The bulk of this meeting focused on an update from the Library of
Congress and a report of the results from the R2 consulting report.
The consultants report examined the economics of producing MARC records in North America (U.S.A., Canada). Respondents to the survey (libraries, vendors) were self selected and not random. The report asks, who creates original MARC records?
The report found:
- LC cataloging continues to have value
- There is a heavy reselling of LC records
- LC catalogs numerous titles not retained for their collection
- A 1902 law allows LC to recoup only 10% of the cataloging profits their work generates
- Conflicts exist over record ownership
- Libraries are trapped by their ILS
- New entities are using free access to make commercial solutions to address searching issues
- Libraries are buying MARC records instead of creating them.
Nothing in the R2 report presented was particularly shocking. I appreciated a comment made from the floor which reflects the differences between LC and other libraries. In short, catalogers outside of LC where many hats and only a portion of their work is focused on cataloging output. Committees, training, supervision of other areas, etc. take a large portion of the cataloging amount time. In fact, I can easily say more of my work week is spent on other, related cataloging tasks and very little is devoted solely to original cataloging. This will not change as metadata expertise is needed across the libraries. Cataloging 100% of the time is a luxury and not how most libraries operate.
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