185
Book Review
Hider, Philip. Information Resource Description: Creating and Managing
Metadata, 2nd ed. London: Facet, 2018. xxi, 277p. ISBN 978-1-78330-
223-9(pbk)
Philip Hider, Professor of Library and Information Management, Charles
Sturt University Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia, as of today, is visibly an
outstanding expert in the field of information organization and retrieval.
The second edition of his book, first published in 2012, is welcome as a very
useful, up-to-date (in concepts, methods and terminology), informative and
educative textbook in the field.
Over the years metadata has acquired many roles and consequently
many types, dimensions and definitions. The concept was already there in
full practice, but the rise of the term has been phenomenonal in the recent
years. In the post-Web2.0 world we as netizens are living with metadata all
around us. Beyond the libraries it has pervaded all our online activities.
Not only we are using it to access data and documents, but also generating
it knowingly or unknowingly. With every online transaction or using any
app we are leaving our footprints as infallible evidence of some action. It is
the backbone of the e-commerce, and provides a sure lead in criminal
investigations. In libraries, being central to information resource description
for knowledge organization, the ultimate purpose of metadata is "to
connect people with information resources they need by helping them to
find, select, obtain and explore them intellectually as well as physically"
(p.27). No wonder then now cataloguers are increasingly being designated
as metadata librarians in currently advertised openings(p.79).
The whole text has been divided into nine chapters followed by a long
classified list of metadata standards (pp.243-249). The first chapter defines
an information resource as a device of recorded information re-accessible
and reusable across time and space(p.2) But it seems unnecessary to
distinguish it from other sources such as realia (author uses the example of
a vacuum cleaner) which indeed can be described with metadata in the e-
commerce world. This is true, but the classic term document could have
Vol 58 No 2-3, June and September 2020
186 BOOK REVIEW
been more profitably focused on and elaborated especially as the work is
mostly addressed to the library and information science professionals. In
libraries and archives we deal only with documents. Nevertheless this book
makes a holistic and integrative study of the description of information
resources and their surrogates in all memory institutions such as galleries,
libraries, archives and museums(GLAMS).
The first chapter sets the tone by describing scope and conspectus of
the book itself and also presents a potted history of preparing library
catalogues and their standards thereof since 1791--though library cataloguing
is about 2500 years old. Even the clay tablet libraries were classified and
catalogued. The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the
Assyrian Empire, was a collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments
containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BCE. Regretfully ( to me
as an Indian) there is no mention of the five editions of S. R. Ranganthan's
Classified Catalogue Code (1934/1964) which is the only one of its kind,
and also based on very well articulated theory in the forms of principles
and canons. The second chapter dwells on the attributes and typology of
varied information sources being acquired in the present day libraries and
other such institutions. It elaborates the contextual relevance of the myriads
of attributes of an information resource for description, identification and
access especially in light of the FRBR model. The third chapter deals with
tools and systems such as catalogues, indexes, online directories, databases,
finding aids and search engines for organizing and searching documents.
Next two chapters, that is four and five, describe attributes of metadata
(now much more than 'data about data') with special reference to its quality
which indeed is contextual, not absolute. For describing information sources
metadata can be obtained from various sources including the one embedded
in a resource. The other two ways are self-creation either by professional
indexers (original cataloguing) and the layperson in the form of folksonomies
as users on the social media. Metadata may be created both by computers
and humans such as librarians, publishers, indexers. Now end-users are
creating lot of metadata as social tags in the Web2.0 environment. The fifth
chapter discusses the attributes which make metadata qualitative thus
effective both in terms of its various elements and their corresponding values
to make it functional, comprehensive, accurate clear and consistent.
Mechanism to improve the quality of metadata has been adequately
discussed. Quality metadata is expensive. Cost sharing is the best option in
creating and re-using it. Next chapter deals with the how of sharing metadata
LIBRARY HERALD
BOOK REVIEW 187
through bibliographic utilities and networks which simultaneously provide
a platform and a record copy for exchange amongst participating institutions.
Sharing enhances quality, but demands, as a prerequisite, cooperation and
interoperability of systems and standards. Sharing brings us near to achieving
the chimerical universal bibliographic control (UBC). The chapter seven
defines a standard as prescribed practice, which may not necessarily be
normal (p.123). This the largest chapter of the book explains with illustrations
the various existing standards for document description in different
publication domains. All aspects of metadata elements, formats and their
transmission for libraries, archives, museums, publishing and AV industries
have been discussed. Standards have been formulated for web publishing,
archives, museums and libraries (both print and digital). Most part of the
chapter briefly describes each of the metadata standards such as ISBDs,
AACR, MARC21, Dublin Core, ISAD(G), RDA and lastly the BIBFRAME.
The eighth chapter deals with the vocabulary control for knowledge
organisation. The author describes basics of traditional schemas like LCSH,
Sears List, Library of Congress Classification, DDC,UDC and various
thesauri, taxonomies, ontologies and non-subject vocabularies as well as the
emerging schemas like the Thema. But the author does not mention that the
Abridged DDC, both in online and print versions, has ceased publication.
Lastly the author looks through the crystal ball to make some convincing
but alarming predictions of future developments in the field especially that
"next generation OPACs may also be the last generation of OPACs" (p.224).
Nevertheless, his emphasis is on quality metadata. Concluding discussion
takes us out of the libraries to the totality of social life to impress that all
information retrieval systems will require quality metadata to help citizens
access reliable information to live life fully and meaningfully in all its
dimensions on this planet. No wonder then somebody said, whom I cannot
recall, future wars will be for metadata. General Michael Hayden the top
US spy cop was not wide the mark when he boasted to kill people with
metadata. Edward Snowden, after all, only leaked the snoopily collected
metadata(not the information) by the US National Security Agency.
