Library Peeps

Now that Peeps are appearing in the stores, it is time to revisit the study of Peeps using the library.

Flamenco Search Interface Project

UC Berkeley has released the Flamenco Search Interface as open-source.

The Flamenco search interface framework has the primary design goal of allowing users to move through large information spaces in a flexible manner without feeling lost. A key property of the interface is the explicit exposure of category metadata, to guide the user toward possible choices, and to organize the results of keyword searches. The interface uses hierarchical faceted metadata in a manner that allows users to both refine and expand the current query, while maintaining a consistent representation of the collection's structure. This use of metadata is integrated with free-text search, allowing the user to follow links, then add search terms, then follow more links, without interrupting the interaction flow.

FLAMENCO stands for FLexible information Access using MEtadata in Novel COmbinations.

Searching

Revised Name Authority Records

The lists of names being revised by adding death dates or changing the open date to a birth date is way too much for a small library to look through. When the lists first appeared I started to check them with my catalog, but soon stopped. Too few hits for the time invested.

Here is an idea, maybe some large library (or OCLC) that has most of these names in their catalog could create a list that shows the class number most associated with an author. If I could just check the QBs, QCs, QEs, and TLs I could find most of the changes in our catalog. I'd guess a music library, or management library or law library would like to check just their areas also. How about it? Any takers?

Names

Metasearch

Index Data has a demo of a metasearch tool available, MasterKey.

This is an early prototype of a new metasearch technology developed by Index Data. It is scheduled for general release during the spring of 2007. It enables efficient metasearching of up to hundreds of databases at the same time using Z39.50, SRU/W, or proprietary protocols. It is a powerful, open-source-based alternative to proprietary, closed-source metasearch alternatives.

The technology supports on-the-fly merging, relevance-ranking, or sorting by arbitrary data elements. It also supports any number of result facets for limiting result sets by subject, author, etc.

Metasearch

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

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

The code should not be used in exchange records until after May 1, 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. Other Sources

The following code is for use in subfield $a in field 042 (Authentication Code) in Bibliographic and Authority records.

Addition:

• scipio - SCIPIO: Art and Rare Book Sales Catalogs [use after May 1, 2007]

MARC

MARC Tool, File_MARC

Here is a new MARC tool, File_MARC, announced at Code4Lib.

This package enables you to read existing MARC records from a file, string, or (using the YAZ extension), from a Z39.50 source. You can also use this package to create new MARC records.

This package is based on the PHP MARC package, originally called "php-marc", that is part of the Emilda Project. Christoffer Landtman generously agreed to make the "php-marc" code available under the GNU LGPL so it could be used as the basis of this PEAR package.

MARC

Additions to the MARC Country and Geographic Area Code Lists

As the result of both Montenegro and Serbia declaring independence from the state union of Serbia and Montenegro in June 2006, new country and geographic area codes have been defined for use in MARC records.

1. MARC country code changes

The new country codes are:

• rb - Serbia
• mo - Montenegro

Both were previously coded "yu" for Serbia and Montenegro from 1992-April 2007. Prior to October 1992, "yu" was used for Yugoslavia, which included the Socialist republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.

The country code "yu" will become obsolete for new records.

2. MARC geographic area code changes

The new geographic area codes are:

• e-rb - Serbia
• e-mo - Montenegro

Yugoslavia [e-yu] will be retained for works on Yugoslavia as a whole (including the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and former Yugoslav republics before they separated.

Subscribers can anticipate receiving MARC records reflecting these changes in all distribution services not earlier than April 28, 2007.

MARC

MARC::Errorchecks

Bryan Baldus made this announcement on AUTOCAT perl4lib.

I have posted new versions of MARC::Errorchecks (to CPAN and my home page), MARC::Lint::CodeData (included in Errorchecks, my home page, and most recent version will be available in CVS on SourceForge, as part of MARC::Lint), and MARC::Lintadditions (at my home page only, since I would eventually like to move these checks into MARC::Lint). I have also posted a new version of LCSHchangesparserpl110.txt (to the inprocess directory of my home page). The script is used to parse a text version of LC's weekly new and changed headings Web pages to leave a tab-delimited text file of headings that have changed. Following LC's recent website redesign, the script currently complains about the first lines of the input files, but it seems to do a reasonably good job of creating the list of changed headings.

A question: Both MARC::Lint and MARC::Errorchecks in CPAN include a copy of MARC::Lint::CodeData. Should I update MARC::Lint to version 1.43 with the only change being the inclusion of the new version 1.14 of CodeData?

I have posted a new module, MARC::Lint::Lint_Authority.pm. This will be a module essentially copying MARC::Lint, but with a data section and methods for validating MARC format for Authority data rather than Bibliographic. An initial version of this module appears in the inprocess directory. I have not done much testing, but what little I have done seems to successfully do basic lint validation.

MARC

LibraryThing's ISBN Feed.

LibraryThing has created a feed of the ISBNs in their system. Now you can compare your holdings to theirs. Since there is talk of LibraryThing making available book covers and tags this would be a good first step, check to see just how much match there is.

LibraryThing

NH Classification

Here is a special classification I'd not meet before, NH Classification Schedule for Artistic Photography. Makes sense, at first glance. Why have some art books in the technology area, just because of the tools used? BTW are the computer art books in art or technology?

The NH schedule is designed for the classification of photography books of an artistic nature. It was initially compiled for the 4th edition of N, which was issued in 1970. When the Library of Congress rejected the proposed subclass for art photography, it was published by ARLIS/NA in 1974. NH has been adopted by a number of libraries with strong collections of artistic photography as an alternative to TR, which emphasizes the technical aspects of photography.

