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The paper presents an analysis of user tasks in the conceptual models, with an overview of the objectives and functions of the catalogue from Cutter to the International Cataloguing Principles, a critical reflection on user tasks and a proposal for a rethinking of these. The user tasks as presented in the conceptual models present critical aspects, in particular they do not bring out some important aspects concerning the users' motivations for searches and the users' competences. The presentation of some critical aspects of user Ttasks is followed by an initial proposal for a more complex reflection on how users use catalogues to carry out searches of different kinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional UBC provides for the standardization of bibliographic records, the creation of guidelines dedicated to national bibliographic agencies, the creation of the UNIMARC format, and the curation of authority data. Bibliographic Control has deeply evolved since IFLA theorization during the Seventies of the XX Century, due to the availability of a very large range of new bibliographic tools. At the beginning of the XXI century, UBC is quite different and involves new actors. Among these, Wikidata has a background greatly different from that of libraries as institutions: it is not devoted to bibliographic data, nor it is limited to personal authority control, but its value in AC tools like VIAF and National Libraries authority files is undiscussed. After a presentation on how Wikidata items describe and identify bibliographic entities, the authors underline how the existence, use and reuse of Wikidata affect the way the professional community thinks about UBC. Wikidata is a clear example of the need for a new approach to identification and description, that are deeply intertwined. Secondly, from a Wikidata perspective, the relevance of globally preferred and variant access points is lessened. Moreover, descriptions in Wikidata - although conceptually very similar to the traditional one - present differences and potentialities that a traditional description does not have and cannot have. Also from a theoretical perspective, Wikidata offers a pragmatic way to think globally and act locally. In fact, it shows that there is no need for one standardization of practices for establishing the headings and structure of authority records in one international form; instead, users' convenience can be achieved by a technological infrastructure capable to present to each user the information about an entity in its own language and script. Additionally, Wikidata is the most evident example of the distributed and diffused approach of the semantic web to the issue of the universal identification of the entities. Also, Wikidata identification and description show that authority and bibliographic control must be tackled as just a part of the more general topic of the creation of a knowledge graph of all human knowledge by means of linked open data. Lastly, this objective cannot be achieved only by contribution, cooperation, and networking of large national agencies (as in VIAF), as a larger number of stakeholders must be involved to achieve a UBC also including the full indexing of any kind of scientific communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, taking its cue from the title of a book by Rossella Dini Il parente povero della catalogazione (The poor relative of cataloguing), is intended to be a reflection on the positioning of the cataloguing activity in relation to the other activities of the library, and a reflection on what cataloguing is, or we would like it to be. A quick reconnaissance of the definitions of cataloguing and the changes in cataloguing tout court is followed by a wider-ranging analysis of the question of the role and positioning of catalographic activity in contemporary librarianship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers an overview of ethical issues about cataloguing. After a general introduction about the topic in library science, the paper analyses two principal issues: access to information, in particular about semantic access, and data. Ethical issues are a part of the cataloguing process and affect the way cataloguers create metadata for the users. The last part of the paper presents an analysis of the proposal for a specific code of ethics for cataloguers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents some considerations about the organisation of catalogues and the functionalities of cataloguing tools with respect to the role of a public library. The first section focuses on the definition of the public library and its characteristics in a relationship with the catalogue. The second section deals with some problems of cataloguing organisation, specifically with the peculiarity of a public library catalogue as a bibliographic tool, the issue of cataloguing data types in relation to the users and the catalogue language, and catalogue use and its integration with the physical collection management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Toolkit designed by the RDA Steering Committee makes Resource Description and Access available on the web, together with other useful documents (workflows, mappings, etc.). Reading, learning and memorizing are interconnected, and a working tool should make these activities faster and easier to perform. Some issues arise while verifying the real easiness of use and learning of the tool. The practical and formal requirements for a cataloguing code include plain language, ease of memorisation, clarity of instructions, familiarity for users, predictability and reproducibility of solutions, and general usability. From a formal point of view, the RDA text does not appear to be conceived for an uninterrupted reading, but just for reading of few paragraphs for temporary catalographic needs. From a content point of view, having a syndetic view of the description of a resource is rather difficult: catalographic details are scattered and their re-organization is not easy. The visualisation and logical organisation in the Toolkit could be improved: the table of contents occupies a sizable portion of the screen and resizing or hiding it is not easy; the indentation leaves little space to the words; inhomogeneous font styles (italic and bold) and poor contrast between background and text colours make reading not easy; simultaneous visualization of two or more parts of the text is not allowed; and Toolkit's icons are less intuitive than expected. In the conclusion, some suggestions on how to improve the Toolkit's aspects and usability are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]