Cost and Value of Bibliographic Control

Assessing the Cost and Value of Bibliographic Control by Erin Stalberg and Christopher Cronin appears in LRTS v. 55, no. 3.

In June 2009, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Heads of Technical Services in Large Research Libraries Interest Group established the Task Force on Cost/Value Assessment of Bibliographic Control to address recommendation 5.1.1.1 of On the Record: Report of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, which focused on developing measures for costs, benefits, and value of bibliographic control. This paper outlines results of that task force’s efforts to develop and articulate metrics for evaluating the cost and value of cataloging activities specifically, and offers some next steps that the community could take to further the profession’s collective understanding of the costs and values associated with bibliographic control.

Additions to the MARC Country and Geographic Area Code Lists

Image via WikipediaAs the result of the split of Republic of the Sudan (or conventional short form: Sudan) into Sudan and South Sudan in July 2011, new country and geographic area codes are being defined for use in MARC records.

The coding for Republic of the Sudan will remain the current coding for Sudan: country code sj and GAC f-sj.

1. MARC country code changes
   
   The new country code is:
   • sd - South Sudan
   South Sudan was previously coded sj for Sudan before August 2011.
2. MARC geographic area code changes
   
   The new geographic area codes is:
   • f-sd - South Sudan
   South Sudan was previously coded f-sj for Sudan before August 2011.

Related articles

• South Sudan Country Codes (geonames.wordpress.com)

New Vocabulary Data Added to LC Authorities and Vocabularies Service

Image via WikipediaLC has announced that new vocabulary data has been added to the LC Authorities and Vocabularies Service.

The Library of Congress is pleased to make available additional vocabularies from its Authorities and Vocabularies web service (ID.LOC.GOV), which provides access to Library of Congress standards and vocabularies as Linked Data. The new dataset is:

• Library of Congress Name Authority File (LC/NAF)

In addition, the service has been enhanced to provide separate access to the following datasets which have been a part of the LCSH dataset access:

• Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
• Library of Congress Children's Headings

The LC/NAF data are published in RDF using the MADS/RDF and SKOS/RDF vocabularies, as are the other datasets. Individual concepts are accessible at the ID.LOC.GOV web service via a web browser interface or programmatically via content-negotiation. The vocabulary data are available for bulk download in MADS and SKOS RDF (the Name file and main LCSH file will be available by Friday, August 12).

Please explore it for yourself at http://id.loc.gov.

The new datasets join the term and code lists already available through the service:

• Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
  
• Thesaurus of Graphic Materials
  
• MARC Code List for Relators
  
• MARC Code List for Countries (which reference their equivalent ISO 3166 codes)
  
• MARC Code List for Geographic Areas
  
• MARC Code List for Languages (which have been cross referenced with ISO 639-1, 639-2, and 639-5, where appropriate)
  
• PREMIS vocabularies for Cryptographic Hash Functions, Preservation Events, and Preservation Level Roles

Related articles

• Linking to LCSH and LCC (catalogablog.blogspot.com)
• AALL 2011 - Barbara Tillett and John Mark Ockerbloom on Authority Control Vocabularies and the Semantic Web (conniecrosby.blogspot.com)

Unshelved

Today's Unshelved has cataloging references.

In other comic news, Rachael Rising by Terry Moore is off to a great start. Very creepy.

Linking to LCSH and LCC

Linking to LCSH and LCC: Controlled Subject Headings and Classification Systems through the Web Barbara Tillett, Libby Dechman, and Loche McLean will be presented on August 16, 2011, at the World Library and Information Congress : 77th IFLA General Conference and Assembly in San Juan.

The Library of Congress is making its controlled vocabularies and classification system freely accessible on the Web. This presentation describes our services related to two of those controlled vocabularies and classification schemes: the Library of Congress Subject Headings and Library of Congress Classification. It also describes the work to link various language versions of LCSH together.

The initial structure for this service uses SKOS, Simple Knowledge Organization System, which “Provides a model for expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, folksonomies, and other similar types of controlled vocabulary.

Additionally we are exploring RDF XML as another structure to use for presenting this data. The service can be found at http://id.loc.gov and the LCSH/SKOS is at http://id.loc.gov/authorities.

Thanks to Gary Price for bringing this to my attention.

Related articles

• AALL 2011 - Barbara Tillett and John Mark Ockerbloom on Authority Control Vocabularies and the Semantic Web (conniecrosby.blogspot.com)

OCLC Documentation

Image via WikipediaOCLC's Technical Bulletin 260, “OCLC-MARC Format Update 2011,” is now available.

This Technical Bulletin covers all of the Library of Congress’s MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats Update No. 12, dated October 2010, elements from other recent MARC 21 Updates whose implementations had been postponed, code list additions and changes published chiefly since May 2010, and other suggestions from WorldCat users and OCLC staff. Many of these elements, including those from MARC 21 Update No. 12, are related to Resource Description and Access (RDA).

New IFLA Publications

Image via WikipediaVarious reports have been posted on the IFLA web site.

ISBD Review Group activities report and meeting reports

ISBD/XML Study Group activities report

A new version of Full ISBD Examples

FRBR Review Group activities report

Updated Cover Sheets for MARC Proposals and Discussion Papers

From LC's Network Development and MARC Standards Office.

The cover sheets for the proposals and discussion paper presented at the 2011 Annual meetings of the MARC Advisory Committee have been updated with the results of the discussions. They are available at:

Proposal 2011-02: RDA Production, Publication, Distribution and Manufacture Statements in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-02.html)

Proposal 2011-03: Encoding Date of Copyright Notice in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-03.html)

Proposal 2011-04: Adapting Field 377 (Associated Language) for Language of Expression in the Authority and Bibliographic Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-04.html)

Proposal 2011-05: Broadening field 373 (Affiliation) for Associated institutions in the MARC 21 Authority Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-05.html)

Proposal 2011-06: RDA Fuller Form of Personal Name Attribute in the MARC 21 Authority Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-06.html)

Proposal 2011-07: Additional Corporate Body Attributes for RDA in the MARC 21 Authority Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-07.html)

Proposal 2011-08: Treatment of Controlled Lists of Terms for Carrier Characteristics in RDA in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-08.html)

Proposal 2011-09: Identifying the Source of Thematic Index Numbers in Field 383 in the MARC 21 Authority and Bibliographic Formats
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-09.html)

Proposal 2011-10: Geographic Codes in Classification Records
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-10.html)

Proposal 2011-11: Addition of 1st Indicator Value 7 (Other edition specified in $2) in DDC Number Fields in the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority and Community Information Formats
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-11.html)

Discussion Paper 2011-DP05: Additional Means of Identifying Medium of Performance in the MARC21 Bibliographic and Authority Formats
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-dp05.html)

HotForWords

The latest video podcast by HotForWords is What is going to happen to the libraries? by Marina Orlova. She sees the demise of libraries looming. It is a combination of hearsay and personal experience that needs some correcting. Consider leaving a comment, she has a large following.

