To the Koha community;Bonjour,
Our first French translation did in fact come out last week, which sets the stage nicely for this weeks news. We've also seen continued growth of our developer and user bases (including an installation of FreeBSD -- Hooray!!)
The entire message is available. This project continues to go from one accomplishment to the next.
The goal of MARC4J is to provide an easy to use Application Programming Interface (API) for working with MARC records in Java.Using MARC4J it is easy to write any kind of Java application or servlet that involves MARC or MARCXML data. MARC4J provides SAX2 consumers and producers for conversions between MARC and MARCXML, including support for character conversions between MARC-8 and UCS/Unicode environments. Together with the SAX2 interface it is possible to write robust MARC to XML conversion programs simply by implementing the methods in the MarcHandler interface. The MARC record object model can be used to convert XML back to MARC tape format. The record object model is also suitable for in-memory editing of MARC records, just as DOM is used for XML editing purposes. The MARC4J library can also be used for reporting purposes, to import MARC records into databases, or to provide transformations between different MARC formats.
Here is zNote, a web-based bibliography-management tool built with Zope and XML.zNote is intended to ultimately be a replacement for tools like EndNote, ProCite, and to a certain extent, bibTeX. It uses a hierarchical XML data format which is more flexible than flat data, and it works using a set of pretty simple DOM calls to format, edit, etc.
zNote is currently at version 0.6. It is now a complete, functioning Python-classed product. It is totally usable (I have a couple of hundred entries in the one I'm using), but it has some rough edges that could be sanded off.
Like all open source projects, the more folks who contribute the fewer rough edges it will have.
I am pleased to announce that free full-text (PDF) access to the entire contents of "E-Serials Cataloging: Access to Continuing and Integrating Resources via the Catalog and the Web," (The Serials Librarian 41 (3-4) 2002) edited by Jim Cole and Wayne Jones is now available from this site and hereThis special issue contains my latest article "E is for Everything: The Extra-Ordinary, Evoluntionay [e-]Journal" which is a review of key features of The Eclectic Journal.
Here's a partial Table of Contents for the issue.
E-Serials Cataloging in the 1990's: A Review of the Literature by Ann Copeland
ISBD(ER) and Its Role in the Management of Electronic Resources by Sten Hedberg
The Integration of Electronic Resources into Cataloging Instruction in the LIS Curriculum by Taemin Kim Park
Teaching Seriality: A Major Education Challenge by Arlene G. Taylor
Web Resources for Cataloging Electronic Serials and Continuing Resources: An Annotated Bibliography by John Blosser, Tim Hagan, and Yvonne W. Zhang
Internet Resources Cataloging in ARL Libraries: Staffing and Access Issues by Jeanne M.K. Boydston and Joan M. Leysen
Notes for Remote Access Computer File Serials by Beatrice L. Caraway
On Pins and Needles: Using Structured Metadata for Collocation and Browsing Capability by Gregory Wool
NESLI MARC Records: An Experiment in Creating MARC Records for E-Journals by Ross MacIntyre
Improving Access to E-Journals and Databases at the MIT Libraries: Building a Database-Backed Web Site Called 'Vera' by Nicole Hennig
The Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek: A Successful Library Service for Electronic Journals in Germany by Evelinde Hutzler and GeraldSchupfner
E is for Everything: The Extra-Ordinary, Evolutionary [e-]Journal
Gerry McKiernanDon't forget to visit EJI(sm) for The Eclectic Experience
I am most thankful to Bill Cohen, Publisher of Haworth Press, for providing the PDF copy and for his permission to offer free access to the issue.
Gerry McKiernan
Extra-Ordinary Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011
gerrymck@iastate.edu
With the addition of 584 Apollo 13 images and 1336 Apollo 14 images, the Atlas now has over 10,000 images available for internet browsing.
Comments or suggestions about the Atlas are welcomed, just drop me a note.
Currently there are approximately 1500 Spanish subject equivalents. The file is in alphabetical order by the LCSH followed by the OPL Spanish subject and the SFPL Spanish subject. The Spanish subject headings here are primarily those that are not represented in Bilindex. However, there are several that revise or update Bilindex terms or phrases to reflect current or preferred terminology. Due to the limitations of the dBASE program as well as to allow for proper indexing in the local system, all diacritical marks and tildes are omitted from the Spanish terms.Thanks to Marylaine Block for this listing in Neat New Stuff.
Gabriel is the World-Wide-Web service covering 41 European national libraries from the 39 countries that are represented in the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL). This multilingual Internet service offers access to consistently structured information about European national libraries, with details about their printed and electronic collections as well as instructions on how to gain access to their online catalogues and services. Information is offered in the most commonly-used European languages, namely English, French and German.It is available at these sites:
In the excitement of the "dot-com" rush of the 1990's, many Web sites were developed that provided information retrieval capabilities poorly or sub-optimally. Suggestions are made for improvements in the design of Web information retrieval in seven areas. Classifications, ontologies, indexing vocabularies, statistical properties of databases (including the Bradford Distribution), and staff indexing support systems are all discussed.
This author suggests hiring information professionals. Maybe this idea is catching on.
Currently, Citation.pm attempts to parse the following metadata from references to other journal papers (it is not good at parsing metadata from references to books, conference proceedings, theses, etc.) :name of the authors name of the first author journal title volume issue or supplement start page year Sometimes the title of the referenced paper is also extracted if it is in an easy-to-recognise form (e.g. enclosed in double quotes). These data are sufficient to identify a journal paper uniquely for reference linking purposes.
That last line is interesting, they have linked to arXiv.org sucessfully.
