Now We Have Our Own Planet!

Planet Cataloging is an automatically-generated aggregation of blogs related to cataloging and metadata designed and maintained by Jennifer Lang and Kevin S. Clarke.

Thanks for putting it together. Added to my reader.

Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control Report

Brief Meeting Summary: May 9, 2007, Structures and Standards for Bibliographic Data (Chicago, IL) by Nancy J. Fallgren

VRA Core

The Visual Resources Association has announced that the release version of VRA Core 4.0 is now available.

VRA Core 4.0 is a data standard for the cultural heritage community that was developed by the Visual Resources Association's Data Standards Committee. It consists of a metadata element set (units of information such as title, location, date, etc.), as well as an initial blueprint for how those elements can be hierarchically structured. The element set provides a categorical organization for the description of works of visual culture as well as the images that document them.

Tagging

Order Is in the Eye of the Tagger by David Weinberger appears in the latest Wired. It is an excerpt from his recently published book Everything Is Miscellaneous

In the age of social tagging and folksonomies, where we all get to classify the things of the world into categories we make up on the spot, Linnaeus the Taxonomist seems quaint. But we shouldn't feel too smug. We are struggling against the same limitations as he did … and this time we don't have an excuse.

Access to Images

A new HP report Sharing, Discovering and Browsing Geotagged Pictures on the Web by Carlo Torniai, Steve Battle, and Steve Cayzer discusses access to images.

In recent years the availability of GPS devices and the development in web technologies has produced a considerable growth in geographical applications available on the web. In particular the growing popularity of digital photography and photo sharing services has opened the way to a myriad of possible applications related to geotagged pictures. In this work we present an overview of the creation, sharing and use of geotagged pictures. We propose an approach to providing a new browsing experience of photo collections based on location and heading information metadata.

Request for Comments: SKOS Use Cases and Requirements: Working Draft

This W3C working group is asking for comments on their work.

The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of SKOS Use Cases and Requirements. Knowledge organization systems, such as taxonomies, thesauri or subject heading lists, play a fundamental role in information structuring and access. These use cases and fundamental or secondary requirements will be used to guide the design of SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organisation System), a model for representing such vocabularies. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. We would greatly appreciate your comments and feedback on this Working Draft, which should be submitted to the SWD mailing list.

MARC @ ALA

Announcement for a presentation at ALA that sounds very interesting.

Did you know that catalogers use only 10-20% of available MARC fields/subfields? Given evolving search behaviors and the amazoogle effects do our bibliographic records provide information users need?

The MARC Content Designation Utilization (MCDU) project team would like to invite you to "Informing the Future of MARC: An Empirical Approach", a panel presentation at the ALA 2007 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. The session will take place on Saturday, June 23rd, 8am-10am.

This is an ALCTS sponsored event and will feature Dr. William E. Moen, Associate Professor and Dr. Shawne D. Miksa, Assistant Professor, from the School of Library and Information Sciences, University of North Texas and Sally H. McCallum, Chief, Network Development and MARC Standards Office, Library of Congress.

This program presents findings from a major IMLS-funded research study on catalogers’ use of MARC and an opportunity to discuss future directions for MARC and cataloging practices in the context of FRBR, RDA, and XML. The results of this study provide a much needed empirical basis to better inform MARC’s future in the bibliographic control environment.

MARC RTP

A while back I posted that the MARC Record Translation Program (MARC RTP) had disappeared. Now it is back, though at a temporary home.

MARC RTP was especially developed so that catalogue data contained in MARC format files could be converted, and selectively imported, into databases built with general-purpose applications.

....

RTP allows you to select any part or parts of each MARC record, therefore you do not have to design a large unnecessarily complicated database. You need only include the data that is of interest to you. As an aid, RTP can produce a readable listing of all of the records from the MARC file, and information about which tags and fields exist in your MARC records.

Walt Crawford

Not since the Astros let Nolan Ryan go has such a poor management decision been made.

Ever thought you or one of the groups you work for or with could use a Walt Crawford?

Here’s your chance.

The RLG-OCLC transition will be complete in September. I’ve received a termination notice from OCLC, effective September 30, 2007.

I’m interested in exploring new possibilities. For now I’m trying not to narrow the options too much.

Resource Description and Access

Outcomes of the April 2007 meeting of the Joint Steering Committee
for Development of RDA have been mounted on the JSC Web site.

Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators

Lou Rosenfeld is the guest this week on Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators.

Jon Udell speaks with Lou Rosenfeld on this week's Interviews with Innovators. Fellow superpatron Edward Vielmetti put Jon in touch with Lou, with whom he shares an affection not only for Ann Arbor, Michigan, but also for a cluster of topics including information architecture, search analytics, print and online publishing, designing for usability, tagging, and microformats.

Microformats

John Allsopp, has just come out with the book, Microformats: Empowering Your Markup for Web 2.0. In the Five Pertinent Questions column he briefly discusses the importance of this mark-up.

