Institutional Repositories

The Repository Adventure by H. Frank Cervone appears in the latest Library Journal.

If libraries step up to the plate, they will fundamentally transform their role from passive transfer agents of information into active partners in the dissemination process. By leading the way in the implementation of institutional repositories, librarians can guarantee future relevance as digital publishing technologies change the structure, if not the nature, of scholarly communication.

Metadata

Harris, Patricia, and Stuart L. Weibel. 2004 Metadata: A Worldwide Library Effort. ISO Focus (April):31-32.

Tag of the Month

This month's tag is MARC Record Sample -- Edited Work (Book). I do wish they included the tag numbers for the ISBN and LCCN as well as the text.

Free Comic Book Day

This year, Free Comic Book Day hits on July 3, the Saturday after Spider-Man 2 arrives in theaters. Publishers have once again gone above and beyond to create an amazing, diverse line-up of free comics, there truly is something for everyone! Check out the website for the complete list and cover images from this year's sponsors.

Libraries should consider teaming up with the local comic book shop for this.

MARBI

The 2004 Midwinter MARBI Meeting minutes are now available online.

Likewise, the agenda to the Annual MARBI Meeting has been updated.

Interoperability

Interoperability between Library Information Services and Learning Environments - Bridging the Gaps, A Joint White Paper on behalf of the IMS Global Learning Consortium and the Coalition for Networked Information by Neil McLean and Clifford Lynch is available.

The primary purpose of this paper is to explore potential interactions between information environments and learning environments, with emphasis on work that needs to be done involving standards, architectural modelling or interfaces (as opposed to cultural, organizational or practice questions) in order to permit these two worlds to co-exist and co-evolve more productively. The emphasis is to map a large amount of territory from a relatively high and thus necessarily superficial level, identifying questions and framing issues, and in some cases suggesting avenues forward. Our hope is to open a dialog both with the global library communities in higher education and between these communities and the communities involved in instructional technologies and management. A secondary but important purpose of this paper is to position this dialog within the context of the IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS) specifications activities as a means of both facilitating the discussion and building on existing standards efforts; in this sense, we construct at least one view of the questions as addressing the positioning of library information services within emerging e-learning environments.

OAI

Barrueco Cruz, Jose Manuel and Subirats Coll, Imma (2003) Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH): descripción, funciones y aplicación de un protocolo. El Profesional de la Informacion 12(2):pp. 99-106. Spanish with English abstract.

The authors describe the OAI-PMH protocol (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) used for the interchange of metadata on the internet. Analysed are questions such as the context in which the protocol was born –communities of scientific documents repositories– and how it has evolved and extended its reach to include any material in electronic format. Its architecture, based on the client/server model, is briefly described. Clients, which are called "archives",place Dublin Core metadata in the public domain in order for servers or service providers to retrieve this metadata and to build added value services for end users. Communication between archives and services takes place using the http protocol. Questions and replies are coded in xml. The authors conclude with a review of the main institutions that have implemented the protocol, user services based on it, and software tools that facilitate the creation of open archives.

AACR

A report of the JSC April 19-22 2004 Ottawa meeting is now available. The major news is "The JSC proposed to the Committee of Principals (CoP) at their joint meeting on Tuesday 20 April 2004 that work on a new edition of AACR3 begin now. The CoP agree.

MARC Tutorials

New on the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries' Bibliographic Services Dept. Web site: a Web tutorial on the MARC authority format, based on the LC publication Understanding MARC Authority Records. The tutorial is intended to be an introduction to the MARC authority format or a refresher for those who have been away from it for a while.

Also available is an updated version of the MARC bibliographic tutorial, based on the publication Understanding MARC Bibliographic

Getting Out of Town

I'll be taking a break for a few days, heading up to Austin for a change of scenery and do some visiting with a great group of catalogers. Postings may be few or none for the next few days. So, I'm posting a poll. The results should change, even if nothing else here does.

The poll is about the detailed date in the 008 field. How often do you use it? I always use a detailed date, if the information is available. I'm of the opinion that it is easier to include information when cataloging the first time rather than adding it later. The addition of the month of publication only requires a couple extra keystrokes, yet it seems to be added only very infrequently. I'm not sure how many systems can use the information. Leave comments here and take the poll to the right.

Open Source ILS

The Georgia Pines system has decided to create their own open source ILS.

We strongly believe that the best choice for PINES at this critical crossroads is an open source system developed by the Georgia Public Library Service. This system will be custom-written for a library consortium as large and complex as we have become and into which we will continue to evolve. After careful analysis of the library automation marketplace, where we noted the possible benefits and potential shortcomings of every vendor-driven solution for our particular needs, Georgia Public Library Service and OIIT personnel agree that a custom-developed solution is the direction that we should take.

Development of an integrated library software solution will take 18-24 months. We have the option of extending our current software contract for an additional year. This means that we would remain on the present system until at least June 2006. After one year of software development (June 2005), we will evaluate our progress. If, at this time, our development efforts are not sufficiently advanced, we will have adequate time to pursue a vendor-supplied solution through an RFP process.

How, if at all will this affect other open source efforts? Will the resulting system become available to others? How will vendors respond? Interesting times we live in.

Seen on TechnoBiblio.

Overdue

This Overdue strip is so true. It caused me to take a special trip to my local comic book shop. Now beside Superman/Batman, I have another must read each month. My daily must read includes Overdue, even my wife who is not a librarian enjoys it.

Standard cataloging for comic books is currently wrong. The chief source of information should be the indicia, other parts of the title page are fair game for the artist to treat in an artistic manner. We would do our users a service by switching to the indicia as the chief source.