Internet Librarian International 2009 is being held in London next week. I will have a presentation at the conference, but unfortunately due to a work travel commitment I am not able to attend myself. Instead, this gave me an opportunity to find a co-author/presenter and explore some  ideas about the role of the catalogue in discovery. I’ve called it, “Adaptability, aboutness, and authenticity: Towards discovery platforms with next-generation catalogues and Linked Data” -

>Next-generation catalogues give libraries an opportunity to better meet user needs and changing search habits, but there is a need for more than innovation at the interface level. Many academic libraries have now implemented software that provides an improved search experience in the catalogue, but libraries also need to be able to anticipate user needs and emerging uses of resources and to provide tools that meet needs one step ahead. Linked Data, associated with the Semantic Web, is one way to open up data to the web to expand the ways that users can be connected to library resources. Linked Data also provides the opportunity to consider how catalogues present resources to users. The paper presents a case study of Work Based Learning as an example of a multidisciplinary academic field in which the notion of authenticity is evolving. The question of whether library catalogues can or should help navigate users to authentic resources is considered.

We enjoyed writing it and thinking about how subject experts and librarians may be able to work together to create new platforms for sharing data within and beyond libraries.

I’ll be following ILI2009 tweets from afar, if you’re going have a fantastic time and learn well!