Enhancing the Catalog

In Danbury Conn. the public library has added LibraryThing for Libraries to their catalog.

What is LibraryThing for Libraries?

• Give your patrons exciting new content, including recommendations and tag clouds.
• Let your patrons take part, with reviews, ratings and tags. Keep the control you want.
• Enhance your catalog with just a few lines of HTML. Works with any OPAC and requires no back-end integration. Really.
• Draw on the collective intelligence of your patrons and LibraryThing members.

Future of Bibliographic Control

Extensive notes, by Mark R. Lindner, on the 2nd meeting of the LoC Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control are available on the Off the Mark weblog.

Genre/Form Authority Records

The draft of Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings H1913 is available of comment.

In working to define the guidelines for the creation and application of these headings, the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) has drafted instruction sheet H 1913 for the Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings.... Note that this instruction sheet covers only the development and use of genre/form headings for motion pictures, television programs, and videos; however, the plan is to create similar instruction sheets for other areas where genre/form headings can be created and applied, such as music, radio, law, etc. Because this instruction sheet will serve as the model for these other subject areas, CPSO invites comments, suggestions for improvement, etc.

Vacation

I'll be in the Washington D.C. area June 11-15. Any suggestions? We are going to visit a brewery, Old Dominion. Maybe catach a play at the Folger Library. We have been to Glen Echo, any other dancing going on?

RSS Ping

RSS Ping looks like a useful combination of the RSS/Atom metadata and the Ping function. This work is in progress, so librarians could contribute to the development.

RSS Ping combines RSS item metadata with site update information. It enhances the current ping specification, adding information about exactly what has been updated or published, with the notification that something has been updated. RSS Ping reduces the need to revisit or work done by aggregators and search engines when revisiting the publisher site after being pinged, to provide truly real-time updates for information on the Web.

CDWA-Lite

A request for comments:

CDWA-Lite is a lightweight XML schema that describes core information for cultural materials and their visual surrogates....

The Advisory Committee for this standard is seeking broad community review of it from a technical viewpoint as well as for its value in collection cataloging and access/sharing. We encourage completion of the survey (or those parts of it you are comfortable with)

Fun Videos

The latest Tiki Bar is one of their best. Kevin Rose is a guest and very funny.

There has been lots of to-do about the code to crack HD-DVDs being available. The best or at least most amusing item is this episode of Geek Brief. Cali Lewis may be at the next Texas Library Association annual conference. She lives in Dallas and the conference is in Dallas. Could be fun.

MARC21 Updates

Update No. 7 (October 2006) to all five MARC 21 Formats (authority, bibliographic, classification, community information and holdings) is now available from the Library of Congress. This update includes changes made to the MARC 21 formats resulting from proposals which were considered by the ALA ALCTS/LITA/RUSA Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information Committee (MARBI) at its 2006 meetings, the Canadian Committee on MARC (CCM) at its meetings in 2006 and by the Book Industry Communications/Bibliographic Standards Technical Subgroup (BIC/BSTS) at its 2006 meetings.

More information about this update may be found online at:

• Authority format
• Bibliographic format
• Classification format
• Community Information
• Holdings format

xISBN API

The api for xISBN that Xiaoming Liu previewed at the Code4Lib meeting is now officially launched and supported, and provisions for commercial use are now in place.

For those of you who missed it, in addition to "related" ISBN's, xISBN will now also return metadata such as title, edition, language and publication year that can be used to distinguish manifestations of a work. xISBN supports a RESTful API, as well as OpenURL and UNAPI, and can return results in a variety of formats.

xISBN is free for non-commercial, low volume use.

MODS to Simple DC

A new MODS 3.2 to simple Dublin Core stylesheet, based on the LC MODS to simple DC mapping, is now available.

MODS

MARC Advisory Committe

The cover sheets for the proposals and discussion papers presented at the 2007 Midwinter meetings of the MARC Advisory Committee have been updated with the results of the discussions. They are available at:

• Proposal No. 2007-01: Definition of subfields $b and $j in field 041 in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
• Proposal No. 2007-02: Incorporating invalid former headings in 4XX fields of the MARC 21 Authority Format
• Proposal No. 2007-03: Addition of subfield $5 in fields 533 and 538 in the MARC 21 bibliographic and holdings formats
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP01: Changes for the German and Austrian conversion to MARC 21
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP02: Use of field 520 for content advice statements
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP03: Recording the linking ISSN (ISSN-L) in the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP04: Definition of Field 004 in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format

MARC21

MARC21 Update

The 2006 update to the MARC 21 formats (Update No. 7) is now available for free download as PDF from the CDS web site.

MARC

Future of Bibliographic Control

The registration form for the May 9 meeting of the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control at ALA headquarters in Chicago is now online.

