Collection landscaping in the common information environment: a case study using the Scottish Collections Network (SCONE) : report for work package B of the JISC CC-interop project

Dunsire, Gordon Collection landscaping in the common information environment: a case study using the Scottish Collections Network (SCONE) : report for work package B of the JISC CC-interop project., 2004 [Report]

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English abstract

Collection-level description has a role to play in all stages of the Information Environment: • The Entry stage can be a set of all CLDs in a service, or some pre-selected sub-set. • The Survey stage involves refining the set presented in the Entry stage, by finding CLDs with related characteristics. • The Discovery stage can use hyperlinks to online finding aids from individual CLDs. The set of CLDs selected in the Survey stage can be used to create sub-sets of catalogues in distributed union catalogues. • The Detail stage can use collection location and agent information to determine general collection availability. Collection landscaping services can offer a number of Entry stage modes: • The set of all collections in the environment. • A static sub-set of collections designed for frequent use. • Facilities for dynamic creation of sub-sets by searching for common attributes. • Facilities for manual creation of sub-sets by selection of individual collections. Automatic invocation by remote landscaping services of any of these Entry stage modes is desirable. Applications include: • Distributed, hybrid collections with a specific focus. • Exhibitions and other temporary events with a specific theme. • Portals based on subjects, people, and places. A single CLD can be used as the basis of the Survey stage by finding collections with the same location or associated agent. The principle of functional granularity can be used to create structured collection hierarchies for linking CLDs with collections of metadata aggregated at a higher level. This can be used to simplify the Discovery stage for the user interested in a specific collection by disclosing only the nearest or most co-extensive online catalogues. The same hierarchies can be used when there are overlapping aggregations of metadata in a single distributed union catalogue or clump. If a lower-level Z target is temporarily unavailable, the hierarchy can be used to automatically disclose a higher-level target. The Detail stage benefits from general information about access to collections. Such information includes location opening hours, restrictions on access to specific types of collection, and license conditions. This type of information can be inherited from super-collections which are co-extensive with the location and administrator, using functional granularity to created system-defined CLDs where required. This avoids unnecessary duplication of data entry, storage, and maintenance. Creating a comprehensive set of CLDs for institutional collections based on organization and agent directories as justification for functional granularity produces a service for supporting the Detail stage which is: • Maintainable. Directories may be updated at regular intervals, and this activity can be redirected to CLD services. • Able to display general access conditions for special and named sub-collections as soon as they are added, through inheritance from the collection hierarchy. • The basis of a geographical landscaping service from location addresses, using a controlled thesaurus of towns, regions, and countries. Collection landscaping is a useful tool to improve the usability of complex information environments such as a UK National Union Catalogue (UKNUC) created as a cross-searchable distributed union catalogue whose components themselves might be physical, harvested, or distributed union catalogues. This implies that an efficient and effective landscaping service for such an UKNUC would benefit from co-ordination of CLD creation by UK service providers to ensure interoperability at higher levels of aggregation. This should involve the development of a protocol covering: • Creation and disclosure of unique identifiers for CLDs. • Guidance on creating CLDs based on functional granularity requirements. • Disclosure of local CLD hierarchies to external services. • Recommended minimum set of finding options for landscape mapping by UKNUC users. • Guidelines on interoperable content for mapping options, such as subject topic, form of agent name, and geographical location. There are a number of reasons for planning a distributed UKNUC on a regional basis, with the development of information environments based on distinct geographical areas which collectively cover the whole of the UK: • A number of regional information environments are at a relatively advanced stage of development. • Data for the basis of regional CLD services are available in the form of institutional and service directories which are often geographically based. • The physical location of non-digital collections is an important factor for users creating dynamic landscapes. • Users do not make distinctions about how a collection is managed or its finding aid constructed. There is demand for services which cover archives, libraries, museums, and digital collections in an integrated way. • There is a likelihood of overlap in regional cross-domain CLD services of personal and organizational agents as owners, collectors, and subjects. Local authorities have ownership of collections in public archives, libraries, and museums. Collectors often split and donate hybrid collections to local cultural institutions. Local people, companies, societies, and agencies will be the subject of archives, manuscripts, memorabilia, ephemera, and books. • Local information professionals are better-placed to create and maintain controlled vocabularies for local agents and collection subjects, and often have existing networks and mechanisms for co-ordinating such activity. • Collections with subjects of regional interest tend to be located within the region, and will be catered for by local CLDs. Where collections are located outside of the region, their remote CLDs may not exist or be accessible via the local subject because the remote service has no functional reason for doing so. A local CLD would probably have to be created anyway.

Item type:	Report
Keywords:	collection level cataloguing, library information networks
Subjects:	H. Information sources, supports, channels. > HM. OPACs. I. Information treatment for information services > IA. Cataloging, bibliographic control.
Depositing user:	Emma McCulloch
Date deposited:	03 Feb 2005
Last modified:	02 Oct 2014 12:00
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/10760/5887

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