Metadata and librarianship: will MARC survive?
| Pages | 6-7 |
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830410524440 |
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| Author | Bradford Lee Eden |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Metadata and
librarianship: will MARC
survive?
Bradford Lee Eden
The recent proliferation of metadata standards
and schemata is part of the information
explosion that has occurred in the past ten
years. The appearance of the Internet and the
World Wide Web, the ease-of-use and
affordability of computers and e-mail at home
and at work, the rapid pace at which scholarship
and research can now take place due to
technology and e-collegiality, and the rise in the
number and complexity of formats in which
information can be contained and stored, have
meant that numerous communities and
individuals are challenged to find ways to
effectively send, store, preserve, exchange, and
migrate information in the electronic
environment.
While libraries have usually led the way
regarding presentation and storage of
information with regard to the print
environment, their place in this new electronic
age has yet to be determined and measured.
The development of the MARC format for the
exchange of information between and among
computers in the early 1970s, along with the
development of AACR to standardize the use of
MARC, helped libraries to take advantage of
the power of computers to access and organize
information, and to electronically present and
display information to their public. In this new
environment of CDs, DVDs, aggregator
databases, full-text, data sets, PDFs, jpgs, tiffs,
OCRs, and streaming media (just to name a
few), and with scholarly and commercial
entities constructing their own
information/metadata standards to deal with
the challenges and problems of electronic
interchange and storage, libraries are often left
out of the loop, if not totally forgotten.
Does the MARC format have a place in this
new information age? Is it outdated, archaic,
too based on the print/card catalog era? Is it
robust and dynamic enough to describe and
document the current information explosion of
formats, containers, data, hypertext, and media,
as well as future technological information
packages? Are libraries and librarians exploring
and experimenting with the MARC format, in
order to make it more viable, usable, and
interoperable for today's information needs?
This Library Hi Tech issue presents case studies,
experiments, and opinions of the MARC
format by a variety of individuals and
organizations. In some cases, MARC has been
The author
Bradford Lee Eden is Head, Web and Digitization Services,
Las Vegas Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas,
Nevada, USA.
Keywords
Administrative data processing, Technical services,
Librarians, Information management, Descriptive cataloguing
Abstract
Metadata schema and standards are now a part of the
information landscape. Librarianship has slowly realized that
MARC is only one of a proliferation of metadata standards,
and that MARC has many pros and cons related to its age,
original conception, and biases. Should librarianship continue
to promote the MARC standard? Are there better metadata
standards out there that are more robust, user-friendly, and
dynamic in the organization and presentation of information?
This special issue examines current initiatives that are actively
incorporating MARC standards and concepts into new
metadata schemata, while also predicting a future where
MARC may not be the metadata schema of choice for the
organization and description of information.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Editorial
6
Library Hi Tech
Volume 22 .Number 1 .2004 .pp. 6-7
#Emerald Group Publishing Limited .ISSN 0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830410524440
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