Cataloging

ALCTS Subject Analysis Committee

The ALCTS Subject Analysis Committee Midwinter 2007 meetings minutes are now available.

Subjects

Free Comic Book Day

May 5 is Free Comic Book Day. Is your library participating?

Comics

WorldCat Local

WorldCat Local is up and running at the University of Washington.

The search results include articles as well as more traditional catalog materials. It shows other local libraries with an item. It is possible to link to a search result. Facets along the left side to narrow the search. Lots of good things here.

Some drawbacks I see are that there is no option to view the MARC record. When I do reference I often find that useful. Maybe it is an option for the staff? There is a place for reviews but no place for tagging or a simple thumbs up/down. How about saving a search and getting an RSS feed or email when something that matches is added. Since there are articles there that would be a very useful way to keep up with a subject area. Cite this item is nice, but why can't I select the format I want and then only get that one. And why limit the options to only a few. How about the option to import it into Endnotes.

This is shown as a beta version. Maybe further developments will make this the system of the future, but not just yet.

WorldCat

Problems at LC

Back in January we received an invoice for our subscription to Classification Web. We paid it from our deposit account. Since then we have continued to receive invoices and no replies from LC. We have e-mailed them many times. We call, but the voice-mailbox is full. never does a person answer. Now they have cancelled my access, since we did not paid the bill. Only we did, months ago. What is going on at the Cataloging Distribution Service? Anyone have a secret to contacting them?

LC

Microformats

Karen Coombs at Library Web Chic points to a nice Firefox extension, Operator.

Operator leverages microformats that are already available on many web pages to provide new ways to interact with web services.

Operator lets you combine pieces of information on Web sites with applications in ways that are useful. For instance, Flickr + Google Maps, Upcoming.org + Google Calendar, Yahoo! Local + your address book, and many more possibilities and permutations. All of these scenarios are possible due to Microformats, an emerging standard for injecting semantics into HTML.

Have to see if it works with COinS.

Microformats

Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control

The 2nd meeting of the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control in the series of three public hearings is scheduled for May 9th at the American Library Association's headquarters in Chicago.

In preparation for that meeting, the Working Group subgroup that is coordinating the meeting has worked with Nancy Fallgren, consultant to the Working Group, to develop a background paper.

Cataloging

News from LC

Bibliographic records distributed by CDS will no longer have a record status set to *p*. This record status was for Cataloging in Publication (CIP) records that had been previously distributed with an encoding level of *8*.

This change in the use of record status value *p* in distributed records was made after considering a variety of factors including system limitations, receipt of records from sources outside the Library of Congress, and the amount of resources required to program for continued distribution. An additional factor relates to the meaning of value *p*. Although customers may have expected this status to indicate the item was published and available, in fact, this status has always meant only that the cataloging record had been upgraded. While the reason for the upgraded record is often the availability of the published item, this is not true in all cases.

Cataloging

LibVive

LibVive, the library podcast, is always worth a listen. The April 23 show is special because it includes a PSA by me for my podcast from the LPI Library. The stories covered in this epsoide include:

• Man found shot at library
• Man threatens legal action against city
• MySpace joins with Illinois Library Association to promote online safety
• Kentucky attempts to meet demand for library construction project funds
• Researchers’ use of academic libraries and their services
• Anonymous donor gives Philadelphia library $15 million
• Libraries: Shhh... it's a book bar.

Podcasts

Cataloging Futures Weblog

Here is another cataloging weblog to add to your reader, Cataloging Futures.

The focus of this blog is the future of cataloging and metadata in libraries. The preparation of the new cataloging code, RDA: Resource Description and Access, is a significant issue. The future of the MARC 21 format will also be explored. ILS/OPAC's future will be touch on also, but will not be the central focus. Also, I hope to use this blog to collocate some of the important papers, articles, websites, etc. that deal with the future of cataloging and metadata.

Weblogs

Addition 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 June 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.

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:

ncsclt

New classification scheme for Chinese libraries
(Taipei: Wen-hua) [use only after June 5, 2007]

Term, Name, Title Sources
The following codes are for use in subfield $2 in fields 600-657 in Bibliographic and Community Information records, and in subfield $f in field 040 (Cataloging Source) in Authority records.

Additions:

finmesh

FinMeSH [use only after June 5, 2007]

muzeukc

MuzeMusic UK classical music classification (London: Muze Europe Ltd) [use only after June 5, 2007]

muzeukn

MuzeMusic UK non-classical music classification (London: Muze Europe Ltd) [use only after June 5, 2007]

csht

Chinese subject headings (Taipei: National Central Library) [use only after June 5, 2007]

lcstt

List of Chinese subject terms (Taipei: National Central Library) [use only after June 5, 2007]

The following code is for use in subfield $2 in fields 600-657 in Bibliographic and Community Information records, in subfield $f in field 040 (Cataloging Source) and in subfield $2 in 7XX (Linking Entry) fields in Authority records.