Free exposure is practically a thing of the past for entertainers. Getting your record played at radio costs more money than most of us dream of ever earning. Free downloading gives a chance to every do-it-yourselfer out there. Every act that can't get signed to a major, for whatever reason, can reach literally millions of new listeners, enticing them to buy the CD and come to the concerts. Where else can a new act, or one that doesn't have a label deal, get that kind of exposure?
Every content management application demands a well-ordered taxonomy. The challenge is to maintain taxonomy quality as content evolves over time.
One suggestion is to hire librarians. Excellent idea.
Thanks to Library News Daily for this info.
This document provides a reasonably non-technical introduction to the SGML-based markup scheme developed by the Model Editions Partnership (MEP) for the production of historical documentary editions in electronic form. The most important element types (or `tags') in the MEP markup system are introduced with examples.
Enhanced MarcEngine -- for faster MARC manipulation and more exposed functions/methods Global Indicator editing tools and enhancements to all existing editing tools MarcEdit Script Maker -- Generate vbscripts that tap into MarcEdit's power to modify and manipulate MARC records MarcEdit Delimited Text Translator -- Generate MARC records from delimited text files New MARC extraction utility that allows users to Extract and Delete individual MARC records from a larger batch file using a simple title list Updated MARC => DC conversion to DC 1.1 unqualified Updated MARC => XML conversion to conform to the Library of Congress' new MARCXML Schema Improved documentation
The next book I have begun to read, The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary by Eric S. Raymond tells the story of the Open Source movement. This seems like an example and solution to the problems outlined in Vaidhyanathan. The protection of computing source code has led to bloated office suites, unstable platforms and slow development. Compare hardware advances with software advances to see how protection has affected the industry. The Open Source movement has arisen to bring innovation, and user communities back into software. Librarians will agree with much in this movement. Intellectual freedom, for example, is important to both communities. There is even some intersection of the library and Open Source community (it can only benefit both) at oss4lib
Both books are worth reading and considering. Reading one after the other provides a concrete example of the historical and abstract treatment of the other.
Recently, the Digital Government program of the National Science Foundation has funded a number of projects to address the challenge of integrating large, heterogeneous, widely distributed and disparate Government data collections. In this paper, we describe two complementary approaches: large ontology-based data access planning using small domain models semi-automatically acquired, and dynamic metadata creation from language.
Koha 1.2.1 represents a major improvement over 1.2.0. We've spent a great deal of time working on the installer/upgrader, and using these tools are now the recommended way of installing Koha on your system. Koha 1.2.1 includes our new manual, which should help you get up and running faster. The Z39.50 sub-system has been overhauled and is now much better (and easier to install to boot!).
We've also cleaned up a number of bugs that crept into the 1.2.0 release -- and begun to build up our testing procedures to reduce new bugs in future releases.
Please download the latest release of Koha (and find out lots more about the project).
We encourage you to get this new release and give it a spin. We think you'll like what you see. We plan on continuing to improve Koha, and would love to have you come along on this exciting journey.
Chris Cormack
1.2 Release Manager
the Koha Project
Pat Eyler
Kaitiaki/Manager
the Koha Project
Koha mailing list
Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz
http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
An important part of the COUNTER Code of Practice will be the collection of Usage Reports to be provided by vendors to customers. Vendors will have to meet specified reporting standards in order to be designated 'COUNTER compliant'. The first drafts of the Usage Reports are now available and librarians are invited to participate in an online survey that will collect their comments on them. There are ten reports proposed for Release 1 of the Code of Practice, of which six cover journals and four cover bibliographic databases. These will be added to as the Code of Practice is extended and covers a wider range of content types.
The online survey, as well as the full list of Usage Reports, may be accessed by clicking on Online Librarian Survey. We recommend that Microsoft Internet Explorer be used as the browser for the online survey.
'The survey will be available only for a limited time, so please complete it as soon as possible so that your opinions are recorded'.
ZMARCO is an Open Archive Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) 2.0 compliant data provider. The 'Z' in ZMARCO stands for Z39.50; 'MARC' stands for MAchine-Readable Cataloging; and the 'O' stands for OAI, as in the Open Archives Inititive. Essentially ZMARCO allows MARC records which are available through a Z39.50 server to relatively easily be made available via the OAI-PMH.
The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) is a free-of-charge cooperative cataloging program operated by the Library of Congress.On the basis of cataloging data supplied by eligible repositories to the NUCMC program, NUCMC catalogers create MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) bibliographic records in RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network), a national-level database, describing collections held by participants, and establish pertinent name and subject authority headings. Descriptions and locations of the material are then available to researchers on RLIN throughout the United States and around the world.
The annual CONSER Operations Committee meeting, May 1-3, 2002, began with presentations on the _Amendments 2002_ to AACR2. The presentations described the complete revision of chapter 12, new title change rules in chapter 21, and other related rule changes. Most of the meeting focused on the cataloging of electronic resources" A full summary is available. (LCCN Cataloging Newsletter July 2002). Other topics include the PURL Project and the FRBR.
In this workshop you'll learn how to create, validate, syndicate, and view your own RSS news channel. The emphasis will be the practical application of RSS XML/RDF metadata for dynamically publishing:news headlines events listings announcements lists of publication titles press releases interactive directories catalogs project status updates breaking news reviews in-depth features You'll learn how to use RSS channels to keep current with topics of interest. We'll show you how others can incorporate your news into their pages automatically. The workshop will showcase the use of public domain tools and the Metabrowser editor
"This is a reminder to send in your OLAC registration if you have not already done so. Remember that postage rates go up on July 1st, so use up your last stamps on your OLAC registration envelope.
