Learning from Artifacts: Metadata Utilization Analysis

Describes the objectives, methodology, and preliminary results of the MARC Content Designation Utilization Project, which is examining OCLC WorldCat records as artifacts of the cataloging process. Presents method of preparing, storing, parsing, and analyzing a large dataset of over 56 million MARC records. Initial results include frequency counts of occurrences of all content designation. Assessment of project findings in terms of metadata quality and the FRBR user tasks provides a framework for the remainder of the project. Categories and Subject Descriptor