Information Organization in Libraries, Archives and Museums:
Converging Practices and Collaboration Opportunities
ASIST 2009 Panel Proposal
Sponsor: SIG ED
Organized and Moderated by
Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Catholic University of America
As cultural institutions libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) share the mission to
organize information objects, artifacts, and data for user access and enlightenment. While
(LAMs) may follow different metadata standards and procedures to manage their
collections and each type of institution has unique information organization and service
concerns, digital technologies have enabled them to create, organize, preserve, and
provide access to digital collections for global audience. Increasingly LAMs are
converging in their information organization and management effort (LAM entries in
Hangingtogether.org; Zorich, Waibel & Erway 2008), and the cultural silos created by
libraries, archives, and museums are being integrated or rendered transparent for users
(Calhoun 2006; Christenson and Tennant 2005; Uzwyshyn 2007). The purposes of the
proposed panel are to examine the convergence of information organization practices of
libraries, archives, and museums; explore collaboration opportunities; and discuss the
implications of LAM information organization practices for educating future information
professionals for these cultural heritage institutions.
The panel consists of five speakers who collectively have experience in libraries,
archives, museums, and library and information science education. The panelists will
share their research and project experience and present their perspectives on how to
prepare information professionals to organize and manage cultural heritage materials at
LAMs. The presentation titles and brief descriptions are
“Faceted Classification for Museum Artefacts: A Methodology to Support Web Site
Development of Large Cultural Organizations”
Elaine Menard will present a research project that develops a taxonomy to provide a
visual representation for a digital collection, Artefacts Canada Humanities, and facilitate
browsing of the collection.
“Designing Metadata for Cultural Institutions: The Taiwan e-Learning and Digital
Archives Program”
Arthur Ya-Ning Chen and Sophy Shu-Jiun Chen will focus on the principles of metadata
design and application among various memory institutions in the context of TELDAP
(Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program) that coordinates content digitization
and preservation at leading libraries, museums, archives, research institutes, and other
content holders in Taiwan.
“Global Library of Life: The Biodiversity Heritage Library”
Martin R. Kalfatovic will describe the development of the Biodiversity Heritage Library,
a consortium of natural history and botanical garden libraries and discuss collaborative
efforts with libraries and non-libraries organizations at the international level.
“Organizing Cultural Objects for Libraries, Archives, and Museums: Areas for
Collaboration”
Kathy M. Wisser will present a content analysis of descriptive standards used by
libraries, archives, and museums to identify areas where collaboration of the three types
of cultural heritage institutions will be fruitful.
“Cultivating Interdisciplinary Dialogue among Libraries, Archives, and Museums”
Annie Kim will report on how library and information science curricula incorporate
innovations in information technology to enhance organization and access to cultural
heritage materials. She will also discuss how technological innovations provide
opportunities for libraries, archives, and museums to collaborate and integrate access to
their collections and services.
Each panelist will present for 15 minutes, and the presentations will be followed by a
panel discussion with the audience. Announcements of the panel will be made to various
listservs of libraries, archives, and museums to encourage attendance from the three
communities. To promote exchange of ideas, a birds-of-a-feather dinner will be
organized for people interested in LAMs to continue the discussion after the session.
The proposed panel will include the following researchers and educators:
 Panel organizer and moderator
o Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Ph.D.
Professor
School of Library and Information Science
Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C. 20064
Phone: 202-319-6270
Fax: 202-319-5574
E-mail: hsiehyee@cua.edu
 Presenters
o Elaine Ménard, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor
McGill University
School of Information Studies
3459 McTavish, MS72C
Montréal, Québec
H3A 1Y1
Tél: (514) 398-3363
Fax: (514) 398-7193
E-mail: elaine.menard@mcgill.ca
o Sophy Shu-Jiun Chen
Program Manager
Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program
Academia Sinica
No 128, Academia Road, Section 2
Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
Phone: 886-2-2789-9957
Fax: 886-2-2783-6444
E-mail: sophy@sinica.edu.tw
o Arthur Ya-Ning Chen
Project Leader
library service of Computing Centre
Academia Sinica
No 128, Academia Road, Section 2
Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
Phone: 886-2-2789-9861
Fax: 886-2-2783-6444
E-mail: arthur@sinica.edu.tw
o Martin R. Kalfatovic
Assistant Director, Digital Services Division &
Biodiversity Heritage Library Coordinator, Smithsonian
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Washington, D.C. 20560
Phone: 202-633-1705
Fax: 202-786-2861
E-mail: kalfatovicm@si.edu
o Kathy M. Wisser
Director of Instructional Services
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360
Phone: 919-962-3962
Fax: 919-962-8071
E-mail: kwisser@unc.edu
o Jeonghyun "Annie" Kim, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Management
Emporia State University
Emporia, KS 66801
jkim5@emporia.edu
References
Calhoun, Karen. “The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other
Discovery Tools.” 2006. http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf
(accessed Jan. 27, 2009).
Christenson, Heather and Roy Tennant. “Integrating Information Resources: Principles,
Technologies, and Approaches.” 2005.
http://www.libraries.vic.gov.au/downloads/Federated_Search_Portal_Project/nsdl
_integrating_library_resources.pdf (accessed Jan. 27, 2009).
Hangingtogether.com. “Archive for the Libraries, Archives, and Museums category.”
http://hangingtogether.org/?cat=5 (accessed Jan. 27, 2009).
Uzwyshyn, Ray. “New Information Discovery Tools Environmental Scan: Executive
Summary and Web Addresses.” 2007.
http://uwf.edu/ruzwyshyn/20072008PDF/NewInformationDiscoveryTools.pdf
(accessed Jan. 27, 2009).
Zorich, Diane M., Gunter Waibel and Ricky Erway. “Beyond the Silos of the LAMs:
Collaboration Among Libraries, Archives and Museums.” 2008. Dublin, Ohio:
OCLC Programs & Research. http://www.oclc.org/programs/reports/2008-05.pdf
(accessed Jan. 27, 2009).