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Bibliographic framework initiative (BIBFRAME) is a data model created by the Library of Congress to with the long-term goal of replacing Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC). The purpose of this paper is to inform catalogers and other library professionals why MARC is lacking in the needs of current users, and how BIBFRAME works better to meet these needs. It will also explain linked data and the principles of Resource Description Framework, so catalogers will have a better understanding of BIBFRAME’s basic goals.

The review of recent literature in print and online, as well as using the BIBFRAME editor to create a BIBFRAME record, was the basis for this paper.

The paper concludes the user experience with the library catalog has changed and requires more in-depth search capabilities using linked data and that BIBFRAME is a first step in meeting the user needs of the future.

The paper gives the reader an entry point into the complicated future catalogers and other professionals may feel trepidation about. With a systematic walkthrough of the creation of a BIBFRAME record, the reader should feel more informed where the future of cataloging is going.

This paper aims to inform noncataloguers about the current and historical significance of both machine readable cataloguing (MARC) records and traditional cataloguing as well as introduce them to current struggles to modernize.

The approach of this column is to break-down what may appear to be a crisis in the modernization of library cataloguing and metadata by placing the issues in their historical context and considering existing technologies in a user-friendly manner.

MARC-based cataloguing is well-established, robust and widely used in many library applications. It is not easily replaced and attempts to do so have had very slow progress. Although change is expected in the future, it may lay with solutions based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.

Although there are many papers discussing the merits of traditional cataloguing and the need for new methods and standards, few are written from a nontechnical point of view and for noncataloguers or those not working in systems departments. This column's intended audience is all library workers with an emphasis on those who are not familiar with MARC.

In 2016, the “Data Deluge Column” explored the sometimes frustrating reality of cataloguing and metadata librarians as their discipline underwent change.

The column, called “Metadata specialists in transition: from MARC cataloguing to linked data and BIBFRAME”, alluded to the ongoing and significant changes in the practice of cataloguing and metadata creation, but did not delve into the nature of the changes and what they mean for libraries in general.

This instalment of the “Data Deluge Column” expands that discussion by exploring the emerging model for the data that libraries create and manage.

It seems that it has taken about 20 years to overcome the inertia required to begin to reinvent the practice of and environment for creating library data. Perhaps, some of this inertia is because of predictions of the current distress and pressure felt by cataloguing departments today.

This case study details the evolution of descriptive practices and standards used in the Mount Holyoke College Archives and the Five College Finding Aids Access Project, discusses the relationship of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and the MARC standard in reference to archival description, and addresses the challenges and opportunities of transferring data from one metadata standard to another. The study demonstrates that greater standardization in archival description allows archivists to respond more effectively to technological change.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the service accessibility of Somali Australians suffering Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Using Geographic Information System (GIS) and the 2011 census data a total of 19,178 people reporting Somali ancestry were mapped to SA1 level with most being in the three capital cities of original migration; Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Access to primary services pertinent to ASD was measured using the GIS software, some 15 per cent of these cities Somali children were within 500 m of a General practice and 89 per cent within 2,000 m. A quarter of children were within 2,000 m of a speech pathology service access point and nearly a third (31 per cent) within 2,000 m of a psychologist. Qualitative analysis found a quite negative perspective on mental illness and ASD within the community with 85 per cent of respondents reporting a “Bad” perception of ASD within the community.

Clearly, the opportunity these data provide is to develop service models targeting need and changing perspectives of ASD within an at risk community.

This is the first time in Australia that issues of service access (health) for Autism suffers and their families has been analysed in a detailed geographic manner.

This article aims to update an earlier article by the same author published in Library Hi Tech News in 2004 and analyses the failure of the Dublin Core metadata standard.

The article is a commentary.

The article finds that the Dublin Core metadata standard is moribund and that a newer, competing standard has rendered it essentially useless.

The paper updates Dublin Core’s increasing obsolescence and will help librarians understand the standard’s rapid rise and slow fall.

