Papers

A useful resource mentioned on ERIL-L is PapersINVITED.com.

PapersINVITED.com was conceived and developed to assist those numerous scientists, professors and student researchers who have had a difficult time in tracking Calls for Papers from professional bodies, universities, journal editors and other conference organizers.

PapersINVITED.com brings an exhaustive list of Calls for Papers in all areas of specialization to your fingertips.

Standards

Open standards and software for bibliographies and cataloging by Bruce D'Arcus and John J. Lee is a very nice compilation. Worth bookmarking.

This list provides a quick overview of the landscape of open-source bibliographic software; both where is has been, but more importantly, where it may yet go.

Currently, the emphasis is on the needs of individuals and small groups rather than libraries, but given the growing overlap in the interests of these groups, the list is likely to expand to some extent to cover more library software.

Seen at oss4lib

Public Libraries

While on vacation I stopped into the Hyannis Public Library. It was a busy place. The reference staff were answering questions, a student and tutor were studying for an exam, people were checking out books, reading magazines and using the public access computers. It was a rainy day, so it may have been busier then normal, but it seemed to be a lively vital part of the town.

Trees

I had a wonderful vacation in Mass. last week. I did find the number of dead, or apparently dead, trees appalling. All along Rt. 128 and the Mass Pike it seems all the birch trees have died. Many of the evergreens are dead or very distressed.

I thought this might be the effect of acid rain. I was told that it was due to the severe winter and late spring. Very disturbing. I hope it was the weather, which might be a one-time thing. Acid rain would continue until we change our ways. Any folks up there able to give the real info on this devastation?

Recent Reading

I had a chance to read Reinventing Comics while on vacation. An excellent discussion of possible futures for the medium, especially the section on digital creation, distribution and the next wave. The idea that digital separates the form from the nature of the art form is intriguing. What is the nature comic book that exists apart from ink on paper? Implications for more than just comics.

Cards

Remembrance of Catalog Cards Past by Laureen Riedesel appears in the Nebraska Library Quarterly v. 33. no 4. (Winter 2002) p. 17-19. An informative as well as fond look back at the use of cards. Mentioned at Thinking While Typing.

Dublin Core

Registration is open for the 2003 Dublin Core Conference to be held in Seattle, WA, Sept. 28 - Oct. 2. The conference will provide participants with a forum for intensive interaction with researchers, practitioners and decision makers concerned with advances in metadata for resource discovery, retrieval, management and use. The DC-2003 Conference theme "Supporting Communities of Discourse and Practice: Metadata Research & Applications" provides a framework in which researchers can share inquiries, research methodologies, and results from their latest studies and in which system implementers can share application developments and display their tools through the DC-Lab. The scope of matters addressed by the contributed papers is not confined to the Dublin Core metadata element set but extends across all metadata schemas and application domains.

CIPA

Where is the report "Filtering Software: the Religious Connection" by Nancy Willard? It would be important for many libraries to have access to it, given recent events. Library Journal has a summary available. However, all the links I find no longer work.

I'm not in a public library, so I have not followed the minute details of CIPA, but I'm wondering if the Content Advisor in IE would count as a filter. It would be more under local control than off-the-shelf packages. It would be a lot of work, but if consortium pulled together, it might work. Just a thought.

UPDATE Greg Weller posted a comment about an available copy. I'm copying this to the 'blog so that folks using the RSS or e-mail delivery options can have the link. Thanks Greg.

Thesauri

The Working Group on Multilingual Thesauri, of the Classification and Indexing Section of IFLA has issued a progress report on Guidelines for Multilingual Thesauri.

The guidelines would deal with building multilingual thesauri from scratch or by merging of existing thesauri and with linking of existing thesauri. With linking the result is not a new (multilingual) thesaurus, but the possibility to use one of the linked thesauri to search in databases indexed with any of the linked thesauri.

Another important result of the considerations is that both thesauri with the same structure of relations between the descriptors for all relevant languages and thesauri with a different structure of relations are considered.

The result of the meetings is a detailed outline of the guidelines with many examples, based on the existing guidelines and on a draft for (monolingual) guidelines for information languages.

