Fish4Info Released

Yet another open-source OPAC replacement has been released, Fish4Info.

Fish4Info is not an OPAC. Why not? OPACs connect users with MARC records when what they really want are resources. Fish4Info is focused on users, and provides a more positive finding experience (as opposed to a frustrating and fruitless search). We talked about book reviews and social connections and the power of a library portal that is a destination instead of a pass-through.

The modules in the code base include:
MARCImport - place a MARC file on the server and this transfers the data into Drupal nodes
BCCKReview - a book review module built using CCK
EZ-Amazon - helps you use an Amazon API developer’s key to access Amazon content
Some others I am sure I am forgetting, but which you will find in /drupal/sites/all/modules/…

Non-Latin Characters in Name Authority Records

News from the CPSO.

The major authority record exchange partners (British Library, Library of Congress, National Library of Medicine, and OCLC, Inc., in consultation with Library and Archives Canada) have agreed to a basic outline that will allow for the addition of references with non-Latin characters to name authority records that make up the LC/NACO Authority File.

While the romanized form will continue to be the authorized heading (authority record 1XX field), NACO contributors will be able to add references in non-Latin scripts following MARC 21’s “Model B” for multi-script records. Model B provides for unlinked non-Latin script fields with the same MARC tags used for romanized data, such as authority record 4XX fields. Using Model B for authorities is a departure from the current bibliographic record practice of many Anglo-American libraries where non-Latin characters are exported as 880 fields (Alternate Graphic Representation) using MARC 21’s “Model A” for multiscript records.

For the initial implementation period, the use of non-Latin scripts will be limited to those scripts that represent the MARC-8 repertoire of UTF-8 (Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Cyrillic, and Greek). Although the exchange of authority records between the NACO nodes will be in UTF-8, LC’s Cataloging Distribution Service will continue to supply the MDS-Authorities weekly subscription product in both UTF-8 and MARC-8 for some period of time. It is expected that the use of non-Latin scripts beyond the MARC-8 repertoire will be implemented in the future.

Virtual International Authority File

The research folks at OCLC have a Virtual International Authority File running.

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and OCLC are jointly conducting a project to match and link the authority records for personal names in the retrospective personal name authority files of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (dnb), the Library of Congress (LC), and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).

Amazon MP3s

Amazon has started selling DRM-free MP3s. They are encoded at 256 kb and sell for 89 to 99 cents each. Does this pose a threat to iTunes? Well the convience is lacking at Amazon. At iTunes you get seamless throughput from iTunes to your computer to your iPod. At Amazon each of those steps requires something on my part. A little bit better skill set.

The other part is the catalog. No Beatles, almost no U2. They do have the Frank Sinatra With Bono song. Only one song by the Corrs. A good selection of Pentangle. I'll give it a try, but with the limited catalog and being less convient, I don't see this as an iTunes killer.

Movie Genre Terms in LSCH

The List of LCSH Moving Image Genre-Form Headings compiled by Scott M. Dutkiewicz is being updated weekly to show new terms available.

Map Cataloging

Problems That Arise When Providing Geographic Coordinate Information for Cataloged Maps by Jorge A. Gonzalez has just appeared in Coordinates.

This article explores the importance of correctly understanding, using, and interpreting map cataloging rules to provide the most accurate information possible, with the goal of making it possible to find maps quickly and accurately- whether using database retrieval or a coordinate-driven search engine. It is proposed that we can find an efficient universal method to represent locations, addresses, and areas of the world through the use of geographic coordinates for print and digital cartographic materials. Finally, the article states the strong need to standardize spatial cataloging information to improve search query responses by providing uniform information and by addressing the problems discussed in this article.

RSS Best Practices

Just as MARC gives the structure and AACR guides us on how to fill that structure, there now exists the same documents for RSS. The RSS specification gives the elements, the new Really Simple Syndication Best Practices Profile gives guidelines on how to use those elements. Comments are being accepted on the document.

When to Create a New Record

News from CC:DA.

We are pleased to announce publication of Differences Between, Changes Within: Guidelines on When to Create a New Record (revised edition, 2007). This revised edition is now available as a free, 38-page download (.pdf) and is no longer available as a print publication.

Originally intended to be an appendix to the 2002 AACR2 rule revisions, Differences Between, Changes Within evolved into a stand-alone document that supplements current descriptive cataloging rules by providing information about creating new records or updating existing records.

The document helps guide the cataloger in determining whether the item in hand can be cataloged with existing copy or requires a new bibliographic record. General guidelines are followed by specific guidelines for manifestation-level records for single-part monographs, multipart monographs, integrating resources, and serials. The text describes what constitutes a major difference between manifestations, requiring the creation of an original record, as well as detailing major changes within a serial manifestation that would lead to the creation of a new record. In addition, guidance is also provided to identify minor changes that would not require a new bibliographic record, but might necessitate updating an existing record.

The new edition of Differences Between, Changes Within reflects changes through the final set of amendments to AACR2, which were issued in 2005. Some guidelines have been changed and some removed. All rule references have been verified and updated wherever necessary.

Validation Records

From the LC Cataloging Newsline Vol. 15, no. 3 (October 2007)

The Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) has begun creating and distributing subject authority records called "validation records" that represent valid 6XX headings plus subdivision strings (topical, chronological, geographic, and form), including strings with free-floating subdivisions for which subject authority records were not previously made. Validation records are being created to improve the "validation" capability of many integrated library management systems used by the Library of Congress and others by providing an authorized form of subject heading strings for machine matching.

