Preservation Metadata

For several years OCLC and RLG have jointly sponsored expert working groups on preservation-related topics. The current group, PREMIS (Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies), is international in composition and focused on the development of recommendations and best practices for implementing preservation metadata.

PREMIS has just released the report, Implementing Preservation Repositories For Digital Materials: Current Practice And Emerging Trends In The Cultural Heritage Community.

This paper reports the findings of a survey focused on current preservation metadata management practices of digital preservation repositories conducted by PREMIS in Winter 2003-04. It is the first of a series of reports that will be released by PREMIS over the next several months.

In Winter 2003-2004, the PREMIS working group conducted a survey aimed at gathering information on key aspects of planned and existing preservation repositories for digital materials. Survey questions touched on a variety of areas, such as mission, funding, preservation strategy, and access policies, but with an overarching focus on current practice for managing preservation metadata in digital archiving systems. Survey responses were received from nearly fifty institutions located in thirteen countries, and included libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions. Analysis of the responses suggests that the digital preservation community is beginning to coalesce around several emerging trends in the use and management of preservation metadata, which are enumerated and discussed at the conclusion of the report.

IMS Resource List Interoperability

The Resource List Interoperability (RLI) specification details how structured meta-data can be exchanged between systems that store and expose resources for the purpose of creating resource lists and those that gather and organize those Resource Lists for educational or training purposes. A typical example of such a resource list is a reading list.

The specification is based on an abstract service behavior and data model that describes in generalized terms a resource at the item level, a collection of these resources (i.e., a list), and the behaviors associated with a resource list management service. The data model is then bound or expressed in XML, combining elements that primarily map to subsets of the IEEE-LOM (Learning Object Metadata) and ISO 690-2 bibliographic citation standards to describe the resource items and aggregated resource list. The abstract service interface is bound to web services expressed as WSDL. The IMS Content Packaging specification wraps the resource list to enable transfer between systems. Because the data model is generalized, other bindings may be (and it is expected, will be) added to future releases of the specification.

ISBlogN

ISBlogN is a new interesting looking 'blog. Seems to be concerned with issues of FRBR, ISBNs, and normalization of data. The author comes from a background of dealing with this information from a booksellers experience, Amazon, Half.com and Powells for example.

I'm launching this site in the interests of starting conversations about the way in which book details -- author, title, subject, and even page count -- are collected, sold, disseminated, updated, broken, and misused.

Seen on librarian.net.

Wine Librarians Association

This looks like too much fun. Is there a beer Librarians Association?

I'd like to invite you all to a meeting of the Wine Librarians Association on Thursday, October 28, 2004, at California Poly Pomona. Where else can you learn about much about the neglected history of wine in Southern California, explore a fascinating sub-genre of librarianship, and get a great meal and wine, for free. Hurry, the dinner slots will probably fill up fast.

Schedule:

1-3pm - Join students in the Wine Education Auditorium to hear presentations by Nina Wemyss on Wine, Art and Civilization, and Tom Pinney, editor of the Brady Book on Roy Brady, an undiscovered, followed by a wine tasting and opportunity to purchase The Brady Book.

3-4pm - Visit the University Library Special Collections Room to explore the Wine Industry Collection and view exhibits featuring the history of wine in Southern California.

4-6pm - Wine Librarians Meeting (held in the Board Room adjacent to the Wine Education Auditorium). This might be of interest to students and others who would like to find out about professional concerns of a group of librarians who manage focused special collections. Or you might opt to skip this section, and explore the campus or environs.

6-8pm - Enjoy an elegant dinner with your colleagues in the President's Dining Room at The Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch (part of Collins School of Hospitality Management)

Please R.S.V.P. to Danette Cook Adamson at 909-869-3109 or dcadamson@csupomona.edu. NOTE: Dinner seating is limited and reservations must be made in advance with Danette.

