Thesauri

Here is an interesting thesauri, the Australian Pictorial Thesaurus.

The purpose of the Australian Pictorial Thesaurus is to provide Australian terms for indexing Australian pictorial and object collections and a controlled vocabulary for searching across image databases on the Internet. It is intended that the APT will become a national standard for describing pictorial materials.

Texas Libraries

School Library Journal has noticed what is happening here in Texas.

Faced with severe budget cuts, the Texas Education Agency recently laid off more than 200 employees and forced Mary Lankford, the director of library services and winner of the 2002 Grolier Award, into retirement.

....

It isn't over yet: Ratcliffe says more cuts are expected. The last big layoffs took place in 1995, when the agency - which sets standards for all K–12 schools statewide - was forced to slash its staff by 22 percent. "This tells us that not only are librarians unimportant, but education is way down on the list, too," Lankford says.

Yet, Governor Perry keeps calling special sessions to gerrymander the congressional districts. Each of these attempts at party politics wastes money that should have gone to our schools.

Thesauri

NBII Biocomplexity Thesaurus is merger of five existing thesauri. It would be interesting to find the details of just how they were merged. Lets hope a paper or conference presentation becomes available.

Jessica L. Milstead is the primary architect of the Biocomplexity Thesaurus. She is one of the foremost experts in the world on thesaurus development for the biological and natural sciences. She holds a doctorate in library science and is the founder of the index and thesaurus development company, JELEM.

To create the Biocomplexity Thesaurus, Dr. Milstead merged, vetted, and reconciled the terminology in five large existing thesauri plus one smaller specialty thesaurus collectively covering the biological, environmental, aquatic, ecotourism, and sociological sciences. Press Release

Thanks to Owen Massey for bring this to my attention.

IFLA

IFLA - CDNL Alliance for Bibliographic Standards (ICABS)

A new alliance between IFLA and national libraries was established in August 2003 to continue and expand the coordination work formerly done by the IFLA UBCIM and UDT Core Programme Offices.

An example of their plans are:

Goal

1. Maintain, promote, and harmonize existing standards and concepts related to bibliographic and resource control

Actions

1.1 ISBD maintenance and development
Support the work of the IFLA Cataloguing Section’s ISBD Review Group in developing and maintaining the International Standards for Bibliographic Description. Encourage the harmonization of national practices to follow these standards. Promote the results of the ISBD revisions.
Responsible partner: Die Deutsche Bibliothek

1.2 FRBR maintenance and development
Support the work of the IFLA Cataloguing Section’s FRBR Review Group in developing and maintaining the conceptual model and related guidelines for the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR). Promote the use of this model.
Responsible partner: British Library

1.3 FRANAR project
Support the IFLA Division IV Working Group on Functional Requirements of Authority Numbering and Records (FRANAR). Promote the use of this model for authority control.
Responsible partner: British Library

1.4 UNIMARC
Promote the development and use of UNIMARC.
Responsible partner: Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal

1.5 MARC 21
Promote the development and use of MARC 21 and its XML derivatives.
Responsible partner: Library of Congress

1.6 Z39.50 and Z39.50-International: Next Generation (ZING)
Promote the application and use of Z39.50. Cooperate with Z39.50 implementors to continue development of ZING, and notably its XML-based Search/Retrieve Web Services (SRW) in order to evolve next generation implementations of Z39.50.
Responsible partner: Library of Congress

Classification

Another classification scheme, this one from the University of London. Seen on librarian.net.

Classification Scheme

Action – Orientation – Word – Image, these four categories featuring on the Library page and in the navigation bars of the links section correspond to the main divisions of the Warburg Institute Library.

This unusual arrangement embodies the aim of the Library: to study the survival and transformation of ancient patterns in social customs and political institutions (Action); the gradual transition, in Western thought, from magical beliefs to religion, science and philosophy (Orientation); the persistence of motifs and forms in Western languages and literatures (Word) and the tenacity of symbols and images in European art and architecture (Image).

This order does not entirely correspond to the present disposition of the Library at its current location in Woburn Square. The uneven growth of the collections have forced us to move the sections on Magic and Science to the fourth floor – thus breaking the sequence Magic – Science – Religion. Similarly the sections on Pre–Classical and Modern Art are housed in the Institute basement for mere reasons of space.

The present virtual version of the Library circumvents these problems by presenting the subject index as four uninterrupted thematic sequences connected to the online catalogue of the School of Advanced Studies.