First RDA Vocabularies Published

Seen everywhere.

The Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC), the DCMI/RDA Task Group (http://dublincore.org/dcmirdataskgroup/), and ALA Publishing (on behalf of the co-publishers of RDA) are pleased to announce that the first group of RDA controlled vocabularies have been reviewed, approved, and their status in the Open Metadata Registry (OMR) changed to ‘published.’

This status change, from ‘new-proposed’ to ‘published’ signals that the final steps have begun in reviewing the work of the DCMI/RDA Task Group and ensuring that the RDA vocabularies (both elements and controlled vocabularies/concepts) are available in a stable form for the builders of applications. Additional reviews of the controlled vocabularies are in progress, with the parties involved expecting to finalize that group before starting on the element vocabularies. Both groups of vocabularies should be complete by the end of 2011, but developers and others should expect to see rolling announcements as reviews are completed.

Alan Danskin, Chair of the Joint Steering Committee, noted, “The RDA vocabularies are a fundamental component of RDA, promoting consistent description and discovery of bibliographic resources. The Committee is committed to publishing and maintaining the content of the RDA vocabularies, synchronized with the text of RDA, in order to support their use by the resource description community and by developers of Semantic Web applications.” JSC is grateful to the Task Group members and to the Open Metadata Registry for making possible the publication of RDA vocabularies as linked open data.

Gordon Dunsire, co-Chair of the DCMI/RDA Task Group, said: “This achievement is a significant waypoint on the collaborative journey initiated by the London meeting in 2007 between representatives of RDA and Semantic Web communities developing and maintaining metadata models covering bibliographic resources. We have learned much about each other along the way, and look forward to continuing to provide a bridge which supports our mutual interests to the benefit of all users of information. The RDA vocabularies represent many decades of library experience and practice which is now shared with the rest of the world.”

Troy Linker, Publisher, ALA Digital Reference, said: "The publishing of the RDA vocabularies in an open registry is an important step forward in making RDA accessible to the international library community and system vendors, and, significantly, beyond the library community to the rest of the Semantic Web. Working with the JSC, the Co-Publishers for RDA are committed to ensuring synchronicity between RDA Toolkit and the registry".

The finished vocabularies can be viewed using the links below. (The links lead to the description of the vocabulary itself, the specific terms can be viewed under the tab for ‘concepts’).

• RDA Aspect Ratio (http://RDVocab.info/termLIst/AspectRatio)
  
• RDA Form of Musical Notation (http://RDVocab.info/termList/MusNotation)
  
• RDA Form of Notated Music (http://RDVocab.info/termList/FormatNoteMus)
  
• RDA Layout of Cartographic Images (http://RDVocab.info/termList/layoutCartoImage)
  
• RDA Mode of Issuance (http://RDVocab.info/termLIst/ModeIssue)
  
• RDA Other Distinguishing Characteristic of the Expression of a Legal Work
  (http://RDVocab.info/termList/OtherCharExpLegal)
  
• RDA Production Method for Tactile Resource (http://RDVocab.info/termList/prodTactile)
  
• RDA Reduction Ratio (http://RDVocab.info/termLIst/RDAReductionRatio)
  
• RDA Scale (http://RDVocab.info/termList/scale)
  
• RDA Sound Content (http://RDVocab.info/termList/soundCont)
  
• RDA Status of Identification (http://RDVocab.info/termList/statIdentification)

All the RDA vocabularies can be viewed in the OMR by using this page: http://metadataregistry.org/rdabrowse.htm. Those interested in following the work of review and publication of the vocabularies can subscribe to the Registry RSS feeds linked from that page. Questions on the OMR can be conveyed using the ‘Feedback’ link on each Registry page.

Related articles

• RDA in XML - why not give it a shot? (kcoyle.blogspot.com)
• AALL 2011 - Barbara Tillett and John Mark Ockerbloom on Authority Control Vocabularies and the Semantic Web (conniecrosby.blogspot.com)

No More Star Wars Films?

Image via WikipediaThe heading Star War films, and all other headings dealing with a series or character might be removed from the lcgft.

The recent separation of the genre/form thesaurus from LCSH provides an opportunity to reexamine the genre/form terms approved during the moving image experiment in order to determine whether they fit into the overall thesaurus, given the trajectory of development.

One ongoing issue has been what may be loosely referred to as “character- and franchise-based terms.” These are authorized terms that include either a character name or the title of a film or television program (e.g., Die Hard films; Dracula television programs; Scooby-Doo television programs; Star Wars films). PSD proposes cancelling all of these terms from the genre/form thesaurus, and has posted a discussion paper explaining the rationale on the Library of Congress’ genre/form web page, http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/genreformgeneral.html. The direct URL for the paper is http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/character_franchise_disposition.pdf. PSD requests input from interested parties before making a final decision.

Related articles

• Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (catalogablog.blogspot.com)

Go To Hellman

Eric Hellman has been writing some posts I find very interesting over on Go To Hellman.

I think it's important to convert this level of interest into action. The question is, what can be done now to get closer to the vision of ubiquitous interoperable data? My last three posts have explored what libraries might do to better position their presence in search engines and in social networks using schema.org vocabulary and Open Graph Protocol. In these applications, library data enables users to do very specific things on the web- find a library page in a search engine or "Like" a library page in a Facebook. But there's so much more that could be done with the data.

Related articles

• Review of Eric Hellman's Talk at ALA Annual 2011 (metadata.posterous.com)
• Library data: why bother? by Eric Hellman (catalogingmatters.blogspot.com)

Tematres 1.4

We have the glad to invite to test the beta version of Tematres 1.4

TemaTres is a web tool to manage, publish and exploit controlled vocabularies and other formals representation of knowledge (thesauri, taxonomies, glossaries, etc).

This release includes the following fixes and improvements:

• Quality indicators about controlled vocabularies The Quality assurance was improved with reports about the following quality indicators:
  
• Free Terms
  
• Terms without hierarchical relationships
  
• Average number of words per term
  
• Terms per N Broader terms
  
• Terms per N narrower terms and depth
  
• Terms words with not supported prefixes or suffixes

For more details: MARTÍNEZ, A.M.a et al. Concepto, forma y longitud de los términos preferentes del tesauro: una propuesta de indicadores de calidad. Anales de Documentación, 2010, vol. 13, p. 185-195. http://revistas.um.es/analesdoc/article/view/107151

MARTÍNEZ, A.M.a et al. Indicadores para evaluar el vocabulario y la estructura sistemática de un tesauro. I Jornada de Intercambio y Reflexión acerca de la Investigación en Bibliotecología, La Plata, 6-7 de diciembre de 2010. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. http://www.jornadabibliotecologia.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/jornada-2010/martine

• User-defined notes
  Has been added management capabilities to manage and create user-defined notes. (Thanks to Observatorio Estatal de la Discapacidad Spain: http://www.observatoriodeladiscapacidad.es/)
  
• Advanced configuration options
  Has been added detailed configuration options available to the administrator of the controlled vocabulary.
  
