and the warehouse manager. Users can find materials. Studies show that the total cost of books and clothes using simple search cataloging is around $30 per title and even queries at Amazon and Lands End. They higher for non-book, non-English titles. With can read several pages of a book, and the number of catalogers declining rapidly, virtually try clothes on before buying. the number of trained catalogers graduating However, library users are, for the most from library schools declining, and with part, expected to parse a sophisticated set most libraries’ budgets seeing drastic of metadata in order to make a “purchase” reductions, the cost of cataloging is, or will decision about the invisible content. be, on the minds of library administrators. Amazon, Lands Ends and Google are And using Z39.50 in an Internet scavenger among many institutions outside of the hunt to locate “free” records will not solve library community that, arguably, have the the budget crisis because the record is a very same public purpose as libraries: to small part of the total cost. connect people to things they want and The silver lining to this cloudy situation need. To meet these needs, they have is an environment ripe for change. Lack of developed non-library metadata to facili- expertise and lack of money will drive tate the discovery and fulfillment process. decision makers to seek effective ways of New metadata standards and formats for a doing the same things (the first Industrial variety of resources have been born, won’t Revolution) but will also encourage those go away, and must be dealt with by the visionary decision makers to reshape not library community. The Web has con- only the workflow but also to reshape nected previously disparate market places library services to their communities (the in a shared space that is much bigger than second Industrial Revolution). And libraries’ WorldCat, bigger than all the combined partners like OCLC must be prepared to library catalogs, and one we all increas- offer services and tools that extend services ingly take for granted as an always-present to users beyond the library system. information space. Interoperability be- Cataloging is a means to an end; it has tween the library space and these other evolved over time and must continue to evolve so that libraries can meet the economic and competitive challenges they now face. In the past, descriptive catalog- ing helped users discover authoritative The Web has connected knowledge resources held by a particular previously disparate market library, but now cataloging must also help connect them to those authoritative places in a shared space that is resources, whether held by the library or much bigger than WorldCat by some other provider. The purpose of the catalog is no longer just a form of bigger than all the combined inventory control (classification is a library catalogs and one particularly sophisticated form of telling people where a particular package is we all increasingly take for located in the warehouse). Librarians have granted as an always3present 15 been good at training library users how to read rich, complex inventory records but information space OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

market spaces must enhance the discovery with them to create high quality cataloging and delivery of resources. The value of records earlier in the publication cycle, library metadata will be enhanced when it thus driving down the total costs of cata- is a common part of the shared, global loging. This enhances the patron experi- information ocean millions of people swim ence with the library catalog, and it pro- in every day vides libraries with new opportunities to For 32 years OCLC has provided tools lower their cataloging costs. Libraries can designed to produce an electronic version automatically receive catalog records at the of a written catalog card for inclusion in same time they order materials, thus local library systems. There are now speeding materials into circulation, again approximately 8,250 governing members of improving service levels to patrons. These OCLC—institutions that contractually agree services, however, are really about building to contribute cataloging data to WorldCat a better mousetrap, not about rethinking and that continue to find shared cataloging the whole process of cataloging. to be cost-effective. These governing OCLC’s Office of Research is working members have used OCLC cataloging tools on a set of experimental services that would to extraordinary effect. We think it’s time, change the cataloging process by harvesting however, to embrace the Industrial Revolu- metadata automatically by pulling metadata tion and leave behind the cottage industry from different repositories (library catalogs, our member libraries and we created and institutional repositories, publishers, content have sustained. We’ve relied on our mem- creators). The mechanics of harvesting are bers to handcraft the bibliographic records becoming routine and well understood, and contributed to WorldCat because there were it is not a stretch at all to imagine for some no more reliable sources of metadata than types of resources cutting out the humans in the catalogers who had the physical items the exporting and importing of metadata before them as they cataloged. We’ve processes. OCLC software could periodically devoted hundreds, if not thousands, of scan repositories of metadata and retrieve person years developing and maintaining new and changed items. This metadata will sophisticated cataloging tools because we often not have been created within a needed catalogers to take the raw materials, framework of consistent practice; ap- work in their own “homes” and return the proaches to subjects or names will be finished articles. We rely on and are depen- different for example, and this introduces dant on people in our cottage industry the interesting challenge of effectively fusing correcting their work, deleting their work, and recombining metadata dynamically so and returning their holdings. But our skilled that it is useful to diverse communities. workers are diminishing in number and the The library community and OCLC also demands for access to content are increas- need to figure out how to make our ing, and so we must plan for a future for existing investments in structured metadata WorldCat where there are fewer and fewer work harder by mining, developing, and catalogers to contribute high quality exposing relationships across documents metadata. As the responsible steward of and other resources. The people using WorldCat, concerned about the growth and search services like library catalogs and quality of the database built by generations Google are not engaged in searching, they of catalogers, OCLC is investigating ways to are engaged in finding. As libraries com- embrace the revolution and industrialize the pete with the web and with bookstores, cataloging workflow. and as libraries expand their collections to 16 We can now work directly with include electronic resources and digital authors, publishers and materials vendors archives that they either own or just point in order to capture metadata and work to, it is crucial that we collectively find Vol  No • SPRING %&&'