Addition:

bibalex

Bibliotheca Alexandrina name and subject authority file (Alexandria, Egypt: Bibliotheca Alexandrina) [use only after June 5, 2007]

MARC

Google Summer of Code

Among the 900 projects selected for the Google Summer of Code is one for cataloging.

The purpose of this project is to create a professional web-based library cataloging application for searching, retrieving and editing library catalog records. It will be capable of integrating with any Integrated Library System using the Z39.50 protocol. The user interface will be as responsive to user input as possible and include the use of keyboard shortcuts and integrated help features. It will allow the user to search for records on user-defined Z39.50-enabled library catalogs, edit the records efficiently, and save them in standards compliant formats from which they can be imported into a library catalog.

This application would benefit the library community by providing an intuitive, customizable, professional interface for library catalogers which would work with existing Library Systems. Currently, libraries either have to pay to use proprietary cataloging systems or are limited to the editing interface which comes with their Integrated Library System. Not only would an open source alternative provide a free editor, it would also allow libraries to customize it to meet their cataloging staff's needs.

Cataloging

Skypecasting

Recently we got DSL at home, an upgrade from our dial-connection. So I've been exploring Skype. Nice. Works fine and is simple enough to use. We had used it when traveling and the place we were staying had a high-speed connection. Cora just finished her term as VP for the Texas Music Educators' Association and she often used it at board meetings.

Now I notice there is a service called Skypecasts, lets you talk to as many as 100 people and have control of who speaks and when. Looks like a useful tool. Anyone using it? I'm going to have an experimental Skypecast, just to get a feel for the tool and how it works. I'll just be reading my weekly podcast What's New at the Lunar and Planetary Institute Library. Wednesday evening at 8 Central Time. I have it down for 15 minuets, the shortest time slot they have, but it is more likely to last about 5 minuets, unless lots of folks join and say Hi.

Skype

Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records

The IFLA Working Group on Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records (FRANAR) has made this announcement.

The IFLA Working Group on Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records is pleased to announce that a 2nd draft of "Functional Requirements for Authority Data" (previously titled "Functional Requirements for Authority Records") is now available for worldwide review. This draft, updated in response to comments received during the previous review, is on the IFLA web site. Comments should be sent by July 15, 2007.

FRANAR

CONSER Standard Record

The revised draft documentation for the CONSER standard record is now available.

Serials

Dublin Core News

News from the Dublin Core folks.

Public comment will be held from 2 to 30 April 2007 on two related documents: the "DCMI Abstract Model" and the specification "Expressing Dublin Core metadata using the Resource Description Framework", or DC-RDF. In accordance with feedback received in an earlier public comment period from 4 February to 4 March 2007, the Abstract Model has been modified to differentiate literal and non-literal values in order to support unambiguous transformations into RDF from any encoding syntax that follows the Abstract Model. The DC-RDF specification, a DCMI Proposed Recommendation, updates an earlier draft in line with the latest version of the Abstract Model, as detailed in the document "Notes on DCMI specifications for Dublin Core metadata in RDF"

DC

MODS Implementation Registry

The MODS Implementation Registry contains descriptions of MODS projects planned, in progress, and fully implemented. It provides the MODS community with important information about how MODS is being used in various projects throughout the world.

Please review your entry if you have one or submit any new ones. Institutions and organizations who are implementing or planning to implement MODS should submit the following information to the Network Development and MARC Standards Office (ndmso@loc.gov) at the Library of Congress.

1. Name of the institution or organization implementing MODS
2. The MODS project name
3. A short description of the MODS project
4. Projected dates of implementation
5. A URL to the MODS project web site (if available)
6. A URL to any available documentation or specifications developed for the MODS project
7. A list of any MODS tools developed and or used as part of the MODS project
8. The MODS version used in the project
9. Contact name and e-mail address

MODS

Microformats

As a cataloger who appreciates all forms of structured mark-up, I'm putting this on my to-read list. Microformats: Empowering Your Markup for Web 2.0 I like microformats and hope they become more widespread on the Web. Can't link to WorldCat, since it has yet to make it into any libraries.

Microformats

Schematron

Schematron is an XML schema language that sounds better than what we have been using for our data. It allows for data validation. O'Reilly has a paid downloadable PDF on Schematron.

Schematron is a rule-based XML schema language, offering flexibility and power that W3C XML schema, RELAX NG, and DTDs simply can't match.

You need Schematron and can't settle for other languages if you have to check rules that go beyond checking the document structures (i.e., checking that an element bar is included in element foo) and their datatypes. Schematron is the right tool for checking conditions such as "startDate is earlier than or equal to endDate."

Schematron is also the right tool to use if you have to raise user-friendly error messages rather than depend on error messages that are generated by a schema processor and that are often obscure. Schematron builds on XPath. You will need to understand XPath to to get the most from Schematron.