OLAC Newsletter

The Sept. issue of the OLAC Newsletter is now available. Contents include:

• FROM THE EDITOR
• FROM THE PRESIDENT
• OLAC EXECUTIVE BOARD, 2003-2004
• TREASURER'S REPORT
• OLAC MEETING MINUTES
  • CATALOGING POLICY COMMITTEE
  • EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
  • MEMBERSHIP MEETING
• FROM THE IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT, OR, ONE PERSON’S ALA TRIP REPORT
• CALL FOR CANDIDATES
• OUTREACH/ADVOCACY COORDINATOR'S REPORT
• CONFERENCE REPORTS
  • MEDIA RESOURCES COMMITTEE
  • MARBI
  • CC:DA
  • AMIA CATALOGING COMMITTEE
• LIAISON REPORTS
  • NEWS FROM OCLC
  • OCLC MEMBER'S COUNCIL REPORT
• THE NANCY B. OLSON AWARD
  • 2003 WINNER
  • CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
• NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
• BOOK REVIEWS
• EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW
• IN MEMORIAM

Have I ever mentioned how inexpensive it is be part of this exceptional organization?

Moving Image Collections Directory

If your institution has a collection of moving images, contribute your listing to the directory.

The directory plays a very important role in Moving Image Collections. It will be used to guide users in locating appropriate collections to search or visit. It will provide information about organizations along with materials discovered through the union catalog search. It will also generate dynamic web pages for each organization.

It will also provide detailed information about preservation and cataloging practices that will be used to further collaboration, mentoring and research within the community.

The directory form takes about an hour to complete. You will probably want to print the directory form and research some questions in advance. Below are guidelines to assist you in completing the directory. Thank you for your support for this very important project!

Papers

A couple of papers that sound interesting in the latest The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances

• Centralized cataloging and processing for public library consortia by Frances F Stumpf
• What's in a name: associated costs or authority work for artists' names by Kent C Boese

FCC

Drop a note to the FCC asking to stop the consolidation of media outlets.

On June 2, the Federal Communications Commission lifted restrictions on media ownership that allowed big media companies to get much bigger. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Americans have contacted Congress to oppose media monopoly. But big media lobbyists are also hard at work -- they know that if the FCC's new rules stand, it could mean that the conglomerates they work for will gain greater control our access to news and entertainment. We need to fight back. That's why we're telling Congress:

"Congress should roll back the entire FCC rule change and work to make the media diverse, competitive, balanced, and fair."

Intellectual Property

Help Broaden the World IP Debate

The cost of software, availability of medicine and production of valuable scientific knowledge are, in large part, determined by the policies of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Today, WIPO focuses on restrictive intellectual property regimes, but it doesn't have to be that way tomorrow. WIPO is holding a budget meeting in Geneva from September 8-10, where it will decide whether or not to schedule increased discussions of open and collaborative development models (OCDM). OCDM includes open source software like Linux and collaborative scientific endeavors like the Human Genome Project - valuable initiatives that benefit the public. WIPO expressed support for such a discussion, but backed off when the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) warned it away. Tell the USPTO to reconsider its misguided stance and support public information goods throughout the world.

TX Libraries

A new report shows:

Texas’ public libraries, when treated as a whole, have traditionally performed poorly in comparison to most other states in terms of standard measures of inputs (funding, collection, staffing) and outputs (circulation, library visits, etc.). Many factors contribute to this state of affairs; however, the consultants believe that inadequate funding levels and ineffective governance structures contribute most significantly to the problem.

Yet the major issue for Rick Perry and Tom Delay is gerrymandering.

OAI & RSS

my.OAI, a full-featured search engine to a selected list of metadata databases from the Open Archives Initiative project has added support for download search results in RSS format. Seen on Open Access News.

myPubMed also has that ability.

ISBN Checkers

Owen Massey brought another ISBN checker to my attention, with several additional features.

• Checks and corrects the check digit of ISBNs, ISSNs, ISMNs and 13-digit EANs, or if the check digit is not supplied, calculates the required check digit.
• Hyphenates correctly most ISBNs and all ISMNs and ISSNs.
• If the EAN (commercial barcode) is for a book, serial or item of music, extracts and displays the appropriate ISBN, ISSN or ISMN and calculates the correct check digit.
• If the EAN is for a serial publication and is longer than 13 digits, also extracts the issue number information contained in the extra digits.