• Import controlled vocabularies
  Now TemaTres can import controlled vocabulary from plain tagged text.

For example:

• IMS VDEX Scheme (Vocabulary Definition and Exchange) Now with TemaTres you can Display, export and publish terms and controlled vocabularies through VDEX IMS XML schema (Vocabulary Definition and Exchange). http://www.imsglobal.org/vdex/
  
• Controlled vocabularies RESTful Services TemaTres have support for web services accessible through a clear and simple syntax. The service support a wide variety of queries and data can be viewed in XML, JSON or SKOS-Core.

Examples
Status:
http://www.vocabularyserver.com/gemet/en/api/

Terms beginning with the letter B:
http://www.vocabularyserver.com/gemet/en/api/letter/b
http://www.vocabularyserver.com/gemet/en/api/letter/b/skos
http://www.vocabularyserver.com/gemet/en/api/letter/b/json

Search Terms:
http://www.vocabularyserver.com/gemet/en/api/search/fish/
http://www.vocabularyserver.com/gemet/en/api/search/fish/json
http://www.vocabularyserver.com/gemet/en/api/search/fish/skos

Vocabulary Data
http://www.vocabularyserver.com/gemet/pt/api/fetchVocabularyData

Top of vocabulary terms
http://www.vocabularyserver.com/gemet/pt/api/fetchTopTerm

• Minor bugs was solved and was added some minor features

Seen on the Code4Lib email.

Corporate Names

A new paper from HP discusses the problems and an automated solution to distinguishing corporate names. Company Names Matching in the Large Patents Dataset by Timofey Medvedev and Alexander Ulanov, HP Laboratories, HPL-2011-90R1.

This paper addresses the name matching (duplicate detection) problem in the US patent dataset. It contains more then 400K unique company names spellings. In order to solve the matching problem we choose appropriate string similarity measure and clustering approach and estimate their parameters. Finally we apply them to the whole dataset and estimate the positives and negatives rates.

Additions to Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes

Codes for the following sources were announced June 14, 2011. The codes for these sources have been changed.

The codes should not be used in exchange records until 60 days after the date of this notice to provide implementers time to include newly-defined codes in any validation tables.

Classification Scheme Source Codes

The following source codes have been added to the Classification Scheme Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Additions:

ubtkl/2 (formerly klasskj)

Klassifikasjonsskjema (Trondheim: Fellesbiblioteket, Kongelige Norske videnskabers selskab, Museet, Norges laererhogskole)

Subject Heading and Term Source Codes

The following sources code have been added to the Subject Heading and Term Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Additions:

noubomn (formerly nobomn)

University of Oslo Library Thesaurus of Science (Realfagstermer) (Norway: Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo)

noubojur (formerly noubojor)

Thesaurus of Law (Norway: Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo)

Genre/Form Headings Webinar

OCLC has made available the recording of the webinar held on May 12, 2011 entitled: Genre/Form Headings. This one hour webinar covers the definition of genre/form headings, different sources of genre/form terms, searching in Connexion (authority and bibliographic), and tagging/coding.

SCATNews

The June issue of SCATNews, the newsletter of the IFLA Cataloguing Section, is now available.

W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group Call for Comment

The W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group has been chartered from May 2010 through August 2011 to prepare a series of reports on the existing and potential use of Linked Data technology for publishing library data. The group is currently preparing:

• A report which consists of
  • "Benefits"
    
  • "Vocabularies and Datasets"
    
  • "Relevant Technologies"
    
  • "Implementation challenges"
    
  • "Recommendations"
• Use Cases, a survey report describing existing projects
  
  
• Vocabularies and Datasets", a survey report

We (LLD XG) invite comments from interested members of the public. Feedback can sent as comments to individual sections posted on our dedicated blog or by email to a public mailing list (public-lld@w3.org, archived at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lld/ ) using descriptive subject lines such as '[COMMENTS] "Benefits" section'

Comments will be especially welcome in the next four weeks (through 22 July). Reviewers should note that as with Wikipedia, the text may be revised and corrected by its editors in response to comments at any time, but that earlier versions of a document may be viewed by clicking on the History tab.

It is anticipated that the three reports will be published in final form by 31 August.

Information Standards Quarterly

The Spring 2011 issue of Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ) is now available online in PDF format and is open access. Both the full issue and the individual articles can be downloaded.

This special edition of ISQ presents Views of the E-book Renaissance. Guest content editor, October Ivins of Ivins eContent Solutions has pulled together a broad range of perspectives on what is happening today with e-books and particularly with e-book standards. As she states in her introductory letter: “Our goal for this issue of ISQ is to present an overview of the status of e-books from multiple perspectives—publishers and other content producers, librarians, and the many vendors who support their creation, management, sales, and distribution. Not coincidentally, it also illustrates the scope of the NISO community.”

In our first feature article, Bill Kasdorf (Apex Content Solutions) provides an update on EPUB 3, the new generation of the EPUB specification just issued by the IDPF, and likens it to opening a Pandora’s box, but where “all the creatures bursting out can be made to behave in a civilized way.” This is followed with answers by Marlie Wasserman (Rutgers University Press) to 10 questions on the state of e-book publishing for university presses.

For our in practice section Mollie Pharo and Marcia Learned Au describe the public library experience with e-books from their perspective over the last decade at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library. Wendy Allen Sherburne (University of Illinois) provides an opinion piece on drinking the e-book kool-aid in an academic library setting.

Mark Bide (EDItEUR) has written our standards spotlight feature where he discusses the challenge for standards in the e-book supply chain. Michael Gorrel (EBSCO Publishing) provides our member spotlight where he shares with us his company’s plans for merging the recently acquired NetLibrary e-books with the EBSCOhost platform.

In NISO reports, Matt Garrish and Markus Gylling (DAISY Consortium) reveal the evolution of accessible publishing that occurred with the revision of the Z39.86 DAISY standard. Todd Carpenter follows with an announcement of a new NISO Ebook Special Interest Group that is in the process of formation.

As always, our issue concludes with Noteworthy news items such as JSTOR’s foray into e-books, ProQuest’s acquisition of Ebrary, the Project Muse and UPeC partnership to offer e-books, the trial use issuance of the Journal Article Tag Suite standard (Z39.96), and several others. And check our State of the Standards table to see the status of all of NISO’s in development projects for standards or recommended practices.

You can find the complete Table of Contents to the Spring issue of ISQ, with links to the articles and PDF downloads here: http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/2011/v23no2/

--NISO email announcement.