Classification

The Working Group on Subject Access to Web resources of the Classification and Indexing Section of IFLA has a progress report on Subject Access Approaches used by Digital Collections and Information Directories. They are looking for volunteers to help with their work in different languages and countries.

The Working Group on Subject Access works under the Section on Classification and Indexing. In order to monitor trends in the provision of subject access to electronic documents on the Web, the group is working on a database about subject access approaches used by digital collections and web-based information directories and portals.

SOAP 1.2

World Wide Web Consortium Issues SOAP Version 1.2 as a W3C Recommendation. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today releases the SOAP Version 1.2 Recommendation, consisting of the SOAP Version 1.2 Primer, the SOAP Version 1.2 Messaging Framework, SOAP Version 1.2 Adjuncts, and the SOAP Version 1.2 Specification Assertions and Test Collection. SOAP Version 1.2 is a lightweight protocol intended for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment such as the Web.

MARC Records

The LM-Net folks have compiled a list of places to download records that includes directions and comments . If you lack a Z39.50 client or access to a utility, this could be useful.

OCLC

This rather strange feature of OCLC was just pointed out to me by Ian Fairclough. How would anyone use it? Pass the time by watching the records flip by? Maybe it could become a Web service and someone could think of a use. Interesting.

MyLibrary

A new version of MyLibrary is now available. "The most important changes for this version are the addition of LDAP authentication and an Add2MyLibrary functionality." Seen on several sites.

Access Keys

A List Apart (the other ALA) has a very useful article on the use of access keys in XHTML, "Unlocking Hidden Navigation" by Stuart Robinson. This can be a major step in providing access to our sites to those who cannot use a mouse.

Accesskeys make it easier for people to navigate your website without a mouse. We’ll show you how to clearly but unobtrusively let visitors know which accesskeys correspond with the links on a page.

New Poll

I had fun with the poll on field 024, so here is another. IFLA is discussing if records should have multiple GMD's and where they belong. Off to the right is a place to vote on your preference on where to place the GMD. This will not influence anything, it is just for fun.

The issue of multiple GMD's seems dead except for an item that falls in several types of material categories. (Text. Electronic resource) or (Cartographic material. Microform) for example, may be found acceptable. However, (Text & Electronic resource) for an item issued in multiple formats seems to DOA.

Field 024

Here are the results of the poll on field 024:

I Do Use It 67 %
No Scanner 11 %
Not Useful 6 %
What Is It 17 %

OpenURL

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has released The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services standard (version 1.0) for a trial use period ending November 1, 2003. The OpenURL standard allows a user who has retrieved an information resource citation to obtain immediate access to the most "appropriate" copy of the full resource through the implementation of extended linking services. The selection of the best source for the full resource is based on the user's and the organization's preferences related to location, cost, contractual or license agreements in place with information suppliers, etc. - all done transparently to the user. The transparency is accomplished by storing context sensitive metadata with the "OpenURL" link from the source citation, and linking it to a "resolver" server where the preference information and links to the source material are stored.

Grants

Might be of help to some libraries.

SERCH GRANT PROGRAM

South Carolina-based Broker/Facilitator SERCH (Southeast Regional Clearinghouse) is part of NASA’s Office of Space Science (OSS) education and public outreach (E/PO). Every year SERCH dedicates money from its budget to support worthwhile E/PO initiatives. They are particularly interested in proposals for E/PO efforts that establish lasting partnerships between space science and education communities that support the education mission of OSS. As we speak, SERCH is accepting funding opportunities for its 2003 mini-grants. The mini-grants are awarded for a period of one year in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. SERCH encourages those interested to submit a proposal for funding by completing the online letter of intent. Award notifications are sent out in July and the anticipated start date for a funded project is August 1. The OSS-funded SERCH program not only promotes space science awareness, but also aims to enhance interest in math and technology through the use of NASA’s OSS mission data and educational products.

And another one.

