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
Friday, July 05, 2002
MARC Edit
Copyright and Open Source
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.
Metadata
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.
Open Source ILS
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
Wednesday, July 03, 2002
Not Cataloging
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'.
OAI, MARC & Z39.50
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.
Tuesday, July 02, 2002
XML
Archives
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.
CONSER
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.