Genre and Form Headings

I've just finished reading the article "Genre and Form Lists for Moving image and Materials: A Comparison" by Martha M. Yee in The Audiovisual Cataloging Current. It is well worth a read and thoughtful consideration. The two lists compared are the Moving Image Genre-Form Guide and LCSH. It makes too many points, about the construction and uses of genre and form headings, to summarize. She ends by endorsing LCSH with reservations, and a list of recommendations for the improvement of LCSH.

If anyone understands Blogger and wants to give me some guidance with the technical side that would be nice. I cannot seem to get items to display in the places I want them. For instance, I'd like to see the extreme-dm icon at the bottom of the page and the subscription form higher. Even a pointer to a quick guide would be nice. I have paid the $12.00 so you should soon not be subjected to the ad at the top.

MeSH

I mentioned how much I liked the idea of free download of the GSAFD MARC records. It turns out the Medical Subject Headings have been available for quite some time for free download. They are available in MARC, XML and ASCII. OCLC still does not provide access to the MESH authority records.

The staff of Ehrman Medical Library, NYU School of Medicine have developed a product m[n]m. This PERL program provides a way to update the locally needed records from the entire file provided from the download.

Digital Libraries

The conference "NetLab and friends - Tribute and outlook after 10 years of digital library development" took place 10-12 April 2002 with 140 participants from 23 countries. The programme included 18 speakers and comprised of five sessions: Visions, future issues and current development, Interoperability and integration of heterogeneous sources, Semantic web and knowledge organisation, Nordic libraries and their digital library solutions and Tension between visions and reality.

The presentations from the conference are now available.

Some of the talks include:
Community, Consensus, and the Trajectory of Progress: Reflections on the Dublin Core experience and what it tells us about the future.
RDF Query by example.
LDAP based repositories for Metadata and Ontologies.
Semantic problems of thesaurus mapping.

MARC Tool

The latest issue of Information Technology & Libraries has the article "MARC It Your Way: MARC.pm" by Anne Highsmith ... [et al.], abstract available. MARC.pm is an Open Source tool for tasks with MARC records. It is very adaptable, and the article gives some examples. Chuck Bearden, one of the developers, was one of my classmates in the MLS program at the University of North Texas.

Sandy Berman

The talk Sandy Berman gave to the students at the University of Washington is available as a QuickTime streaming video. Can't say anything about the content since my machine does not seem able to handle that format. It is in 3 parts, each about 30 min.

Authority Records

This from the latest LC Cataloging Newsline:

For some time now, LC's Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) has been processing and distributing to subscribers, including the bibliographic utilities, name authority records derived from the National Library of Canada that contain 7XX fields. NACO members will soon begin seeing 7XX "linking references" in name authority records originating from other institutions. These linking references are AACR2 authoritative forms of name used in national bibliographies or for other special purposes by national libraries/bibliographic entities.

Interim instructions, pending the release of revised documentation, are available at the PCC Web site at URL http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/naco/7xx.html [May 2002]

This is excellent news, one step closer to a patron friendly authority access system. Where each institution or even each user can select the form of names they desire to use. Currently only the Library of Canada has input. Soon the Library of South Africa will as well.

Classification

Still on the classification topic. There has been some discussion on a list of what classification schemes are used in Europe. As I remember Dewey and the Universial Decimal Classification (UDC) are the most common. The Bliss Classification is used in some UK libraries. Any others?

General Material Designations

I've just heard that there is discussion about eliminating the GMD. Here are some the specific questions being asked:

1. GMD helps patrons find, separate, collocate, and select records for print and non-print materials. Since non-print materials are often the minority in collections, is the GMD the best way to alert users of the catalog?
2. How are GMD's best applied when describing reproductions and multiple resources such as digital sound recording?
3. Professional report inconsistencies of how to use GMD particularly for non-print materials- so will rules oriented towards print materials help?
4. When should a GMD be in a record (e.g. even if there is no intrinsic relation to a transcribed title), how specific should it be?
5. Materials are described via the GMD, should they be relegated to subject classification?
6. Is SMD an alterative for GMD?
7. GMD is perceived as an example of broad issues in the rules. Thus, should GMD be addressed at all through cataloging rules?

If you have an opinion on this let the members of CC:DA know.