The validation records are identified by the presence of the 667 field which reads: "Record generated for validation purposes." All validation records will appear in LC's online catalogs but will not be printed in the annual edition of Library of Congress Subject Headings nor will they appear as proposed headings on the LC Subject Headings Weekly List. As of Sept. 25, 2007, 1,900 validation records have been distributed. Some examples are:

• sh2007005269 Abdominal wall$xAbnormalities (May Subd Geog)
• sh2007100421 United States$xEconomic policy$vPeriodicals
• sh2007100247 Great Britain$xRelations$zUnited States
• sh2007100224 Indians of North America$vSongs and music

CPSO is creating the validation records by using a combination of one-by-one record creation as subject strings are encountered in weekly operations and use of an automated program to generate and distribute validation records without human intervention. For this latter automated method, the focus is on subject heading strings applied since the year 2002 for which the LC catalog contains fifty or more bibliographic records that include the same 6XX string. Once the automated program is tested and approved, several thousand records are expected to be generated and distributed each week. CPSO will make an announcement before the automated method is put into full production.

Folksonomies

The October/November 2007 issue of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology includes a special section on Folksonomies.

• Introduction: Folksonomies and Image Tagging: Seeing the Future? by Diane Neal, Guest Editor
• Why Are They Tagging, and Why Do We Want Them To? by P. Jason Morrison
• Trouble in Paradise: Conflict Management and Resolution in Social Classification Environments by Chris Landbeck
• Image Indexing: How Can I Find a Nice Pair of Italian Shoes? by Elaine Ménard
• Flickr Image Tagging: Patterns Made Visible by Joan Beaudoin

Seen on Christina's LIS Rant.

Family

A couple pictures of the family are up.

Video Language Coding

The OLAC CAPC Video Language Coding Best Practices Task Force Draft Recommendations (October 2007) are now available.

The task force was charged with creating a set of best practices for coding MARC 008/lang and 041 language information for videos, especially DVDs, and with using that exercise to examine whether any changes could be made to the MARC format (coding or directions) that would improve access to the multiple types of language information found on videos.

Email Access

Providing access to a collection of email messages isn't something we worry much about, unless we are archivists. Still providing access is what catalogers do. An IMAP plugin for SquirrelRDF by John Recker, Davide Eynard, and Craig Sayers. HPL-2007-161.

The Semantic Web aims to make information accessible to both humans and machines, using standard formats for data and making information available in a formal and structured way. Since the advent of RDF (Resource Description Framework) there have been many efforts to extract and convert existing information in this format. In this paper we describe an adapter tool for the IMAP protocol, developed as a plugin of SquirrelRDF1, which allows users to query IMAP mailboxes using SPARQL. The information returned looks like RDF, is always current, and can be reused and integrated inside other applications.

Metadata Survey

IFLA wants your help.

We are collecting your suggestions to be used in preparing a chapter on metadata decisions for the Digital Library Guidelines, a task of the IFLA- World Digital Library Working Group on Digital Library Guidelines. The Guidelines will be developed for use by libraries and other cultural institutions around the world. The purpose of this survey is to investigate different issues, levels, and concerns regarding metadata and controlled vocabularies that need to be addressed in the Guidelines.

Please take 3-5 minutes to answer these questions on the survey.

Subject Analysis Committee

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

CONSERline

The current issue of CONSERline, no. 29, fall 2007 is available.

The table of contents:

• From the Editor
• CONSER Standard Record News
• DLF Registry of Digital Masters
• Integrating Resources Cataloging
• SCCTP
• PCC Ad Hoc Series Review Task Force
• CONSER Documentation
• Membership News
• CONSER People

marcdb

Ed Summers has kindly made available marcdb.

marcdb is a little utility for reading in marc data into a relational database. The magic of sqlalchemy and elixir mean that you can use any supported rdbms: postgres, sqlite, mysql, etc...you'll just need to make sure you've got the relevant database driver installed.

Still available is MARC RTP for converting selected fields into a format databases accept. With these two tools and Terry Reese's MarcEdit converting MARC to other formats should be a snap.

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

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 November 28, 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. Language
Coding Sources

The following codes are for use in subfield $2 in field 041 in Bibliographic and Community Information records (Language Code).

Additions:

rfc4646

Tags for Identifying Languages [use only after November 28, 2007]

iso639-3

Codes for the representation of names of languages--Part 3 [use only after November 28, 2007]

Kernel Metadata

For those times when Dublin Core is too complex, there is Kernel metadata. Just four elements, who, what, when and, where.

Kernel metadata is a small prescriptive vocabulary designed to support highly uniform but minimal object descriptions for the purpose of orderly collection management. The Kernel vocabulary, based on a subset of the Dublin Core (DC) metadata element set, aims to describe objects of any form or category, but its reach is limited to a small number of fundamental questions such as who, what, when, and where. The Electronic Resource Citation (ERC), also specified in this document, is an object description that addresses those four questions using Kernel and other metadata elements.

Family

This post is personal, but it will get the word out to lots of friends and family quickly. Next Tuesday, Sept. 25. our family will grow by 3, two girls (12 & 13) and a young man (14). We will be their home for a while. They do have a much older sister in Panama, who may take custody at some point in time, or not. We expect them to be part of our family for a few to several years. Pictures on Flickr as they become available.

Genre/Form Authority Records

Library of Congress Subject Headings Weekly List 35 (August 29, 2007) contains the start of authority records for the TV and movie genres. Most have yet to make it into the LC authority datanbse.

Skype & MS Office

Skype has a new toolbar for MS Office. Works with Office 2007. Things you can do with Skype Office Toolbar

• Start calls to Skype Names and phone numbers written within MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents
• See when the author of a document is online and communicate with them
• Send the file you are currently working on to Skype Contacts
• Turn phone numbers into links within your document

I'll have to give this a try.

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

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 November 13, 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. (Description Conventions)

The following code is for use in subfield $2 in field 040 in Bibliographic and Authority records (Description Conventions).

Addition:

enol

Ekspertiza i nauchno-tekhnicheskaia obrabotka lichnykh arkhivnykh fondov: metodicheskiie rekomendatsii (Moskva: 1990) [use only after November 13, 2007]

W3C Completes Bridge Between HTML/Microformats and Semantic Web

Big news from the W3C, GRDDL.