Publishing Standards

I hope the publishers and creators read and follow these guidelines. ISO Technical Report 21449 prepared by Tom Delsey "Content Delivery and Rights Management - Functional Requirements for Identifiers and Descriptors for Use in the Music, Film, Video, Sound Recording, and Publishing Industries"

Technical Report 21449 establishes a frame of reference for describing the nature of the business and information transactions that take place in the course of production, distribution, and rights management. It focuses specifically on the requirements of the originators, producers, distributors, registration authorities, and rights administrators involved in the development and delivery of intellectual and artistic content.

MARC Tag of the Month

The MARC Tag of the Month for October, at Follett, is a sample record for Integrating Resource -- Electronic. Do some of those 650 fields look like they should be 655? I've not checked, but they do seem to be more about the format than the content.

ISSN

ISSN and the U.S. Postal Service has been revised. Something I never knew about the use of the ISSN.

In 1977 the United States Postal Service printed a notice in the Federal Register proposing that publications mailed at what were then called second class rates would be required to print a six-digit USPS identification number. At the request of publishers who were already printing the ISSN, the Postal Service agreed to accept the ISSN as an identification number when assigned or confirmed by the National Serials Data Program (NSDP), the U.S. national center for ISSN.

Library ELF

Here is another great idea, developed by someone other than the vendors. Library ELF is a way to keep track of all your library accounts in one place. It would be great for someone like me who has access to lots of libraries within a short drive. I have accounts at Houston Public, Harris County, Helen Hall, Sterling Municipal, and University of Houston/Clear Lake. It allows you to add your local library, it does not require the library to do anything or even know this is happening.

ELF is a web-based and email tool for library customers to keep track of their library borrowings. Think of ELF as a personal assistant, whose task is to help one keep track of what one has on loan from the library.

Designed with the busy and avid library user in mind, ELF is ideal for families with multiple library cards or for individuals (writers, researchers, students, readers, etc.) who have cards from different libraries.

ELF makes it easier to keep track of what's due, overdue or ready for pickup from one or more library accounts. It consolidates all of your library accounts into one ELF account. This account is checked everyday and email notices are sent when items are coming due, overdue or when holds are ready for pickup. You can also get up-to-date realtime information by browser.

It is ideas like this that make standards so very important.

Seen on Shifted Librarian.

New Records

Differences between Changes Within Guidelines on When to Create a New Record

provides guidance to the cataloger about whether or not to create a new bibliographic record. General guidelines are followed by specific guidelines for manifestation-level records for single part monographs, multipart monographs, integrating resources, and serials. The text describes what constitutes a major difference between manifestations, requiring the creation of an original record, as well as detailing major changes within a serial manifestation that would lead to the creation of a new record. In addition, guidance is provided regarding minor changes that would not require a new bibliographic record, but might necessitate updating an existing record.

This looks useful. I'm not sure about the pricing, 27.00 for a 38 page document seems a bit excessive. It is free to download for ALCTS members, but those of us who are members of SLA are stuck.

Classification

The development of classification schedules KB (Religious law in general), KBM (Jewish law), and KBP (Islamic Law), has now been completed and a new edition of KB, Religious Law, has just been published by CDS. The new edition includes these three subclasses as well as updated versions of KBR and KBU. All of these KB subclasses are now valid for use in Class Web.

Saturday's Talk

I have posted the handout and PowerPoint slides for my talk this Saturday at the TLA District 8 Fall Conference. I'd appreciate comments about now, when changes may still be made.

ALCTS

eALCTS Program Presentation Handouts from the 2004 Annual Conference are now available. As a rule, I don't point to slides from presentations. There is just not enought information with them taken out of context. However, this collection is just too large, on topic and by such presentors, an exception had to be made. Topics include:

• Back to the Future: Understanding the Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records Model (FRBR) and its Impact on Users, OPACS, and Knowledge Organization Preconference
• Library Catalogs and Non-Roman Scripts: Development and Implementation of UnicodeTM for Cataloging and Public Access
• Now That We Have Revised Chapter 12, Where Do We Go From Here?
• Serials Standards Updates Forum