SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

March 2, 2018 by Gary Price

Visual Resources Association (VRA) Publishes “Cataloging and Metadata Practices Survey Report”

March 2, 2018 by Gary Price

The report (32 pages; PDF) is published by the Survey Working Group of the Data Standards and the VRA Core Oversight Committees of the Visual Resources Association (VRA). The survey uses data submitted by 157 respondents.

From an Introductory Blog Post (via VRA Blog):

2018-03-02_10-31-56The Cataloging and Metadata Survey (fielded between February 22 and April 7, 2017), developed by the survey working group of the Visual Resources Association (VRA) Data Standards and VRA Core Oversight Committees, has been completed. The working group prepared this report summarizing the findings, conclusions, and next steps.
The survey’s main objectives were to:

  • understand the scope of cataloging and metadata practice of visual resources professionals,
  • evaluate the use and satisfaction with the VRA Core data standard, and
  • determine how the VRA can best support the needs of cataloging and metadata professionals in the future.

Direct to Full Text Report
3
2 pages; PDF.
Findings Listed in Executive Summary of the Report

Current practices:

  • Catalogers fill a variety of roles and titles; they were most likely to identify themselves as specialists in cataloging and metadata.
  • The majority of cataloging work is being done by library cataloging staff.
  • The majority of respondents (58 percent) perform cataloging work in higher education. When surveyed ten years ago (the VRA 2007 Professional Status Survey), 83 percent said they worked in academia. (This was a broader survey which may have included non-cataloging positions, but still points to changing employment patterns).
  • More respondents are employed in museums and archives than there were a decade ago in comparison with the 2007 survey.
  • While the majority of respondents spend most of their time on “images of works they don’t own,” i.e. images for teaching and learning; they are cataloging a wide array of material types.
  • More respondents are using home-grown systems (which include in-house programmed, Access, and Filemaker), for creation of metadata. Excel is an almost universal tool used during the workflow as well.
  • Most respondents are not embedding descriptive metadata in digital images, but 42 percent would like to do this.
  • Survey respondents are using a broad array of data standards.
  • While use of data content standards is almost universal, the majority of respondents prefer in-house guidelines, followed by CCO, RDA, AACR2 and DCRMG equally, and DACS.
  • For data schemas, respondents are using Dublin Core most frequently followed by in-house, Marc 21, VRA Core 4, and EAD.
  • Data content, data schema, and data value standards that are used vary according to the kinds of materials respondents catalog.
  • Respondents are heavily engaged in data manipulation with most converting data to other formats to allow sharing and repurposing.
  • Demand for the respondents’ services increased in all areas measured in the survey; demands for collaborative, cross-departmental projects increased the most.
  • The majority of respondents are either involved in, or interested in getting involved in, linked data or generating XML. There is less involvement and interest in migrating to RDF. (Note: this may indicate a lack of understanding about the role of RDF as a framework for Linked Open Data. Putting link references in data is only a first step.)
  • Almost half of the respondents are not now storing vocabulary acronyms, refids (record IDs) or URI links for controlled vocabulary terms in their data, but a quarter of them indicated the desire to begin doing so.
  • The majority of respondents are not downloading and storing (databasing) open content from the Web.
  • The majority of respondents believe they will need new skills in all the areas listed in the survey.

Direct to Full Text Report
3
2 pages; PDF.

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Data Files, Libraries, News

SHARE:

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

Ithaka S+R Releases "A*CENSUS II: Archives Administrators Survey" Findings

From an Ithaka S+R Blog Post by the Report’s Author, Makala Skinner:  On Tuesday, January 31, we published the A*CENSUS II Archives Administrators Survey findings. The Archives Administrator Survey Report is ...

“Food is a Right: Libraries and Food Justice" (A New White Paper From the Urban Libraries Council)

From the Urban Libraries Council (ULC): The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) announces today the release of its latest white paper, “Food is a Right: Libraries and Food Justice,” which addresses ...

Standards: W3C Re-Launched as a Public-Interest Non-Profit Organization; eLife’s New Model: Open for Submissions; & More News Headlines

Annual Report 2022: Highlights from the Data Curation Network arXiv Announces New Policy on ChatGPT and Similar Tools (via arXiv Blog) COPE in 2023 (via Committee on Publication Ethics) eLife’s ...

Journal Article: "A Free Toolkit to Foster Open Access Agreements"

The article linked to below was today published by Insights. Title A Free Toolkit to Foster Open Access Agreements Authors Alicia Wise Information Power Lorraine Estelle Information Power Source Insights 36 ...

Six Libraries Partner With GPO To Preserve Government Information

From the Government Publishing Office (GPO): Libraries at the University of Montana, the University of Memphis, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville have signed Memorandum of Agreements with the U.S. ...

Michigan: Grand Rapids Public Library Finds Rare Set of 'Magic Lantern' Slides Showing Early Tuskegee Institute

From Fox 17 (Grand Rapids): The folks over at the Grand Rapids Public Library made a fascinating discovery while digging through their massive archives back in March 2021, and are ...

Journal Article: "Knowledge Work in Platform Fact-Checking Partnerships"

The article linked below was recently published by the International Journal of Communication. Title Knowledge Work in Platform Fact-Checking Partnerships Authors Valérie Bélair-Gagnon University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA Rebekah Larsen ...

State Library Looks to Install Book Vending Machines Around North Dakota; A Guide to Communicating With Others: Messaging...

A Guide to Communicating With Others: Messaging Apps (via Privacy International) De Gruyter Acquires Mercury Learning and Information Report by the French Committee for Open Science Working Group on Electronic ...

Just Released: Calculators Now Emulated at The Internet Archive (The Calculator Drawer)

From an Internet Archive Blog Post by Jason Scott: It’s time to add another family of emulated older technology to the Internet Archive. The vast majority of platforms within what ...

Journal Article: "Crossref as a Bibliographic Discovery Tool in the Arts and Humanities"

The article linked below was recently published by Quantitative Science Studies. Title Crossref as a Bibliographic Discovery Tool in the Arts and Humanities Authors Ángel Borrego Universitat de Barcelona, Melcior ...

Montana: ImagineIF Trustees Hold Special Meeting on Library Security Concerns; Pennsylvania: Philly’s Free Library is Making Space for...

Colorado: Suspensions Increase at Pikes Peak Library District Under New Security Protocols (via The Gazette) Montana: ImagineIF Trustees Hold Special Meeting on Library Security Concerns (via Daily Inter Mountain) North ...

Not Real News: An Associated Press Roundup of Untrue Stories Shared Widely on Social Media This Week

From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.