Serial Subscriptions

"Recently, NISO, the National Information Standards Organization and DLF, the Digital Library Federation announced the undertaking of a two month study to evaluate the current use and potential of standards to facilitate the exchange of serials subscription information for both print and electronic resources. NISO would like to know more about how libraries gather, use and share subscription information.

A questionnaire for libraries has been placed on the NISO web site. Because NISO supports the development of standards for the information community based on consensus among constitiuents, we are grateful for the interest of libraries who benefit so much from these standards.

Please take some time to visit the NISO web site and fill out the survey which can be found at: http://www.niso.org/survey/serials.cfm. The survey will close on May 30. A final report on this study, including recommendations, will be on the NISO website in late June."--from an e-mail received 4/26/02

Electronic Resources

One of my pet peeves is how useless Area 3 (field 256 in MARC) is for computer files. Our AACR options are to use the terms: Electronic data or Electronic program(s) or a combination of the two. That does not give our users much information. They already know it is an electronic resource from the GMD. This only adds the fact it is a program or data. The list from ISBD(ER) is much more descriptive and informative. This list lets the user know if it is a map, journal, image, font, sound, CAD program or whatever. Something a user can understand and base a decision on. I'd be happy with either doing away with Area 3 or adopting the useful terms from IFLA.

Classification

Having mentioned Dewey, LCC and the USGS classifications recently it seemed to be a good time to mention a few classification schemes. The American Physical Society publishes The Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme.

"This Classification Scheme, on the other hand, is arranged hierarchically, by subdivision of the whole spectrum of subject matter in physics- and astronomy-related sciences into segments and then repeating the process of subdivision down to four levels. The advantages of a hierarchical scheme over the alphabetical arrangement include: like subjects can be found grouped closely together; and browsing up or down near any entry will reveal closely-related entries."

For Math, there is the Mathematics Subject Classification from the American Mathematical Society.

"(MSC) is used to categorize items covered by the two reviewing databases, Mathematical Reviews (MR) and Zentralblatt MATH (Zbl). The MSC is broken down into over 5,000 two-, three-, and five-digit classifications, each corresponding to a discipline of mathematics."

"The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) has replaced the U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. NAICS will reshape the way we view our changing economy.

NAICS was developed jointly by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to provide new comparability in statistics about business activity across North America."

Catalogs

I've found another free open-source library catalog in beta test. Here is their description:

OpenBiblio is an easy to use, open source, automated library system written in PHP containing OPAC, circulation, cataloging, and staff administration functionality. The purpose of this project is to provide a cost effective library automation solution for small schools or small public libraries.

Not Cataloging - But Good Ideas

I've come across two very good ideas recently. Walt Crawford has this proposal:

"COWLZ: the [Caucus/Coalition/Consortium/Cluster] of Online and Web-based Library-related Zines/Newsletters....

I've built a COWLZ folder in my Notes Mail space. With a little encouragement, I'd set up a COWLZ Topica list, even with the growing ad overhead of Topica-unless someone offers a no-ad list environment to help semi-organize COWLZ.

This is a call to proprietors of online and Web-based library-related zines and newsletters to do one of two things: Respond with indications of interest and the extent to which you're willing to be involved-or respond with a clear message that this is a stupid idea and you want nothing to do with it. For now, send email to me: wcc@notes.rlg.org. Include "COWLZ" beginning the subject line."

The other idea came from the latest Library Journal column Inside Track by Francine Fialkoff, a Library Most Read List to exist along side the best sellers lists.

"I've already spoken with several librarians who've said they'd participate, including Robert White at the above-mentioned Bergen County system, Julie Pringle at Fairfax County Public Library, VA, and David Domkoski at Tacoma Public Library. If you're interested, contact me at fialkoff@lj.cahners.com. As White said when we spoke, "We've failed politically to send a message to the powers that be about the clout of libraries." We must change that."

LC Classification

A new product from LC. It has a reasonable price structure and worked fairly well in the beta test.

"Great news! We are pleased to announce that Classification Web will be available as a subscription service on June 1, 2002. Subscription options, prices, and important information follow....

The Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) will begin taking orders beginning May 1, 2002 in anticipation of the June 1 launch date. Application forms and further ordering information will be available at the CDS Web site by May 1. Check http://lcweb.loc.gov/cds/classweb.html for future product updates and application information."

