OLAC Newsletter

I got my copy of the OLAC Newsletter yesterday. Always a good read. This issue has conference reports as well as the ever enlightening Cataloger's Judgment. The reports often have the PP presentation and examples available. The on-line version is open and free to all. Looks like it was a great conference. The next one is in two years, start planning to attend now. A three year membership in OLAC is only $70.00, a best buy to be sure.

OLAC

MIT Catalog

The MIT catalog is once again available for download, not as MARC only as MODS and MODS/RDF. If you need or want a large dataset for testing or research this is a good option. The announcement gives more details.

MODS

The CONSER Standard Record and RDA

A comparison of the proposed CONSER standard record and RDA has been mounted on the JSC Web site.

RDA

2006 Annual MARBI Meeting minutes

The 2006 Annual MARBI Meeting minutes are now available.

MARBI

Using Barcodes in Search

Brian Surratt at Texadata mentions he is having some success scanning barcodes on the back of books when doing ISBN searches on OCLC. It is not yet 100% accurate, many of these numnbers are in the 024 field. Yet it is working and will only get better with time.

I've been using barcode scans in ISBN searching on my Z39.50 client with mixed results. OCLC is creating 13 digit codes based on the 10 digit input code. They are also moving those in 024 to 020. Few if any institutions will do this work. Using scans in Z30.50 searches will be uncertain for many years to come. Maybe the profiles could do some remapping, have an ISBN search hit both the 020 and 024 fields?

Barcodes

Additions to the MARC Code Lists for Relators, Sources, Description Conventions

The codes listed below have been recently approved for use in MARC 21 records. The codes will be added to the online MARC Code Lists for Relators, Sources, Description Conventions.

The codes should not be used in exchange records until after March 5, 2007. This 60-day waiting period is required to provide MARC 21 implementers time to include newly defined codes in any validation tables they may apply to the MARC fields where the codes are used.

Term, Name, Title Sources

The following code is for use in subfield $2 in Bibliographic and Community Information records in fields 600-651 and 655-657 and in subfield $f in field 040 (Cataloging Source) in Authority records.

Addition:

biccbmc

BIC Children's Books Marketing Classifications (London: Book Industry Communication) [use after March 5, 2007]

Category Code Sources

The following code is for use in subfield $2 in field 072 in Authority and Bibliographic records (Subject Category Code / Code source).

Addition:

biccbmc

BIC Children's Books Marketing Classifications (London: Book Industry Communication) [use after March 5, 2007]

Classification Sources

The following code is for use in subfield $2 in field 084 in Bibliographic and Community Information records (Other Classification Number), in subfield $2 in field 084 in Classification records (Classification Scheme and Edition) and in subfield $2 in field 065 in Authority records (Other Classification Number).

Addition:

ykl

Yleisten kirjastojen luokitsujarjestelma Finnish public libraries classification system [former code: fplcs] [use after March 5, 2007]

MARC

Rights in the PREMIS Data Model

News from LC:

The Library of Congress' Network Development and MARC Standards Office is pleased to announce the availability of a study written by Karen Coyle on how rights information needed for digital preservation activities is handled in the PREMIS data dictionary.

Rights in the PREMIS Data Model.

PREMIS

MAB2 --> MARC21

Moving from MAB2 to MARC 21 Recording of multipart monographs and their parts in MARC 21: Predefinitions and examples gives a German view of MARC that is interesting.

MARC

Notice to Music Teachers

Cora Bigwood, my spouse, is running for region rep for the American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA). If you or someone you know belongs to AOSA check you mail for your ballot and consider voting for Cora for Region III. Here is part of a bio she recently did:

My music background began with a BM in Music Teacher Education K-12 (Instrumental and Vocal) from the University of Houston, a MM in Music Education from New England Conservatory. I have Orff Certification, a Kodaly Certificate, Mid-Management and Supervision Certificates.

I presently serve as the TMEA Elementary VP and as a music teacher of 27 years in the Texas public school system. Having taught at the elementary, secondary, and college levels my leadership in our organization gives me a wide perspective into the many issues that face all disciplines (band, orchestra, vocal, elementary, college) across Texas.

My responsibilities on the State board are numerous. As division VP, I organized the Elementary portion of the 2006 TMEA state conference and am proud of the following achievements:

• Over 50 clinicians from around the state and country were solicited for our members
• Increased the performance venues for my division and solicited performances throughout the state
• Implemented poster sessions for interdisciplinary lesson plans

In addition to these achievements at the 2006 convention, I actively participated in meetings and committees focusing on the following issues:

• Region and area alignment implementation
• TMEA appeals process
• Vertical alignment of the Music TEKS as defined in the TMEA/TMAC Curriculum-Assessment Project
• Neutralizing the Negative Impact of TAKS
• Non-attendance due to TAKS remediation
• Staffing shortages and ever-present state funding concerns

As a teacher, I have worked with elementary through secondary-aged children, teaching general music, choir, and individual flute students. I judge UIL events and supervise student teachers. I train our future music educators at the college level during summers (University of Houston and University of Texas at Brownsville).

I present staff development workshops for school districts, and Education Service Centers. In my spare time, I also make music on my own. From 1993-2003, I managed and performed in the folk band Permanent Wave, which performed for my session at TMEA 2002. In addition to the above, my Orff ensemble has also performed at TMEA. I have performed with the Bay Area Chorus, Clear Lake Symphony, and Baytown Symphony and Houston Symphonic Band.

I can't think of anyone better qualified. Anyone who read this knows I am very proud of her accomplishments.

MARC Content Designation Utilization (MCDU) Project

The progress report on the MARC Content Designation Utilization (MCDU) Project is available. Very important work.

