Resource Description: unlocking developing trends and smart technologies

The LIASA Interest Group for Bibliographic Standards hosted a workshop on Resource Description: unlocking developing trends and smart technologies, at the Centurion Lake Hotel, on 16 and 17 August 2018.

This annual event provides a platform for cataloguing professionals to keep abreast of current practices and new trends and developments in the global environment of bibliographic control and metadata standards.

The workshop provided valuable insights into the following:

• the advantages of authority control and the importance of NACO (Name Authority Cooperative Program) participation within the South African context.
• the use of relationship designators (or relator codes) in bibliographic records, in accordance with RDA (Resource Description and Access) guidelines.
• updates on the possible removal of ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Description) punctuation between and within MARC fields in both bibliographic and authority records – this is  currently being investigated by OCLC and the Library of Congress Program for Cooperative Cataloging (LC PCC) to look at the possible impact on shared cataloguing and discovery environments.
• the value and use of the metadata editing programme, MarcEdit, to create and manipulate MARC records.
• the role of the cataloguer in providing access through subject organisation and indexing: the relevance of subject headings vs. indexing terms and the use of controlled vocabulary and natural language in thesauri, taxonomies and folksonomies.

Staff members from the Cataloguing as well as Acquisitions Units, attended the two-day workshop, which provided a number of first time presenters from different institutions the opportunity to share their views on cataloguing related issues.

Feedback from our delegates:

Lungile Rathepe: ‘It was intriguing to learn how UNISA is doing quality assurance on original cataloguing. Networking during tea and lunch breaks, helped me answer questions I had that were not covered in the actual workshop.’

Pfano Makhera: ‘One of my lessons was that as a cataloguer you should be passionate, proud and determined to provide access to various kinds of material, as in the case of the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences Library’s project to catalogue a bone collection.’

Marinda Maritz: ‘My IGBIS experience was a truly enriching one.  The SMU Health Sciences Library’s presentation confirmed that we as cataloguers have the skills and knowledge to make anything accessible to our clients – even when ‘the skeletons walked into the library.’

Annah Molefe: ‘I found the presentations insightful and interesting; I really enjoyed interacting with professionals from various institutions who all have the same interest in cataloguing.’

Raesibe Kekana: ‘It was a wakeup call to realize that there is a need for indexing professionals and more South African cataloguers should become involved in name authority control.’

Ernest Sefolo: ‘It was an informative workshop, where ‘seasoned’ cataloguers shared their experiences on the ‘how’ part of cataloguing. The presenters shared the best ways of simplifying cataloguing, and also ways to create the ‘best’ records.’

Mercia Moreana: ‘The presentations were eye-opening and an inspiration, learning how other libraries are doing things. It was an update to new trends in cataloguing, acquiring new skills and ideas. It also inspired me to do research in the discipline of cataloguing, as there are not many researchers in the field. Networking with colleagues from other libraries sealed this wonderful learning experience.’

The workshop concluded with a final presentation on Metadata futures and the changing role and responsibilities of cataloguing professionals, to meet the challenging needs of the information seeking community.

(Presentations: http://www.liasa.org.za/igbis-seminar-presentations/ )