2002 OLAC Conference
The OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers Conference 2002 Local Arrangements and Program Committees invite all OLAC members, A/V and special format catalogers, and others with interest to make plans to attend the 2002 Conference in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The conference will be held Friday-Sunday, September 27th-29th at the Radisson Riverfront Hotel.
Jean Weihs will give the opening keynote address. Charles F. Thomas will give a presentation on IMAGES, a metadata sharing initiative at the University of Minnesota. Sheila Intner will give the closing keynote address. The program committee has put together nine workshops on special format cataloging. For full information, please visit the conference Web site at the URL given below. NACO-AV funnel training and the SCCTP Electronic Serials Cataloging Workshop will be offered on Thursday, 26 September. Both classes are all-day events which will begin at 8 or 9 am. and class size is limited. Please watch the OLAC-List for a separate call for NACO-AV participation. SCCTP registration is now closed.
Conference registration is now open through 30 August 2002 . The registration form is available. Registration fees are $125 for personal members of OLAC, $75 for students, $150 for non-members.
Call for Poster Presentations: Have you developed creative methods to deal with special format materials? Completed some research studies? Found an imaginative solution to a special format materials problem in your library? If so, why not consider sharing your expertise through a poster presentation at the upcoming OLAC conference to be held 27-29 September in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Visit the Conference Web site for full poster session information and an application.
Full conference information, including keynote speaker information, workshop descriptions, local attractions and information, and reception information is available on the conference Web site. As always, please feel free to contact the conference cochairs with any questions you may have.
Bobby Bothmann
bobby@bothmann.org
612-626-1637
Betsy Friesen
b-frie@umn.edu
612-626-4981"
Marc4media is a content-rich cataloging product designed to be the foundation tool for library media programs across North America. Our purpose is to align educational resources to learning tasks using language that encourages access by a wide range of teachers and students. Providing instant access to appropriate learning materials, marc4media is the key to integrating media into all aspects of curriculum development and student research.I'm not endorsing these folks, just pointing to them as one place to explore.
A remote patron cannot check out the book on the shelf and waste a few minutes if it does not suit their requirements. They must either make a trip to the collection or have the item sent to them. Either way it could be a significant investment in time for either the library or the user. Inclusion of a summary note and/or the table of contents would pay for itself if only used once to decide the item was not what was wanted. To serve the distance learning community our records need to be richer and more descriptive.
Later this summer I'll be attending a workshop on distance learning. The place of good cataloging in that context is sure to be an impotant topic. Post a comment if you work with distance students.
The OCLC SiteSearch toolkit provides a comprehensive solution for managing distributed library information resources in a World Wide Web environment. WebZ™ is java-based Z39.50 client/server component used to create an interface to information resources. Database Builder provides the tools to build local databases in various record formats, that can then be accessed through the WebZ interface.
Current Cites 13(6) (June 2002) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright B) 2002 by the Regents of the University of California All rights reserved.
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference systems, individual scholars, and libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their collections at no cost. This message must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires permission from the editor. All product names are trademarks or registered trade marks of their respective holders. Mention of a product in this publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the product. To subscribe to the Current Cites distribution list, send the message "sub cites [your name]" to [50]listserv@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]" with your name. To unsubscribe, send the message "unsub cites" to the same address.
The Librarian's Book Club is a group to read and discuss books that are about libraries and the library profession. Every two months the Librarian's Book Club will select a new book to discuss. All you need to do is get yourself a copy of the current book and subscribe to the discussion list. Click on the book covers to learn more about the current selection. (Note: Although this book club discussion group is focused towards librarians, we welcome members that are not librarians.)Thanks to Blake on LISNews for alerting me to this.
"Colleagues,
I am gratified to report the Web Metadata Standard for Minnesota has been approved by the MN Information Policy Council. This Dublin Core-based standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.85) has been in use by many agencies, beginning with the Foundations Project in 1998. The standard is integrated into the new North Star Portal content management templates, and the state search engine is tuned to use the DC elements in results ranking. It is part of the Enterprise Architecture, along with the GIS metadata standard and the recordkeeping metadata standard.
Located at http://bridges.state.mn.us/bestprac/mn_dc_standard.pdf
Eileen Quam
Information Architect
Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources
eileen.quam@dnr.state.mn.us
651.297.2341
651.297.4946 FAX"
"Large multimedia database systems have great potential for educational use. Their assets can often be used to support educational and research activities in a wide variety of educational contexts, supporting learners and educators from many subject areas. This article focuses on what appears to be a fundamental dilemma for the developers of such systems regarding how to tag or index their assets with metadata so as to support discovery of the assets by these educational users."
"The LearningAccess ILS is a full-feature Open Source library automation system developed for use by small public and school libraries in the U.S. and the rest of the world. The Institute will make this system available free to libraries that, because of cost, have been unable to achieve the benefits of automation.
Main Components
The LearningAccess ILS consists of three modules: the patron or user module (OPAC), the cataloging module and the circulation module. In future releases it may also include an acquisition module. All modules are Web-interface based and are multi-lingual user capable, with our initial release supporting English, Spanish and French.
The system supports the full MARC21 format for bibliographic, holding, authority and community records. It has an intuitive importing program to add records to its database. The cataloging client includes Z39.50 searching capabilities to allow for copy cataloging against OCLC or other larger union databases. Future releases will also support Z39.50 searches against the database."
COPAC is an online union catalogue, hosted at MIMAS, which gives free access to the merged catalogues of 22 of the largest university research libraries in the UK and Ireland. Now that the British Library has become a full member of CURL and the BLPC has been added to COPAC, COPAC users will have free online access, via a single search interface, to more than 20 million catalogue records, which they can search simultaneously by title, author or subject.
