The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of aboutness and conceptual analysis, essential concepts for LIS practitioners to understand. Aboutness refers to the subject matter and genre/form properties of a resource. It is identified during conceptual analysis, which yields an aboutness statement, a summary of a resource's aboutness. While few scholars have discussed the aboutness determination process in detail, the methods described by Patrick Wilson, D.W. Langridge, Arlene G. Taylor, and Daniel N. Joudrey provide exemplary frame-works for determining aboutness and are presented here. Discussions of how to construct an aboutness statement and the challenges associated with aboutness determination follow.

This fourth edition provides an updated look at information organization, featuring coverage of the Semantic Web, linked data, and EAC-CPF; new metadata models such as IFLA-LRM and RiC; and new perspectives on RDA and its implementation. This latest edition ofThe Organization of Informationis a key resource for anyone in the beginning stages of their LIS career as well as longstanding professionals and paraprofessionals seeking accurate, clear, and up-to-date guidance on information organization activities across the discipline. The book begins with a historical look at information organization methods, covering libraries, archives, museums, and online settings. It then addresses the types of retrieval tools used throughout the discipline—catalogs, finding aids, indexes, bibliographies, and search engines—before describing the functionality of systems, explaining the basic principles of system design, and defining how they affect information organization. The principles and functionality of metadata is next, with coverage of the types, functions, tools, and models (particularly FRBR, IFLA-LRM, RDF) and how encoding works for use and sharing—for example, MARC, XML schemas, and linked data approaches. The latter portion of the resource describes specific activities related to the creation of metadata for resources. These chapters offer an overview of the major issues, challenges, and standards used in the information professions, addressing topics such as resource description (including standards found in RDA, DACS, and CCO), access points, authority control, subject analysis, controlled vocabularies—notably LCSH, MeSH, Sears, and AAT—and categorization systems such as DDC and LCC.

A new edition of this best-selling textbook reintroduces the topic of library cataloging from a fresh, modern perspective. Not many books merit an eleventh edition, but this popular text does. Newly updated,Introduction to Cataloging and Classificationprovides an introduction to descriptive cataloging based on contemporary standards, explaining the basic tenets to readers without previous experience, as well as to those who merely want a better understanding of the process as it exists today. The text opens with the foundations of cataloging, then moves to specific details and subject matter such as Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD), the International Cataloging Principles (ICP), and RDA. Unlike other texts, the book doesn't presume a close familiarity with the MARC bibliographic or authorities formats; ALA'sAnglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd Edition, revised (AACR2R); or the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). Subject access to library materials is covered in sufficient depth to make the reader comfortable with the principles and practices of subject cataloging and classification. In addition, the book introduces MARC, BIBFRAME, and other approaches used to communicate and display bibliographic data. Discussions of formatting, presentation, and administrative issues complete the book; questions useful for review and study appear at the end of each chapter.

In their 2005 study, Gross and Taylor found that more than a third of records retrieved by keyword searches would be lost without subject headings. A review of the literature since then shows that numerous studies, in various disciplines, have found that a quarter to a third of records returned in a keyword search would be lost without controlled vocabulary. Other writers, though, have continued to suggest that controlled vocabulary be discontinued. Addressing criticisms of the Gross/Taylor study, this study replicates the search process in the same online catalog, but after the addition of automated enriched metadata such as tables of contents and summaries. The proportion of results that would be lost remains high.

Discussions of cataloging and metadata education are popular in social media outlets, scholarly literature, conference meetings, and so on. This article, the third installment of a longitudinal study on the state of information organization (IO) education, analyzes the recent literature to identify new and continuing themes related to IO education. It provides an overview of the curricula of the 58 library and information science graduate programs in the United States and Canada accredited by the American Library Association (ALA). It examines the current conditions in 2012–2013 and compares them to data from earlier studies. It provides an overview of the types of IO courses available, program requirements, the number of schools offering IO courses, and the number of schools teaching those courses.

ABSTRACT Education for library cataloging and the organization of information (OI) continues to evolve. The current condition of graduate courses in these areas is examined through a review of the curricula of the 56 ALA-accredited graduate schools of library and information sciences (LIS) in the United States and Canada. This article, the second installment of a longitudinal study that began in 2000 to examine the state of cataloging education, contains a snapshot of this component of LIS education from the 2005–2006 academic year. It examines the types of OI courses being offered, the number of these courses actually being taught, and current trends and developments in cataloging education based on comparisons with earlier studies.

