Numerous sources of organised information are created, published and circulated in every unit of time across the globe. As an administrator of the systematic recording of information sources in a library, the cataloguer’s task becomes hectic and painstaking. Due to various reasons, some libraries opted to outsource professionals for cataloguing, in which quality check or scrutiny of every data field is not possible for the administrator. The libraries invest a lot of time, effort and money in cataloguing similar sources in their collections. The primary purpose of this research is to address quality-control issues, support cataloguers in producing high-quality work and enhance cooperative cataloguing. An automated tool, “Cataloguers Hub”, has been developed during this research in the cloud environment. In this research article, the development of the “Cataloguers Hub”, its features, needs and the scope for future development are described in detail.
To conduct this research, a mixed-methods approach is used. Through rigorous review of the literature, key problems are identified and objectives are framed accordingly. The assessment framework has been identified and selected as the foundation for conducting the error analysis. Agile methodology was implemented to develop the online platform.
“Cataloguers Hub” is the prime outcome of this research. It is designed as a dedicated platform for cataloguing, providing services and enhancing cooperative activities in cataloguing. It is a digital hub where cataloguers can register, access the required catalogue records from the database, contribute to the system’s database in standard format and check the quality of the available catalogue. The system can detect and help to reduce duplicate records in the catalogues.
This study fulfilled the need for an online platform to collect, contribute quality metadata and also assess existing catalogue records of libraries. This research can be viewed as a nascent initiative to explore the latent scope of open-ended cooperative cataloguing on a single platform, aiming to save time, effort and cost in cataloguing, while also maintaining and improving the quality of cataloguing practice.