The National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru have also become full members of CURL and their records will be available via COPAC within the next twelve months. Meanwhile their catalogues can be searched simultaneously with the COPAC database, which also includes the BLPC, using the experimental version COPAC V3.
More details about the content of the BLPC are available.
More information about CURL and MIMAS can be found on their respective web sites.
Our focus is on the specification of shared interfaces among systems operated by e-Government initiative participants. The current draft calls out five minimum and critical agreements required for interoperability:
There is also a short paragraph noting some requirements applicable to Government participants, such as open and equal public access, permanence of public access, privacy, security, records management, and information management.
Anyone who would like to review the draft or advise on other major principles, please contact me by e-mail to echristi@usgs.gov
(Also, please forward this note to other groups interested in information architecture principles for e-Government.)
Thanks!
Eliot
As an XML schema it is intended to be able to carry selected data from existing MARC 21 records as well as to enable the creation of original resource description records. It includes a subset of MARC fields and uses language-based tags rather than numeric ones, in some cases regrouping elements from the MARC 21 bibliographic format. The elements inherit MARC semantics, so are more compatible with existing library data than other metadata schemes.
MODS could potentially be used as follows:
MODS includes a subset of data from the MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data. As an element set that allows for the representation of data already in MARC-based systems, it is intended to allow for the conversion of core fields from a MARC 21 record, while some specific data may be dropped. As an element set for original resource description, it allows for a simple record to be created, in some cases using more general tags than those available in the MARC record. The Library of Congress has developed transformations to move MARC 21 records from 2709 form to MARCXML to MODS, with the software available from the MARCXML Web site.
There has been wide review and input to the development of the schema, which is now available for trial use. It will remain stable for the next six months, during which we invite comments as a result of experimentation.
For questions or comments please email the Office at ndmso@loc.gov
Sally McCallum, Chief
Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA"
This is very much like MARC in XML with name tags rather than numeric.
The service allows quick and easy access to bibliographic records from the catalogues of the main British Library collections - already available online at http://blpc.bl.uk. In addition to this, the new feature will allow users with suitable retrieval software to download and make use of the Library's bibliographic citations for their own personal research purposes. This should prove of particular use to researchers and students compiling bibliographies for monographs, research reports or theses.
Developed and hosted by MIMAS (Manchester Information and Associated Services) at the University of Manchester, BLPCZ is the latest result of a co-operative alliance between the British Library and CURL (the Consortium of University Research Libraries) which is aimed at providing wider access to the Library's catalogues. "Further details are available.
Nearly a year since the last release, we have a new stable release of koha.
The main new features in this version are:
Main Bugfixes:
There have been numerous little fixes and a lot of code clean up.
The structure of the tarball has changed to a more sensible layout, and the INSTALL document has been rewritten.
There is also now a installer script, as well as a functioning database update script.
All this should mean its the easiest Koha to install or upgrade yet."
Info
Download
Half the respondents (overwhelmingly the largest group) do their authority control manually. Half have brought their MeSH authorities up to date sometime in the last two years, but a third never have. About 70 percent have a mixture in their OPACs of pre-1999, post-1999 and NLM distributed MeSH.
A third of the respondents are using post-1999 MeSH practices in their original cataloging, and almost half are applying post-1999 MeSH practices in their OPACs. The number who would prefer that NLM provide records to bibliographic utilities with post-1999 MeSH nearly equals those who prefer NLM to continue its current practice of providing records with distributed MeSH structure. Thus, respondents appear to be divided on the post-1999 MeSH vs. distributed MeSH structure issue.
The survey also reveals that most vendor systems' global modification functionality are not adequate to convert old records in catalogs to agree with either NLM's current practices (post-1999) or NLM's distributed structure (distributed through utilities like OCLC).
Almost 60 percent enrich OCLC records with NLM classification and MeSH on a regular basis. Almost three-fourths would download MeSH authority records from OCLC if available.
Finally, an unexpectedly large number of comments probably indicate that MeSH authority control is a topic of very high interest to respondents.
For the entire survey results, including graphical displays, please refer to this PDF file, using Adobe Acrobat reader or click the survey link on this webpage
We hope you will enjoy examining the survey results and that you will contact the survey coordinators if you are interested in the work that HSOCLCUG is doing. MeSH authorities, OCLC new directions, changes at NLM, and resource sharing/universal MARC Holdings are four areas of special interest to HSOCLCUG.
The survey coordinators:
Dan Kniesner (kniesner@ohsu.edu) and Judith Dzierba (Judith_L_Dzierba@rush.edu)."
"Patrons can interact with the Millennium system from anywhere accessible by wireless networks, allowing a user to place a hold from a classroom, check due dates and renew items during a long commute, or search the catalog while running errands to find the closest library branch where a desired title is held."
Does the Handheld Librarian know about this one?
DUBLIN, Ohio, June 11, 2002--The Working Group on Preservation Metadata, an initiative jointly sponsored by OCLC and RLG, has released 'A Metadata Framework to Support the Preservation of Digital Objects,' a new report available on the OCLC Web site.
The report is a comprehensive guide to preservation metadata that is applicable to a broad range of digital preservation activities. Preservation metadata is the information infrastructure necessary to support processes associated with the long-term retention of digital resources, and is an essential component of most digital preservation systems.
The report represents the consensus of leading experts and practitioners comprising the working group, and is intended for use by organizations and institutions managing, or planning to manage, the long-term retention of digital resources.
The working group based its work on preservation metadata element sets developed by several leading institutions and organizations in the digital preservation community, as well as the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model. OAIS is a conceptual framework that articulates the primary functional components of a digital archive and establishes concepts and terminology for describing and comparing architectures and data models.