The chapters in the book are artfully structured internally and externally.
Each chapter begins with a very brief summary of the forgoing description
and also links it with the preceding chapter's conclusions to provide a
flowing narrative-yet every chapter can be read independently. The highly
commentated text is characterized by currency, comprehensiveness,
conciseness and high density of thought-latter is starkly evident from the 27
Vol 58 No 2-3, June and September 2020
188 BOOK REVIEW
page index (pp.251-277). Yet it is a lucid and
engaging read pepped with wit and wisdom which
enliven its pages. Savor a few: feeling the need for
librarians to broadcast their metadata on wider
online platforms, he advises, " If they cannot
beat the likes of Google, they need to join them"
(p.57). C. Ruschoff is endorsed to warn "more
lipstick on our catalogs is not going to make our
OPACs the search engines of tomorrow" (p.57).
The human indexers are advised to go beyond
document description to take on the role of reader's
advisor in selecting and accessing authentic and
relevant documents (p.233). One encounters memorable phrases throughout
the absorbing read. Long list of abbreviations has been given in the beginning
on pages xvii-xxi. Technical terms have been fully explained when first
used. Nevertheless a separate chapter on the terminology would have been
an icing on the hot cake. The book is skillfully concise -- putting the ocean in
a bowl -- yet comprehensive which vividly portrays the state-of-the-art of
metadata and its various categories, manifestations and applications. Division
of each chapter in featured sections further makes it easy to read and
comprehend. Each chapter and topic is profusely documented with
recent and resourced literature which along with additional readings (pp.239-
242) makes a valuable bibliography on the document description and
resource discovery. Thus the work inspires and provides means to delve
deep in the subject, if desired. Text is illustrated with examples, pictures,
diagrams and computer screen shots which make it a reliable and fruitful
learning and teaching resource for information description and retrieval in
all memory institutions. The reviewer feels duty bound to highly recommend
the work to every thinking, learning and practicing metadata professional,
nay the new breed of data professionals.
M P Satija,
Honorary Professor
Guru Nanak Dev University
satija_mp@[Link]
LIBRARY HERALD
BOOK REVIEW 189
Satija, M. P. Dewey Decimal Classification : Edition19(1979) to
WebDewey(2018). New Delhi: Ess Ess Publications,2020. xi, 250p.
ISBN 978-93-87698-28-4(Hb).
Used in about two lac libraries all over the world, the DDC, the pioneer
library classification, is still the most popular in the world. In India introduced
in 1915 it is the most used system despite CC's pseudo claim as the national
classification system of India. Apart from its intensive teaching in all library
schools of the country almost all newly opened academic, school and public
libraries are adopting this system as Hobson's choice. This is a new book by
professor Satija who has written extensively on the DDC along with teaching
it for a long time. The fact that he collaborated with two former chief editors
of the Dewey, namely Dr. John Comaromi (Edn 20(1989) and Ms. Joan
Mitchell (Edns21-23(1996/2003/2011) makes his work more authentic so
much so that a professor called him as DDC guru in Asia. He is still in
touch with the new Editorial team of the Dewey as evident from the
acknowledgement.
This book in twenty chapters of varying lengths deals with the theory,
history, administration and practice of the system. It concludes with a note
on current developments and future trends in the DDC. There are five
appendices detailing extramural matter such as the responsibilities of the
newly created post of senior editor, scanned title page photos of the Print-
on-Demand(PoD) version of the Dewey. A brief bibliography of the latest
literature on the DDC is given at the end. The first chapter is on the life of
Melvil Dewey, the creator of the system in [Link] of the chapters are on
the structure of the system, subject analysis (which can be used irrespective
of the classification system), number building by the DDC with the schedules
and the auxiliary tables and use of the relative index. Numbers synthesis
has been explained step by step with equations showing clearly every facet
and its source. It illustrates with ample examples all sorts of techniques and
intriguing complexities of the system in operating [Link] taken from
the current literature demonstrate the facility and ease with which it applies
to the modern literature of in all areas of knowledge. Examples though from
the 19th edition are almost equally valid from editions 18th onwards. With
many well-chosen examples it brings out hidden potentialities of the Dewey
system to classify micro subjects employing multiple synthesis. The chapter
17 goes away from Dewey to making of call numbers using Cutter-Sanborn
three figure author table. Book numbers in the intricate areas of literature
Vol 58 No 2-3, June and September 2020
190 BOOK REVIEW
and biographies have been illustrated to keep the associated books with the
host book. The last chapter, numbered 18, critically describes the editions
published during the last four decades. It explicates and reviews the changes
in these editions and the path taken by the DDC to maintain its leadership in
library classification; its governing establishment and revision machinery is
a model for others. The last section of the last chapter is on the latest edition
published as WebDewey in 2018 which is updated annually. It is essential
to note that the publication of the Abridged DDC, useful for small public
and school libraries has ceased publication As a matter of policy the full
version is now only published online accessible to the annually licensed
users --which is costly and may hurt its use in Indian and other libraries in
the developing countries. It may also be problematic to teach the new edition
in library schools in the absence of print version. However print-on-demand
version is available from Amazon, etc.
This well-illustrated book with diagrams, charts and screen shots of the
DDC pages is in lucid language. Being easy to read and comprehend it is
can be surely used as a teaching and self-learning resource to learn the ropes
of the Dewey. This is an authentic and reliable textbook essential for all
libraries using and all schools teaching the DDC in theory and practice.
Dr. K P Singh,
Associate Professor
Dept. of Library and Info Science
University of Delhi.
LIBRARY HERALD