ways to drive down the costs of technical market for our handcrafted, expensive services in favor of improving the library products will be the information wealthy. patron experience. Cooperation will We must learn from successful industrial- continue to be a key success factor, but ization and mass-produce good quality the universe of cooperation must expand metadata that will furnish the empty beyond libraries to include all of the rooms of the millions of people living in organizations that are in the supply chain houses built by Google. for information resources. The WorldCat of today is a late 20th Libraries must define their role in this century knowledge map. It is essentially process: to focus on being the transparent an electronic version of the card catalog, middle layer, assembling content in a which itself represented the apex of early seamless way, invisible to the users of their 20th century knowledge mapping. Now, services. Industrialization does not mean we are on the verge of creating a 21st only mechanizing processes and producing century knowledge map, one that builds goods and services more efficiently. It also on technologies that were only dreamed means becoming ubiquitous, part of the of when Fred Kilgour hooked up the first infrastructure, so integral that the users of terminal to WorldCat 32 years ago at the your services and goods cannot imagine life beginning of the second Revolution in without what you produce and provide. It Cataloging. It is time to build on the is true that many librarians and library staff knowledge and skills of the past 32 years could not imagine their work lives without and truly industrialize the workflow. WorldCat but if the WorldCat “factory” closed down next week, would anyone but the “factory workers” miss it? As large and History teaches us that the great revolu- ubiquitous as WorldCat seems to many, the tions aren’t started by people who are utterly records are the equivalent of fine furniture: down and out, without hope and vision. They the hands of skilled craftspeople make take place when people begin to live a little every one. better—and when they see how much yet When we buy furniture we have remains to be achieved. choices. Our choices are dictated by taste, price and availability. We can buy mass- HUBERT H. HUMPHREY produced furniture, or we could buy (1911 to 1978) custom-made. It’s likely most of us have U.S. Democratic politician, vice president. mass-produced furniture that we’re quite Speech, April 2, 1966, Durham, N.C. satisfied with. Few of us could afford both the cost and the wait for a houseful of References custom-made furniture. Before mass- Bevan, E., 1968. The House of Ptolemy. production, just as now, very few people Argonaut Inc., Chicago. could afford custom-built furniture. Those who couldn’t, owned very little furniture Smith, K., 1994. OCLC: Past and Future. In and what there was might be poorly made. D. Williams et al (Eds.), For the Good of Mass-production of furniture allows the Order: Essays in Honor of Edward G. anyone, not just the wealthy, to furnish Holley. JAI Press, Greenwich, CT. whole houses. Mass-produced furniture is good enough for most people. The library Smith, K., 1997. OCLC Online Computer world must find a way to mass-produce Library Center, Inc., Furthering Access to “good enough” metadata that is available the World’s Information for 30 Years. The 17 to millions of people. Continuing the newcomer Society of the United States, cataloging cottage industry guarantees the Princeton Academic Press. I am Cataloger—Hear Me Roar

by Mary T. Kalnin hen I was first asked to write an cataloging. This system does presume a Library Specialist II— article on cataloging and system of well-defined roles and job descrip- Original Cataloger Wautomation, I questioned tions, but it works—and it works well. whether this was to be researched or an When fully implemented this, or a like University of Washington opinion piece. I was invited to write my system, takes full advantage of automation Libraries passion—and so I shall. And my passion is but not to the detriment of staff, the local [email protected] cataloging and automation together! I see OPAC, or patron expectations. no dichotomy between them. Cataloging is It is clear that I love cataloging and a craft, an art, and a science. Automation technology and I make no apology. When does not destroy that craft, that art, that writing an opinion piece, one writes from science; in fact, automation can allow us to personal experience; I’ve been a library create much better records, share the technician engaged in the rapid cataloging workload, and produce better databases process and a copy cataloger engaged in and OPACS. What on earth am I talking upgrading records and bringing them to about? I’ll get to that shortly. First, how- AACR2 standard. I am now a paraprofes- ever, I wish to discuss the topic of automa- sional, original cataloger, and my love of tion in libraries, as it is often perceived. cataloging and automation has not dimin- I have heard library staff say that ished; it grows stronger by the day. automation has caused nothing but trouble The University of Washington is an for us and our catalogs, for we import OCLC library, and OCLC’s new system, incomplete or just plain bad bibliographic Connexion™, is everything that a cataloger records into our local systems. Most re- could want. Connexion^(TM) offers us the cently, I read an article decrying the ability to create bibliographic records that addition of vendor records to the OCLC and can be manipulated whenever the library RLIN databases. Those who decry these deems necessary. It offers the ability to additions cite detriments to the staff, to the take a MARC record for a Web site and local OPAC, and to patron expectations. I display it in Dublin Core. The Dublin Core say wait! Automation need not produce can then be copied and inserted into the such an outcome! When a library decides to Web site itself, thereby enhancing a join a bibliographic utility, it must devote searcher’s ability to find it. This gives the some time to developing a system for the best of both the MARC and Dublin Core efficient use of that utility’s services; the worlds, and provides a much-needed library will probably revamp its cataloging service to library patrons. When creating procedures. It is necessary to create a small the bibliographic record, one can use committee to study the bibliographic Connexion’s™ best features to their fullest records the library takes from the utility. advantage. Connexion^(TM) has a system The committee must decide what criteria to link the headings in the record to the define an acceptable record and create a list authority file records. Once that link is of libraries whose records meet those made, the headings will be updated criteria. Once that process is complete, automatically whenever they change in the those records can be imported into the local authority file. If one’s library subscribes to system with little or no checking. The OCLC’s bibliographic notification service, materials with records that do not meet the it will receive a new bibliographic record criteria can be cataloged by a higher-level for the local OPAC. If the library sub- paraprofessional staff and brought up to scribes to an authority service, it is likely standard. Finally, those materials with either that there will be notice of the change and 18 no copy or copy so bad that it is almost perhaps a corrected authority record in an useless are given to the original cataloging update provided by the vendor. The staff—paraprofessionals and librarians—for change will most certainly be caught Vol  No • SPRING %&&'