Today, the World Wide Web Consortium completed an important link between Semantic Web and microformats communities. With "Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages", or GRDDL (pronounced "griddle"), software can automatically extract information from structured Web pages to make it part of the Semantic Web. Those accustomed to expressing structured data with microformats in XHTML can thus increase the value of their existing data by porting it to the Semantic Web, at very low cost.

"Sometimes one line of code can make a world of difference," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "Just as stylesheets make Web pages more readable to people, GRDDL makes Web pages, microformat tags, XML documents, and data more readable to Semantic Web applications, opening more data to new possibilities and creative reuse."

Library Card Sign-up Month

September is Library Card Sign-up Month. It is also library card renewal month at MPOW, the Lunar and Planetary Institute. In my latest podcast I used the 10 second clip from ALA to reinforce the renewal message. (I felt like a sound engineer getting it the right volume and speed.) They have other lengths that might meet your needs better. Thanks ALA.

Web Ontology Language (OWL)

HP labs has a new report on OWL, Comparing OWL Semantics Turner, David; Carroll, Jeremy J. HPL-2007-146

The OWL Web Ontology Language is endowed with two model theories, reflecting its origins as a compromise between two different communities. By design these model theories give rise to very similar semantics, and a precise statement of the correspondence between the model theories is conjectured with a sketch proof at the end of the OWL semantics specification document. We have filled in the details of this sketch proof using the Isabelle/HOL proof assistant, and developed machinery for further study of the formal semantics of OWL. Our study was sufficiently detailed to find a handful of minor errors in the specification of the semantics of OWL that previous work had overlooked. We also sought a stronger result by showing a partial converse to the known correspondence, but it proved impossible to achieve this within our time constraints; instead we conjecture a possible method for strengthening the correspondence.

OK Training

We invite you to participate in Mars In and Out. A free NASA-supported workshop designed to bring earth and space science into your library and after-school children’s and community programs November 8 and 9, 2007.

The Office of Library Development
Oklahoma Department of Libraries
200 NE 18th Street
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105

Mars Inside and Out! will acquaint you with everything you need to know about the mysterious red planet to bring exciting programs to your community. You will learn about how the Martian environment has changed through time, the possibility for life on Mars, past, present, and future NASA missions to Mars, and plans and challenges for having humans living and working on Mars.

Scientists and educators from the Lunar and Planetary Institute will share space science information, resources, hands-on activities, and demonstrations developed specifically for librarians and after-school program providers to infuse into their programs with children ages 8 to 13 and their families.

During the workshop you will:

• Meet NASA scientists and engineers involved in Mars exploration
• Learn about Mars science, missions, and future exploration
• Receive training in related hands-on science inquiry activities, designed for children ages 8 to 13
• Receive related resources and materials that you can use in your programs
• Explore ideas for presenting space science programs to young audiences and to other colleagues
• Collaborate with other after-school program providers and children’s and youth librarians in Oklahoma and become part of the growing Explore! community
• Receive a $100 stipend for attending!

The workshop is free. You will receive Mars Inside and Out! presentations, activities, and resources (posters, book lists, suggested Web sites), and the first 25 participants to register will receive a $100 stipend for completing the workshop. The materials are ready to be incorporated into your existing children’s and youth programs.

But wait — there’s more! You will also receive materials for ten additional Explore! space science topics (rockets, space stations, space colonies, egg-stronauts, solar system, shaping the planets, comets, staying healthy in space, and the Sun-Earth connection). Each of these topics has complementary hands-on activities and resources that can be found on the Explore! website.

The workshop begins at 9:00 am on Thursday, November 8, and continues until the close of the day, 5:00 pm, on Friday, November 9. Light breakfasts, lunches, and afternoon snacks will be provided and, of course, chocolate will be available, too! Participants are responsible for travel, housing, and dinner costs, and all logistical arrangements.

Space is limited; please register by 5 October to reserve your place in the workshop. Come join us for a fun-filled and learning-filled two days. We look forward to exploring Mars Inside and Out! with you. Drop me a request for a registration form.

Scriblio in Use

Lamson Library at Plymouth State University is now using the Scriblio library catalog. Casey Bisson provides more info in his weblog maisonbisson.

DC Papers

The papers from the Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications are now available. Lots of good reading here.

Houston Area

District 8 of the Texas Library Association has announced that registration is open for those who wish to register for the Fall Meeting.

I personally like this meeting very much. I think it is the size of some state conferences, it gets about 1,000 attendees I guess. But, compared to TLA it is much more intimate. It is large enough to have a session or two I like, small enough to sit down and chat with folks I've not seen in too long.

Tagging and Controlled Vocabalaries

EntityDescriber is an add-on tool for Connotea that allows taggers to select terms from a controlled vocabalary.

E.D. is a mechanism for intersecting the Semantic Web with the normal Web. It lets Connotea users (though we may extend it to other systems such as Del.icio.us) annotate (tag) resources on the Web with terms from existing controlled vocabularies such as MeSH, the Gene Ontology, the Atom ontology, and the Person ontology. For more thoughts on and progress with ED, see blog posts about ED.

You might enjoy using ED if any of the following apply to you:

• You would like to organize your tags more effectively
• You are using Connotea to create a reference system - for example for a class
• You are a member of a group of people that would like to use a common set of tags - possibly with the aim of creating a nice reference library
• You like the idea that every time you tag something you are contributing to the semantic web
• You would like to utilize queries over your collection and others that take advantage of the structure of ontologies. For example, queries for "brain", that return resources tagged with "hippocampus", "cortex", "cerebellum", etc...
• You would like to help an aging graduate student add one more chapter to his thesis...

Telescope Metadata

More and more people are getting into the metadata game. Here is a proposed XML metadata schema for telescopes.

Earlier I described my idea for an RSS-like XML feed for telescopes. The idea was to allow anyone to keep up with what particular telescopes were doing. In this post I will try to describe my current idea.

He is looking for comments.