MARC

OPAC Replaced by FISH

Christopher Harris at Infomancy has an OPAC replacement, a FISH. FISH: Free (as in kittens) Integrated Search Handler. Using freely available tools has put together a system to replace the catalog. Seeing what he has done is fascinating and inspiring.

With all the work being done by the Koha and Evergreen folks and the SOLR/Lucene crowd, and the eXtensible Catalog, it seems like open-source solutions for the OPAC will become more attractive options to the large commercial products.

OPAC

unAPI Plugin for WordPress

Technosophia has announced a WordPress plugin for unAPI.

I've finally gotten around to updating the unAPI plugin for WordPress so that it fits into the WordPress plugin architecture, making it simple to install and maintain. I'm calling it version 1.0 since it's the first substantial release of the plugin since I got involved.

And just what is unAPI?

unAPI is a tiny HTTP API for the few basic operations necessary to copy discrete, identified content from any kind of web application.

There are already many cool APIs and protocols for syndicating, searching, harvesting, and linking from diverse services on the web. They're great, and they're widely used, but they're all different, for different reasons. unAPI only provides the few basic operations necessary to perform simple clipboard-like copy of content objects across all sites. It can be quickly implemented, consistently used, and easily layered over other well-known APIs.

unAPI

OCLC PURL Server

This meaasge from Tom Dehn was distributed on the PURL-L e-mail distribution list.

There are 58000+ spam sites in the PURL Server.

I am working on a means to delete them (It needs further development and testing).

The PURL server has been available to anyone in the past, but we have to discuss that policy, because being available to everyone, means it's available to spammers. Also the ability to delete a PURL was not part of the initial development.

As of this time the ability to add or modify purl or domains has been disabled. It will remain that way until we have a derived a new policy.

The ability to access existing PURLs is still available.

What tool won't the spammers destroy?

PURL

Outline Processor Mark­up Language (OPML)

Gear Up Your Research Guides with the Emerging OPML Codes by Kimberley Wilcox appears in the Nov./Dec. 2006 issue of Computers in Libraries.

Think about your typical Web-based research guide: It's a list of books, articles, and selected Web sites on a given topic. Such a guide is great for introducing users to a subject and pointing them to your library's resources on that subject. But traditional research guides aren't so great for introducing readers to the very latest resources on their topic, or for engaging them in new online discussions of that topic. What if you could create a dynamic research guide that displays the latest headlines from selected blogs, feeds of new book and article titles from the library's catalog and databases, and audio and video files--along with your traditional Web links and bibliographies? Even better, what if this guide could be syndicated so that people were able to subscribe to it and automatically receive updated versions in their RSS aggregators?

I like OPML because it is so simple and low-maintaience.

OPML

IWF Metadata Harvester

The IWF Metadata Harvester is a package for retrieving metadata from servers, writing it to databases, and representing it in human-readable form. It currently retrieves data from servers using two different sets of standards: The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) and Z39.50. Windows tool.

Metadata

MARC4J Workbook

Crosswalking: Processing MARC in XML Environments with MARC4J by Bas Peters is now available from Lulu.

This concise book is for library programmers who want to learn to use MARC4J to process bibliographic data. MARC4J is an open source software library for working with MARC, MARCXML and related bibliographic standards in Java. The library is designed to bridge the gap between MARC and XML. Crosswalking provides useful information for both developers learning about MARC4J for the first time and developers returning for reference and more advanced material. The chapters provide many reusable examples, while appendixes provide a reference to the API and the command-line utilities.

Seen on oss4lib.

MARC4J

Collaborative Tagging Systems

Patterns and Inconsistencies in Collaborative Tagging Systems : An Examination of Tagging Practices by Margaret E. I. Kipp and D. Grant Campbell appears in Proceedings Annual General Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Austin, Texas (US).

This paper analyzes the tagging patterns exhibited by users of del.icio.us, to assess how collaborative tagging supports and enhances traditional ways of classifying and indexing documents. Using frequency data and co-word analysis matrices analyzed by multi-dimensional scaling, the authors discovered that tagging practices to some extent work in ways that are continuous with conventional indexing. Small numbers of tags tend to emerge by unspoken consensus, and inconsistencies follow several predictable patterns that can easily be anticipated. However, the tags also indicated intriguing practices relating to time and task which suggest the presence of an extra dimension in classification and organization, a dimension which conventional systems are unable to facilitate.

Tagging

Library Visits

Today Cora and I visited the Library of Congress and the Folger Shakespeare Libraries. They don't build libraries like that any more. LC is so monumental. Fitting for the library at the center of an empire. The Folger is so traditionally academic. At LC we visited the exhibit of the Saint John's Bible. Remarkable, wondrous. We never seem to be in town when either have music. I'd love to hear a concert in either venue.

Libraries

OAI DC or SRU DC Schemata to MODS

The Network Development and MARC Standards Office have made available a stylesheet to transform simple Dublin Core (DC) expressed in either OAI DC or SRU DC schemata to MODS (version 3.2).

The transformation may be used in cases where simple Dublin Core records are available, but richer metadata in MODS may be desirable (e.g. by enhancing the records). For instance, there have been some METS profiles that have been developed that require MODS descriptive metadata.

There may be a need to develop a companion stylesheet that transforms qualified DC (or some version of qualified DC, e.g. DSpace's). We would be interested in any feedback on this.

MODS

Reston Regional Library

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the Reston Regional Library. In late afternoon it was busy. Folks were checking Value Line on-line, the books on CD, browsing in the stacks, and on the public Internet access machines. The parking lot was about 75% full. Seems to be well used by the local community. They had a good selection of computer books, including many animal titles, and downloadable audio-books.

Libraries