whenever the library sends a record databases. Used properly automation is a containing the heading to the vendor for tool—a practical way of responding to an authority wash. cataloging needs, to patron needs and Because the University is an OCLC expectations, and to the circumstances that library, I have no real sense of what mold our library world. I believe that with features RLG offers as cataloging tools. it we can create databases that will be However, after wandering through the RLG correct now and in the future. Yes, it will Web site, I see that technological changes take an investment of time and patience; are on the horizon there; the information but if each of us does a little, we render given concerning changes to its cataloging moot the argument that automation leads service and the outsourcing available to to the degradation of the catalog, and RLG libraries, signals improved cataloging those who follow us will never have to ability and streamlined processing. I have worry that the records they import into no doubt that RLG participants will find those catalogs of the future will be incom- the most efficient ways to use their new plete or just plain bad. But then again, I tools to their institutions’ best advantage. am cataloger—hear me roar! I would like to end this discussion with one final thought. Automation in itself References is not the holy grail of libraries—the prize Kellsey C., 2002. Cooperative Cataloging, to be sought at all costs. It will never Vendor Records, and European Language replace catalogers—someone, somewhere Monographs. Library Resources & Techni- has to create those bibliographic records cal Services. 46:105-110. that populate OCLC, RLIN, and other

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19 Dressing the Part ...

by Nelia C. Wurangian-Caan ery few catalogers may think of very compelling reasons why our catalog is their work as a stage, but in these a misfit on the Internet. Roy Tenant concurs Chair of Technical Services that our catalogs are not fluid enough; Loma Linda University Vtimes of media mania, I think Loma Linda, CA catalogers have a stage from which to others argue it’s not easy enough for the perform. How do we create experience for “point & click” generation’s need for [email protected] our users? The possibilities a re endless. mindless tools; still others propose it needs For two centuries, our catalogs thrived to be an all-encompassing tool, providing in a conservative non-competitive user seamless access to the entire universe of environment. Never in our history have we information. I suggest a most obvious concerned ourselves about losing out to reason, one that cuts us out of the competi- our competition. We generated catalogs tion—our catalogs are not “hip” enough. believing in the mantra: “make them and The adjective “hip,” “hipper,” or they will come.” This is no longer true “hepper” is a slang word defined by today. In a pre-test I give my students in Webster to mean “keenly aware of or Beginning Nursing Informatics, I ask the knowledgeable about the latest trends or question, “In searching for information, developments; also to mean “very fashion- which source do you search first?” The able or stylish.” I use both meanings to overwhelming answer is always: suggest that our catalogs in general fail to “google.com or the Internet.” It is clear exemplify our knowledge of technological that we can no longer ignore the competi- trends and developments and are much tive reality that surrounds us. lacking in what is considered “trendy” and We have always regarded our catalogs “fashionable” in today’s digital environ- as the center of our universe; today that ment. Admittedly, adding elements that center is fast becoming a gaping hole. We spark and sustain curiosity and interest may need to do something fast to recapture our not be so simple considering that we are position of relevance in the digital age. Our trying to hook the attention of a technology Internet competition is flagrantly imperfect— suffocated, sophisticated, completely everybody knows this. They rampantly lack informed information culture. Furthermore, the “human intelligence so essential in this idea may not sit well with catalogers, making logical connections that express who may argue that this is contrary to our relationships” (Tillett, 1999), something we mission, much less with our prevailing have done so well for so long. attitude of subservience to rules and So what exactly is wrong with our standards of practice. But to sustain the catalogs? This has generated discussions in relevance of our catalogs, these need to be the literature. Kristin Antelman discusses responsive to the expectations of a new emerging information culture in the digital age, a culture that gravitates to tools that are not only efficient but also engaging and entertaining. We have always regarded our The profession as a whole and catalog- ers, in particular, are taking serious mea- catalogs as the center of our sures to make our catalogs more relevant, universe; today that center is fast calling for new standards, new rules, new tools, new partnerships—new ways to becoming a gaping hole We make our catalogs as powerful, if not more need to do something fast to powerful, than our competition’s. For years, 20 we’ve talked and actually implemented recapture our position of adding value to our catalogs, providing relevance in the digital age extensions or enrichment to our catalog Vol  No • SPRING %&&'

