How the Information Infrastructure Has Changed in the Digital Age - Evolving Global Information Infrastructure and Information Transfer - page 81

materials, has been central to the profession. Bibliographic control suggests eval-
uation and inventory.
Bibliographic control is to topics and library collections as a census is to a coun-
try's population. The concept of bibliographic control doesn't fit as well the newer
forms of communication. The concept of bibliographic control is relevant for stand-
ard topic and print aspects of information transfer; however, social media and oth-
er formats appearing are much more difficult to capture and classify. These newer
media are digital, and while they are more ephemeral than topics and journals on
paper, they nevertheless transfer information.
Bibliographic Control in the Digital Age
Consequently, for this discussion we will modify the terms, because “biblio” is
constraining in a digital age. As noted above, technology has enabled revolutionary
changes in information transfer, and organization of information has also changed
substantially. With digital documents such as eBooks, videos, e-mail messages,
tweets, and blogs, the printed topic is but one format for cumulated information.
Instead of “bibliographic control,” we will use the term “information organization.”
Although technology has revolutionized the recording, production, and dissem-
ination of information, technology also has enabled the potential for retrieving by
words or ideas, as well as by author, title, and subject: access points in the bibli-
ographic paradigm. Whereas in earlier days librarians assigned subject headings
to aid retrieval, now computers can scan documents to retrieve by words or terms,
and it is not necessary to categorize documents or topics. The user can identify
a key term in her own language and search a catalog or database. The organiz-
ation has circumvented a professional; the user determines the search strategy,
and a subject heading is unnecessary. Through access by terms, a combination of
words, retrieval can approximate the goal of bibliographic control; that is, “a com-
plete record of the existence and location of every topic and of all other materials
of concern to libraries” (Downs 1975, 124).
In the bibliographic paradigm, which was intended for printed information
sources (books, periodicals, pamphlets, etc.), organizational schemes like the
Dewey Decimal Classification System (DDC) and the Library of Congress Catalo-
ging System (LC) were very effective. However, the digital age has brought a new
way of organizing, as noted in the paragraphs above, and the question arises: Are
the DDC and LC cataloging systems becoming obsolete?
We submit that these systems are still useful for print collections; they enable
the cataloging and storage of topics and journals by subject. Retrieval is simplified.
However, with digital documents, such systems as DDC and LC are obsolete;