The report follows on the working group's earlier white paper, 'Preservation Metadata for Digital Objects: A Review of the State of the Art,' which defined and discussed the concept of preservation metadata, reviewed current thinking and practice in the use of preservation metadata, and identified starting points for consensus-building activity in this area. The white paper is also available on the OCLC Web site.
"The working group's report illustrates the value of cooperatively resolving the challenges of digital preservation," said Brian Lavoie, research scientist in the OCLC Office of Research. "The most effective solutions for the long-term retention of digital resources are likely to emerge from collaboration within the digital preservation community, pooling the expertise of researchers and practitioners from a variety of institutional and geographical backgrounds. Taken together, these consensus-building efforts will establish the necessary infrastructure, in the form of standards and best practices, to support digital preservation activity."
"For institutions creating and preserving digital objects, this new OCLC/RLG report is a good resource for both preservation metadata and its relationship to the OAIS reference model," said Robin Dale, RLG program officer. "It broadens the digital preservation toolset we've been building, which includes such aids as the RLG/OCLC report on the attributes of trusted digital repositories and RLG's OAIS practitioners' Web page."
"The work of the OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata has been an extremely important effort as libraries and related cultural institutions begin to tackle issues concerning digital preservation," said Rebecca S. Guenther, senior networking and standards specialist, Library of Congress, and working group member. "The working group document takes the OAIS information model closer to the goal of actually implementing archival information systems that document preservation requirements and processes and is particularly relevant to the needs of libraries. This document is an important contribution to the development of preservation metadata standards in information technology, an area where much additional work is needed."
The Working Group on Preservation Metadata is part of a cooperative effort between OCLC and RLG to support consensus-building activity in the development of key infrastructure for digital preservation.
The following changes/improvements were made:
Thanks to FOS for bringing this to my attention.
"VTLS Inc. Announces FRBR Implementation
VIRTUA ILS NOW SUPPORTS FRBR
ALA JUNE 2002
Blacksburg, VA -- Virtua ILS – Integrated Library Systems newest release is currently the only commercially available ILS system in the marketplace to support the IFLA Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR). The FRBR model is the latest development in cataloging practice. It is designed to serve as a conceptual framework for systems that share and use bibliographic data, nationally or internationally. The concept was developed by IFLA with participation from National Libraries like Library of Congress and the National Library of Canada.
Present cataloging practices do not support "linked hierarchic metadata records" making it difficult to catalog certain types of materials. The FRBR model is designed to address this difficulty. The basic FRBR record consists of three entities - work, expression and manifestation. In addition, item records (holding records) can be attached to the manifestation. For example, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony represents a work. It can be independently cataloged. The performance of the symphony by, say, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra represents an "expression" of the work. A CD by Columbia records containing the particular performance represents a "manifestation" of the work. Two copies of the CD in the library represent two "items" of this manifestation.
Using the FRBR model, librarians do not have to re-catalog the entire work again for different performances or for different manifestations of the same performance. Instead, FRBR allows the new performance to be cataloged separately and linked to a previously cataloged "work". This hierarchical parent child relationship in metadata records is the key feature of FRBR. The example above was from music; however the hierarchic relationship can exist in other material types like printed materials with different editions or language versions.
In implementing FRBR, VTLS has created an environment in which records in the FRBR model and records in the traditional cataloging model can co-exist in the same database. Such an implementation allows libraries to ease into the use of the FRBR model without requiring massive record conversions. It is clear that not every metadata record lends itself to FRBR. For example, many records do not have alternative expressions or manifestations. For this reason, Virtua ILS supports classic cataloging of metadata records along with FRBR records in the same database. The software is "FRBR aware" and automatically changes display formats depending on the type of record (FRBR or regular).
With a click of a button, the Virtua software converts a regular record to three records of the FRBR model and attaches all items to the manifestation record. This process can also be performed in a batch mode.
Refinements on the FRBR implementation continue as we receive valuable input from interested parties.
For more information on FRBR please see:
IFLA web site
VTLS web site"
Melville, NY, June 10, 2002 - After years of planning, a group of scientific publishers today formally announced the Scientific and Technical Information Exchange (STIX) font creation project and the launch of the STIX web site. The STIX publishers aim to develop a comprehensive set of fonts for mathematics and other special characters used in Scientific, Technical, and Medical publishing. The web site provides information for potential users within the scientific and publishing communities, and a special area for software developers who may want to incorporate support for the STIX Fonts into their products.
Six publishers - the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Institute of Physics (AIP), the American Mathematical Society (AMS), the American Physical Society (APS), Elsevier Science, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) -- came together to design, fund and manage the STIX project. They have awarded the font development contract to a respected font development company, which has begun the process of designing and delivering nearly eight thousand characters/glyphs. The design submissions of the various character sets are currently being evaluated by a Technical Review Committee consisting of representatives of the six participating publishers.
There is currently a clear need for a new font set for mathematical and other scientific symbols, especially in the area of on-screen display in electronic publishing. Today, scientists must assemble scientific symbols and special characters from a variety of fonts, many of which may vary in character style, positioning, or size. The resulting documents typically have an unsatisfactory, jumbled appearance. Even more importantly, when posted to a web site, these documents may not be properly rendered unless the viewers of the document have all of the same specialized fonts available on the computer workstations they are using. This new set of fonts, known as the STIX Fonts, will solve both of these problems, serving the scientific and engineering community in the process from manuscript creation all the way through to final publication, both in electronic and print formats. It will unify support for all special symbols and alphabets into a single, comprehensive font set.
The STIX fonts will be made available, under royalty-free license, to anyone, including publishers, software developers, scientists, students and the general public. Target for completion of the project is the Fall of 2003.