data—elements like tables-of-contents, possibilities are endless. But let me put the author or dust jacket information, commu- spotlight on a few elements that I think nity information. Lately, we embrace the hook the average Web client. Web’s hyperlinking function to bring our catalogs closer to our dream of “one-stop- A Sense of Community shopping.” Many of our leaders are A friend looking for a particular piece of engaged in profound discussions on global music in CD (he knew so little about) issues of authority control, bibliographic reported about having gone to rules and standards that are so important Amazon.com and found exactly what he to our viable existence on the Web. There was looking for, an outcome he considers is no question that more developments are “positive experience.” But this is not all. brewing to improve access, quality, and He also received additional information bibliographic control. But these do not that immediately linked him to the experi- constitute what makes a catalog “hip” in ence of others. “Customers who bought today’s emotively motivated environment. this title also bought the following” is a I’m not suggesting we add nudity to our function of co-location that we have catalogs. I’m suggesting elements that provided in our catalogs all along. So what engage our clients. is different about the way Amazon.com Pine & Gilmore (1999) suggest experi- delivers it on the Web? Presentation—for ence as a new source of added value; that the very same reason food presentation is experience engages our clients in a important to dining. The feature “Custom- personal way to the point that after we ers who bought this title also bought the satisfy their immediate need, we leave following” is not just suggesting other them with an experience that lingers on similar titles on the same topic of interest, and stays with the client long after service it is also suggestive of instant approval, a is rendered. John Perry Barlow, co-founder positive feedback everyone is looking of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, for—you’re not the only genius who couldn’t have put it more succinctly when happens to love this music, there are a he said “Information must be experienced” few others who bought it and bought (Albanese, 2002). more of the same. In other words, you are Web technology powers a new genre part of an existing community. of communication that is interactive, multi- The “sense of community” is a very based, multi-faceted, and multi-dimen- important concept on the Web. Defined as sional, including virtual reality that is “perceived belonging and perceived capable of bringing about what Pine refers mutual interdependence” (McMillan & to as “immersive experience” (Pine, 1999). Chavis, 1986; Sarason, 1974), it is an From a rather static beginning, this sounds essential spiritual nutrient for human like an impossible challenge. But it is not beings (Albanese, 2002), that promotes a if you think of how librarians and system sense of self-esteem and well-being that developers are now experimenting with feed healthy and successful collaborative employing new standards and new relationships. technology to make our catalogs literally Today, cataloging is not just about sing. Today we have the technology to passively creating bibliographic records make our catalogs become living entities and subject analysis to aid information that can walk (through wireless PDAs) and retrieval; it is also about promoting literally talk to our users, capable of collaborative relationships among scholars. making the information-seeking experi- If our mission is to support intellectual 21 ence engaging and memorable. How do pursuit then providing a convenient way we create experience for our users? The for one scholar to talk to another is core to OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

vices librarians in particular are jumping into this much earlier than their cataloging counterparts. A chat-based virtual reference is on its way to becoming the new mode of Today cataloging is not just reference. Those of us who have served at about passively creating reference desks know how often and how many questions are “catalog-related.” A bibliographic records and subject cataloger’s version of “Questionpoint” or a analysis to aid information chat button: ASK A CATALOGER may not be so trivial an idea for very long. As retrieval; it is also about projects like LinkPlus takes off, catalogs promoting collaborative will grow into enormous databases where searching has the potential to become as relationships among scholars hairy as in today’s searching the Web. Why do you suppose Ask Jeeves and our mission. It is a well-documented fact LooksmartLive are thriving on the Net? that in the research process, scholars first talk to another scholar before turning to The Human Touch the literature. Early deliberations on the digital encounter often cited the lack of “human touch” as Interactivity the biggest challenge in digital communica- Have you visited a music Website lately and tions. Have you followed the animated sat for hours to enjoy a piece of music—in demo on how to track down your orders your own time, in your own living room— on Amazon.com? A pleasant human voice and then had a chance to rate the song, or comes on with easy to follow instruction, write your own review? The “If you like” carefully guiding you through transitions of feature on the Tower Records Website screens to demonstrate the process—it’s allows you to pick an artist you like, short, sweet and simple. There is no suggests which song to try, then lets you question that “How to search the catalog” know which album sells the most, while an using a cataloger’s captivating voice is more expert tells you why. Choosing from a fashionable than a static single sheet of panel of experts (instant peer review) is instruction. only a mouse click away. You may enjoy a conversation with a contemporary artist or Personalization composer himself, or invite another fan into Word is out that the Marriott hotels are your virtual living room to discuss the piece actively collecting data on their clients, and have a music critic or two join you in keeping an individual record of custom- the conversation. ers—their preferences, habits, likes and We learn in education that interactivity dislikes—so that the second time the same is a very powerful teaching tool for the client checks into a Marriott anywhere in very reason that it engages students. the world he is guaranteed a customized Engaging our clients to participate in the service environment. Knowing who ac- process, as in writing and sharing their cesses our catalogs, keeping track of their own impressions of the work and adding reading habits and preferences will give these as extensions to our core record, will our catalogs a customized touch. The next not only enrich our records but also create time the same patron accesses the catalog 22 a memorable experience for our clients. (using a human voice) we should be able Librarians are recognizing the value of to address him by his name—“Hi Bruce, interactive digital encounter. Public ser- have you checked the latest titles by your Vol  No • SPRING %&&'

