July 2009 Article Abstracts
Librarian for Latin American and Caribbean Studies in U.S. Academic and Research Libraries: A Content Analysis of Position Announcements, 1970–2007
By Jesús Alonso-Regalado and Mary K. Van Ullen
The present research investigates the evolving requirements, roles, and responsibilities of the Latin American and Caribbean studies librarian. Content analysis was used to study 94 position announcements published from 1970 to 2007. Variables were examined from the following categories: position description, educational background, work experience, technology skills, languages, personal traits, duties, and subject responsibilities. Cross tabulations and chi-square tests were executed to determine the statistical significance of relationships between variables. An advanced degree in a related subject field is expected by employers. Strong Spanish language abilities are required, and a working knowledge of Portuguese is highly desirable. The average number of duties per announcement has increased over time, reflecting the evolution of the position from being narrowly specialized to being more diversified. The Latin American and Caribbean studies librarian may also be responsible for additional subjects, in particular Iberian studies.
How the Current Draft of RDA Addresses the Cataloging of Reproductions, Facsimiles, and Microforms
By Steven A. Knowlton
The cataloging of microforms and other reproductions has been difficult throughout the history of cataloging codes, particularly due to the “multiple versions problem.” The proposed new cataloging code, Resource Description and Access (RDA), seeks to clarify the relationship between reproductions and originals by applying the principles of Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) to cataloging. While the use of FRBR principles does help to identify the relationships between works in the catalog, RDA as currently designed is challenging for the cataloger and includes many data that may prove to be difficult for catalog users to understand.
Graphic Novels in Libraries Supporting Teacher Education and Librarianship Programs
By Virginia Kay Williams and Damen V. Peterson
Academic libraries supporting education and library science programs collect juvenile literature to support courses that teach students to evaluate and use books with children and teenagers. Graphic novels have not only become popular with teens but also are being frequently discussed in both the education and library literature. This paper discusses the literature on graphic novels for teens, explores the extent to which academic libraries supporting education and library science programs collect graphic novels for teens, and concludes that academic librarians responsible for juvenile collections should evaluate their graphic novel holdings and begin actively collecting graphic novels for teens.
User Tags versus Subject Headings: Can User-Supplied Data Improve Subject Access to Library Collections?
By Peter J. Rolla
Some members of the library community, including the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, have suggested that libraries should open up their catalogs to allow users to add descriptive tags to the bibliographic data in catalog records. The web site LibraryThing currently permits its members to add such user tags to its records for books and therefore provides a useful resource to contrast with library bibliographic records. A comparison between the LibraryThing tags for a group of books and the library-supplied subject headings for the same books shows that users and catalogers approach these descriptors very differently. Because of these differences, user tags can enhance subject access to library materials, but they cannot entirely replace controlled vocabularies such as the Library of Congress subject headings.
Name Authority Control in Local Digitization Projects and the Eastern North Carolina Postcard Collection
By Patricia M. Dragon
Authority control is a vitally important but frequently overlooked aspect of metadata creation for local digitization projects. The addition of digital projects metadata to the traditional cataloging environment creates a number of challenges for authority control, challenges arising in turn from the nature of the materials being digitized, choices made during the project, and the tools used for the project. By examining the authority control applied to named entities in the Eastern North Carolina Postcard Collection at East Carolina University, this paper describes these challenges in some detail, and also describes endeavors to overcome them.
Idaho Participation in NACO: The Effect on Idaho Corporate Name Authority Control
By Cheri A. Folkner and Barbara C. Glackin
In 2005 five Idaho institutions joined the Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO) of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging in order to expand the underlying data that help library users find and identify resources and to improve cataloging efficiencies within the state. The objective of this study was to determine what effect this participation by Idaho institutions in the NACO program had on the authority control of Idaho agencies and other Idaho corporate entities. Data analysis of Idaho corporate name authority records showed this participation significantly increased authority control for these entities. In less than three years, Idaho institutions created more than 12 percent of the 1,763 Idaho corporate name authority records identified in the Library of Congress NACO Authority File.