XML

Happy 5th

I just noticed, a couple of weeks back, Catalogablog hit the 5th anniversary. The first post was early March 2002. I've had fun along the way, trying out different tools and metadata on the weblog. Lately I've been stressed and tired, maybe time to take a break or even close up shop. Not today though. I'll give it a bit more time and see if it passes. Maybe all I need is a good evening of contra dancing. Dancing here in Houston this Saturday. See you Friday at the TX SLA meeting or back here Monday.

"AACR2 Compatible" Headings

This notice from the Cataloging Policy and Support Office was seen on the SLA catalog email list.

The Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO), Library of Congress, has mounted on the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access (ABA) Web site a PDF file containing an introductory statement and several draft revisions to Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRI) that provide guidelines for a more relaxed policy in dealing with "AACR2 compatible" headings. This document may be retrieved directly from the ABA Web site as the first item under General, Descriptive Cataloging or through the URL. CPSO would like comments from the library community by close of business, April 23, 2007, so that the resulting revisions may be prepared for the next update of LCRI in May. Comments, as noted in the introductory statement should be sent to cpso@loc.gov.

Authority

Metadata for All Memory Institutions

Metadata for All: Descriptive Standards and Metadata Sharing across Libraries, Archives and Museums by Mary W. Elings and Günter Waibel appears in the March issue of First Monday

Integrating digital content from libraries, archives and museums represents a persistent challenge. While the history of standards development is rife with examples of cross-community experimentation, in the end, libraries, archives and museums have developed parallel descriptive strategies for cataloguing the materials in their custody. Applying in particular data content standards by material type, and not by community affiliation, could lead to greater data interoperability within the cultural heritage community.

In making this argument, the article demystifies metadata by defining and categorizing types of standards, provides a brief historical overview of the rise of descriptive standards in museums, libraries and archives, and considers the current tensions and ambitions in making descriptive practice more economic

Metadata

DeLange Conference on Emerging Libraries

Rice University recently had the The DeLange Conference on Emerging Libraries. The talks were recorded and are available for downloading.

Libraries

Users and Uses of Bibliographic Data Meeting

There is a Brief Meeting Summary of the Users and Uses of Bibliographic Data Meeting held March 8, 2007 at Mountain View, CA now available.

The purpose of this first public meeting of the Working Group is to gain insight into the requirements of the bibliographic record and bibliographic control in the context of users and usage. The following brief summary of the Users and Uses Meeting highlights particularly relevant portions of some presentations and recurring themes, as well as some more specific requests for change. Fuller documentation will be prepared as part of the Working Group’s final report.

Cataloging

SLA Talk

I've posted the text to my talk for the SLA Texas Chapter meeting, this coming Friday. Any suggestions welcomed.

Here are the slides.

SLA

Koha and Google

Exciting news from LibLime, the Koha support company.

I’m excited to announce that LibLime has been selected as a mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code program. Google Summer of Code offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects.

Some of the area suggested are:

• Creation of CDS/ISIS Migration to Koha Toolkit
• Improve Kartouche for Koha Translation Manager
• Improve Koha Unicode Support
• Improve Koha Worldmap
• Improve Koha Documentation/Online Help
• Improve Koha Cataloging Interface
• Improve Koha Report Wizard
• Tool to build 'map' of shelves
• OpenShareTags

Koha

Serials Cataloging Paper

Catalog/Cataloging Changes and Web 2.0 Functionality: New Directions for Serials by Rebecca Kemp will be published in The Serials Librarian later this year.

This article presents an overview of some of the important recent developments in cataloging theory and practice and online catalog design. Changes in cataloging theory and practice include the incorporation of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records principles into catalogs, the new Resource Description and Access cataloging manual, and the new CONSER Standard Record. Web 2.0 functionalities and advances in search technology and results displays are influencing online catalog design. The paper ends with hypothetical scenarios in which a catalog, enhanced by the developments described, fulfills the tasks of finding serials articles and titles.

Cataloging

Photo Metadata

MS Windows users may be interested in this download that allows editing photographic metadata within Windows Explorer, Microsoft Photo Info.

Microsoft Photo Info allows photographers to add, change and delete common "metadata" properties for digital photographs from inside Windows Explorer.

When installed, a new "Photo Info" item appears on the context menu for files selected in Windows Explorer. To use, simply select one or more image files, right-click and choose "Photo Info" to open the Photo Info properties editor. You can edit metadata for files individually, or all together as a batch. Photo Info reads and writes metadata in IPTC and XMP formats (depending on file type). It also provides enhanced "hover tips" and additional sort properties for digital photographs in Windows Explorer.

Seen on the Travelin' Librarian.

Metadata

My Next Talk

SLA Texas Chapter Spring Meeting
Friday, March 23, 2007
University of Houston's Rockwell Pavilion

This year's meeting is a spotlight on Innovation. We have a diverse topic line-up to stimulate innovative strategies that can be implemented in your library/research center.

