This 'Blog

I've increased, slightly, the space between lines. I think it makes the postings a bit easier on the eyes. If this causes anyone problems, please let me know.

Friend-of-a-Friend

A new application of RDF is to link people together, know as Friend-of-a-Friend (FOAF). An introduction is Finding friends with XML and RDF

Explores an XML and RDF application known as Friend-of-a-Friend (FOAF). FOAF allows the expression of personal information and relationships, and is a useful building block for creating information systems that support online communities. Code samples demonstrate the basics.

A tool for creating a FOAF file is the FOAF-a-matic

The FOAF-a-matic is being provided as a quick and easy way for you to create your own FOAF description. Simply work through the forms on this page and complete whichever entries you'd like to add to your description. At a minimum you'll need to supply your name and email address, and similarly for any friends you might add.

A technical description is FOAF: the 'friend of a friend' vocabulary

This is the FOAF namespace document. It describes the FOAF vocabulary, and the terms (RDF classes and properties) that constitute it. As such, it is a Semantic Web vocabulary or 'ontology'.

Interesting. Anyone using it?

Holiday

Thursday is a holiday here in the U.S., Thanksgiving. So there will be no posts after today until Monday.

ALA

If you are a member of ALA consider voting for Jessamyn West of Librarian.net Based on her 'blog, she would get my vote, if I was a member (I'm in SLA).

21st Century Librarian Award

For the third year, the students of Syracuse University School of Information Studies are pleased to announce the 21st Century Librarian Award. This year, a second award, the 21st Century New Librarian Award will recognize a librarian in his/her first three years post-MLS.

Poll

I've discontinued the "Is MARC Dead?" poll. The voting tool was generating pop-up and pop-under ads. I could live with an ad on the result page, but that was too much. In case anyone is interested, there were 17 votes. One thought MARC was dead, 16 did not.

If you know of a decent voting/polling application please let me know.

Privacy

Due to a message on AUTOCAT and a listing in the Librarians Index to the Internet several more people have subscribed to recieve this 'blog on e-mail. Those who have subscribed to receive items from this 'blog by e-mail should be aware:

Blog owners will be able to view the list of their subscribers. On the flip side, if subscribers want their email address hidden from view, they can set their account to "private" in their Profile section. In fact, this option is in place now, if you want to use it.

You can rest assured I'll not pass your addresses on to any third party or send you spam. I'm curious as to who is a subscriber, so I will take a peek some time. This applies to any 'blog you have subscribed to using Bloglet.

Personal Names

Folks doing NACO work might find interesting the article "Spanish personal name variations in national and international biomedical databases: implications for information retrieval and bibliometric studies" by R. Ruiz-Pérez, E. Delgado López-Cózar, and E. Jiménez-Contreras in the latest issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association.

The study sought to investigate how Spanish names are handled by national and international databases and to identify mistakes that can undermine the usefulness of these databases for locating and retrieving works by Spanish authors.

Open Archives Initative

Arc is the first federated search service based on the OAI-PMH protocol. It includes a harvester which can harvests OAI-PMH 1.x and OAI-PMH 2.0 compliant repositories, a basic search engine which is based on database and an OAI-PMH. Now available for download.

Z39.50

The ZING Initiative (Z39.50 International Next Generation), under the auspices of the Z39.50 Maintenance Agency at the Library of Congress, is pleased to announce Version 1.0 of SRW and CQL.

SRW ("Search/Retrieve for the Web") is a web-service-based protocol which aims to integrate access across networked resources, and to promote interoperability between distributed databases by providing a common platform. The underpinnings of the protocol are formed by bringing together more than 20 years experience from the collective implementers of the Z39.50 protocol with recent developments in the web-technologies arena. SRW features both SOAP and URL-based access mechanisms (SRW and SRU respectively) to provide for a wide range of possible clients. It uses CQL, the Common Query Language, which provides a powerful yet intuitive means of formulating searches. The protocol mandates the use of open and industry-supported standards XML and XML Schema, and where appropriate, Xpath and SOAP.