By making the fonts freely available, the STIX project hopes to encourage the development of applications that make use of these fonts. In particular the STIX project will create a TEX implementation that TEX users can install and configure with minimal effort. TEX is a computer language designed for typesetting, with particular application to mathematics and other technical material.
The STIX mission will be fully realized when:
For more information visit the STIX Fonts web site
For the STIX Fonts project:
T.C. Ingoldsby (Chairman)
American Institute of Physics
2 Huntington Quadrangle, Suite 1NO1
Melville, NY 11747-4502
Phone: +1 516 576 2265
Fax: +1 516 576 2327
Email: tingoldsby@aip.org"
Charge
Network Development and MARC Standards Office Library of Congress
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The following 12 codes have been recently approved for use in MARC 21 records. They include 2 category code source codes, 3 classification scheme source codes, and 6 subject source codes, and 1 name source code. These new codes have been added to the online "MARC Codes Lists for Relators, Sources, Description Conventions" but should not be used in exchange records until after July 30, 2002. This 60-day waiting period is required to provide MARC 21 implementers with time to include newly defined codes in any validation tables they may apply to the MARC fields where these codes are used.
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MARC Category Code Source Codes
Changes:
agricola - AGRICOLA subject category codes (subfield $2 in Bibliographic field 072) [use after 07-30-2002]
fiaf - Classification scheme for literature on film and television (subfield $2 in Bibliographic field 072) [use after 07-30-2002]
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MARC Classification Scheme Sources
Changes:
agricola - AGRICOLA subject category codes (subfield $2 in Bibliographic field 084 and Bibliographic/Holdings field 852)[use after 07-30-2002]
agrissc - AGRIS: subject category codes (subfield $2 in Bibliographic field 084 and Bibliographic/Holdings field 852)[use after 07-30-2002]
fiaf - Classification scheme for literature on film and television (subfield $2 in Bibliographic field 084 and Bibliographic/Holdings field 852)[use after 07-30-2002]
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MARC Term, Name, Title Sources
Changes:
albt - Arbetslivsbibliotekets tesaurus (subfield $2 in Bibliographic and Community Information records in fields 600-651) [use after 07-30-2002]
eclas - ECLAS thesaurus (subfield $2 in Bibliographic and Community Information records in fields 600-651) [use after 07-30-2002]
ncjt - National criminal justice thesaurus (subfield $2 in Bibliographic and Community Information records in fields 600-651) [use after 07-30-2002]
nznb - New Zealand national bibliography (subfield $2 in Bibliographic and Community Information fields 600-651, 655-658 subfield $2 in Authorities fields 700-751 and subfield $f in field 040) [use after 07-30-2002]
prvt - Patent- och registreringsverket tesaurus (subfield $2 in Bibliographic and Community Information records in fields 600-651) [use after 07-30-2002]
sfit - Svenska filminstitutets tesaurus (subfield $2 in Bibliographic and Community Information records in fields 600-651) [use after 07-30-2002]
sot - Schools online thesaurus (subfield $2 in Bibliographic and Community Information records in fields 600-651) [use after 07-30-2002]
ANSI/NISO/ISO 12083 - 1995 Electronic Manuscript Preparation and Markup
Abstract: In complete conformance with ISO 8879 (SGML - Standard Generalized Markup Language), 12083 provides a toolkit for developing customized SGML applications. Four Document Type Definitions are specified for books, serials, articles, and mathematics. Instructions for the preparation of text for the near automatic conversion to grade-2 braille and for publication in large-print and computer voice editions are included.
ANSI/NISO Z39.14 - 1997 Guidelines for Abstracts
Abstract: This standard helps authors and editors prepare useful abstracts by describing the components of an abstract and the appropriate styles and formats. Numerous examples illustrate the instructions presented in the standard and clarify how to handle special cases.
ANSI/NISO Z39.23 - 1997 Standard Technical Report Number Format and Creation
Abstract: Defines a unique numbering system that improves access to the wealth of scientific and technical reports issued by the government and private organizations. The STRN is an alphanumeric code with a maximum length of 34; for international application an optional country code can be added. The standard explains how and where the code should be assigned and used. A central authority to coordinate and monitor assignments of the code is designated.
ANSI/NISO Z39.26 - 1997 Micropublishing Product Information
Abstract: Content guidelines are given for advertising materials used to describe micropublications intended for long-term retention and use. Vendor Note: This standard details the information which publishers should incorporate in advertising materials for micropublications so users will have a full description of the product. This revision now includes a section on guarantees and the publisher's policy on replacement of defective portions of the micropublication.
ANSI/NISO Z39.32 - 1996 Information on Microfiche Headers
Equivalent international standard: ISO 5123
Abstract: Defines the specific eye-legible information that should appear on the limited space available on microfiche so the fiche can be correctly identified and properly filed.The standard describes where to place the data, the order of the information, and a recommended type size and contrast to maximize readability. Many examples show how to use the standard.
ANSI/NISO Z39.41 - 1998 Printed Information on Spines
Abstract: Describes how information is best presented on the spines of books or the containers that contain an information product, such as a CD-ROM, a microform, a disk, videotape or an audiotape. Explains what information to include and how to arrange it for maximum clarity. Using this standard will help your users identify your product and use it!
ANSI/NISO Z39.48 - 1992(R1997) Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives
Equivalent international standard: ISO 9706
Abstract: Publishers and paper manufacturers, take note! This standard sets the basic criteria for coated and uncoated papers that will last several hundred years under normal use. It covers ph value, tear resistance, alkaline reserve and lignin threshold. Recycled papers will meet the criteria specified. This revision to the original 1984 standard is based on testing conducted by the Institute of Paper Science and Technology and contributions from paper makers, publishers, printers, and the preservation community.
The Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards Office announces completion of a schema for MARC 21 records in an XML structure for use in communicating MARC 21 records. This schema was developed in collaboration with OCLC and RLG and reviewed by the National Library of Canada and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), after a survey of schemas in use in various projects. Many schemas have taken the "slim" approach but all vary slightly. This schema will be maintained by the Library of Congress as will software that enables lossless conversion to and from MARC 21 records in the ISO 2709 structure. As illustrated in the introductory information on the web site, the Library of Congress will develop and provide, downloadable from the MARCXML web site, tools for various transformations and for record validations. A single schema serves all the five MARC 21 formats.
By collaboratively developing a communications schema, the Library of Congress encourages the standardization of MARC 21 exchange records in the XML environment, recognizing that MARC 21 records inside systems will continue to use different record configurations, tailored to the characteristics of the system. Provision of the tools for transformations to and from other metadata approaches, such as Dublin Core and the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), will help to standardize derivative metadata records also. (MODS is a new schema for a bibliographic element set that is a subset of MARC expressed in XML with language-based rather than numeric tags.) The tools take the mappings between MARC and other metadata sets, that have been maintained on the MARC web site, to an operational level.
One project interested in a standard, lossless MARCXML schema is the Open Archive Initiative (OAI) which found it necessary to draft a schema in the absence of an official one. The Library of Congress worked with the OAI to provide a transformation from the original oai_marc schema to this one so the Initiative can take advantage of a schema that is maintained by the MARC 21 maintenance agency and in broad use. The transformation is available from the MARCXML web site.
With the slim approach, schema-driven validation is only possible at the highest structural level. The Network Development and MARC Standards Office will therefore maintain downloadable tag, subfield, and value validation software on the web site that will enable users to build validation programs for their needs. Use of these standard validations represent another attempt to assure standardization of records to support effective record interchange.
The Library has maintained two SGML DTDs (for Bibliographic-type and Authority-type records) since 1996, which take a different approach to the data elements in MARC - an approach that enables validation of data through the DTD itself but requires a very large DTD and DTD maintenance. The Bibliographic-type DTD was converted to an XML DTD in 2000. These DTDs have been effectively used by some agencies (including the Library of Congress), primarily for internal processes, therefore transformations between them and the new slim MARCXML schema are being provided. Maintenance techniques and/or possible revision of the XML DTDs are under consideration.
For questions or comments please email the Office at ndmso@loc.gov.
I have some questions on why some of these non-standard practices exist. Why don't the institutions using their own subject headings submit them to SACO? Or at least place them in a 653 field? Why would anyone buy a system that could not access the full MARC record? My system is an inexpensive one for the PC. It is far from perfect, in display there are problems, but I can at least create and edit the full record. Authority records or editing authority records would solve some of the problems. Do some systems not use MARC authority records, or are they too hard to acquire so institutions just don't bother?
"The following message is regarding an article that has been submitted for publication to Library Resources and Technical Services. I would ask that anyone who is a potential reviewer for LRTS read no further.
As you know back in February I posted a message asking for your local practices that break cataloging standards, broadly defined as AACR2, classification systems, encoding standards, etc. The response was overwhelming, 94 original responses came back and I couldn't have been happier.
You'll all be glad to know that I have submitted a draft of an article discussing the results of this survey to Library Resources and Technical Services for publication. The current title is "Breaking the Law: a survey of non-standard cataloging practices."
This research could not have been done without the support and input from Autocat, and I wanted to thank you all. A static working draft of the article is available on my website.
WARNING: Please don't all go visit the site at once, because my ISP only allows a limited amount of data transfer per hour. If you do want to read the article, please bookmark the address above, and visit either in a few days or during an evening hour. I would hate to have you get frustrated by not being able to access the article, and not take the time to read it.
Thank you.
Eric S. Riley Graduate Student (for one more week!)
Information School University of Washington, Seattle"
As the result of East Timor's gaining its independence from Indonesia in May 2002, new country and geographic area codes are being defined for use in MARC records.
The new codes for East Timor are:
em (Country code)
a-em (Geographic area code)
The Netherlands Antilles is an internally self-governing and integral part of the Netherlands. It consists of the islands of Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Saint Eustatius and the southern half of the island of Saint Martin. Aruba was part of the Netherlands Antilles until it seceded in 1986 to become a separate, autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Therefore, a new geographic area code is being defined for Aruba. Moreover, because all of the separate islands of the Netherlands Antilles have their geographic area codes, a geographic area code is being defined for Bonaire for use in MARC records.
The new code for Aruba is:
nwaw (Geographic area code)
The new code for Bonaire is:
nwbn (Geographic area code)
Subscribers can anticipate receiving MARC records reflecting these changes in all distribution services not earlier than September 3, 2002. Questions regarding the country and geographic area codes should be directed to:
Cataloging Policy and Support Office
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540-4305
(202) 707-4380
INTERNET: cpso@loc.gov
June 3, 2002
"The EDUCAUSE Taxonomy, a hierarchical subject listing of over 450 terms, helps you more easily explore topics and find specific documents in the association’s extensive collection of online information resources. The EDUCAUSE taxonomy is applied to all information resources library documents, EDUCAUSE publications, Effective Practices and Solutions, and EDUCAUSE conference sessions."
Personal RSS Aggregators by Jon Udell describes many of the programs to use with RSS feeds.
If you have a site providing an RSS feed you can provide a link tag to alert news readers that there is an RSS feed. This effort is being led by Mark Pilgrim.