PERSNAME-L

PERSNAME-L, exists for the purpose of dealing with issues about personal names. To subscribe to PERSNAME-L, follow this link and click on "Join or leave the list (or change settings)". Or send a message to LISTSERV@LISTS.OU.EDU with the words SUBSCRIBE PERSNAME-L followed by a forename and surname. I've found this to be a very useful group.

BookTour

Here is a very useful website for book-lovers, BookTour. Shows what authors are speaking in an area.

We're a free online service that connects authors and potential audiences of all sorts, from book groups to civic organizations, from bookstores to corporate events. Authors create their own page (biography, books, tour dates and availability) and any group looking for speakers can find them and contact them directly to arrange for an appearance. Relevant information for both authors and venues can be added in minutes through a simple fill-in-the-blanks interface. Connecting authors with potential audiences then becomes as easy as searching (by geography, book titles, subject, dates of availability) and sending an email.

There is an interview with the site's creators, Kevin Smokler and Adam Goldstein, on IT Conversations.

Text Encoding Initiative

TEI@20: 20 Years of Supporting the Digital Humanities.

• Pre-Conference Workshops: 31 October 2007
• Conference: 1-2 November 2007
• Members Meeting: 3 November 2007

McKeldin Library, University of Maryland College Park

Zotero Has an New Version

Zotero, the open source citation manager, has added some new features.

• Zotero now offers full-text indexing of PDFs, adding your archived PDFs to the searchable text in your collection.
• Zotero’s integration with word processing tools has been greatly improved. The MS Word plugin works much more seamlessly and we now support OpenOffice on Windows, Mac (in the form of NeoOffice), and Linux.
• Zotero is also now better integrated with the desktop. Users can drag files from their desktop into their Zotero collection and can also drag attachments out of their Zotero collection onto their desktop.
• We have begun to add tools to browse and visualize Zotero collections in new ways. Using MIT’s SIMILE Timeline widget, Zotero can now generate timelines from any collection or selected items.

Here is their description:

Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. An extension to the popular open-source web browser Firefox, Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software (like EndNote)—the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references—and the best parts of modern software and web applications (like iTunes and del.icio.us), such as the ability to interact, tag, and search in advanced ways. Zotero integrates tightly with online resources; it can sense when users are viewing a book, article, or other object on the web, and—on many major research and library sites—find and automatically save the full reference information for the item in the correct fields. Since it lives in the web browser, it can effortlessly transmit information to, and receive information from, other web services and applications; since it runs on one’s personal computer, it can also communicate with software running there (such as Microsoft Word). And it can be used offline as well (e.g., on a plane, in an archive without WiFi).

Social Software in Libraries

One of the books I'm currently reading is Social software in libraries : building collaboration, communication, and community Online by Meredith G Farkas (Amazon). It is a very readable, and seems to me reasonable treatment of the topic. Finding a mention of Catalogablog was a nice surprise.

Revised Dublin Core

Revised Dublin Core has been published as RFC 5013. This replaces the old version, RFC 2413.

Scriblio Download Now Available

Scriblio, the Mellon Award winning front end for the catalog, is now available for free download. It is based on WordPress, the popular blogging tool.

Scriblio (formerly WPopac) is an award winning, free, open source CMS and OPAC with faceted searching and browsing features based on WordPress. Scriblio is a project of Plymouth State University, supported in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

• Free and open source
• Represents bibliographic collections — library catalogs and such — in an easily searchable, highly remixable web-based format
• Leverages WordPress to offer rich content management features for all a library’s content
• Free and open source

Metadata Object Description Schema Revision

Revisions to MODS.

We have revised the draft of the MODS schema version 3.3, which we had released for review in April. The revision is based on comments from the review of that draft.

Substantive changes to the previous (April 12) version:

1. Add Xlink attribute to physicalLocation This would allow for a link to the website of the entity in physicalLocation. This is equivalent to MARC 21 852$u, e.g.
   Library of Congress
2. Add additional enumerated values for authority under : ISO 639-3 and RFC4646. ISO 639-3 is a new standard that codes all individual languages without the criteria for usage that ISO 639-2 has. RFC4646 updates RFC3066, which details how to use language codes in Internet applications. (RFC3066 already defined in MODS). We are planning to add these to the MARC source code list used for field 041$2.
3. Changes to MODS holdings to be generally consistent with the ISO XML holdings standard, now out for ballot as a Draft International Standard (ISO TC46).

A review of the MODS approach to holdings information is documented.

The new schema and the main MODS site has additional information about MODS 3.3 including the outline of elements and attributes.

We would like to have a 2 week review period. Please send any comments to the MODS list by Sept. 5.

Z Copy Cataloging

Z Copy Cataloging is a Z39.50 client with additional features. It is a free to use. Features:

• Z39.50 search for records
• Search by Title, ISBN or LCCN
• Sort your result sets by relevancy (title search only), date, content (AACR, ISBD), or any chosen subfield (first instance only)
• See the most important fields for copy cataloging when choosing correct records
• View the full MARC record before choosing
• Compare two records and choose the best
• Optional: Check the record for common errors
• Choose records from different targets and then choose among them to find the best record
• Scripted changes to records
• Output to CSV file
• Light editing of subfields

This is an alpha release, use with caution. The developer will work for Ruby books, if you need a feature added.

VuFind, New Release

The latest version, 0.6, of VuFind has been released.

VuFind is a library resource portal designed and developed for libraries by libraries. The goal of VuFind is to enable your users to search and browse through all of your library's resources by replacing the traditional OPAC to include:

• Catalog Records
• Digital Library Items
• Institutional Repository
• Institutional Bibliography
• Other Library Collections and Resources

VuFind is completely modular so you can implement just the basic system, or all of components. And since it's open source, you can modify the modules to best fit your need or you can add new modules to extend your resource offerings.

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 October 13, 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 $2 in field 017 in Bibliographic records (Copyright or Legal Deposit Number).