Speakers

Joanie Oliver, Executive Partner and founder of Iconitel, Inc. - this session is sure to supply even the most experienced content buyer with effective strategies for purchasing, managing and implementing research information contracts. Since starting her career working for Dialog a Thomson company in 1992, she has gained a unique perspective and knowledge of managing and marketing information.

Carol Simpson, associate professor at the School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of North Texas, will speak on copyright in the special/corporate library environment. She will give an overview of copyright law, recent court cases and the importance of mitigating copyright liability.

Keith DeWeese, taxonomy consultant for Dow Jones, will give an overview of taxonomy development and will also speak on innovative approaches to incorporating taxonomies and other controlled vocabularies into various information management scenarios.

Panel Discussion featuring our own Chapter Members:

• Greg Lambert, King & Spalding, LLP - This law firm has developed a method for compiling articles and alerts published by their competitors. By taking that information, adding internal taxonomies, and pinpointing the distribution to those that benefit most, they have a better understanding of what their competitors are doing, and what can be done to advance the firm's position in the market
• David Bigwood, Lunar & Planetary Institute - Based on the desire to provide on-going marketing to users, the Institute's library has generated a Homegrown Outreach plan that requires little support. Using simple free or low-cost tools, a weekly news page, RSS feed and podcast has been created.
• Sandy Miller, Southern Methodist University - SMU's Business Information Center has incorporated educational technology initiatives into the library. A primary benefit is that students may now start and complete their entire academic assignments within the library, from the first reference question to a polished presentation or podcast as the finished product.
• Marcia Schemper-Carlock, Verizon - Due to the increase in market research content and the decline of available staff time for processing content, this research team has implemented Northern Light's integrated search portal. The implementation provides end-users faster access to new content and greatly reduces the manual cataloging process.

Registration

Online Registration

Price includes continental breakfast, lunch, and closing reception
SLA Members $40
Non-Members $60
SLA Members (between jobs) $15
Students or Retirees $15

Agenda

8:00 - 8:45 Registration and Breakfast
8:45 - 9:00 Welcome by Marcia Schemper-Carlock, Texas Chapter President
9:00 - 10:30 Panel Discussion
Greg Lambert, King & Spalding, LLP
David Bigwood, Lunar & Planetary Institute
Sandy Miller, Southern Methodist University
Marcia Schemper-Carlock, Verizon
10:30 - 10:50 Break and Networking
10:50 - 11:50 Dr. Carol Simpson - Copyright
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch - Keith DeWeese - Taxonomy Development (sponsored by Factiva
1:00 - 2:20 Joanie Olivier - Innovative Negotiation Strategies for Purchasing Information Resource Contracts (sponsored by EBSCO)
2:20 - 2:40 Break and Networking
2:40 - 4:00 Joanie Olivier - Innovative Marketing Strategies
4:00 - 4:45 Wrap Up, Awards, Chapter Business
5:00 - 6:30 Wine & Cheese Reception

Directions

The meeting will be at the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion, located on the second floor (Room 214A) of the M.D. Anderson Library, which is the main library at the University of Houston (central campus). Map

Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion
M.D. Anderson Library, 2nd Level
114 University Libraries
Houston, TX 77204-2000

SLA

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

Posts will be light and less regular next week. This is our annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Also, my podcast, news page and recent additions to the collection page at the LPI will not be updated next week.

If you will be at the conference stop by the library or the Publishers' Exhibit and say Hi.

LPSC

MARC RTP RIP

It seems that the MARC Record Translation Program is no longer available. It's a shame when tools disappear.

MARC

WorldCat Citations

Item records in WorldCat.org, WorldCat's open-Web interface, now include a Cite this Item link that provides bibliographic citations in five common styles: APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA and Turabian.

That was a nice feature on the RedLightGreen site. Glad to see it here.

WorldCat

Podcasting Tips

I do a weekly podcast for the Lunar and Planetary Institute (MPOW). Short, simple and easy. I do read a bit about podcasting looking for useful tips, here is an audio file that covers a new aspect, Using Format to Engage the Listener by Stacy Bond.

Although podcasters may savor the raw style of extemporaneous talk, Bond shares many pro-level tips to help ensure content is presented in a listenable way. By envisioning a timeline or arc for the show, podcasters can build an identity and create hooks to engage and stimulate their audience. Breaks should be designed to allow people a chance to catch up and stay clear on who's speaking and what's happening. Rhythms, repetition and certain milestones can reinforce the tone and trajectory of a show in order to keep listeners on track and well entertained within a familiar framework for audio storytelling.

Podcasting

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

xISBN Service to Move

Eric Hellman has this announcement about the OCLC xISBN service.