"The purpose of this mysterious device is the conversion of text files (be they pasted from your clipboard or Stripped by this very engine from the URL you provide) from their ASCII state into a .pdb file which can be read on your palm-top computer (e.g. a Palm Pilot, Visor, one of those crazy PDA-cellphone thingies, a Psion, a Jornada, etc., etc., ad infinitum.) By the glory and miracle of science, the letters of your text doc are whisked through the motivator, into the grinder and then ejected from the vaporisor to the Vagrant's Library where the finished product is stored for download and use."
Thanks to Matthew Eberle at Library Techlog for pointing this out to me.
"The course is designed for members of the library community who do not have formal library training. It will help you understand the basic processes of technical services and cataloging."
It will be discussed in a meeting of the MARC Advisory Committee on June 15-16, 2002 in Atlanta.
A draft agenda for that meeting is available
"Object ID is an international standard for describing cultural objects. It has been developed through the collaboration of the museum community, police and customs agencies, the art trade, insurance industry, and valuers of art and antiques.
The Object ID project was initiated by the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1993 and the standard was launched in 1997. It is being promoted by major law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Scotland Yard and Interpol; museum, cultural heritage, art trade and art appraisal organisations; and insurance companies.
Having established the descriptive standard, the Object ID project now helps to combat art theft by encouraging use of the standard and by bringing together organisations around the world that can encourage its implementation."
"ICONCLASS is a subject specific international classification system for iconographic research and the documentation of images. It was developed by Henri van de Waal (1910-1972), Professor of Art History at the University of Leiden, and completed by his staff. ICONCLASS is a collection of ready-made definitions of objects, persons, events, situations and abstract ideas that can be the subject of an image. ICONCLASS organizes iconography into 10 'main divisions' in which the definitions are ordered hierarchically."
"MarcXGen extracts URLs from MARC 21 bibliographic records and generates HTML code to create a single web page of hyperlinks that can be used with third party Link Checking software such as LinkBot and Xenu's Link Sleuth. With Version 2, MarcXGen also creates separate files of delimited data that may be used to build a relational database environment that may simplify some maintenance tasks associated with bad or problem URLs in library database records."
A document entitled Guide to Migration that explains current plans is located on the OCLC Web sits.
"I am a student from the University of Salzburg, Austria and I developed coins and banknotes templates under DC for my PHD thesis. Libraries, archives or a coin dealer could use any of these templates which are launched with the cooperation with the REGNET Project. (REGNET-Projet under the search engine google.de) Dr. Koch from Graz www.cscaustria.at launched it.
I am the person who created the templates for the coin note short CN-Collector.
If you are interested in that program please contact me and then you could start to try these out. My goal for the PHD is to get a database, where all the people can create the on catalog online. Right now I write a handbook for the templates to get good entries.
Thank you
Alexander H.T. Schultheis
E-Mail: ahtschultheis@hotmail.com"
Digital Libraries- Metadata As If Libraries Depended on It
Digital Libraries- The Importance of Being Granular
Digital Libraries- The Consequences of Cataloging
I like his definition "cataloging by those paid better than librarians."
Through the efforts of several people, we now have a draft Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file for the GILS search service, available for review.
This draft only defines GILS search using "HTTP Get", following the extended ZURL. The search response message follows the definition given. (BTW, these definitions align with the ZX client from Dave Vieglais.)
Future discussions of GILS as a Web Service will be conducted mostly on the GILS Version 3 Discussion List. Subscribe to the GILS V3 list.
"The current version of YAZ includes experimental support for the industry standard ZOOM API for Z39.50. This API vastly simplifies the process of writing new clients using YAZ, and it reduces your dependency on any single toolkit. Future versions of YAZ may include support for other emerging IR protocols through the same interface."
"The Categories describe the content of art databases by articulating a conceptual framework for describing and accessing information about objects and images. They identify vocabulary resources and descriptive practices that will make information residing in diverse systems both more compatible and more accessible. They also provide a framework to which existing art information systems can be mapped and upon which new systems can be developed."
I've had the pleasure of hearing Murtha Baca speak at the ALCTS Metadata and AACR2 Institute. If you get the opportunity to hear her talk about what the Getty is doing, it is well worth the time.
The following papers are now available:
Proposal No. 2002-12: Coding for Publication Pattern at the First Level of Enumeration in MARC 21 Holdings Records
Proposal No. 2002-13: Changes for Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST) Subject Headings Changes in Field 008 in the MARC 21 Holdings Format
Proposal No. 2002-14: Proposal No. 2002-14: Changes for UKMARC Format Alignment
Proposal No. 2002-15: Defining field 065 (Other Classification Number) in the MARC 21 Authority Format
The Semantic Web and Libraries by Art is "a column I am working on for InsideOLITA and would welcome any and all feedback."
"The EOR toolkit is a collection of extensible Java classes and services which serve as a code base, demonstrating by example functions and services common to RDF applications, i.e., metadata capture, search engines, etc.. The current release provides services designed to validate RDF, build and search RDF triple stores (HTTP and Java API) and render RDF data using XSLT."
The latest issue of Information Technologies & Libraries (2002), v. 21, no. 1 pp. 27-31 has an article on the toolkit. "The EOR Toolkit: An Open Source Solution for RDF Metadata" by Harry R. Wagner.
"The new version has been released. The file can be downloaded PhpMyLibrary-1.0.4b here! This is a version that have a Holdings and Cataloging Modules Added. The recent module only consisted of WebPAC module and Record Import module, now you can make your own catalog entry, put an accession to it, and you're done. Your new book or material are ready for browsing online."
"California regional and city geographic cutter numbers (G4362 and G4364) have been updated by Traci Penrod of the Earth Sciences and Map Library and the University of California, Berkeley. These lists are on the web:
Region Cutters
City Cutters"