Awards

This past year I had the pleasure of serving on the Texas Library Association's Award Committee. I have two observations after the experience.

First, there are a lot of very talented, hard-working, innovative people in our profession. And not just catalogers, but school librarians, youth, children's, reference, managers all doing amazing things. Librarians really are a special group of people.

Second, that nowhere near enough of us apply for awards. If my experience was typical there should have been many more submissions than we received. We did ask and ask again. One notice I sent out to the cataloging and special library community had almost 400 click-throughs and yet zero submissions. It does take some time to fill in the application but to recognize a special employee or group of employees should be worth the time. Even if they don't win, seeing that application and knowing their work was appreciated is worth something. Having the committee read just how wonderful your staff and library is also has value. You never know when good PR will benefit your institution.

So, next time you see an announcement for an award think about who you know that deserves one and toss their name in the hat.

Identifying Entity Types in MARC Records

The report on the RDA/MARC Working Group's discussion of Identifying Entity Types in MARC records is now available.

The RDA/MARC Working Group had discussions of the many points that were brought out in the MARBI discussion of 2011-DP03, Identifying Work, Expression, and Manifestation records in the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings formats. They found that while there was some sentiment for defining such a field, there was disagreement in the group and in the community about how the values in the field should be defined. It was pointed out in the discussion that there were various reasons for establishing this marker: to be able to validate that a record for a certain level contained the appropriate fields for that level; to correctly organize displays; and for applications that do not yet exist.

Additions to Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes

The source codes listed below have been recently approved. The codes will be added to applicable Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes lists. See the specific source code list for current usage in MARC fields and MODS/MADS elements.

The codes should not be used in exchange records until 60 days after the date of this notice to provide implementers time to include newly-defined codes in any validation tables.

Classification Scheme Source Codes
The following source codes have been added to the Classification Scheme Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Additions:

klasskj

Klassifikasjonsskjem (Trondheim: Fellesbiblioteket, Kongelige Norske videnskabers selskab, Museet, Norges lerhgskole)

knt

Klassifikasjonsnkkel til norsk topografi / av Vegard Elvestrand (Trondheim: Universitetsbiblioteke)

utk

University of Oslo Library Classification (Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo)

oosk

Oversikt over systematisk katalog (Norway: Universitetsbiblioteket i Bergen)

niv

Norsk inndeling av vitenskapsdisipliner (Norway: Universitets- og hgskolerdet)

Genre/Form Code and Term Source Codes

The following source code has been added to the Genre/Form Code and Term Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Addition:

gatbeg

Gattungsbegriffe (Leipzig & Frankfort: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek)

Subject Heading and Term Source Codes

The following source codes have been added to the Subject Heading and Term Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Addition:

humord

HUMORD (Norway: Universitetsbibliotekene i Oslo, Bergen og Troms)

noubomn

University of Oslo Library Thesaurus of Science (Realfagstermer) (Norway: Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo)

noubojor

Thesaurus of Law (Norway: Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo)

tekord

TEK-ord: UBiTs emneordliste for arkitektur, realfag, og teknolog (Norway: Universitetsbiblioteket i Trondheim.)

Related articles

• Bigwood, David: Additions to Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes (catalogablog.blogspot.com)

ParsCit Updated

Image via WikipediaSeen on Code4Lib.

The ParsCit team has also been updating the ParsCit package, and is happy to announce a new version that improves on classification accuracy, especially for general science journals. This version also adds a module that further processes XML files that are the output of the commercial Omnipage OCR engine. The version also benefits from a number of user-contributed fixes and training data, such as separating volume and issue numbers for journals, and export of parsed reference strings into EndNote, MODS, BibTeX or other metadata formats via the BiblioScript library.

You can either download a copy of ParsCit for your own use, or use it through a web services interface. We welcome your feedback and hope that if you use ParsCit or any other freely available reference string parsing tool that you can contribute annotated data to help make these models more robust.

ParsCit (and its online demos) are available from:
http://wing.comp.nus.edu.sg/parsCit/

ParsCit is open source software that is used by many projects worldwide, and not just in experimental, research and academic places, but in commercial enterprises as well. Mendeley is using ParsCit to parse references from contributed papers, as is the Citations in Economics (CitEc) project.

Library Linked Data

Karen Coyle writes on Coyle's InFormation that "There will soon be a call for reviews of the draft report by the W3C Incubator Group on Library Linked Data." This is a longish document. It might be best to start reading and considering it now to make an intelligent response when the time comes.

Related articles

• Opportunity knocks (kcoyle.blogspot.com)

ALA 2011

Some of my co-workers from the Lunar and Planetary Institute will be presenting at ALA 2011.

Sunday, June 26, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Science Programming 101: Presenting excellent science programs in your library
MCC-Rm 287 (Morial Convention Center)
Learn how to create exciting hands-on science programs for children and young adults from representatives of the National Center for interactive Learning/Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado; the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, Texas; and experienced science programmers. The program will also discuss two new science exhibits for rural public libraries: Discover Earth and Discover Tech, and introduce a new science Community of Practice librarians can use.

Give them a warm welcome and a good audience.

Invitation to comment on draft of "Examples to Accompany Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books)"

Posted on AUTOCAT.

Examples to Accompany Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) is a work in progress. The Bibliographic Standards Committee of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ACRL has charged a subcommittee to update the second edition of Examples of Accompany Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books.

The fifty original examples illustrating the now outdated DCRB have been revised to reflect changes made when Bibliographic Standards and ACRL adopted DCRM(B). There are also a number of examples from Deborah J. Leslie's Rare Book Cataloging workshop from Rare Book School in Virginia and a selection of examples and accompanying rules provided by volunteers. To date, there are 84 examples.

Members of BSC and RBMS have had a chance to comment. We are now reaching out to the larger community for input.

The platform we've been using, Digress.it, allows catalogers and other interested individuals to comment upon the use of specific rules, or the application of rules in general. All comments are public.

Please note: we are not asking for comments on the rules. We are asking for comments on whether the example(s) illustrate the rule(s) accurately and appropriately. Also note, that we will accept comments until July 1, 2011. At that point, the Examples and comments we receive will be sent to BSC for consideration during a close reading.

Follow this link http://rbms.info/digress/ for the working draft and opportunity to comment on Examples to Accompany Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books). Please read the "Instructions for Commenting" before proceeding.

For information on DCRM(B): http://www.rbms.info/committees/bibliographic_standards/dcrm/dcrmtext.html

For information on BSC: http://www.rbms.info/committees/bibliographic_standards/index.shtml

Ibidem

Image via WikipediaMFA Learning Technologies has announced the release of Ibidem, which is focused on the front end data entry process and provides user definable Lookup Tables. Ibidem exposes its content via OAI-PMH (thanks to OAICAT). "While Ibidem was developed primarily for religious ministries, it serves as a general purpose tool, suitable for building collections in any domain."