At about 4PM EST on Tuesday, February 13, a switch will be flipped, and traffic aimed at the experimental version of xISBN will begin to be routed to a replacement xISBN service supported by the Openly Informatics Division of OCLC. Any application that follows http redirects- this should be most xISBN client applications- will continue to work without needing changes. The timing of this switch has been dictated by the decommissioning of a server, and we apologize if this short notice seriously impacts anyone.

After the switch, the traffic currently sent to "http://labs.oclc.org/xisbn/[ISBN]" will be redirected to "http://old-xisbn.oclc.org/webservices/xisbn/[ISBN]". This service will respond in almost exactly the same way that the research version has responded; you can change your applications to use the replacement address effective immediately. Of immediate benefit to all users of xISBN is be the drastically improved currency and frequent updates of the xISBN data set.

As you might guess from the replacement system host name, there will soon be a "new" version of the xISBN service. Xiaoming Liu, who has been working on xISBN for 3 months, will unveil the "WorldCat xISBN Service" at the Code4Lib conference at the end of the month.

There is a small difference in the behavior of the replacement service. If you send the replacement service a 13 digit ISBN, the entire result set will be returned with 13 digits.

If you expect your xISBN client service to use more than 1000 queries per day, please let us know (xisbn-support@oclc.org), as the traffic control systems have also changed.

To make sure that you are alerted of all of the coming changes surrounding xISBN, please make sure to sign up for the XIDENTIFIER-L listserv.

xISBN

Yahoo Pipes

Yahoo Pipes looks interesting. No time to play with it now, but how about running the RSS feeds from our catalogs through Flickr, Google Maps or .... Dead simple mash-ups. Accepts XML, so it is not limited to RSS feeds, those just seem to be the most commonly used.

Mash-ups

Video Annotation

Integrating Contextual Video Annotation into Media Authoring for Video Podcasting and Digital Medical Records by I-Jong Lin and Hui Chao is a new HP report.

In this paper, we demonstrate how rich media annotation can enable two new applications for video podcasting and digital medical records. At WIAMIS 2004, we introduced an innovative video annotation technology called Active Shadows, that captures a virtual presence interacting with a displayed image and overlays on top of a digital image. With Active Shadows, we combine the expert opinion and presence (of a professor and doctor) with the informationally rich images (presentation slides and medical images, respectively). We identify current forms of media whose value can be enhanced through this type of annotation, and introduce a basic workflow to produce new forms of media. This paper specifically discusses two experimental media workflows, one for authoring video for portable video devices (video podcasting) and another for integrating diagnoses with medical imaging for digital patient records.

Video

Geospatial Metadata Standards

News from the FGDC community.

The InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) Technical Committee L1, Geographic Information Systems and the Canadian General Standards Board – Committee on Geomatics (CGSB-CoG) have released a draft of the North American Profile of International Standards Organization Standard 19115: 2003, Geographic information - Metadata (NAP – Metadata) for review. Review and comment from other metadata practitioners are also invited. Comments are invited to assure that the Profile meets the needs of the geographic information community in both the United States and Canada.

The review period began on February 1, 2007 and ends March 16, 2007.

FGDC

ONIX Resource

Here is a go-to place for ONIX Records for Libraries

I am trying to gather information on publishers who make ONIX records available for downloading. Here is what I have so far. If you know of another publisher that freely offers ONIX records for downloading, please contact me.

Provides searching of the records and instructions on getting them for yourself.

ONIX

Public comment for revision of DCMI Abstract Model

The DCMI Abstract Model, which attained the status of DCMI Recommendation in March 2005, has been revised in light of discussion and feedback from the DCMI Architecture Working Group, the DCMI Usage Board, and the broader community. This revised version of the Abstract Model has been posted for a four-week public comment period. A revised DCMI Namespace Policy proposing a new DCMI namespace for Abstract Model entities has been posted for comment at the same time. For more information please consult a longer announcement on the DC-ARCHITECTURE mailing list. Interested members of the public are invited to post comments on these Proposed Recommendations to the DC-ARCHITECTURE mailing list, including "[DCAM Public Comment]" in the subject line. Public Comment will be open from 5 February through 5 March 2007.

DCMI

Dublin Core for Scholarly Works

A Dublin Core Application Profile for Scholarly Works. Julie Allinson, Pete Johnston and Andy Powell describe a Dublin Core application profile for describing scholarly works that makes use of FRBR and the DCMI Abstract Model.

DCMI

Pew Report on Tagging

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has released a report on tagging.

Just as the internet allows users to create and share their own media, it is also enabling them to organize digital material their own way, rather than relying on pre-existing formats of classifying information.

A December 2006 survey has found that 28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content.

The report features an interview with David Weinberger, a prominent blogger and fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Tagging

Metasearch

Exciting news from Oregon State.

Oregon State University releases LibraryFind® software.