Conceptual analysis, the essential first step in the subject analysis process, is an attempt by a cataloguer or indexer to determine the subject matter, or the «aboutness», of a document. Despite centuries of organizing information in libraries, little is known about how documents are analyzed to determine their subject matter. This paper, an attempt to better understand the processes involved in determining aboutness, is based on the author’s ongoing dissertation research. It examines how interested, yet untrained, participants perform the tasks of conceptual analysis when no process is suggested or imposed. The study used observation, think-aloud methods, and semi-structured interviews to examine the participants’ subject determination processes. Transcripts of the analysis sessions and the interviews, as well as the participants’ aboutness statements, were examined for underlying patterns. This paper focuses on one of the five activities identified in this research: how the understanding of a document’s aboutness is formed. Five models for this process are presented, illustrated, and discussed.

SUMMARY The authors, Professor Arlene G. Taylor and her doctoral student, Daniel N. Joudrey, discuss their approach to teaching subject cataloging in the graduate library and information sciences (LIS) program at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Sciences. This essay discusses the authors' thoughts on the importance of subject cataloging in graduate LIS education, the theory versus practice debate, goals, class work, grading, making it concrete to the students, ordering topics in the courses, separating subject analysis from descriptive cataloging, and concerns for the future. In the not too distant past, library schools considered the teaching of Dewey Decimal Classification and Library of Congress Subject Headings to be totally adequate preparation for graduates to function subject-wise in their chosen profession. As time has moved on we have gone through periods in which even these were considered unnecessary “because keyword searching is better than subject headings” and “classification is only a location device.” The complexities of the current world of subject access (or lack thereof), however, demand that a more complex and thorough approach be taken.

SUMMARY As part of the study reported in this paper, the usage of textbooks in bibliographic control education was also examined. This information, which is presented in the following sixteen tables (see the Appendix), was obtained by analyzing the Web sites of the 48 ALA-accredited LIS schools in the United States, excluding only the program at the University of Puerto Rico. The course description and the syllabus for each course were examined to determine the textbooks used. If a current syllabus was not available on the Web, the school's cataloging faculty was contacted by e-mail. In a few cases, telephone interviews were conducted to obtain the needed information. Data collection occurred between September 14, 2000 and February 12, 2001. From the 48 schools in this survey, it was found that 92 individual textbook titles were being used in ALA-accredited US graduate schools in the area of bibliographic control education. The total number of textbooks required for all the courses was 422 (a figure that is made up of these 92 individual titles). This averages to 8.79 bibliographic control textbooks per school or 2.12 textbooks per course.

SUMMARY The current state of graduate bibliographic control education in the United States is examined through reviewing the literature, analyzing Web sites for 48 LIS programs, and corresponding with and interviewing bibliographic control educators. In reviewing the recent bibliographic control education literature, six primary themes were identified: background/ contextual information, theory versus practice, responsibilities and skills needed by catalogers, relations between educators and practitioners, the universality of cataloging, and curricular issues. Each of these areas is examined in depth. The study conducted examined the number and types of bibliographic control education available in LIS programs in the US. It also collected information on which textbooks were being used in each course. It appears from the study that some courses are increasing in number. The primary areas of bibliographic control education examined include organizing information, technical services, classification theory, indexing, thesaurus construction, cataloging technology, and basic, advanced, descriptive, subject, non-book, Internet resources, and music cataloging courses.

(2001). A Tribute to Arlene Taylor. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly: Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 73-85.

It is with great pleasure that we present this very special, double issue of the International Information and Library Review. Not only am I pleased to have the privilege of publishing the ¢ne papers presented at EEI21 ö Memphis, the Ethics of Electronic Information (EEI) in the 21st Century Symposium, but I am also proud that my institution ö the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences ö is a sponsor of this conference. The issues presented in this, and the three previous EEI21 symposia, are of vast importance to all information professionals. Our society has become increasingly more complex and technology driven. The problems we face as information professionals involve issues of access, usage, privacy, censorship, equality and power. As we become ¢rmly rooted in this new information age, it is vitally important to consider the issues around us, our actions, and our decisions in the context of the greater society. The study and discussion of ethics has become imperative in the information professions, because when faced with personal or professional ethical dilemmas, we must employ the science of ethics in the discernment of moral values and actions. It gives me great hope for our future, that the professionals of our time ö the professionals of this conference ö are addressing the issues of our future. The University of Pittsburgh has a long commitment to the topic of information ethics. In 1986, when I came to Pittsburgh, I expressed my interest in promoting education, re£ection, and action on the ethical issues facing the information professions. Professor Stephen Almagno, O.F.M. and I began to work on how to translate this vision into a reality. In 1989, we held the ¢rst annual Dean’s Forum on Information Ethics. In 1990, Professor Almagno and I team-taught the ¢rst Information Ethics course at the school ö a course that grows more popular each year. In 1996, the Information Ethics Fund was developed to support: an Information Ethics Fellowship; acquisition of print and