favorite author, John Grisham?” Or, “Did experience that is not just precise and you know that the book you reserved is productive, but also engaging, entertaining now waiting for you at the checkout and memorable. counter?” While one can still be “a dog on the Internet,” there is a growing need for NOTE: The author would very much wel- having an identity on the Web. Perhaps it come imaginative ideas and insights into is the antipathy towards anonymity on the making our catalogs “trendy and fashion- Web that is driving the need for recogni- able.” Please direct your comments and tion, this or the “desire to set one’s self ideas to [email protected] apart from everyone else” (Pace, 2001). “My Library” or “My catalog” could be a References step in this direction. Albanese A., 2002. Cyberspace: the So, then the next question is: who has community frontier. Library Journal, the time to devote to non-essentials when 19:127. we don’t even have the time to take care of our backlogs? But I say, this is the 21st Antelman K., 2000. Weblists and the century when we can’t and shan’t go at it decline of the library catalog. Library alone. This is the era of collaboration and Computing: Internet & Software Applica- the eventual triumph of cataloging indus- tions for Information Professionals. trialization—whether we like it or not. Producing a catalog is no longer as simple McMillan D. and Chavis D., 1986. Sense of as creating a main card and duplicating community: a definition and theory. this to make a set of cards for as many Journal of Community Psychology, 14:6– headings as are in the tracing—it is far 23. more complicated than this. There is more to master than ISBD and AACR2R. Our Pace A., 2001. Should my library be in only salvation is to forge partnerships with your library. Computers in Libraries, “experts” in our fields who have the February 2001:21. technological know-how to make our catalog walk or talk or sing. Pine B. and Gilmore J., 1999. The experi- We are at the threshold of a totally ence economy: work is theatre and every new era of cataloging that is characterized business a stage. Harvard Business School by new bold approaches that may be Press, Boston, Mass. revolutionary or revolting to the traditional cataloger. Just the very idea of cooperative Sarason S., 1974. The psychological sense metadata “on the fly” by a vendor, a user, of community: prospects for a community or anybody who has not taken Cataloging psychology. [1st ed.] Jossey-Bass, San 101 gets many of us nervous. Someone Francisco. said “perfection is the enemy of good.” We need to go beyond the perfect record if Tillett B., 1996. Cataloging rules and we are to prevent the imminent decline of conceptual models. Retrieved January 6, our catalogs. 2003 from OCLC Online Computer Library To apply Pine & Gilmore’s analogy Center, Inc. Website: http://www.oclc.org/ that “work is theatre and every business a research/publications/arr/1996/tillett.htm stage,” the catalog is our stage, and catalogers are but a member—albeit an important member—in a stage crew of 23 several who share a common goal of providing our audience with a catalog Training—the Missing Step in the Industrialization of Technical Services

Deborah A. Fritz o me, the word “industrialize” 3. Process the resources (Processing); MARC Database Consultant conjures up an image of an assem- The MARC of Quality Tbly line in a factory, with workers 4. Provide bibliographic information Melbourne, FL at their stations using machines (automa- about the resources for the library’s tion) to manufacture a product. catalog so that patrons can find the [email protected] With this image in mind and for the resources, especially from off-site purpose of this article, let us arbitrarily locations (Cataloging); define the word “industrialize” to mean the process of increasing productivity (i.e., 5. Make the resources available (shelve production of a product) through: them; mount them on systems; etc.)

• the effective use of automation to 6. Check the physical resources out and improve efficiency and standardization; (hopefully) back in again (if appropri- ate) (Circulation); • the division of labor (focusing on and raising the level of our core compe- 7. Provide support services to help tencies and finding others to manage patrons find resources (Access Services) needs outside those competencies); 8. Arrange for resources to be borrowed • streamlining processes to increase from and loaned to other libraries (ILL); workflow; 9. Maintain automated systems to support • implementing quality control and all of the above functions (Systems) accountability to maintain demand for the end product Step 4—providing bibliographic informa- tion about the resources is one of the key Can we apply this definition and these steps in making resources accessible to users. steps to the products of a technical services Library collections are too large and often too department of a library? Perhaps we should physically distant for users to scan shelves to first establish what the products of a techni- find what they need. A library catalog cal services department are supposed to be. provides specific information about the It is generally accepted that one of the resources in a library’s collection. Instead of primary purposes of a library is to collect having to hunt through shelves or databases resources to satisfy the educational, infor- of resources, users can search a catalog of mational and recreational needs of its descriptions of the resources and then decide patrons. For patrons to find the resources in from these descriptions whether or not the a library’s collection, those resources must actual items might meet their needs. be organized and made accessible. In this Consequently, accessible resources are scenario, therefore, accessible resources are one of the principle products of a library; one of the principal products of a library. construction and maintenance of an To produce this product—accessible effective catalog (sometimes known as resources, a typical library will integrate ’cataloging’) is an essential component in the following steps into its ‘assembly line’: producing accessible resources; the library catalog is the primary product of a techni- 1. Choose the resources to be added to the cal services department. collection (Collection Development); Industrializing cataloging, then, is the 24 focus of this article. Let us see how our list 2. Acquire the resources (Acquisitions); of steps can be applied to the process of cataloging resources to make them acces- sible to users. Vol  No • SPRING %&&'