The SRW Initiative recognizes the importance of Z39.50 (as currently defined and deployed) for business communication, and focuses on getting information to the user. SRW provides semantics for searching databases containing metadata and objects, both text and non-text. Building on Z39.50 semantics enables the creation of gateways to existing Z39.50 systems while reducing the barriers to new information providers, allowing them to make their resources available via a standard search and retrieve service.

SRW, SRU, and CQL have been developed by an international team, minimizing cross-language pitfalls and other potential internationalization problems. Participants include:

Theo van Veen, Koninlijke Bibliotheek
Mike Taylor, independent consultant
Pat Stevens, OCLC
Rob Sanderson, Liverpool University
Ralph LeVan, OCLC
Allan Kent, RMIT University
Ian Ibbotson, Knowledge Integration
Poul Henrik Jorgensen, Portia
Sebastian Hammer, IndexData
Janifer Gatenby, PICA
Matthew J. Dovey, Oxford University
Larry Dixson, Library of Congress
Adam Dickmeiss, Index Data
Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress

The ZING, SRW, and CQL home pages
The Z39.50 Maintenance Agency home page.

The SRW and CQL version 1.0 specifications will remain stable for a six- to nine-month implementation-experience period. During this period developers are encouraged to implement the specification (see the implementors page), join the list of implementors, participate in interoperability testing, and help develop the next version, 1.1. Please direct questions, comments, and suggestions to z3950@loc.gov. Please feel free to forward this announcement to other lists as appropriate.

Lawyers for Libraries

Lawyers for Libraries, an ongoing project of the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom, is designed to create a network of attorneys around the country involved in, or committed to becoming involved in, the defense of the First Amendment freedom to read and the application of constitutional law to library policies, principles, and problems.

The first two training institutes were held in 1997 and 1998 and proved very successful. Beginning in 2003, we will be sponsoring regional training institutes to ensure that libraries throughout the United States will have access to effective representation when dealing with First Amendment issues.

Pass this on to the attorney in your life.

EFF Pioneer Awards

The Twelfth Annual International EFF Pioneer Awards - Call for Nominations
In every field of human endeavor, there are those dedicated to expanding knowledge, freedom, efficiency, and utility. Many of today's brightest innovators are working along the electronic frontier. To recognize these leaders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation established the Pioneer Awards for deserving individuals and organizations. The Pioneer Awards are international and nominations are open to all. The deadline for nominations this year is Feb. 1, 2003 (see nomination criteria and instructions below).

How to Nominate Someone
You may send as many nominations as you wish, but please use one e-mail per nomination. You may submit your entries to us via e-mail to: "pioneer at eff.org" Just tell us:

1. The name of the nominee
2. The phone number or e-mail address at which the nominee can be reached; and, most importantly
3. Why you feel the nominee deserves the award.

You may attach supporting documentation as RTF files, Microsoft Word documents, or other common binary formats, or as plain text. Individuals, or representatives of organizations, receiving an EFF Pioneer Award will be invited to attend the ceremony at the Foundation's expense.

Nominee Criteria
There are no specific categories for the EFF Pioneer Awards, but the following guidelines apply:

1. The nominees must have made a substantial contribution to the health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based communications.
2. The contribution may be technical, social, economic, or cultural.
3. Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in the private or public sectors.
4. Nominations are open to all (other than EFF staff & board and this year's award judges), and you may nominate more than one recipient. You may nominate yourself or your organization.
5. All nominations, to be valid, must contain your reasons, however brief, for nominating the individual or organization, along with a means of contacting the nominee (or heirs, if posthumous), and your own contact number. Anonymous nominations will be allowed, but we prefer to be able to contact the nominating parties in the event that we need further information.

The 2003 Awards
The 12th annual EFF Pioneer Awards will be presented in New York, NY, in conjunction with the 13th Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP2003). All nominations will be reviewed by a panel of judges chosen for their knowledge of the technical, legal, and social issues associated with information technology.

Links:
Pioneer Awards webpage

CFP site

Lets have plenty of libraries and librarians get nominated.