SCIENTIST -- TEACHER COOPERATION AWARDS

The LPI Broker/Facilitator team is pleased to announce the continuation of the availability of these gifts for scientist-teacher cooperation. In an effort to increase scientist participation in educational outreach, we are offering up to $300 for materials and supplies for projects involving scientist-teacher partnerships. Proposals will consist of a one- to two-page letter signed by both scientist and teacher. The awards are intended to be available to all scientists performing research supported by NASA’s Office of Space Science (OSS), including OSS-funded Principal Investigators and their Co-Investigators, technical support staff, and graduate students. Proposals will be considered year-round, but monies will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis until available monies are exhausted. Within a few weeks of submission, a Co-Investigator of the Broker/Facilitator team will review each of the proposals. Only one award is allowable each fiscal year to each scientist and teacher. In the event that available monies run out before the end of the fiscal year, all subsequent submissions will be given the option of being considered for an award for the next fiscal year without resubmission. Upon completion of the project, the scientist-teacher team will be required to write a short summary that includes an evaluation of the project’s impact and its potential for use by others. For questions or other information about the program, please e-mail an inquiry to outreach@lpi.usra.edu.

Thesaurus

The Australian Geoscience, Minerals and Petroleum Thesaurus has been renamed the Geoscience, Minerals and Petroleum Thesaurus (GeMPeT). The first print edition is available now. The electronic version will be available in August 2003.

XML

W3C has released an XML Presentation Syntax for OWL (Web Ontology Language). "It is not intended to be a normative specification. Instead, it represents a suggestion of one possible XML presentation syntax for OWL." Seen on Column Two.

Administrative Metadata

A Web Hub for Developing Administrative Metadata for Electronic Resource Management is a great place to begin research on this topic.

FRBR Tool

LC has relased a FRBR Dispaly tool.

In 2001, the Network Development and MARC Standards Office released the publication, "Displays for Multiple Versions from MARC 21 and FRBR," which outlined how the FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) model can be used to cluster bibliographic records in more meaningful displays to assist users in selecting items from bibliographic collections. It contained several hierarchical display examples of bibliographic data using the FRBR model.

The FRBR Display Tool takes the work done in "Displays for Multiple Versions from MARC 21 and FRBR" one step further. It transforms the bibliographic data found in MARC record files into meaningful displays by grouping the bibliographic data into the "Work," "Expression" and "Manifestation" FRBR concepts.

Dewey Classification

The June 2003 release of WebDewey includes all the content in the new DDC 22.

Notable changes in Edition 22 include major updates to:

• 004-006 Data processing Computer science
• The second of a two-phase update to reduce Christian bias in 200 Religion
• 301-307 Sociology & anthropology
• 340 Law
• 510 Mathematics
• 540 Chemistry
• 610 Medicine & health
• 900 History & geography
• Selected changes to Tables 1 through 6, including and the renaming of Table 5 from "Racial, Ethnic, and National Groups" to "Ethnic and National Groups"
• Replacement of Table 7 (Groups of Persons) with direct use of notation already available in the schedules and in notation 08 from Table 1
• Streamlining of the Manual
• And a number of additional updates made throughout the schedules

Perl4Lib

The Perl4Lib discussion list has a new home at Perl.org. The archives can be read via the web.

If you like reading your lists as newsgroups you now can.

And, if you want to get perl4lib as an RSS feed it is available. (Another one for you, Steven)

Classification

The Library of Congress Classification schedules have traditionally used parentheses around certain class numbers to indicate one of two conditions:

1. the number was formerly valid but is now obsolete and no longer used by LC, or
2. the number is an optional number that was never used by LC but is provided for those libraries that wish to follow an arrangement that differs from LC practice.

In either case, a see reference or explanatory note generally appears at the location of the parenthesized number to indicate to the user the valid number currently used by LC.

The Library has introduced a change in the display conventions for these two types of numbers. Numbers of the first type continue to be displayed in parentheses, but numbers of the second type are now displayed in angle brackets. See references or explanatory notes continue to appear under both types of numbers. This change in displays has already been implemented in Classification Web. It will also appear in new printed editions of the classification schedules dated 2003 or later.

Examples of numbers that were formerly parenthesized but now appear in angle brackets are at JZ5528 , KF175, and PS8001-8599.