Features

• Pre-populated with these field sets:
  • Dublin Core
    
  • Extended Dublin Core
    
  • Our custom Religious Ministries set
• Arbitrary number of custom field names (metadata)
  
• Build custom field sets
  
• Supports any file type
  
• Multi-tenant: 1 installation supports arbitrary number of customers
  
• User level security
  
• OAI-PMH
  
• Open Source

Shuttle Launch

So excited. I'm going to the STS-135 shuttle launch as part of the NASATweetup. That means I get to view from the press area. That's as close as anyone except the astronauts and a couple of guys in a tank.

Metadata Authority and Description Schema 2.0

Image via WikipediaNews from LC.

The MODS/MADS Editorial Committee and the Library of Congress are pleased to announce a new version of the Metadata Authority and Description Schema, MADS version 2.0. This is the first major revision of MADS since its initial release in 2005. MADS web site: http://www.loc.gov/standards/mads
MADS schema version 2.0: http://www.loc.gov/standards/mads/mads.xsd

Major changes in MADS 2.0 are:

• Elimination of dependence on the MODS schema
  
• Updated elements that are the same in MODS to reflect version 3 (e.g. added additional subelements under hierarchicalGeographic, added descriptionStandard under recordInfo)
  
• Addition of authority URI and value URI for controlled lists
  
• Addition of and elements
  
• Addition of an otherType attribute on for relationship types not enumerated in the schema
  
• Ability to specify if a subject heading can be subdivided geographically

A complete list of changes in MADS 2.0 may be found at http://www.loc.gov/standards/mads/changes-2-0.html. MADS user guidelines are under development and will be made available soon. Please direct any comments or questions on the MADS 2.0 Schema, or MODS/MADS developments in general, to the MODS Listserv http://listserv.loc.gov/listarch/mods.html.

Related articles

• MADS, Request for Comments (catalogablog.blogspot.com)

Final Two MARBI Papers Available for Review

Proposal 2011-08: Treatment of Controlled Lists of Terms for Carrier Characteristics in RDA in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-08.html)

Proposal 2011-12: Defining Subfield $q for an Assigning Agency in Field 084 (Other Classification Number) of the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-12.html)

The updated MARBI ALA Annual Conference 2011 agenda is available at:
http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/an2011_age.html

MARC Update No. 12 is Ready for Local Print

In 2008, updates of both the full and concise MARC 21 Formats were made available online and the principle was established that the online is the version of record for the formats and the print a byproduct that is produced after the online version. Taking this into consideration, along with the decreasing demand for print, the Network Development and MARC Standards Office has decided to no longer print and sell updates to the full versions of the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority, Holdings, Classification, and Community Information Formats. Instead, NDMSO has developed a stylesheet that removes characteristics of an online page when it is printed -- such as breadcrumbs, extraneous links and text -- so that it resembles the print version formerly sold by CDS.

Users who want a print of changed fields will be able to print them from the Format web pages. Eventually all fields will be printable in this manner, but for now only Update 12 fields have been conditioned for improved printing. Changes to the MARC 21 Formats that resulted from Update No. 12 (October 2010) are displayed in red print. The online documentation will incorporate a print guide for an update as part of the "Format Changes" Appendix found in each format's table of contents page.

Please note that the MARC 21 Concise Format document will continue to be printed and it will consist of the Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings formats. The 2011 edition will be available in the last quarter of 2011.

---

The following sections and fields were changed in Update No. 12 and should be printed to keep a print copy of the MARC 21 Formats up-to-date:

BIBLIOGRAPHIC

• Leader:
  http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bdleader.html
  
• Field 024 - Other Standard Identifier:
  http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd024.html
  
• Field 561 - Ownership and Custodial History:
  http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd561.html
  
• Field 787 - Other Relationship Entry:
  http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd787.html
  
• Appendix A - Control Subfields:
  http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdcntf.html

AUTHORITY

• Appendix A - Control Subfields:
  http://www.loc.gov/marc/authority/ecadcntf.html

HOLDINGS

• Field 561 - Ownership and Custodial History:
  http://www.loc.gov/marc/holdings/hd561.html

CLASSIFICATION

• Appendix A - Control Subfields:
  http://www.loc.gov/marc/classification/eccdcntf.html

COMMUNITY INFORMATION

• Appendix A - Control Subfields:
  http://www.loc.gov/marc/community/eccicntf.html

Related articles

• Bigwood, David: MARC Printed Documentation (catalogablog.blogspot.com)

MARBI Papers Available for Review

Proposal 2011-02: RDA Production, Publication, Distribution and Manufacture Statements in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-02.html)

Proposal 2011-03: Encoding Date of Copyright Notice in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-03.html)

Proposal 2011-04: Adapting Field 377 (Associated Language) for Language of Expression in the Authority and Bibliographic Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-04.html)

Proposal 2011-05: Broadening field 373 (Affiliation) for Associated institutions in the MARC 21 Authority Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-05.html)

Proposal 2011-06: RDA Fuller Form of Personal Name Attribute in the MARC 21 Authority Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-06.html)

Proposal 2011-07: Additional Corporate Body Attributes for RDA in the MARC 21 Authority Format
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-07.html)

Proposal 2011-09: Identifying the Source of Thematic Index Numbers in Field 383 in the MARC 21 Authority and Bibliographic Formats
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-09.html)

Proposal 2011-10: Geographic Codes in Classification Records
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-10.html)

Proposal 2011-11: Addition of 1st Indicator Value 7 (Other edition specified in $2) in DDC Number Fields in the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority and Community Information Formats
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-11.html)

Discussion Paper 2011-DP05: Additional Means of Identifying Medium of Performance in the MARC21 Bibliographic and Authority Formats
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2011/2011-dp05.html)

The MARBI ALA Annual Conference 2011 agenda is available at: http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/an2011_age.html

NISO Recommended Practice on Single Sign-On Authentication Available for Public Comment

News from NISO.

Identifies Needed Improvements for Users Authenticating to Licensed Electronic Resources

NISO announces the availability of ESPReSSO: Establishing Suggested Practices Regarding Single Sign-On (NISO RP-11-201x) for a thirty day public comment period ending on June 22, 2011. ESPReSSO identifies practical solutions for improving the use of single sign-on authentication technologies to ensure a seamless experience for the user.

Currently a hybrid environment of authentication practices exists, including older methods of userid/password, IP authentication, or proxy servers along with newer federated authentication protocols such as Athens and Shibboleth. This recommended practice identifies changes that can be made immediately to improve the authentication experience for the user, even in a hybrid situation, while encouraging both publishers/service providers and libraries to transition to the newer Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)-based authentication, such as Shibboleth....