The effective use of automation should tion made available by the steadfast applica- allow us to provide more and better catalog- tion of rules and standards if we are to ing, more efficiently, and with greater cost provide our products to those patrons. savings, all in one neat package (“better, Finding others to manage our needs faster, cheaper”). However, I contend that outside our competencies can help us to the key word here is ’effective’. Business and increase productivity. Outsourcing the manufacturing companies would soon be cataloging of a collection of resources in a out of business if they tried to get by with language with which we are not familiar, is untrained staff ’doing their best’ to produce a a better alternative than letting that product using unfamiliar tools and with no collection sit on the back shelves, inacces- training. So why do we seem to think that sible for years. Batchloading files of MARC catalogers can do a good job of cataloging records for an opening day collection, or while struggling under that handicap? It is an aggregator set of electronic journals, or true that many libraries make great efforts to a collection of ebooks may be the only provide the necessary tools and the training way that a new library can be opened on on how to use them. However there are too time, or the ejournals or ebooks can be many libraries that ’cannot afford’ to hire made available. However, we still need trained staff or train the staff they hire. Yet trained staff in our libraries to check the those libraries are expected to partner with work done by others and load the files of other libraries and include their cataloging outsourced records correctly so that they records in union or virtual catalogs and have will not conflict with our own records. those records ’play well with others’. More Streamlining our processes can, undoubt- automation and better tools are not going to edly, boost our workflow. Time and motion help if the users of those tools do not have studies, for example, might show us where the proper training in the fundamentals of we have log jams of unnecessary work their craft to allow them to use the tools carried over from when we automated our effectively. manual processes. There are undoubtedly If we are to have any hope of increasing still ways that we can simplify and improve our cataloging productivity, we must focus our procedures. However, we must beware on our core competencies, the skill sets that of oversimplification. There are some who do we need in order to produce our product—a not see the big picture and do not under- catalog to make the library’s resources stand the complexity of what we are trying to accessible. Sloppy manufacturing will not do. They shortsightedly demand that we produce a product that sells, nor will ’doing somehow “make cataloging easier.” The only the best we can’. Rules and standards are problem with this particular demand is that vital to the production of a useful catalog to the end product will not be what our make our resources accessible, if those customers are demanding—accessible resources are to be accessible beyond the resources. The resources will be on a shelf or limited boundaries of our own physical in a system, but finding those resources will collections. When our only concern was our be a matter of hit or miss, making those own patron who walked in our own door resources, in effect, inaccessible. and walked to our own shelves to find our This brings us to the last step on our own resources, we hardly had to do much industrialization list—quality control to to make our resources available for that maintain demand for the end product of patron. These days, however, ’our patrons’ accessible resources. What is the point of are dialing in from home or interlibrary- making more, cheaper records more quickly loaning from across town, across the state, if those records are not good enough to 25 across the country, and across the world. We function properly in a library automation must have consistent bibliographic informa- system to make the resources accessible? OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

If you purchase a file of records for quality of the records available for copying ebooks, and those records contain LCCN is getting worse instead of better. Is it that are duplicates of LCCN that are already possible that those other libraries out there, present in records in your database for the doing the work that you don’t want to do to print versions of those works, what will create the original records that you want to happen to your ebook records when you copy are struggling with lack of training load them to your library automation also? It is a sobering thought. system? In many systems the ebook records will match the print records on the dupli- Conclusion cate LCCN and one of the matching records Just as it is for businesses in the ’real world’, will be lost. Quality control before loading industrializing the workflow in technical will prevent a huge mess (especially if your services seems to be the only way that we system is set to overlay existing records can hope to keep up with the demand for with matching incoming records). But you accessible resources to meet the informa- must have the trained staff to know how to tional, etc. needs of our patrons. However, do that quality control. without adequate training, there is no point If cataloging staff does not know that in pumping money into new technology or fixed field codes in cataloging records in outsourcing, or even into trying to stream- the MARC format are useful, then the line our processes. Without training in our MARC records that they produce will be core competencies, library staff cannot know missing the kind of information that allows the cataloging rules and MARC standards a patron to narrow a search by language or that are needed to make consistent records material type or date of publication. If they for our library databases. Without training in do not know about indicators in MARC the use of new technologies, staff does not records, then fields in the records may be know how to use those technologies unsearchable or invisible or strangely effectively. Without training in the concepts labeled. If they do not know how to assign of MARC databases as well as MARC subject headings, then subject access to records, catalogers and/or systems staff your resources will be lost. If they do not cannot know how to do quality control on know how to do authority control on the records and databases. headings in records, then consistency in Collecting library resources and getting headings will be lost, making it difficult for them organized and made accessible to patrons to find resources by known names patrons is a complicated and many-layered and thus impeding access to the resources. process. Knowing how to accomplish this Quality control on cataloging records will procedure is not intuitive, it must be reveal all of these problems, but you must learned. It cannot be learned by reading have trained staff to do that quality control. manuals on one’s own or by trial and error Every administrator dreams of the day because there are too many layers to the when none of their staff will have to know process, all of which must be pulled how to make catalog records from scratch together to produce the end product. I because someone else, somewhere else will therefore argue that the most important have already made a record for every element in the industrialization of the resource in the world. Unfortunately, this is workflow in technical services, and the one not the reality for most libraries, especially that is most often missing, is training in the those that collect any kind of local material. effective use of the many tools that must be In addition, it is folly to assume that all utilized in order to produce the principal 26 copied records are perfect. In fact, although end product of technical services—an I have no solid statistics to offer, all reports effective catalog to make resources acces- that I hear from the field indicate that the sible for the use of library patrons. An Exchange on: Life with the USA PATRIOT Act

