A comparative study of descriptions and value added of bibliographic records through MARC, DC and MODS: From the viewpoints of the users

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand which bibliographic data are the core elements of the user’s queries? What users’ viewpoints about resource descriptions using different metadata standards? What kinds of value-added items are the users’ favorite when they conduct a bibliographic search? What are users’ viewpoints about bibliographic records integrated with the Digital Archival and Institutional Repository resources through metadata interoperability methods? This research adopted experiments, observation and interviews. The sample subjects are drawn from 14 students of The Graduate Institute of Library and Information Science and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. First of all, the researcher displayed the bibliographic records using original MARC from the library. Secondly, users compared the images of OPAC from the library with the format of DC and MODS transformed through the MarcEdit software. Additionally, the researcher conducted interviews to understand users’ viewpoints about using three metadata schemas to describe the same book. Finally, the researcher asked the degree of users’ satisfaction about using bibliographic records alone and bibliographic records integrated with the Digital Archival and Institutional Repository resources. The findings suggest that libraries could provide more value-added and comprehensive services of bibliographic records and information retrieval, in order for all kinds of resources to be fully utilized, which helps to meet the users’ information needs.

Keywords

• MODS
• DC
• Value-added bibliographic records
• Metadata interoperability