“NISO is testing various methods for identifying issues in our community where NISO can provide leadership in developing solutions,” states Todd Carpenter, Managing Director of NISO. “The ESPReSSO recommended practice is the first outcome of a Chair’s Initiative project, where the NISO Board of Directors Chair (then Oliver Pesch from EBSCO Information Services) identifies a specific issue that would benefit from study and the development of a recommended practice or standard.”

The draft Recommended Practice and an online comment form are available at: www.niso.org/workrooms/sso/. Publishers and distributors of licensed content as well as licensing organizations, such as libraries, are all encouraged to review and comment on the document.

Additions to Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes

Image via WikipediaNews from the Network Development and MARC Standards Office, Library of Congress

The source codes listed below have been recently approved. The codes will be added to applicable Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes lists. See the specific source code list for current usage in MARC fields and MODS/MADS elements.

The codes should not be used in exchange records until 60 days after the date of this notice to provide implementers time to include newly-defined codes in any validation tables.

Description Convention Source Codes
The following source codes have been added to the Description Convention Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Additions:

iosr

"Instruktsiia po opisaniiu slaviano-russkikh rukopisei XI-XIV vv. dlia Svodnogo kataloga rukopisei, khraniashchikhsia v SSSR" in Arkheologicheskii ezhegodnik za 1975 god. (Moskva: Izd-vo Akademii)

katreg

Katalogiseringsregler: Anglo-American cataloguing rules, second edition /oversatt og bearbiedet for Norske forhold ved Inger Cathrine Spangen (Oslo: Nasjonalbiblioteket)

Genre/Form Code and Term Source Codes
The following source codes have been added to the Genre/Form Code and Term Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Additions:

barngf

Svenska amnesord for barn - Genre/Form (Stockholm: Kungliga Biblioteket)

saogf

Svenska amnesord - Genre/Form (Stockholm: Kungliga Biblioteket)

The Library of Congress, Network Development and MARC Standards Office provides information about existing and newly assigned source codes on its Web site (www.loc.gov/marc/).

Guidelines for Subject Access in National Bibliographies

The Guidelines for Subject Access in National Bibliographies by the IFLA Working Group on Guidelines for Subject Access by National Bibliographic Agencies is now available for review.

The question of how to integrate the multitude of national online resources needs to be considered, how they should be catalogued, how they should be made accessible, and how they could be discovered by bibliography users. Because the Working Group on Guidelines for National Bibliographies of the IFLA Bibliography Section was concerned with exactly these „new directions”, we decided to build our guidelines on their recommendations, published in 2009 under the title National Bibliographies in the Digital Age: Guidance and New Directions. Our guidelines can be understood as a supplement to the 2009 Guidelines.

Our work is also an appeal to the producers of national bibliographies to provide subject access in national bibliographies. Users will benefit from using well organized subject structures of classification systems and subject headings to expand their ways of reaching the resources they want.

Seen on INFOdocket.

Library of Congress Changed Subject Heading Subdivisions

A message from Joyce T. Ogden.

Library of Congress Changed Subject Heading Subdivisions is ceasing publication. The latest issue, 2010 edition, was published September 2010 at $20.00. Remaining copies will be available as long as they last for $15.00. Orders accepted with your library purchase order no. by phone, e-mail, or regular mail to the address below. Invoice will be included with the shipment, or you can send prepaid check.

More information on my website www.joycetogden.com

New Book About User Research for eXtensible Catalog

A book from the eXtensible Catalog Organization, Scholarly Practice, Participatory Design and the eXtensible Catalog.

We are pleased to announce the release of a new book, Scholarly Practice, Participatory Design and the eXtensible Catalog, based on user research for eXtensible Catalog, available now from ACRL or Amazon.

As part of the development of eXtensible Catalog (XC), a project to develop open source software sponsored by the University of Rochester's River Campus Libraries, and funded by the Mellon Foundation and project partners, four institutions conducted eighty interviews and numerous workshops to understand how researchers learn about, acquire, and use scholarly resources. Research findings informed the design and development of XC, a set of open-source applications that provides access to resources across a range of databases, metadata schemas, and standards. In this volume, members of the project team report on key findings of the user research that was done at Cornell University, Ohio State University, the University of Rochester, and Yale University, and discuss the value of including library users and technology specialists from many disciplines in the software design and development process. Editors: Nancy Fried Foster, Katie Clark, Kornelia Tancheva and Rebekah Kilzer. Authors: Jennifer Bowen, Kaila Bussert, Katherine Chiang, Katie Clark, Maureen Donovan, Nancy Fried Foster, Gabriela Castro Gessner, David Lindahl, Melissa S. Mead, Kornelia Tancheva and Wendy Wilcox.

Related articles

• Grant awarded for eXtensible Catalog Organization Metadata Services Toolkit (mmitblog.wordpress.com)

Web2Marc Generator

Seen on Cataloging Futures the Web2Marc Generator.

The Web2Marc Generator is a simple tool that generates MARC or MODS records for websites. This tool is useful for librarians who are interested in adding web resources to their library catalogs.

I'd like to know just where and how it is getting the information. Its nice that it offers the records in MARC, MODS and other flavors.

Related articles

• MARC Records for Web Resources (schoollibrarybeyondsurvival.wordpress.com)

Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials

Image by ekpatterson via FlickrNews from LC.

Since 2007 the Library of Congress’ Policy and Standards Division (PSD) has been developing genre/form terms, and in June 2010 determined that the new thesaurus, Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT), should be formally separated from Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). In order to accomplish this, on May 24, 2011 the existing genre/form authority records will be deleted and reissued with new coding.

The current coding for the genre/form authority records indicates that the terms are from LCSH, not LCGFT. The LCCNs are prefixed by “sh” and 008/11 is set to “a,” Library of Congress Subject Headings. Therefore, the LCCNs and MARC coding both need to be revised. This will require the deleting and reissuing of the genre/form authority records.

The approximately 800 existing authority records will be deleted and immediately reissued. About 1600 records (deletes plus reissues) will be sent to subscribers as part of the May 24, 2011, Volume 26, Issue 21, distribution of subject authorities via the MARC Distribution Service (MDS).

Authority records for LCGFT terms will be coded as follows.

LCCN prefix: gf
008/11: z (“Other”)
040$f: lcgft

Example:

008/11 z
010 $a gf2011987654 $z sh2009025020
040 $a DLC $b eng $c DLC $f lcgft
155 $a Topographic maps
455 $a Hypsographic maps
455 $a Hypsometric maps
455 $a Relief maps
455 $a Topographical maps
555 $w a $a Maps

[Note that the deprecated LCCN is being retained in field 010$z, to facilitate automatic updates.]

As of May 24, 2011, new coding should be used when assigning LCGFT terms in bibliographic records. That coding is as follows.

655 #7 $a [Term]. $2 lcgft

Example:

Title: Survivor: Thailand.