To the OLAQ Editors: Mr. Truman,

The OLA Quarterly Winter 2002 issue In your article that appeared recently in the contained an article by Robert Truman, Life OLA Quarterly you say “Since the first of With the USA PATRIOT Act. this year, law enforcement authorities Truman wrote: Since the first of this year, seeking information on 46 different patrons law enforcement authorities seeking informa- have approached 24 libraries in Oregon. tion on 46 different patrons have approached Maybe. Actually, no one knows. Or at least 24 libraries in Oregon. Maybe. Actually, no those who do aren’t telling …” one knows. Or at least, those who do aren’t Can I assume that this 46/24 figures telling … . The FBI refuses to share. that you quote are pure speculation or do Not true. The FBI is telling. And they you have any evidence to support your say the number is zero. It turns out that claim. Have you any idea if, and how Truman made the numbers up, just to many, such searches have taken place in “catch the eye.” Oregon or Nationwide libraries? Perhaps you aren’t aware of this, Fred, Thanks. but if not, here’s how we learned about it: On February 2, 2003 the Ashland Friends of Cohn Swales the Library sponsored a panel discussion Jackson County Library about the USA PATRIOT Act. One of the Advisory Committee panelists was Charles W. Mathews, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI for all of Oregon. The moderator who introduced the Robert Truman responds: panelists quoted from Truman’s OLA Quarterly article. The moderator realized Mr. Swales, your assumption is right on— that there must be a “fudge factor” in the the number was purely made up to catch figures that Truman included in the article, the eye, all towards making the point that but thought that surely if Truman used we have no idea if and how many of these numbers like 46 patrons and 24 libraries, he requests have been made by law enforce- must have had some reason to think some ment. My apologies for any confusion. sizeable number of Oregon libraries had The number truly was picked out of a been approached by the FBI. hat. I know of no hard numbers that would Naturally the audience of nearly 200 even permit a solid educated guess of the was pretty upset that the FBI was poking number of searches of Oregon libraries into so many library records. But then since the PATRIOT Act. The only useful Agent Mathews said they aren’t. The FBI numbers are from the survey cited in my has the authority to ask for library records, article. I understand that the survey has if they get a court order, but they haven’t been updated, but have not had the done so at all in Oregon since the USA opportunity to look at the numbers. Even PATRIOT Act was passed more than a year so, I know that the authors of the updated ago. And, he added, he ought to know, as survey acknowledge that their results may the FBI agent in charge. well under-represent the reality, as the So, one of our library trustees contacted various gag orders created by the PATRIOT Truman and asked him where he’d obtained Act may keep libraries from reporting even the numbers he used in his article. general statistics on searches performed. If you find any better The following reprints correspondence estimates for Oregon please 27 between Robert Truman and Cohn Swales: do let me know. OREGON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Ronnie Lee Budge also comments: www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0302/ 030502db.htm). I remember the outrage I Fred, those of us here at the Jackson felt when I heard that report so many County library who know about it are decades ago. Government was a fundamen- appalled that Truman would use totally tal social institution, whose primary pur- false, made up, unverified data in his pose was to serve the cause of truth in our article. And I feel that his e-mail response society. If government were not truthful, shows a cavalier attitude towards a serious then what institutions could indeed be situation. trusted? The following decade-plus was to Those seeking to have a rational test sorely every thread in our social fabric discussion about the USA PATRIOT Act in a Diogenes-like search for truth, and will have a harder time of it when people indeed many institutions were found believe there’s a massive investigation of wanting when weighed in the balance. That library records underway now. Worse still, still did not excuse Arthur Sylvester. anyone who is attempting to educate the Fast-forward to the next century, sans public about the dangers of the USA the moving sidewalks we were promised ca. PATRIOT Act and who uses the figures 1962, and Robert Truman justifies his data by from the OLA Quarterly, may have their writing that “—the number was purely made credibility and arguments destroyed when up to catch the eye.” I am sorry that we the actual number of FBI requests (zero) is have a candidate for the Arthur Sylvester stated. The moderator of our panel Award, but I am not ashamed or embar- discussion was embarrassed to have rassed that OLAQ published a specious repeated a falsehood and it will be most statistic from Robert Truman, and I will tell unfortunate if this happens again. you some reasons why. I feel strongly that OLA needs to First, the scholarly journal exists as it publish a retraction of the numbers quoted has since Blaise Pascal originated it in the in Truman’s article, at a minimum. There 1600s as a way to share research findings may be other actions that would be among practitioners of a common knowl- appropriate in addition. edge base. OLAQ does not have the If you want to contact Special Agent refereeing capabilities of the New England Mathews at the FBI to verify that the Journal of Medicine: we rely on a basic correct number of inquiries is zero, his trust between writer and reader as practi- phone number is 503-552-5200, or e-mail tioners together of our discipline (or him at: [email protected]. profession or vocation) called librarianship. We librarians defend the free Ronnie Lee Budge exchange of information, and we have an Jackson County Library Director implied presumption of truth in that exchange. For a writer to violate the trust of OLAQ’s readership is their shame, not Fred Reenstjerna replies: ours. Truman’s defense of fabricating a statistic “to catch the eye” perhaps indi- The ghost of Arthur Sylvester has reared its cates that he was motivated by the zeal of ugly head in the pages of the Oregon the True Believer in a Cause, but there is a Library Association Quarterly. For those profound difference between the Truth readers too young to remember, Arthur and the True Believer. Truman’s defense Sylvester was “a one-time Pentagon spokes- sounds like the temporizing “We had to 28 man [who] became briefly famous in 1962 destroy this village in order to save it” for saying the government could indeed lie rationale that followed Arthur Sylvester by to save the country.” (quoted from only a few short but bloody years. Vol No " • SPRING 

