Cataloging Born Digital Online Collections MICHELLE MASCARO HEAD
Cataloging Born Digital Online Collections MICHELLE MASCARO HEAD OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS METADATA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
What is a born digital collection?
Background Providing access in the catalog to digitized collections through a link in “physical” collection record. No access in catalog to increasing number of born digital online collections, that have no physical counter part. Group tasked to come up with local best practices for creating collection level MARC records for born digital collections. (Note: still a work in progress. )
How to catalog? Website Under RDA websites are cataloged as integrating resources. Archival Collection Following the rules of DACS (which were designed for physical collections)
Preliminary recommendation Neither approach is perfect To simplify record maintenance, leaning towards treating digital collections that are finite as archival collections and digital collections that are ongoing as updating websites.
Problematic Elements Extent 2. Dates 1.
Extent RDA Default “ 1 online resource. ” Option to qualify by number of subunits (e. g. , pages, pieces, files) DACS Two options (can be combined): Count of number of items Digital storage space (e. g. , MB)
Extent Examples RDA DACS 300 __ 1 online resource 300 __ 25 digital objects 300 __ 1 online resource (4 sound files) 300 __ 48 Megabytes 300 __ 1 online resource (25 digital objects) 300 __ 52 MB (1, 180 computer files)
Dates What date is most helpful for users? Date of publication (i. e. , mounted online. ) Date of original creation. Indexing limitations Our III Millennium system uses 26 x $c for date limiting. Other date fields, such as the fixed field and 046 (special coded dates) are not indexed.
Dates RDA (website) For integrating resources, the record the date of publication (i. e. , mounted online. ) If date content/coverage is different from publication, info is explained in a note. Open date ranges are permissible. DACS (collection) Record date range of content. Open date ranges are not permissible. If new material is expected, make a note and update range when accrual happens.
Date example (on going collection) RDA (website) 264 _1 La Jolla, Calif. : $b UC San Diego, $c 2011520 __ … Archive of oral histories beginning in 1998 and being continually added to. DACS (collection) 264 _0 $c 1998 -2017 584 __ Further accruals are expected.
Date Example (finite collection) RDA (website) 264 _1 La Jolla, Calif. : $b UC San Diego, $c 2017 DACS (collection) 264 _0 $c 2013 -2015 520 __ This collection contains data from a Self-Calibrating Pressure Recorder (SCPR) deployed at Axial Seamount from 2013 September to 2015 August. In summary, liked DACS for its “neatness, ” but considered about ongoing maintenance.
Creative Date Solutions Solution A: 245 $f 245 10 SCPR collection, 2015. Solution B: repeat 264 $f 2013 - 264 _1 La Jolla, Calif. : $b UC San Diego, $c 2017. 264 _0 $c 2013 -2015 264 _1 La Jolla, Calif. : $b UC San Diego, $c 2017. For indexing purposes we like the repeatable 264 option and display options.
Summary Current cataloging standards do not neatly describe born digital online collections.
Questions/ Comments? MICHELLE MASCARO MMASCARO@UCSD. EDU
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