2:00 – 3:00 pm
SML 410
Present: Tom Bolze, Daniel Lovins (chair), Youn Noh (recording), Britta Santamauro, Becky Slitt
Tom, Britta, Youn, and Daniel reported on lunch meetings hosted by Alice where future priorities of the Library were discussed. Daniel attended the lunch on August 3; Tom, Britta, and Youn, on August 10. The topics of discussion included enduring values and generational differences among librarians, the relationship between cataloging and reference, the changes at the Library of Congress, and recent publications by leaders in the field.
Tom had asked Alice if the Library intends to use a top-down or a bottom-up approach to initiating change. Daniel suggested that the lunches were themselves an indication that Alice wants to consult with staff before enacting major changes. Tom replied that even if a bottom-up approach is followed, administrators still need to provide guidance on the Library’s overall strategic direction. Britta mentioned that she was surprised that, at the lunch, Jeff Barnett suggested catalogers do not need to know how metadata schemas such as MODS and METS actually work. Becky, Daniel, Youn expressed disagreement with this view. Daniel pointed to MARBI (ALA's Machine Readable Bibliographic Information Committee) as an example of where a metadata schema has been refined and improved through the scrutiny of catalogers.
As an introduction to the topic of enhancing the department's public relations, Daniel presented the wiki he and Stephen Naron have been testing for PIC, and noted several built-in features that could be used to help our department better communicate with other departments and the general public. (Later in the meeting he also cited the just-launched worldcat.org as an example of an impressive wiki-enhanced library site). These include RSS feeds, IRC chat, forums, and polls. Becky suggested that the forum structure might be ideal, as it allows potential readers to subscribe only to those threads that most interest them, while also maintaining a 'bulletin board'-like messaging and archiving structure. Another option would be be to follow the example of Jenn Nolte's e-record load announcements, and broadcast regular communiqués to YULIB via email. Britta and Tom mentioned that they tend to delete such emails, but sometimes read them if the subject line contains terms of interest. Youn asked what kind of content would go into such announcements, i.e., irrespective of how they get communicated. Daniel suggested including, among other things, professional activities and awards received by members of our staff.
Britta (and others?) asked why we can't have multiple wiki installations on the web server, including alternative software packages like MediaWiki (i.e., the base code for Wikipedia and other popular sites).
ACTION: Daniel will ask PIC if additional wikis, including ones based on MediaWiki, can be set up on Dagda.
The task force moved on to discuss whether the catalog department ought to change its name, and, if so, what alternatives should be considered. We looked at some recent suggestions, some new names already in use at other institutions, suggestions from our last departmental meeting, on the Autocat discussion list, within our task force, and eleswhere. A preliminary table has been set up listing some of these. After looking at various options, the committee members decide to pick the 5 that they could recommend to Joan as perhaps most compelling:
1. Resource Description and Access [yes-- same name as the new cataloging code]
2. Metadata Services
3. Cataloging and Metadata Services
4. Bibliographic Control and Standards Enforcement (where staff get to wear badges and uniforms? This one was a bit tongue-in-cheek)
5. Metadata and Intellectual Access
Becky pointed out that having the word "services" in the name would harmonize well with the names of other units, e.g., access services. Tom agreed this was an important point.