Addition:

rocgpt

R.O.C. Government Publications Catalogue
(Tapei: Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, Executuve
Yuan) [use only after October 13, 2007]

The following code is for use in subfield $2 in field 042 in Authority, Bibliographic and Classification records (Authentication Code).

Addition:

ukblderived

British Library derived cataloging Code ukblderived signifies that the British Library has re-used another organization's catalog record for its cataloging. Headings have not been validated against the relevant authority file. [use only after October 13, 2007]

Term, Name, Title Sources

The following code is 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.

Addition:

muzeukv

MuzeVideo UK DVD and UMD film genre classification
(London: Muze Europe Ltd) [use only after October 13, 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:

tesa

Tesauro Agrcola (Beltsville, Maryland; National Agricultural Library) [use only after October 13, 2007]

Metadata Editor

SHAME (Standardized Hyper Adaptable Metadata Editor) is a free metadata editor capable of working in Dublin Core, LOM, FOAF and more.

SHAME is a library that leverages editors, presentations and query interfaces for resource centric RDF metadata. The central idea of SHAME is to work with Annotation Profiles which encompasses:

• how the metadata in RDF should be read and modified.
• what input is allowed, e.g. multiplicity and vocabularies to use.
• presentational aspects like order, grouping, labels etc.

These annotation profiles are then used to generate user interfaces for either editing, presentation or querying purposes. The user interface may be realized in a web setting (both a jsp and velocity version exists) or in a stand alone application (a java/swing version exists).

BISAC

Recently there has been plenty of discussion about the library in AZ using BISAC to arrange the collection. Phoenix Public is also adding BISAC terms to the catalog record. Personally I don't see how SCI004000 is any easier to a patron than 520 or QB, but it is good to experiment and they seem to have a significant increase in circulation. If you want to see what they are using, the BISAC classification is available online.

ONIX Records for Libraries

Roy Tennant's ONIX Records for Libraries has a new home. The site contains over 100,000 records from:

• Cambridge University Press
• Harvest House Publishers
• Ingram
• McGraw-Hill
• Penguin
• Random House
• University of California Press

If you know of any other publishers offering free ONIX records please let him know.

TLA District 8 Meeting

Looks like I may be presenting on tagging at the TLA District 8 Meeting. If you have any favorite tagging tools, papers or sites please let me know. The meeting will be at Aldine High School Oct 13, 2007 (Sat).

Tagmash @ LibraryThing

Tim Spalding continues to do some interesting work on tagging books. The latest effort is Tagmash, the ability to combine tags in searching.

I've just gone live with a new feature called "tagmash," pages for the intersections of tags. This is a fairly obvious thing to do, but it isn't trivial in context. In getting past words or short phrases, tagmash closes some of the gap between tagging and professional subject classifications.

It is worth reading the entire post to see the thought process that went into creating the feature.

Podcasting Tips

Podcasting is not so new any more. It seems to me, it is past the time that just throwing up an MP3 file is enough. I've heard some pretty poor production that made me just move on to the next selection on my player. So, here are a few tips I've picked up doing a podcast for our library for well over a year.

1. Noise reduction. Record about 10-12 seconds of room sounds, as a sample, to have them removed after the recording is done. If you are recording a live event, conference presentation, record the room before it fills up with people. The air conditioning, computer fan, outside traffic and such add nothing and can be distracting. The sound of folks shuffling papers, coughing, etc., gives it a live feel. Don't worry about those. Very long pauses can be shortened.
2. Sound compression. Compressing the sounds removes any clipping from segments that are recorded too loud and makes everything clearer. Do this after removing any noise.
3. Volume. Make sure to record at a decent volume level. Then make sure the file plays back at a good level. I've downloaded files only to find they are too soft and getting the level right brings out the hum in the car's system. I just skip to the next selection. MP3Trim will do smaller files for free. Adjust the volume last.

Topic Maps

If you have any projects in a library environment that you are using or are planning to deploy that involves Topic Maps please here is a short survey. They are trying to get a general sense of what, if anything, the library community is doing with this technology.

Pymarc

The latest version of pymarc has the ability to change records from MARC-8 encoding to UNICODE, UTF-8. A task that most of our catalogs will have to go through in the next few years, I guess. Nice to have a tool for when that day arrives.

The pymarc module provides an API for reading, writing and modifying MARC records from python. MARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging) is a metadata format for bibliographic data.

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While it's not rocket science to read MARC, it's also not something you want to code very often, so pymarc does the lifting for you. pymarc allows you to read records, extract arbitrary fields from each record, update records, and write records back out in transmission format.

OPAC Replacement

The open-source Next-Gen library catalog browser, VuFind has been released. Currently only works with Voyager, other systems are planned or you could help write the code. Features include:

• Search with Faceted Results
• Live Record Status and Location with Ajax Querying
• "More Like This" Resource Suggestions
• Save Resources to Organized Lists
• Tagging
• Commenting

VuFind is a library resource portal designed and developed for libraries by libraries. The goal of VuFind is to enable your users to search and browse through all of your library's resources by replacing the traditional OPAC to include:

• Catalog Records
• Digital Library Items
• Institutional Repository
• Institutional Bibliography
• Other Library Collections and Resources

VuFind is completely modular so you can implement just the basic system, or all of components. And since it's open source, you can modify the modules to best fit your need or you can add new modules to extend your resource offerings

LibX

There is a new version of the LibX Edition Builder.

LibX is a Firefox extension that provides direct access to your library's resources.
LibX is an open source framework from which editions for specific libraries can be built.
Currently, 61 academic and public libraries are offering LibX editions to their users, an additional 86 libraries are testing editions.

MODS in the Digital Llibrary

The Digital Library Federation Aquifer Metadata Working Group has announced the release of the DLF Aquifer MODS Guidelines Levels of Adoption.

