New edition of Philip Hider’s essential information organization textbook

The second edition of Information Resource Description provides an overview of the range of activities and the products of these activities collectively referred to as ‘information organization' and will be ideal for  LIS students, information professionals wishing to specialise in this field, and existing metadata specialists who wish to update their knowledge.

Author Philip Hider said, "While much of the general thrust of the first edition of this book remains applicable, some of the specifics have changed in significant ways since it was published in 2012. The library cataloguing code, Resource Description and Access, has now been adopted by most libraries in the English-speaking world, and related standards such as BIBFRAME are coming into view as more concrete propositions. The book is fully updated to reflect these changes."

The book explains how the various elements and values of descriptive metadata support a set of common information retrieval functions across a wide range of environments. Through this unifying framework, the book provides an integrated commentary of the various fields and practices of information organization carried out by today's information professionals and end-users.  

Key topics and updates to the first edition include:

• discussion of big data vs the traditional database model
• introduces and applies the FRBR-LRM user tasks
• expanded coverage of scholarly repositories and questions around Open Access
• new section on the history of information organization
• expanded discussion of the functions, economics and management of metadata
• a new section on mobile access.

David Bawden, Professor of Information Science at City, University of London and co-editor of Facet's Foundations of the Information Sciences series, said, "As we enter the infosphere, and documents in an increasing variety of forms and media become ever more essential for our society, so the problems of organizing information increase. This second edition of Philip Hider's book addresses one essential component: the organizing of information resources through their description. Its focus on general principles expressed in different contexts, and its equal treatment of systems, sources and processes, makes it a valuable addition to the Foundations of the Information Sciences series."