There's No Catalog Like No Catalog - Tennant: Digital Libraries

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Roy Tennant

There's No Catalog Like No Catalog
May 27, 2008

I have the distinct honor of serving as the master of ceremonies for a program at the upcoming ALA Annual Conference that promises to be a rollicking good time. Billed as "There's No Catalog Like No Catalog: The Ultimate Debate on the Future of the Library Catalog," LITA has signed up none other than the likes of Karen Schneider, Karen Coyle, Joe Janes, and Stephen Abram to debate this topic in the Grand Ballroom A of the Hyatt from 1:30-3:30pm on Saturday, June 28. Be there or definitely be somewhere more boring. I'm going to need a fire extinguisher to keep the stage from bursting into flames.

As MC, I get to come up with the questions, in consultation with this group as well as the sponsoring committee and you all (please comment on this post below or email me directly). Here's what I have so far, albeit in very drafty form since I've only just now shared them with the panel.

What are library catalogs good for and not good for?
What is the appropriate role for the library catalog in the library information environment?
Could one big catalog do it for everyone?
Should library catalogs be offered to users as a finding tool, or are they better served by systems that unify access to other sources of information as well?
At what level should catalog services be provided -- locally by an in-house system, or on the network by a network service provider?
Do open source solutions offer a compelling option, either now or in the near-term future?
What changes do you see coming in the library software market and how will those changes affect options for libraries?
If you could snap your fingers and do one thing to the current library software market, what would it be?

So let me know what questions you would like to see put to this august panel regarding library catalogs and their future -- or the lack thereof. Come on, don't hold back, I can take it.

Posted by Roy Tennant on May 27, 2008 | Comments (7)

May 27, 2008
In response to: There's No Catalog Like No Catalog
Jodi Schneider commented:

Roy, Will this be videotaped? Or recorded in some way?

May 27, 2008
In response to: There's No Catalog Like No Catalog
Jonathan Rochkind commented:

What will be the role of manually created structured metadata in future discovery systems,and what role will libraries play in the creation of such metadata?

May 28, 2008
In response to: There's No Catalog Like No Catalog
Larry Campbell commented:

Too bad I can't be there, but: "Is the user search interface necessarily tied to 'the catalog'?" And then: "Why can't there be different library 'catalogs' for different contexts, purposes, objects, etc.? (In fact, aren't there already?)"

May 28, 2008
In response to: There's No Catalog Like No Catalog
Peter Murray commented:

I have an alternative to "Could one big catalog do it for everyone?" -- What are the considerations in balancing the desire for local autonomy with the network effect (the critical mass of users at which point social functions -- tagging, annotations, recommendation mining, etc. -- sustain themselves)

May 28, 2008
In response to: There's No Catalog Like No Catalog
Scott commented:

Sound like it will be a great panel, Roy! The question I would ask is, "Given the success of 'mash-ups' in creating valuable new services by melding existing ones, when do you anticipate seeing catalogs with open, documented and powerful api's that will allow anyone to use the data that we are hiding behind our current catalog's walls?"

May 29, 2008
In response to: There's No Catalog Like No Catalog
Roy Tennant commented:

All excellent suggestions, thanks! I don't know if the program will be recorded in any way, but I'll ask.

May 30, 2008
In response to: There's No Catalog Like No Catalog
Nick commented:

I'd love to have the panel respond to the points raised by Thomas Mann in his writings, notably in his essay "The Peloponnesian War and the future of reference... (Sorry, the comments won't let me post a link). He convincingly details the superiority of a traditional library catalog as an info retrieval tool vs. tagging, federated searching, etc. Not to say that such tools are not valuable as much-needed enhancements to OPACs, but I would love to see empirical studies that measure the quality of information retrieved using traditional library catalogs vs. using only these alternative search methods. /Nick