The Levels of Adoption document is intended to supplement the Digital Library Federation / Aquifer Implementation Guidelines for Shareable MODS Records, released in November 2006 under the auspices of the DLF Aquifer initiative. The Shareable MODS Guidelines represent a record-centric view of Aquifer's goals, whereas it is often helpful to set priorities for metadata creation with a user- and use-centric view. The newly-released Levels of Adoption document describes five general categories of user functionality that are likely to be supported by following specific recommendations from the Guidelines. It attempts to provide additional guidance to MODS implementers in the planning process by documenting what sorts of functionality is possible when certain elements of the Guidelines are followed.

These documents, together with an FAQ for implementation (forthcoming - stay tuned!), were written primarily to assist institutions preparing metadata for aggregation via the DLF Aquifer initiative, but the Working Group expects they could also be useful in preparing metadata for other aggregations, or for using MODS in a local environment. Comments on the Levels of Adoption are welcome, and can be sent to any Working Group member. Contact information for Working Group members is available from the Levels of Adoption page.

Great Offer from a Great Organization

How's this for a great offer?

Special offer for new members:

Join WAML for only $20 (normally $30)

The Western Association of Map Libraries (WAML) is looking for folks who want to expand their knowledge of maps and geospatial information through fun-filled networking opportunities and information-packed meetings and journals!

$20 (normally $30 a year) -- Good for new members only. Membership good from now till June 30, 2008, but offer ends July 31, 2007.

The Western Association of Map Libraries (WAML) is an independent association of map librarians and other people with an interest in maps and map librarianship. Membership in WAML is open to any individual interested in furthering the purpose of the Association which is "to encourage high standards in every phase of the organization and administration of map libraries."

Membership is not limited to people living in the Western US and Canada, but is open to everyone.

BENEFITS:

• Subscription to the Information Bulletin (IB)
• Discounted registration fees to WAML's bi-annual meetings
• Practical workshops on topics such as aerial photos, scanning projects, and map cataloging
• Networking regarding geospatial and cartographic information
• Participation in WAML's electronic discussion board

INFORMATION BULLETIN
WAML's Information Bulletin is issued three times a year and enjoys worldwide readership. It includes feature articles, photo essays, Association business, book and electronic resources reviews, new map lists, and selected news and notes.

MEETINGS!!!
WAML meetings are the most fun-filled library-related events you can attend!! They occur in the Spring and Fall. They are small (around 50 people), held in great locations such as Fairbanks, Seattle and Boulder, and have great field trips and delicious banquets. The presentations deal only with geospatial topics. Roundtable discussions and workshops take place at every meeting. The registration fee runs from $35 to $60. The accommodations are reasonably priced, the camaraderie is great, and the tone is relaxed. Often, WAML has a "map exchange" where attendees bring their withdrawn and extra copies of maps and make them available for others. We are headed to the Denver in October 2007!!

Field trips have taken WAML members to national parks, volcanoes, mountain tops, museums, and vineyards/wineries.

In the last few years, WAML has met in Seattle, Honolulu, Fairbanks, Chico California, Boulder Colorado, Santa Cruz, Palo Alto California, Portland, Provo Utah, Vancouver BC, Flagstaff Arizona, Pasadena California. Future meeting sites include Denver Colorado, Las Vegas Nevada, Salt Lake City Utah, and Yosemite National Park.

If that weren't enough, you are invited to give presentations at the conferences OR write articles for the Information Bulletin. Presentations and papers run from the very formal to "how I done good." In the past WAML presenters and IB authors have been not just librarians but scholars, novelists, artists, map collectors, map dealers, scientists, and cartographers.

Come join us. The price is right. The offer is limited. Good times, good friends and good maps await you!

To join the Western Association of Map Libraries, fill out the information on the web site.

Updates to MARC

There are updates to the MARC formats available.

• Holdings Data
• Community Information
• Classification Data
• Bibliographic Data
• Authority Data

2007 Annual Meetings of the MARC Advisory Committee

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

• Proposal No. 2007-04: Use of field 520 for content advice statements in the MARC 21 bibliographic format
• Proposal No. 2007-05: Definition of 022 subfields for recording the linking ISSN (ISSN-L) in the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats
• Proposal No. 2007-06: Changes for the German and Austrian conversion to MARC 21
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP05: Data elements needed to ascertain copyright facts
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP06: Representation of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system in the MARC 21 formats

PURL 2.0 Coming Soon

OCLC has announced an update to the PURL service.

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. and Zepheira, LLC announced today that they will work together to rearchitect OCLC's Persistent URL (PURL) service to more effectively support the management of a "Web of data."

The software developed will be released under an Open Source Software license allowing PURLs and the PURL infrastructure to be used in various applications for public or proprietary use. OCLC and Zepheira are collaborating to extend the open and inclusive community of PURL users.

Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control

This message was sent to SLA members. Applies to everybody.

Following the third successful public hearing of the Library of Congress’ Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control on 9 July, the Working Group has extended the final date for comments or testimonies to be submitted to the group to 31 July. For information about how to submit written commentary see the website. Although the working group’s report will be sent out for comments in October before submitting the report to the Library of Congress in November, members are encouraged to send comments, however short, in order to make an impact on this important report. For more information please see the Working Group Web site.

Journal of Internet Cataloging => Journal of Library Metadata

Call for Papers

The Journal of Library Metadata (JLM) is a peer-reviewed journal publishing articles on all aspects of metadata applications in libraries. The journal is published quarterly by The Haworth Press, Inc.

Previously titled the Journal of Internet Cataloging, after a change in title and editorship, JLM will now focus on metadata, an exciting, timely subject of importance to all libraries. The journal will publish three categories of articles: standard, peer-reviewed articles; shorter, scholarly, non-peer reviewed articles; and short viewpoint articles.