The paper aims to review major developments in the MARC format, including a brief description of metadata schemes and cross‐walks. It also offers an assessment of how well MARC works for Arabic script materials, a description of the degree to which MARC is used in Saudi Arabia, and the prospects for the use of XML versions of MARC in the Arab world.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability of machine‐readable cataloging (MARC) in the academic libraries located in Tehran, Iran.

A quantitative methodology was adopted. The data are based on a survey conducted with a researcher‐made questionnaire to measure the views of Iranian academic librarians about MARC. In total, 45 librarians who have at least one year experience in cataloging and classification and know MARC were the sample of this study. Statistical analysis (descriptive and inferential) was applied using Excel and SPSS software to analyze the data.

The results showed over 72 per cent of catalogers in Tehran academic libraries claimed that they know MARC and 50 per cent of them claimed that they used it. Based upon the librarians' views the most important advantages of MARC are: making uniform subject headings, union catalogue and uniform authority names, exchange information with other libraries, exchange bibliographic information with different languages. Also according to the in catalogers the most important problems of MARC in general are: unchangeable format, detailed format, and not paying attention to needs of end‐users, different coding system in the country, problem of library software in using MARC, and using different MARC formats.

The paper's findings may help improve our understanding about MARC. The survey results could be used for enhancing the level of MARC application in academic libraries, not only in Iran but also elsewhere.

The library catalog is not only a useful tool for patrons to find and access library collections but also a valuable dataset for various types of quantitative analysis on our cultural assets. This research aims to develop the latter potential of library metadata by conducting a large-scale analysis of how the metadata fields encoded in the Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) standards.

We examined more than 6 million book records from 1980 to 2018 in the catalog of the Library of Congress. We particularly focused on how bibliographic records have changed over time and whether these changes correlate with the introduction of new cataloging policies.

Our results show that more than 200 unique fields and 1,300 unique subfields have been used in the MARC format, though the majority of them are used in fewer than 1% of all records. At the same time, bibliographic records have become increasingly complex, with more fields and subfields per record over the past 40 years. Additionally, there are clear, although sometimes asynchronous, parallel developments between MARC tags and cataloging standards.

This study represents the first large-scale quantitative analysis of the history of library metadata, revealing significant and interesting changes over time and highlighting challenges for the meaningful use of library metadata in the current data environment.

The purpose of this paper is to provide recommendations for making a conceptual shift from current document‐centric to data‐centric metadata. The importance of adjusting current library models such as Resource Description and Access (RDA) and Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) to models based on Linked Data principles is discussed. In relation to technical formats, the paper suggests the need to leapfrog from machine readable cataloguing (MARC) to Resource Description Framework (RDF), without disrupting current library metadata operations.

This paper identified and reviewed relevant works on overarching topics that include standards‐based metadata, Web 2.0 and Linked Data. The review of these works is contextualised to inform the recommendations identified in this paper. Articles were retrieved from databases such as Emerald and D‐Lib Magazine. Books, electronic articles and relevant blog posts were also used to support the arguments put forward in this paper.

Contemporary library standards and models carried forward some of the constraints from the traditional card catalogue system. The resultant metadata are mainly attuned to human consumption rather than machine processing. In view of current user needs and technological development such as the interest in Linked Data, it is found important that current metadata models such as FRBR and RDA are re‐conceptualised.

This paper discusses the implications of re‐conceptualising current metadata models in light of Linked Data principles, with emphasis on metadata sharing, facilitation of serendipity, identification of Zeitgeist and emergent metadata, provision of faceted navigation, and enriching metadata with links.

Most of the literature on Linked Data for libraries focus on answering the “how to” questions of using RDF/XML and SPARQL technologies, however, this paper focuses mainly on answering “why” Linked Data questions, thus providing an underlying rationale for using Linked Data. The discussion on mixed‐metadata approaches, serendipity, Zeitgeist and emergent metadata is considered to provide an important rationale to the role of Linked Data for libraries.