Dublin Core & Open Archives Initiative

This just came in. It is good to see the convergence of various streams of work into a river of useful tools.

DCMI and OAI are pleased to announce an XML schema for unqualified DC metadata that facilitates the declaration of modular metadata components.

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative and the Open Archives Initiative have been cooperating on metadata issues for some time. Unqualified DC metadata is the default metadata set used in the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, intended to promote cross-domain interoperability. Other, domain-specific sets are encouraged as well, as envisaged in the modular metadata framework that both communities have been striving for.

This schema has been developed for use with the OAI Protocol, and has been discussed at length in the DC-Architecture working group. It is expected that the schema will be of use for other applications as well, and will be hosted on the DCMI Website and maintained by representatives of both groups.


This development is an important landmark in the development of web-based metadata services, reflecting as it does the convergence of community consensus and the development of enabling infrastructure to support that consensus.

The schema is available at: http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/simpledc20020312.xsd

This and other schemas will be linked and described for readers at http://dublincore.org/schemas/

More information on the Open Archives Initiative is available at: http://www.openarchives.org


Stuart Weibel
Executive Director
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
OCLC Office of Research

Herbert Van de Sompel
Open Archives Initiative Executive
Digital Library Research & Prototyping
Los Alamos National Laboratory - Research Library

Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

I'm currently reading The Audiovisual Cataloging Current edited by Sandra K. Roe. It includes a paper giving an overview of the TGM.

"The Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms (TGM I) provides a substantial body of terms for subject indexing of pictorial materials, particularly the large general collections of historical images"--I.A.

The other section of TGM is The Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms (TGM II). This section contains over 600 terms describing distinctive categories of material: an established class of pictorial types, a vantage point or method of projection, or intended purpose. Some indicate characteristics of an image's creator or a publication status or occasion. Others imply a subject but also designate a method of representation. Physical characteristic headings designate graphic materials distinguished by production processes or techniques, production stages or versions, instrument employed, markings, shape and size, and other physical aspects of graphic materials. (Adapted from the Scope and Purpose note)

Authority Records

A Handbook of Examples For Use in Authority Records Created By the NACO-Music Project by Michelle Koth provides guidance on fields 670, 667 and 675 in the MARC Authority format. Although done by the NACO-Music Project it's usefulness is not limited to music. This has been around since 1998, but I've only recently seen it. Maybe I though it was only for music.

"This handbook is a compilation of examples with explanations for creating citations for sources of information in the authority record. It does not encompass establishing the heading itself; only how to cite the sources in which information necessary to create the heading was found. The examples are not to be regarded as "rules." The fields that are affected are:

670: Source data found: includes information about the name or title represented in the 1XX field, including facts that contribute to the identification of the heading and that justify the choice of the form used as the 1XX heading and references to it.

667: Non-public general note: gives information of permanent value and general interest that is not necessarily taken from the item being cataloged.

675: Source data not found: lists consulted sources in which information about the 1XX heading might be expected to be found, but was not."--pref.

Texas Library Association Annual Conference

I'll not be at TLA this year. I'll miss seeing everybody and visiting with folks from all across Texas. Let me know how the TRGCC meeting goes. However, the LPI will have a booth there. My co-workers will be at booth 3043. Their exhibit displays a Youth Services and Children's program for public and school libraries named, "Explore! Fun with Science". Stop by the booth and tell them "Hi." Give them some good numbers to report to NASA. We have been trying for years to convince NASA that public libraries are educational institutions. All the education programs from NASA have excluded libraries and focused on the classroom. We have tried to let them know that the field of education outside the classroom is important also. They are srtarting to understand the leverage libraires have.

The Cataloging Calculator

The Cataloging Calculator by Kyle Banerjee is a very useful tool. It allows searching and display of LC Cutter, Geog. Cutter, Geog. Area Codes, Country Codes, Language Codes, AACR2 Abbrevs., and MARC Var. Fields information. It does use 3 frames, so on older machines it may be slow. Thanks Kyle, I use this often.

Classification

The U.S. Geological Survey Library Classification System is available on-line. M. Dewey developed this classification. (There is a dissertation there for someone.) If it is used it should be in field 084 with subfield 2 including "usgslcs"