“Steroid” Scandal Rocks Major League Libraries:

Why not make the top quality stuff available to everyone? That’s the only way to really level the playing field,” says metadata advocate Harley Trion. “If we close down the labs creating high-quality metadata, you will see widespread adoption of street-quality metadata like social tagging and folksonomies, because that’s all you will be able to get. I’d rather know that my kids were using metadata that is made in a clean lab with experts and quality assurance processes than have them experimenting with street-grade metadata of unknown origin and quality.”

Sadly, street-grade metadata has already polluted our most venerable cataloging institution, the Library of Congress. Check out this MARC record for Fourth Comings, by Megan McCafferty (interesting part in bold):

=LDR 01506cam 2200361 a 4500
=001 14768798
=005 20070917102332.0
=008 070314s2007\\nyu\\\\\001eng\
=010 \$a 2007010818
=020 \$a9780307346506
=020 \$a0307346501
=035 \$a(OCoLC)ocm86109925
=035 \$a(OCoLC)86109925
=040 \$aDLC$cDLC$dYDX$dBAKER$dBTCTA$dWIQ$dYDXCP$dDLC
=043 \$an-us-ny
=050 00$aPS3613.C34$bF68 2007
=082 00$a813/.6$222
=100 1$aMcCafferty, Megan.
=245 10$aFourth comings :$ba novel /$cMegan McCafferty.
=250 \$a1st ed.
=260 \$aNew York :$bCrown Publishers,$cc2007.
=300 \$a310 p. ;$c25 cm.
=650 $aDarling, Jessica (Fictitious character)$vFiction.
=650 $aYoung women$vFiction.
=650 $aPeriodicals$xPublishing$vFiction.

=650 $aChick lit.

=651 $aBrooklyn (New York, N.Y.)$vFiction.
=856 42$3Contributor biographical information$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0743/2007010818-b.html
=856 42$3Publisher description$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0743/2007010818-d.html
=856 41$3Sample text$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0743/2007010818-s.html

Chick Lit is now a subject heading in the Library of Congress. We’ve entered the asterisk era of metadata.

Labels: chick lit, library of congress, metadata