Approaches to Conceptualizing the Cost of Academic Library Cataloging: Discourses on Metadata Creation Cost, Value, and Worth
Author(s)
Moulaison-Sandy, Heather
Cho, Hyerim
Dykas, Felicity
Issue Date
2022
Keyword(s)
Academic library cataloging
Metadata
Abstract
Cost analyses are ways in which individual libraries can generate
information about how their budgets are used, and can possibly help
demonstrate the worth and value of work in catalog and metadata
creation in academic libraries. However, despite their acceptance in
the professional literature, cost analyses may be deeply flawed. This
article begins with a broad survey of the professional and scholarly
literature focusing on cost analysis and the elements composing
it. The nature of cost analysis and the goals of costing practices,
including the potential to calculate a return on investment (ROI),
are presented. Next, through an analysis of the recent (2000–2019)
scholarly literature on costing cataloging and metadata creation in
academic libraries, we present peer-reviewed literature relating to
costs; we demonstrate that the scholarly literature diverges from a
focus on cost analysis to focus instead on improvements to individual
aspects of cataloging and metadata creation work. In the final section,
we propose approaching the catalog as a service that can be assessed
in terms of opportunity costs for failed interactions. Overall findings
suggest that focusing on user needs can be a productive alternative
approach to considering the value and worth of academic library
catalog and metadata creation.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Illinois School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Library Trends 70 (3). Winter 2022
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
eng
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2022.0001.
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