书目控制未来工作组(Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control)3月8日在加州Google总部召开首次地区会议，主题：书目数据的用户与使用 (Users and Uses of Bibliographic Data)。后两次地区会议分别是5月9日在芝加哥，主题：书目数据的结构与标准 (Structures and Standard for Bibliographic Data)；7月9日在北佛吉尼来，主题：书目数据的经济学与组织 (Economics and Organization of Bibliographic Data)。原来只有受邀者才能与会，2月28日改为公开会议(Public Meeting)，什么人都可以去，不用事先注册。
会前Karen G. Schneider (Free Range Librarian: My Post to Library of Congress) 在ALA Techsource Blog上发长文“亲爱的国会图书馆……”(Dear Library of Congress…)，据称是对此会议的反馈。文首对在最后阶段才宣布会议公开表达了些微不满[尽管宣布过晚会影响一些人安排与会，但最终选择公开总还是件值得称道的事]。从标题可以想像，其内容与其说是评论会议，不如说是表达对LC各方面的不满。
因为Karen的文章太长，只匆匆略过，感觉有点抬杆的味道。
Michael Stephens对此“公开信”大为推崇(Tame the Web: Schneider pens an Open Letter to the LOC)，并且推荐他的学生去读。他所说的“不仅要思考图书及其描述的未来，还要考虑图书馆的未来”，大概正是Karen所表达的观点。看Michael摘出来的“精华”：
It is both ironic and poignant that librarians are still worrying about “bibliographic control,” after ceding so much of the same to the companies that now rent them journal access per annum at usurious rates, digitize their book collections into DRM obscurity, or sell them ponderous, antiquated “management” systems that on close inspection do little more than serve as storehouses for the metadata specific to the formats of bygone eras, bold days when we saw our central roles as defenders and curators of our cultural heritage.
那意思是说，图书馆昔日作为文化传统守护者与监护人的中心作用已然不再，却还担心微不足道的“书目控制”，既具有讽刺意味又令人心痛。还不赶快考虑些更重要的事情？
把两件相对独立的事情对立起来，看来无论中外，都喜欢这样分析问题。以此立论、驳论，是最方便的。
T. Scott将Karen的博文视为“小宣言”(a mini-manifesto)，他的“自由了的图书馆员”(T Scott: Librarians Unbound) 在赞同Karen一些观点的同时，也表达了不同的看法。他认为图书馆员存在的核心确实是作为文化传统的守护者与监护人，但却不是图书馆的守护者与监护人：
“I think of our forebears in the scriptoria, laboriously copying texts, viewing the arrival of the printed book with great alarm. Who would need well designed and run libraries anymore, when just about anybody would be able to own their own identical copy of a printed book? Surely, Gutenberg’s diabolical invention was the deathknell of librarianship.”
那意思是说，既然印刷术没有终结图书馆，数字化又能怎样呢？真是：任凭风浪起，稳坐钓鱼台。至少对于积极进取的图书馆员，或许真是这样。
Talis的布道者Paul Miller也在会前写了“书目控制未来（工作组）……及麻烦的用户与使用”(panlibus: The Future of Bibliographic Control …and the pesky users and uses)，特别评论了会议的背景文件(Users and Uses of Bibliographic Data: Background Paper for the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control，PDF文件)，对其中“用户”与“使用”界定范围过窄表示失望。
文件中所称的三类使用是：发现与传递(discovery and delivery)、馆藏管理(inventory management)及相关数据的相互兼容(cross-compatibility with related data)。前者对一般用户、中间对图书馆、后者对机器，难道还没有包容一切？
工作组成员及参会报告人Andrew Pace在会前写了“书目控制的未来”(Hectic Page: Bibliographic Control Has a Future)。文中除再次宣传NCSU的分面导航OPAC外，还贬LCSH、褒tag，尤其对LibraryThing推崇倍致。
言归正传，还是看看会议的内容。
会议征求发言的内容是：
√ 谁在使用当前的书目数据、如何使用？
√ 当前的书目数据满足用户需求吗？
√ 为更好的满足用户需求，需要或推荐对书目数据做什么改进或强化？
Karen Coyle属于自行与会者。在其博客 Coyle’s InFormation 上详细介绍了会议的日程、各个报告及报告人——光看看她介绍的报告人就很有意思，还有她写的参会总结。所有博文如下：
导言：Preamble: Users and Uses Meeting
LC方面的会议引言：Users and Uses, Introduction
Speaker: Deanna Marcum (Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress — very high up in that organization and known as a real mover and shaker.)
OPAC研究者的发言：Users and Uses, Research
Speaker: Karen Markey (professor at the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Author of “The Online Library Catalog: Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained?” D-Lib Magazine 13, no. 1/2 (2007))
要“烧掉目录”的研究者的发言：Users and Uses, Research 2
Speaker, Timothy Burke (Associate Professor in the Department of History at Swarthmore College. He wrote a piece in 2004 titled “Burn the Catalog”)http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/tburke1/perma12004.html
社会网络系统创建者的发言：Users and Uses, Social Networking
Speaker: Tony Hammond (NISO OpenURL standard committee; creator of Connotea, a social tagging system for scientists)
OPAC屠夫的发言：Users and Uses, New Services
Speaker: Andrew Pace (Head of Information Technology, NCSU)
谷歌学术搜索的发言：Users and Uses, Google Scholar
Speaker: Anurag Acharya (Principal Engineer at Google Scholar)
研究图书馆的发言：Users and Uses, Research Libraries
Speaker: Bernie Hurley (Director for Library Technology at the UC Berkeley library)
图书馆系统供应商的发言：Users and Uses, Vendor perspective
Speaker: Oren Beit-Arie (Chief Strategy Office at Ex Libris)
博主的总结：Users and Uses – Karen’s Summary
Lorcan Dempsey作为工作组成员，会前早早地作了消息通报(LC Working Group on the future of bibliographic control)，会后先发了简要通报(LC WCFBC)，预告自己将在旅行结束后发贴。OCLC方面会怎么说？让我们拭目以待。
感觉那份背景文件的“三类使用”很像Lorcan总结的。
关于书目控制工作组，参见：
书目控制未来工作组：关注2007年11月 (2006-12-12)