Overview

This chapter reviews contemporary cataloguing andmetadata principles, critiqued, with gaps identifiedand recommendations offered. Informationorganisation – which commonly has sub-branches suchas cataloguing, classification, taxonomies, indexingand retrieval – is underpinned by foundationalprinciples (Alemu, 2018; Alemu and Stevens, 2015;Alemu et al., 2014; Gartner, 2016; IFLA, 2009;Svenonius, 2000; Wright, 2007; Wright, 2014; Zengand Qin, 2016). Some of these fundamental principlesinclude the principle of sufficiency and necessity,the principle of user convenience, representation,and standardisation (Svenonius, 2000). However, dueto the development of electronic informationservices, the internet, the web, Web 2.0 and LinkedData on the one hand and the ever-growing demandsfrom users, some, if not all, of these principles,fall short of addressing these emergingrequirements. As Svenonius (2000) noted, theeffectiveness of information organisation andefficient provision of information services relieson the intellectual foundation that undergirds it.What would often be considered a menial, repetitiveand pedantic task of cataloguing has centuries ofaccumulated theories, methodologies and practices(Denton, 2007). It suffices to see the works ofCutter, Panizzi, Ranganathan and Lubetzky. Aconceptual framework and a set of interrelatedprinciples are required to develop a metadata modelthat can help guide the practice of metadatacreation, management and application. Practicalmetadata decisions carry philosophical, ethical andsubjective decisions (Weinberger, 2007).

In contrast, the four metadata principles of enriching,linking, openness and filtering claim that metadatacreation and enriching happen at various stages ofthe information resource lifecycle, involvingseveral actors, including users. This theory is notmerely user-centred but also user-driven. Metadatacreation and enhancement is a continuous processinvolving authors, publishers, suppliers, librariansand users. These principles posit a shift from thefocus of metadata simplicity to metadata enriching,from human-readable metadata to structured, uniquelyidentified and interlinked metadata (metadatalinking) and from metadata silos to metadataopenness, enabling metadata sharing and reuse. Thischapter covers both contemporary and emergingmetadata principles.

Due to a seismic shift in the development of electronicinformation services, the internet, the web, Web 2.0and Linked Data on the one hand and the ever-growingdemand from users for an instant, convenient, 24/7and seamless access to relevant full-textinformation services and resources, on the otherhand, some of the old metadata principles fail toscale and guide the new requirements.