In New Directions in Information Organization the editors Jung-Ran Park and Lynne C. Howarth compiled 11 contributions providing potential answers to the challenges of the “digital information explosion,” “changing user needs and expectations” and “decentralization” of cataloging we are currently facing. Whereupon new refers to approaches in information organization the profession has already been discussing and applying for the last 10 years and the scope of the volume is very much limited to the domain of (academic) libraries.
The content is presented in three sections covering Semantic Web and Linked Data (Section I), Web 2.0 Technologies (Section II) and approaches how to increase networking and interactivity in library catalogs (Section III).
“Organizing Bibliographical Data with RDA,” the first chapter in the first section, provides an overview of the efforts of the library community to make bibliographic data accessible as Linked Data within the Semantic Web via the cataloging framework Resource Description and Access (RDA). The contribution gives a short overview of the underlying principles and technologies like RDF, OWL and the Linked Data principles and devotes considerable space to summarizing the controversies inside the library profession regarding the replacement of established standards like AACR. The second contribution “Keeping Libraries Relevant in the Semantic Web with RDA” supplies a narrative overview of the not always easy transition from the MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging) standard to RDA. The chapter is a reprint from November 2011 what partly explains its defensive and somewhat missionary character. The third contribution in this section “Filling in the Blanks in RDA or remaining Blank?” is devoted to the Functional Requirements of Subject Authority Data (FRSAD) guidelines. Alan Poulter advocates FRSAD as a significant approach to subject indexing which could be enhanced by integrating principles of syntactic indexing underlying the PRECIS indexing system developed in the 1970s. The last contribution in this section “Organizing and Sharing Information Using Linked Data” summarizes the basic Linked Data principles and gives examples how Linked Data are used to expand bibliographic and authority data. The author introduces a number of Linked Data sets from the library domain and reinforces its “huge potential” (p. 85), however, abstains from explaining the potential additional benefit of Linked Data from both the professional perspective as well as from the perspective of the library user. The function of the figures (pp. 80-83) remains largely obscure.
The second section begins with an instructive overview “Social Cataloging; Social Cataloger” on the potential of social tagging in library catalogs. Shawne Miksa resists the temptation to play off social tagging against professional cataloging and instead takes up the challenge to evaluate current library practice with regard to whether it supports user access in the best possible way. The findings of the chapter “Social Indexing: A Solution to the Challenges of Current Information Organization” that, compared to professional indexing, social tags provide more accurate descriptions and offer more current terminology than controlled vocabularies are difficult to follow as the conclusions from the literature (p. 128) remain on a very general level and the evaluated resources Intute and BUBL are no longer online. “Organizing Photographs: Past and Present” gives examples how the organization of photographs has changed from the introduction of photography in 1839 up to the ubiquitous use of camera phones. The impact of the described developments on professional image collections is not discussed.
The opening chapter of the third section “VuFind – An OPAC 2.0?” briefly documents the experiences of two US University libraries with the open source library discovery system VuFind. The chosen solution is cursorily compared to some commercial discovery systems. Whereas the implementation of VuFind is documented (p. 163) the reader hardly learns anything about what VuFind actually does for the user and how it exactly supports discovery. The reported positive results from usability tests “the sophisticated features within VuFind are appreciated by users” (p. 168) remain rather general. Based on a dissertation (2012), “Faceted Search in Library Catalogs” embraces the benefits of faceted information retrieval based on academic research between 2000 and 2011. In library catalogs faceted navigation is complementary to keyword search, especially suited for open-ended and complex tasks, and able to improve search accuracy (p. 199). “Doing More With Less: Increasing the Value of a Consortial Catalog”-definitely the reviewer’s favorite chapter-is a case study how the Morris Library of the Southern Illinois University defaulted the OPAC to a consortional catalog search. Through their concise description of the implementation of the consortional search Elizabeth Cox, Stephanie Graves, Andrea Imre and Cassie Wagner provide valuable insights of what a library may gain by such a change as well as what obstacles such a project has to overcome. Evaluations of the project based on borrowing statistics as well as on well documented usability tests complete the chapter. The section ends with the chapter “All Metadata Politics Is Local” that reviews metadata quality studies to deduce quality criteria that abide by general standards as well as reflect local information environments and expectations. The chapter provides a useful overview on quality issues of metadata but suffers from the lack of practical examples of metadata quality assessments in the library domain.
The three important approaches to information organization covered in this volume have been with us for at least 10 years. The majority of academics in the field of library and information science as well as practitioners will already have looked into most of the subjects addressed in this volume and thereby have gained a general overview. What is doubtlessly needed however is a synopsis and appraisement of the identified trends regarding their scientific foundation as well as the suitability for daily use. New Directions in Information Organization meets these requirements in parts. The case study how the Morris Library of the Southern Illinois University defaulted the OPAC to a consortional catalog is a good example how practical experiences with the introduction of new technologies and organizational structures can be passed on to a larger audience in an intelligible way. In their concluding remarks of the whole volume the editors not only provide a summary of the main trends but also balance the discussed directions against each other, admittedly on a very general and notional level “[…] the future of social indexing may involve a partnership of user and professional navigating a course somewhere between the social Web 2.0, and the structured data of the Semantic Web.” (p. 255).
New Directions in Information Organization suffers from a general problem of compilations. The information imparted is either too general (like e.g. the information on ontologies and vocabularies in the Semantic Web in the first chapter) and therefore largely persists on referring to a number of concepts like SKOS, FOAF, OWL, FRBR and CIDOC without providing further insights, or presupposes too much like Barbara Tillet’s chapter on RDA that presupposes a familiarity of the reader with (library) cataloging and organizational structures.
Notwithstanding the above mentioned shortcomings, the reviewed volume may serve as a useful record and synopsis of important trends in information organization during the last 10 years addressed to advanced academics and practitioners within the library profession. The small index (p. 261/262) makes it useful as a reference book. Undergraduates as well as readers from the larger field of information science and practice, but from outside the immediate library profession, may stumble upon the library jargon in some contributions as well as the curtailed discussion of basic concepts, for instance of the Semantic Web. New Directions in Information Organization has provided me with some useful insights and food for thought regarding the future of library services, especially library catalogs. However, I take the liberty of stating that I would have liked a less defensive approach that not only summarizes how libraries have taken up new trends but also outlines what the library profession has to offer in the field of information organization.