These articles will cover all aspects of metadata applications in libraries, including:

Application profiles
Best practices
Controlled vocabularies
Crosswalking of metadata and interoperability
Digital libraries and metadata
Display of search results
Federated repositories
Federated searching
Folksonomies
Individual metadata schemes
Institutional repository metadata
Metadata content standards
Metadata harvesting
Ontologies
Preservation metadata
Resource Description Framework
Resource discovery and metadata
Search engines and metadata
SKOS
Stochastic vs. deterministic searching
Tagging and tag clouds
Topic maps
Visual image and moving image metadata

Categories of Articles
Please consider writing and submitting an article that falls into one of the following three categories:

• Peer-reviewed articles (original research, scholarly manuscripts), which should be 10-50 typed pages, double-spaced.
• Short, scholarly, non-peer-reviewed articles, often practical in nature (for example, describing a particular library metadata implementation). These should range from 500-2,000 words, with limited citations to other resources.
• Upbeat Viewpoint articles giving the author’s opinion on a timely topic related to library metadata applications. These should range from 500-2,000 words and may or may not contain citations. Focus should be on improvements or solutions instead of negative aspects of an existing system, standard, or service.

For more information please visit the Journal of Library Metadata web site.

The Future of Bibliographic Control Meeting

The Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control 3rd meeting is available as a Real media video. Wish they had made an MP3 version also.

Library PR

Getting the word out to other groups about libraries is something I feel strongly about. I've presented at music teacher conferences and the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Now my suggestion for a story has been picked up by CommandN. It was about LibraryThing and the hook was the $1000.00 worth of books they are offering to referrals for new employees. One small bit of PR but I'm feeling good about it.

SCATNews

The latest issue of SCATNews is now available on the IFLA website.

ONIX Directory

ON AUTOCAT there was some discussion recently about vendor supplied records, so I asked about ONIX records. A helpful person pointed me to this list of Companies Sending ONIX Files. The file doesn't seem to link back to the files, but it does give a nice listing of who is creating and distributing these files.

MarcEdit will convert ONIX into MARC21XML which can then be turned into MARC21 records.

Revised DCMI Namespace Policy Published

News from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

Following a public comment period earlier this year, a revised DCMI Namespace Policy has been published. The revision documents the creation of a new namespace for entities of the DCMI Abstract Model and updates the terminology used.

Subject Authority Records

News from LC.

CPSO has begun a project to create subject authority records for every subject string appearing in bibliographic records to aid Library of Congress catalogers, and external users in the validation of LCSH subject heading strings. Effective immediately subject authority records are being created for valid subject strings obtained from bibliographic records. Formerly, these subject strings did not prompt the creation of subject authority records, because they contained free-floating subdivision[s].

Some of these records are being created manually by the Cataloging Policy and Support Office staff, and some will be generated by machine, but all of them will be reviewed before distribution occurs. We anticipate at least 200 records per month at the start of this project. These records will not be printed in the annual editions of LCSH (the "red books"). The records can be identified by the legend "[proposed validation record]" appearing at the end of the 1xx string. This legend will be removed once the records have been approved and distributed. Additionally each record will contain a 667 field with this data: "Record generated for validation purposes."

RDA Drafts

An announcement about Resource Description and Access.

Revised draft of Chapter 6-7

The Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC) is pleased to announce that a revised draft of RDA part A, chapters 6-7 has been made available for comment. Please see the following Web page for the draft and details on making comments:

Revised RDA scope document

For information, the RDA Scope and structure document has been revised and now has two accompanying documents, an RDA element analysis and an RDA to FRBR mapping.

The JSC is committed to ensuring that the metadata produced using RDA will be well-formed, i.e., instructions are provided on how to record the values of elements, controlled vocabularies are used where appropriate, and the overall structure is governed by a formal model.

These documents have been issued for the JSC and Editor to refer to, in the process of developing RDA, to ensure this aim is met. In addition, we hope that these documents will be useful to the metadata and semantic web communities and in our ongoing discussions with these communities.

Union Bugs

At the John Edwards rally last night I noticed the sign had a union bug in the lower corner. We might consider adding information about and from these bugs to the bibliographic record. Proposal for Inclusion of Union Label Description In Bibliographic and Archival Cataloging Guidelines is a paper on the topic.

Data are like drops of water. Individually, they are usually quite meaningless. Only once they are organized, with purpose, do they take on significance. This proposal seeks to rectify the oversight by catalogers to include information about a small but important item of published data - the union label, or "bug".

Dublin Core Survey

Resoum Kidane of Bibliographic Services at King’s College London is conducting a survey on DC use.

I am currently conducting a survey concerning the use of Dublin Core (DC) and MARC amongst cataloguers and other information professionals. The main aim of this research is to obtain a perception from cataloguers and other information professionals, concerning the future trends of cataloguing. As the future of MARC becomes the subject of debate amongst information professionals, there is a possibility that DC will replace MARC for cataloguing both digital and print documents.

FRBR/CIDOC CRM Harmonization

The Working Group on FRBR/CIDOC CRM Harmonization now has its Web page on IFLANET. The current draft of the object-oriented version of FRBR, nicknamed "FRBRoo", and consolidated minutes of the WG's meetings are also available there.

Tasks: in cooperation with the CIDOC CRM Special Interest Group, prepare an object-oriented formulation of FRBR (FRBRoo) that is a compatible extension of the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM).

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CIDOC CRM is the conceptual reference model for museum information, expressed in object-oriented formalism. Originally developed by the International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM CIDOC), it has now become an ISO standard (ISO 21127:2006).

Podcasts

A nice tool for those listening to lots of podcasts or creating them is mpTrim. It fixes lots of errors, adjusts the volume and cuts off silence from the start and end of the file, thus making it a bit leaner. Free for a basic version. For longer podcasts or batch processing there is a paid version.

FOAF & DC

Dan Brickley has written the paper, FOAF and the draft DC Agents requirements, to investigate and assess feasibility of using Friend of a Friend for Dublin Core agent descriptions.

TEI Meeting Announcement

This announcement was received via e-mail, slightly edited for Web presentation.

TEI@20: 20 Years of Supporting the Digital Humanities

31st October - 3rd November 2007, University of Maryland

Pre-conference workshops: 31 October 2007
TEI conference: 1-2 November 2007
Business meeting: 3 November 2007

We invite you to come to the annual showcase of all things TEI.