Classification

Tagging and Evaluation

D. Taraborelli at Academic Productivity has posted an interesting article, Soft peer review? Social software and distributed scientific evaluation.

Online reference managers are extraordinary productivity tools, but it would be a mistake to take this as their primary interest for the academic community. As it is often the case for social software services, online reference managers are becoming powerful and costless solutions to collect large sets of metadata, in this case collaborative metadata on scientific literature. Taken at the individual level, such metadata (i.e. tags and ratings added by individual users) are hardly of interest, but on a large scale I suspect they will provide information capable of outperforming more traditional evaluation processes in terms of coverage, speed and efficiency.

Tagging

Connexion Problem Fix

OCLC has developed updates to install to fix the problem in Connexion client caused by Microsoft Windows update KB918118. With KB918118 installed on your workstation, you cannot open and display records from online or local files in the Connexion client.

To fix this problem, go to the OCLC software download page and download and install the Connexion client 1.70 update or the Connexion client 1.60 update, depending on which version of the client you are using. Go to the client known problems page for installation instructions.

Please note: When you are ready to upgrade to the next version of Connexion client, you must first uninstall both your current version and the update program.

Seen on AUTOCAT.

Connexion

Tagging at Amazon and LibraryThing

Tim at LibraryThing has a long post, an article would be a better description, comparing tagging at Amazon and LibraryThing. When tags work and when they don't: Amazon and LibraryThing draws some conclusions based on the differences in the number of tags applied.

This is an extensive post, revealing the results of a statistical comparison between Amazon and LibraryThing tags, and exploring why tagging has turned out relatively poorly for Amazon. I end by making concrete recommendations for ecommerce sites interested in making tagging work.

Tagging

LC RSS Feeds

Beginning with Weekly List 1 for 2007, the Library of Congress Subject Headings Weekly Lists and Library of Congress Classification Weekly Lists are now available as free RSS feeds. Users may subscribe to the feeds by clicking on the RSS link in the lower left corner of this page and selecting "Library of Congress Subject Headings Weekly Lists" and/or "Library of Congress Classification Weekly Lists."

Subscribed to both.

RSS

English and Spanish Subject Headings

Here is an interesting service, still in beta, LC Subject Headings in Spanish or Encabezamientos de materia LC en español.

This a preliminary Spanish-English/English-Spanish list of subject headings. Please use it with caution! Much of the data has not yet been checked thoroughly and some of it not at all.

As of January 2007 headings from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain) have been included along with the two original sources. One these is an English-Spanish list of headings and subdivisions under development at the Queens Borough Public Library. The other is a set of bibliographic records from the catalog of the San Francisco Public Library. These records contain subject headings in both languages and certain patterns made it possible to match Spanish to English with a fair degree of accuracy. Most of the errors in matching were removed through a manual review.

LCSH

TMEA

The rest of the week I'll be in San Antonio at the Texas Music Educators' Association (TMEA) conference. I'll be presenting a poster on the TEKSLink Project. Also, I'll be providing support for my wife since she is the elementary chair, VP, and conference chair. Don't expect I'll do any posting the rest of the week. Last year, it is a two year gig, we worked from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. most days. Anyone reading this in S.A.?

TMEA

MARC to Solr

There is a preconference on Lucene and Solr before the Code4lib conference. Because of that Andrew Nagy has made available his MARCXML2SOLR XSLT document. If you have some MARC records in XML and want to get them into a format Solr understands, now you can. MarcEdit, among other tools, will get your MARC into MARCXML format. Can't make it to the preconference, use this tool to play along at home.

MARC

WorldCat Identities

Thom Hickey at Outgoing describes a new research project at OCLC, WorldCat Identities. Interesting. I searched for Wright, Austin Tappan and got a page showing classification numbers used, works by him, works about him, a time-line of publications, audience level, and related names. Nice summary. Could be used in NACO work.

Names

CONSER Standard Record Delayed

Good news from LC, the CONSER Standard Record has been delayed.

At the CONSER at large meeting held during ALA Midwinter, consensus was reached to wait for comments from the JSC before proceeding with implementation of the CONSER standard record. The expected date for JSC's discussion would be at their April meeting, or perhaps sooner, if the JSC is able to review the recommendations at an earlier meeting. Although agreement was not unanimous, the importance of CONSER libraries implementing the new standard record in a unified fashion was also supported by meeting attendees. In the event that remaining issues surrounding the full implementation of the standard record are not resolved by May, the CONSER Operations Committee will plan to discuss and recommend next steps at their regularly scheduled spring meeting.

Serials

Revision of LCRI 22.2 for Composers and Perfomers

LC is asking for comments on this change.

A discussion on the NACO-Music e-mail list concerning the current exception not to treat composers and performers as "contemporary authors" under AACR2 22.2B3 and applicable LCRIs has led to a reexamination of the need for the exception.

Before 2000, this exception resided only in the Music Cataloging Decisions (MCDs) [no longer published] and was applied by Library of Congress music catalogers and members of the NACO-Music funnel. NACO contributors unaware of the MCD may have created separate records for contemporary composers and performers under the conditions authorized in AACR2. The placement of the exception in LCRI 22.2 when it was moved from the MCDs has also generated some degree of confusion, misinterpretation, and misapplication (AACR2 itself discusses only "contemporary authors" in 22.2B3).

Given these issues, and the fact that the Cataloging Policy and Support Office has found contradictory information as to the reasons for the exception in the first place, CPSO recommends that the exception be removed from LCRI 22.2.

LCRIs