Pebbles for the Mosaic of Cataloging Expertise: What Do Problems in Expert Systems for Cataloging Reveal about Cataloging Expertise?

Abstract

Twenty-five years of research in expert systems for descriptive cataloging and related areas are reviewed. Researchers who developed prototype expert cataloging systems in the 1980s found that cataloging rules are extremely comprehensive and complicated, but still insufficient to permit these systems accurate cataloging results. Those researchers also identified smaller areas that need to be pursued for successful implementation of expert cataloging systems. Subsequent research has focused on narrower areas. Cataloging rules were studied and more was learned about problems with their logic structure and organization. Another focus was optical reading of bibliographic elements in documents. Categories of responsibility and graphic design continue to pose problems. The visual characteristics of documents were studied to understand more about the automatic recognition of bibliographic elements necessary for the bibliographic description of documents. The systematic study of the cataloging process, necessary for development of expert systems, may result in improvement of manual working procedures and enrich the education of new catalogers.