Philip Hider, London, Facet, 2012, xix+220 pp, £49.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-85604-667-1
Philip Hider, the Head of the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University, Australia, has written a marvellous book that gives a solid and understandable overview of how metadata works. He also examines how and why metadata is created.
Aimed at library and information science (LIS) students specialising in information organisation courses – whether metadata or plain cataloguing – the book also holds interest for the more experienced library employee. For a start, the introduction of Resource Description and Access (RDA) affects those who are transitioning from Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR). Perhaps those in transition have focused more on the “how-to” aspects, whereas Hider provides background on how RDA came into existence, why it now exists, and the differences between it and other metadata standards.
The book includes chapters on these themes, which will be familiar to LIS workers who are aware of the cataloguing aspect of metadata: AACR, Library of Congress Subject Headings, classification schemes such as Decimal Dewey, Library of Congress, and Universal Decimal Classification. The ‘classic’ cataloguer is not forgotten. At the same time, Hider highlights many more systems, standards, and vocabularies. For example, in the Metadata Standards chapter he provides summaries of standards such as Dublin Core, Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), and Encoded Archival Description (EAD), among many others.
In his preface Philip Hider points out that his book is definitely not a manual, but instead takes a “descriptive and explanatory” approach to look at the big picture of metadata (p. xii). Hider succeeds and excels in this approach. In fact, he has a special knack of encapsulating concepts, explaining what he is writing about in simple terms. Given that at times metadata as a concept can be remarkably abstract – for myself the idea of the Semantic Web needs close reading – this skill of Hider's is remarkable. For a book mostly aimed at LIS students, and covering fundamental concepts in standards, this skill is definitely needed.
Students, however, are not the only group who require an understanding of this area. The book is also useful for those who wish to update their knowledge. I found even re-visiting the idea of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) of interest, having forgotten the background to LCSH and simply used them as needed.
As well as presenting or revisiting concepts, Philip Hider enlivens his text with commentary. He seems to take a balanced attitude. For example, on the topic of social tagging of catalogue records or websites he shows why users would use tagging, but also discusses why reliance on user tags might or might not work – for a start, the user is unpaid and perhaps invested only so far.
The chapter on the future of metadata draws the book to a close. Situating the personal and professional debates here, incorporating discussions about professionalisation, Google, and even touching on search engine optimisation, really emphasises the place of metadata in the current library, archive, and museum worlds.
The book can stand alone, though readers who like to mix theory and practical manuals will probably appreciate the following two additional texts: Practical Cataloguing: AACR, RDA and MARC 21 by Anne Welch and Sue Batley (Neal-Schumann/Facet, 2012) and Metadata for Digital Collections: A How-to-do-it Manual by Steven J. Miller (Neal-Schumann/Facet, 2011).
© 2013, Doreen Sullivan