655 #7 $a Survival television programs. $2 lcgft
655 #7 $a Nonfiction television programs. $2 lcgft

The genre/form FAQ http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/genre_form_faq.pdf and the Subject Headings Manual (SHM) will both be updated to reflect this change in policy.

For further information and the rationale for these revisions, please see the January 3, 2011 announcement, “Library of Congress to Reissue Genre/Form Authority Records.” http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/gf_lccn.html

Cataloging Webinars

WebJunction is offering a couple of free webinars that might be interesting.

June 2: Cataloging as Collaborative Librarianship: Partnering with Your Colleagues
This webinar, presented in collaboration with Libraries Unlimited, upon the publication of Practical Strategies for Cataloging Departments, will discussion how be more effective partners with your colleagues and leverage cataloging expertise. Three contributors to the edition from the University of New Mexico Libraries will examine the relationships and potential with other technical services partners, such as acquisitions and collection development, branching out into public services collaborations; and they will address how catalogers can take an active role in the growing area of digitization services.

More information and registration »

June 14: Cataloging Efficiencies That Make a Difference
OCLC Member Services staff have been traveling around the U.S. to hear how librarians have faced the challenge to streamline cataloging at a time of reduced budgets and staff. These discussions have provided a great opportunity to exchange practical tips on how to become more efficient—from defining "good enough" cataloging to collaborating on improved workflows, to sharing the latest on RDA and WorldCat quality. In this webinar, two academic librarians will share their experiences of reviewing and revising tech services workflows, and cataloging e-books. We'll also discuss the key trends and strategies provided by the hundreds of library staff who have contributed to the Good Practices for Great Outcomes series so far, and will end with a discussion of where we go from here. Presenters: Daphne Kouretas, OCLC; Helen Heinrich, California State University, Northridge; Debbi Dinkins, Stetson University.

More information and registration »

Related articles

• WebJunction - Webinar Archives (webjunction.org)

The National Network

Some interesting work linking researchers is being done with VIVO.

The National Network enables the discovery of researchers across institutions. Participants in the network include institutions with local installations of VIVO or those with research discovery and profiling applications that can provide semantic web-compliant data. The information accessible through VIVO's search and browse capability will reside and be controlled locally, within institutional VIVOs or other semantic web-compliant applications.

VIVO is an open source semantic web application originally developed and implemented at Cornell. When installed and populated with researcher interests, activities, and accomplishments, it enables the discovery of research and scholarship across disciplines at that institution and beyond. VIVO supports browsing and a search function which returns faceted results for rapid retrieval of desired information. Content in any local VIVO installation may be maintained manually, brought into VIVO in automated ways from local systems of record, such as HR, grants, course, and faculty activity databases, or from database providers such as publication aggregators and funding agencies.

Related articles

• CIL 2011: Semantic Web Apps for Researchers (librarianinblack.net)

Personal Announcement

I've created a personal Twitter account. If you have been following LPI_Library to follow me, switch over to DPBigwood. On foursquare (not that I use it much aside from conferences) I'm also dpbigwood. Once I was trying to keep the LPI Library numbers as high as possible on Twitter. Now I think they have reached a point where splitting off my personal stuff won't hurt their numbers much if any. The LPI account is getting a few new followers every day. If that continues that will mean well over 1,000 new followers this year. Not bad for a library with about 350 card holders.

NLM Classification Updated

News from the National Library of Medicine.

The online National Library of Medicine Classification, available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/class/, has been issued in a newly revised edition as of April 28, 2011.

Forty-six (46) new class numbers were added and three (3) class numbers were canceled. Sixty-nine (69) MeSH terms were added to the index, including forty-one (41) new to the MeSH vocabulary as of 2011; in addition, one hundred and seventy-eight (178) class number captions or schedule notes and six hundred and six (606) index entries were modified since the 2010 edition was published on April 29, 2010.

DOIs as Linked Data

Image via WikipediaDOIs as Linked Data is an excellent post by Ed Summers at Inkdroid. Plenty of implications to consider for cataloging and scholarly publishing and access.

Procedural Guidelines for Proposed New or Revised Romanization Tables

News from LC.

I am pleased to report that the "Procedural Guidelines for Proposed New or Revised Romanization Tables" is now available on the LC website at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romguid_2010.html. These guidelines were developed jointly by the Policy and Standards Division at the Library of Congress, the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) and the Committee on Cataloging: Asian and African Materials (CC:AAM) within the Cataloging and Classification Section of the American Library Association. The need for a formal procedure became apparent in recent efforts to revise certain Romanization tables. A draft was issued on June 15, 2010, with a request for feedback. The current procedure, dated August 13, 2010, is the result of that feedback and was printed in Cataloging Service Bulletin Issue 127http://www.loc.gov/cds/PDFdownloads/csb/CSB_127.pdf (PDF, 289 KB).

Additions to Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes

The source codes listed below have been recently approved. The codes will be added to applicable Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes lists. See the specific source code list for current usage in MARC fields and MODS/MADS elements.

The codes should not be used in exchange records until 60 days after the date of this notice to provide implementers time to include newly-defined codes in any validation tables.

National Bibliography Number Source Codes
The following source code has been added to the National Bibliography Number Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Addition:

jnb

Japanese National Bibliography (Tokyo: National Diet Library)

Classification Scheme Source Codes
The following source code has been added to the Classification Scheme Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Addition:

mu

Clasificacion Musical de la Bibliografía Nacional de Espana (Madrid: Biblioteca Nacional de Espana)

Subject Heading and Term Source Codes
The following source in the Subject Heading and Term Source Codes list formerly had code "ndllsh" assigned to it. It has been assigned a new code:

ndlsh

Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan kenmei hyomokuhyo = National Diet Library list of subject headings (Tokyo: Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan)

Stuck in the Past

This month in Library Journal Michael Stephens writes in Stuck in the Past about the changing nature of the profession. He neglects catalogers. However, we can offer a few suggestions along the lines of those he suggests for reference. How about advising or offering classes for those wishing to "catalog" their collection? In metadata how about advising the town or academy in best selecting a metadata standard, standard indexing terms, and the software to use it? Just what is the benefit in filling in the info on a Word or PDF file? How could it be more useful? How should files be organized and named so that they can be easily found again? Would adding microformats to the Website of a local business reduce costs and drive more business their way? Giving a workshop, training session or just such advice might be useful. Any other suggestions?

Facebook Metadata

Image via CrunchBaseFacebook Engineering is having a webcast of their tech talk about using metadata.

Join Mukund Narasimhan, a software engineer, for a discussion on the tools and techniques used to extend the Facebook graph to include entities such as places, businesses, and music bands as well as the interactions between Facebook users and these entities.

He will explain the computational and statistical challenges involved in annotating these entities with structured metadata while ensuring that they are authentic. He will also discuss how users are helping us solve these problems.