The meeting includes:

• the launch of TEI P5
• a full programme of invited speakers, panels, roundtable discussion
• special interest group sessions
• TEI business meeting and elections

There will also be a day of pre-meeting training workshops.

Conference papers will be published by LLC: The Journal of Digital Scholarship in the Humanities.

The meeting will be held at the University of Maryland Libraries, University of Maryland, College Park, just outside Washington, D.C.

The event is open to all and free of charge for TEI Consortium institutional members, subscribers and invited guests. Others will be charged $75, which entitles you to conference admission and subscriber benefits for the remainder of the calendar year.

For program details , registration, hotel, and travel information, please visit the conference website.

Meeting of Experts for an International Cataloguing Code

The website is now available for the 5th IFLA Meeting of Experts for an International Cataloguing Code. Lots of papers available.

Resource Description and Access

There is a survey about the print version of RDA on the website. There is another for educators. Look for both in the left sidebar. Make your opinion count.

Structure and Form of Folksonomy Tags

Structure and form of folksonomy tags: The road to the public library catalogue by Louise Spiteri appears in Webology 4(2).

Folksonomies have the potential to add much value to public library catalogues by enabling clients to: store, maintain, and organize items of interest in the catalogue using their own tags. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the tags that constitute folksonomies are structured. Tags were acquired over a thirty-day period from the daily tag logs of three folksonomy sites, Del.icio.us, Furl, and Technorati. The tags were evaluated against section 6 (choice and form of terms) of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) guidelines for the construction of controlled vocabularies.

Another paper on tagging is @toread and Cool: Tagging for Time, Task and Emotion by Margaret E.I. Kipp in Proceedings 8th Information Architecture Summit, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

This paper examines the use of non subject related tags in three social bookmarking tools (Del.icio.us, Connotea and Citeulike). Previous studies of Del.icio.us and Citeulike determined that many common tags are not directly subject related but are in fact affective tags dwelling on a user's emotional response to a document or are time and task related tags related to a users current projects or activities. A set of non subject tags from the previous studies was used to collect posts with non subject tags from the three listed social bookmarking tools. These tags have been analysed to examine their role in the tagging process.

Digitization Tool

A tool from the Carnegie Mellon may help speed digitization of texts.

Carnegie Mellon researchers have launched a new service that will not only protect e-mail addresses on the web from spambots, but also help digitize a backlog of old books, magazines, and newspapers so that they can eventually be computer searchable. The service, called reCAPTCHA, hopes to use the eyeballs of millions of Internet users to identify thousands of words for the Internet Archive.

Naval Observatory Library

I've just returned from a visit at the U.S. Naval Observatory Library. The largest astronomy library in the country, with 80,000 volumes. The main reading room is beautiful. The grounds are beautiful . The view from the roof is breath-taking. Greg and Sally were good hosts. The folks who visit next week during ALA are in for a special treat

The Future of Bibliographic Control Meeting

Economics and Organization of Bibliographic Data Background Paper for the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control sets the stage for the third meeting.

The purpose of the third public meeting is to better understand the economic and organizational needs and challenges facing stakeholders currently, in the near future, and in the more distant future in regard to creating, maintaining, sharing, and supporting the metadata, structures, and standards of bibliographic control. In this context, the term “economic” refers to the human, technological, and monetary costs of bibliographic control, from both the narrow micro- and broad macro-economic perspectives.

Linux ILS

Any suggestions for a Linux based ILS? I know of Koha and Evergreen. Are there any commercial products? We are looking for something inexpensive. We may have some funds next fiscal year.

AIPs and Mashups

APIs and Mashups For The Rest Of Us by Gareth Rushgrove appears in the latest Digital Web Magazine.

This article, the first in a series of two, aims to lift the lid on all things API; the second article will give you some hands-on tools and tips to get you started. For now, it’s all about how we managed to get here--and where here actually is.

Why should we even care about this? Well, with an API our users could create mash-ups of our OPACs making them more useful and user-friendly.

Browsing the Catalog

Browsing Library Collections: From the Shelf to the Online Catalog by Robert Kieft appeared in EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 41, no. 3 (May/June 2006): 12–13. It discusses a project to add TOC to bib records.

More info at ALCTS' Technical Services Directors of Large Research Libraries Discussion Group, on Friday morning, 6/22/07.

DCMI Abstract Model

A revised version of the DCMI Abstract Model has been has been approved as a DCMI Recommendation.

This document specifies an abstract model for Dublin Core metadata. The primary purpose of this document is to specify the components and constructs used in Dublin Core metadata. It defines the nature of the components used and describes how those components are combined to create information structures. It provides an information model which is independent of any particular encoding syntax. Such an information model allows us to gain a better understanding of the kinds of descriptions that we are encoding and facilitates the development of better mappings and cross-syntax translations.

Phoenix Catalog

Phoenix Public Library has just started using a faceted approach to the catalog. Personally, I think the multiple access points clustered in a sidebar in a very useful and intuitive approach.

Another innovation is that they are using the BISAC Subject Headings. Look at field 695. Another access point. I hope they used a program to grab them from ONIX records. I'd like to know the details. There are problems with multiple thesauri in one catalog. Ask anyone who has both LCSH and MeSH. The facet approach may limit those problems. Interesting experiment.

Google in Cataloging

"Have You Searched Google Yet?" Using Google as a Discovery Tool for Cataloging Jennifer Lang by appears in the latest issue of Library Philosophy and Practice.

This paper demonstrates how some of Google's search functionalities can be used to locate information to assist in the cataloging process. In addition, the results of an informal survey of catalogers shows that while some respondents never considered using Google or prefer different methods for finding information, others find Google to be a good supplement to "traditional" cataloging tools.

One use not mentioned is finding an e-version of the item being cataloged. Happens fairly often with the materials I work with.

Skype

I now have a Skype phone. User name dbigwood. 713-893-5164. Review when I have used a bit.

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.