Second, and this is more important, the I just reread the controversial passage and above correspondence is a testimony to the it states: “Since the first of this year, law en- unfailing abilities of Oregon librarians to do forcement authorities seeking information on their job. Librarianship is about finding the 46 different patrons have approached 24 li- Truth, researching the answers and pursu- braries in Oregon. Maybe.” The operative word ing leads wherever they take us to get our there is MAYBE and the next paragraph states: customers the best quality information available. “Actually, no one knows. Or at least, those I know the relativism of Deconstructionist who do aren’t telling.” The sentence in ques- collaborators has whined across the past tion is presented as a scenario which acts as a decade, replacing principle with irony. But lead-in to the point he makes in the subse- irony died in the crash of the Twin Towers, quent paragraph. after it had been gravely wounded by the If you compare his “statistics” on Oregon Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Bud- and his national statistical information in a later dhas some months earlier. This is not the paragraph, you’ll notice they are presented quite time to trifle with truth, or with the minds of differently: “A survey (emphasis mine) of U.S. people, in an ironic detachment. This is the libraries estimated that approximately 200 li- time to believe in principles and to live those braries had been contacted by law enforcement principles. A librarian who is not committed for patron information in the three months fol- to the quest for fair and objective informa- lowing passage of the Act.” This statement is tion, unadorned with “eye-catching” mis-in- followed by two references, something that is formation, is indeed missing the point of his lacking for the Oregon statement. While it is or her profession. possible I could overlook the lack of a needed It is the thorough research of Jackson reference, that would have been a blatant one. County library staff that is the exciting de- In retrospect, it is easy to see how that velopment in all this mess: that is the news- scenario could be misconstrued as being fac- worthy event to be reported to and celebrated tual. While it is unfortunate that the Oregon by our profession. We are indeed the watch- numbers were quoted as if they were facts, ers on the walls of Freedom, and as the world to suppose that Mr. Truman was trying to mis- darkens into a global night of secrecy and represent anything is nonsense. The most he intimidation, let the word go forth to all resi- can be accused of is writing a paragraph that dents of this planet that their right to infor- was open to being misconstrued; and I, as mation—to free, unadorned, unmanipulated editor, of overlooking that possibility. information, sometimes called Truth—re- While I can’t vouch for the veracity of Mr. mains strong and healthy in Oregon, because Truman’s referenced statements, (not having of the vigilance of our librarians. checked all his citations), I certainly would not question his integrity based on the problems Frederick R. Reenstjerna caused by a misconstrued sentence. M.L.S., M.Ad., Ed.D. Perhaps there’s a lesson in this to all of Chair, Publications Committee us about being more careful when quoting Oregon Library Association information out of context.

Anna Grzeszkiewicz responds: Anna Grzeszkiewicz Guest Editor As the editor of the issue where that article OLA Quarterly, Winter 2002 issue. appears, my first response to information that false statistics were presented in Mr. Truman’s article was shock, for I consider Mr. Truman a reputable source and I recalled that his article was thoroughly referenced. Oregon Library Association  Executive Board

President OEMA Representative Oregon Young Adult Network Connie Bennett Kelly Kuntz Heidi Weisel Eugene Public Library Beaverton School District Corvallis-Benton County Public Library 541.682.5363 503.591.4286 541.766.6784 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Vice President/President-elect ALA Representative Public Library Division Faye Chadwell Wyma Rogers Rob Everett University of Oregon Newport Public Library Eugene Public Library 541.346.1819 541.265.2153 541.682.8314 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Past President PNLA Representative Support Staff Division Janet Webster Carol Reich Diane Bolen Marilyn Potts Guin Library Hillsboro Public Library Willamette University OSU/Hatfield Marine Science Center 503.615.6514 503.370.6673 541.867.0108 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] State Librarian Trustees and Friends Division Secretary Jim Scheppke Barbara Wright Steve Skidmore Oregon State Library Hillsboro Public Library Siuslaw Public Library 503.378.4367 503.644.7307 x221 541.997.3132 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Academic Library Division Member at Large Treasurer Sara Brownmiller Dale Vidmar Suzanne Sager University of Oregon Southern Oregon University Portland State University 541.346.2368 541.552.6842 503.725.8169 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Children’s Services Division Parliamentarian Dan White Ed House Douglas County Library System Beaverton City Library 541.440.6009 503.526.3705 [email protected] [email protected]

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