This tech talk will occur at 7pm (Pacific) on Wednesday April 27th. It will be live streamed via http://www.facebook.com/FacebookLive.

Seen on the dc-general email list.

VuDL: Open Source Digital Library Administration

The Falvey Library at Villanova University has announced the Alpha Launch of VuDL: Open Source Digital Library Administration.

VuDL is a simple to use Digital Library Administration application powered by all open source technologies. With VuDL, you get:

• METS metadata editor
  
• Service image generation tools
  
• XML database repository
  
• Built-in OAI server
  
• Built-in record drivers for easy implementation with VuFind

The core of VuDL's application is powered by Orbeon Forms, a powerful XML/XForms processor. eXist (a native XML database) and the server's file system combine to support the data and image repository.
VuDL is offered for free through the GPL open source license. You can modify the software and share your successes with the community!

Code4Lib Journal

Issue 13 of the Code4Lib Journal has been published. Partial contents:

• ISBN and QR Barcode Scanning Mobile App for Libraries
  Graham McCarthy and Sally Wilson
  This article outlines the development of a mobile application for the Ryerson University Library. The application provides for ISBN barcode scanning that results in a lookup of library copies and services for the book scanned, as well as QR code scanning. Two versions of the application were developed, one for iOS and one for Android. The article includes some details on the free packages used for barcode scanning functionality. Source code for the Ryerson iOS and Android applications are freely available, and instructions are provided on customizing the Ryerson application for use in other library environments. Some statistics on the number of downloads of the Ryerson mobile app by users are included.
  
  
• Using Web Services for a Mobile OPAC
  Denis Galvin and Mang Sun
  The purpose of this paper is to discuss the creation and intended evolution of the Rice University mobile online public access catalog (OPAC). The focus of the article is on how SirsiDynix’s Symphony Web Services can be used to create a mobile OPAC.
  
  
• Look What We Got! How Inherited Data Drives Decision-Making: UNC-Chapel Hill’s 19th-Century American Sheet Music Collection
  Renée McBride
  Have you inherited a digital collection containing valuable, but inconsistent metadata? And wondered how to transform it into a usable, quality resource while accepting that it can’t meet your idea of perfection? This article describes such an experience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Library with its CONTENTdm-based 19th-Century American Sheet Music Collection, addressing issues such as field construction, the use of controlled vocabularies, development of a project data dictionary, and metadata clean-up.
  
  
• From ISIS to CouchDB: Databases and Data Models for Bibliographic Records
  Luciano Ramalho
  For decades bibliographic data has been stored in non-relational databases, and thousands of libraries in developing countries still use ISIS databases to run their OPACs. Fast forward to 2010 and the NoSQL movement has shown that non-relational databases are good enough for Google, Amazon.com and Facebook. Meanwhile, several Open Source NoSQL systems have appeared.

Related articles

• The Code4Lib Journal - Issue 13 (journal.code4lib.org)
• Applying Lessons from 8 Things We Hate About IT to Libraries (journal.code4lib.org)

OLAC Newsletter

The March OLAC Newsletter is now available.

In this issue:

• From the President
  
• From the Editor
  
• Treasurer’s Report
  
• OLAC Meeting Minutes from ALA Midwinter 2011
• Conference Reports from ALA Midwinter 2011
  
• News and Announcements
  
• Meet the Candidates
  
• Reviews
  
• OLAC Cataloger’s Judgment
  
• News from OCLC
  
• OCLC QC Tip of the Month

2011 Library Blog Awards

Salem press is sponsoring the 2011 Library Blog Awards. Nominate your favorite.

Blogs about libraries continue to spread across the web, with hundreds of people writing about books, libraries, and related subjects. Last year Salem Press set out on a mission to reward the achievements of librarian bloggers. Several hundred blogs by and about librarians entered the pool of nominations when the contest was announced. After the votes were tallied, 16 blogs were awarded prizes in five topical categories. Some were well-known and well-established, others on the rise or newly discovered.

Related articles

• The LISNews Blogs To Read in 2011 | LISNews: (lisnews.org)

WorldCat Mashathon US

Image via WikipediaThe WorldCat Mashathon US results are in. Some interesting projects.

• Netflix at My Library by Karen Coombs
• WorldCat in SciVerse by Remko Caprio, Developer for SciVerse
• Borrow Direct made Better by Eric James, Kalee Sprague, Daniel Lovins, Analyst and librarians at Yale University
• Call Number Browse by Andrea Schurr, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
• Catalog Manager for National Digital Newspaper Project enhancement by Ed Summers, Library of Congress
• Small library Web presence by Bruce Washburn, OCLC Research

Russian translation of FRAD

News from IFLA about FRAD.

I am pleased to announce the availability of the Russian translation of FRAD, prepared by Olga Lavrenova, a member of the IFLA Working Group on Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records. It is available as a PDF on the IFLA website at http://www.ifla.org/files/cataloguing/frad/frad_2009-ru.pdf and in a print publication from the Russian Library Association.

Additions to Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes

The source codes listed below have been recently approved. The codes will be added to the applicable Source Codes for Vocabularies, Rules, and Schemes lists. See the specific source code list for current usage in MARC fields and MODS/MADS elements.

The codes should not be used in exchange records until 60 days after the date of this notice to provide implementers time to include newly-defined codes in any validation tables.

Subject Heading and Term Source Codes

The following source codes have been added to the Subject Heading and Term Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.

Additions:

norbok

Norbok: emneord i Norsk bokfortegnelse (Norbok) (Oslo: Nasjonalbiblioteket)

samisk

Sami bibliografia (Norga) = Samisk bibliografi (Norge) = Sami bibliography (Norway) (Oslo: Nasjonalbiblioteket)

Field 720

Why do I so rarely see field 720 used? I just downloaded a record that had two names not in the LC Authority file, yet both were in field 700. Here is the description of field 720 from MARC Full.

Added entry in which the name is not controlled in an authority file or list. It is also used for names that have not been formulated according to cataloging rules. Names may be of any type (e.g., personal, corporate, meeting).

Used when one of the other access fields (e.g., 1XX (Headings) or 7XX (Added Entries)) cannot be used because the level of control and/or structure of the name does not meet the requirements of the other access fields. Field 720 should not be used for uncontrolled names intended to provide subject access. In that case, field 653 (Index Term-Uncontrolled) is preferred.

Sounds like the field to use when the names aren't in LCNAF or some other file.

Just asking, am I missing something?

5 April
It has been suggested, in a comment, that perhaps these are controlled in a local database. Maybe, but in a shared cataloging environment where we don't have access to the local database is it good policy? Just asking. I can see if they were in the German or French or Brazilian authority files but something local not so much. I very rarely see the 720, are people using it? Am I just not clear on the concept?

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