We are pleased to announce the first public release of the LibraryFind metasearch software, developed by Oregon State University Libraries. LibraryFind is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

This first public release, version 0.7, has a number of advanced features, such as (but not limited to):

• 2-click user workflow (one click to find, one click to get)
• Integrated OpenURL resolver
• 2-tiered caching system to improve search response time
• Customizable user interface

As this is a pre-1.0 release, there are still a number of features, functions, and efficiencies we plan to add to the software. We encourage involvement from others in the library community who are interested in working on an open source metasearch product.

LibraryFind

MARC21 slim to MODS 3.2 stylesheet

LC has recently revised the MARC21 slim to MODS 3.2 stylesheet.

This revision adds requested functionality for outputting invalid or outdated standard numbers represented in subfields $y or $z in MARC 010, 020, 022, 024, 028, and 037 to the @invalid in MODS.

MARC
MODS

UNT Call Number

Well, it's not Rolling Stone but I got my picture on the cover of Call Number.

Music TEKSLink

The Feb. issue of Southwestern Musician, in the Elementary Division column, has a description of the TEKSLink Project and an invitation to participate. If any Texas school librarians and their music teacher want to team-up just let me know. If you are a Texas school librarian and are not familiar with the project, you might want to get up to speed before your music teacher asks about it.

TEKSLink

Web Directions South

The presentations from Web Directions South are now available as slides and MP3s. I plan to listen on my commute to Microformats and You-biquity. Plenty of other good ones are available.

Web2.0

Metadata and Delicious

Eric Lease Morgan has taken the Alex texts and extracted keywords from them and their metadata and then loaded this on del.icio.us. All automated. Nice for discovery of the texts in the Alex Catalog. However, I wonder, since this is possible, just how soon before spammers set up something like this and destroy the social bookmarking sites.

Tagging

MARC Code Lists for Relators, Sources, Description Conventions

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 March 26, 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.Addition to the MARC Code Lists for Relators, Sources, Description Conventions

Other Sources

The following code is for use in subfield $2 in field 886 (Foreign MARC Information Field) in Bibliographic records.

Addition:

bibsysm

BIBSYS-MARC (Trondheim: BIBSYS) [use after March 26, 2007]

MARC

Question

Maybe I should ask this on AUTOCAT but....

When I find a typo or misspelling in an item's title I use "i.e." to supply the correct word and then create 2 246s. One with the title as on the item and the other with the correct spelling. I have not been doing anything other than using "i.e." and supplying the correct word when it occurs in subfield b. Is this enough?

Typos

MARC::Record

Version 2 of MARC::Record is now available.

MARC

New Platform for Catalogablog

Catalogablog has been moved to a new platform by Google. Seems to be OK. If anyone experiences any problems please let me know.

Cataloging Cultural Objects

Lately I've been skimming Cataloging Cultural Objects. So different from AACR2. We think in terms of author, title and subject access so easily. These folks are dealing with items with none of those properties. What is the title of a chair? Who is the author of that chair if the manufacturer is unknown? What is the chair about? I think every intro to cataloging course could benefit from doing a very brief comparison between CCO and AACR. The differences are enlightening.

CCO

Weeding

Lately there have been many posts in library weblogs about weeding issues. I won't comment on them. Each library is unique and must make decisions about what is best for them. However, it does give me the opportunity to point to the Weed of the Month Club. Each month for many years they examined a subject area and then gave some guidelines and pointed out some books commonly in collections that should be considered for weeding. Intended for school libraries, it can be used for public, community college and in some instances academic and special libraries. A great resource.

A book has been published based on the project Less is more : a practical guide to weeding school library collections by Donna J. Baumbach and Linda L. Miller.

Weeding

Koha in the Classroom

LibLime is providing supported hosted Koha software to LIS programs. Now the students can get in there and see how searches change if 505t is added to the title index. What is the effect of indexing series fields in title searches? This kind of hands on experience is invaluable.

They can get the MIT catalog to use as a catalog, just have to convert the MARCXML to MARC. Then convert the MARCXML version of the LC authority files, to have a nice test environment.

Koha

Social OPAC

Another bit of news that is sure to be widespread is the SOPAC by John Blyberg. Based on Drupal, he has released it as open-source. Works on III catalogs. "So what is the SOPAC? It's basically a set of social networking tools integrated into the AADL catalog. It gives users the ability to rate, review, comment-on, and tag items."

OPAC

Authority Records in MARCXML

Seen elsewhere but too pertinent not to mention, is that the LC authority file is now available in MARCXML.

Using a custom agent, we were able to harvest 6.95 million authority records using the publicly accessible interface to the Library of Congress authority files located at authorities.loc.gov.

• Retrieved records have been converted into MarcXML
• Accented characters have been converted into NFC (Composed Normal Form).
• Initial checks against authorities.loc.gov indicate that the retrieved data faithfully reflect that on the original system; however these checks are still only preliminary.

Cross checks against Classification Web have revealed some inconsistencies. For this reason, we are releasing this data for research purposes only. This data is not suitable for production use.

First seen on librarian.net

MARCXML