OPML Generator

The OPML Generator will take a list of RSS URLs and generate an OPML file. No reason not to have an OPML file where they are useful now.

OPML

USEMARCON Plus

Version 1.71 of USEMARCON is available for download.

USEMARCON is a software application that allows users to convert bibliographic records from one MAchine-Readable Cataloguing (MARC) format to another. Approximately fifty variant MARC formats are currently in use throughout the world. The differences between the MARC formats present a barrier to the easy exchange of records. This is a fundamental problem for libraries, and necessitates the costly re-cataloguing of material for which records are already available, but in a MARC format other than their own.

....

USEMARCON facilitates the conversion of catalogue records from one MARC format to another e.g. from UKMARC to UNIMARC. The software was designed as a toolbox-style application, allowing users with detailed knowledge of the source and target MARC formats to develop rules governing the behaviour of the conversion. Rules files may be supplemented by additional tables for more accurate conversion of MARC-specific character sets or coded information. The tables and rules files are simple ASCII text files and can be created using any standard text editor such as MS Windows Notepad.

USEMARCON

Cataloging Electronic Resources

Cataloging Electronic Resources: OCLC-MARC Coding Guidelines has been extensively revised to reflect the full implementation of Bibliographic Level "i" for Integrating Resources, revisions in AACR2 practices, and removal of outdated information. This revised set of guidelines is intended to assist catalogers in creating records for electronic resources in WorldCat. These guidelines pertain to OCLC-MARC tagging (that is, content designation).

OCLC

Papers in D-Lib Magazine

The latest issue of D-Lib Magazine has some interesting papers.

• Metadata Authentication and Access Management by Michael Teets and Peter Murray
• Metadata Interoperability and Standardization - A Study of Methodology, Part I: Achieving Interoperability at the Schema Level by Lois Mai Chan and Marcia Lei Zeng
• Metadata Interoperability and Standardization - A Study of Methodology, Part II: Achieving Interoperability at the Record and Repository Levels by Marcia Lei Zeng and Lois Mai Chan

D-Lib

OLAC Newsletter

The OLAC Newsletter is online (and the print copies were mailed out this past Monday). If you are going to ALA, take a look at the "What's New" link on the Website for the "ALA Meetings of Interest to OLAC Catalogers".

OLAC

LPI RSS Feed

I'm considering removing the headlines RSS feed for What's New at the LPI Library. I'm coding it by hand, which is time consuming and error prone. There will still be a full-text version. Anyone here have any strong objections?

RSS

Creative Commons Metadata

Microsoft has released an add-on to MS Office to embed a Creative Commons license in MS files.

This add-in enables you to embed a Creative Commons license into a document that you create using the popular applications: Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, or Microsoft Office Excel. With a Creative Commons license, authors can express their intentions regarding how their works may be used by others.

The add-in downloads the Creative Commons license you designate from the Creative Commons Web site and inserts it directly into your creative work. Creative Commons supports a number of languages.

Copyright

RDA part A, chapters 6-7

The Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR (JSC) has announced that the draft of RDA part A, chapters 6-7 has been made available for comment.

The working documents of the JSC are also now available on-line.

RDA

Metadata Aggregation

Carl Lagoze, Tim Cornwell, Naomi Dushay, Dean Eckstrom, Dean Krafft and John Saylor have won the $1,000 award sponsored by the American Computer Manufacturer's Association Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for their paper Metadata Aggregation and "Automated Digital Libraries": A Retrospective on the NSDL Experience.

Over three years ago, the Core Integration team of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) implemented a digital library based on metadata aggregation using Dublin Core and OAIPMH. The initial expectation was that such low-barrier technologies would be relatively easy to automate and administer. While this architectural choice permitted rapid deployment of a production NSDL, our three years of experience have contradicted our original expectations of easy automation and low people cost. We have learned that alleged "low-barrier" standards are often harder to deploy than expected. In this paper we report on this experience and comment on the general cost, the functionality, and the ultimate effectiveness of this architecture.

Metadata

LibraryThing

There has recently been a lot of talk about LibraryThing. It has got me thinking, why not list my library's titles there. I'm considering adding selected new acquisitions (ones with an ISBN) to an LPI LibraryThing page. It would get our library out there a bit more. It is simple and free. Other pros or cons? Anyone else doing this?

LibraryThing

ISBN Tool

The ISBN Links Generator will generate various links keyed by an ISBN. The list of links includes:

• Google "Look Inside"
• Amazon "Search Inside"
• Amazon.co.uk sales page (with affiliate code)
• Amazon Web Service Item Info
• OU Library catalogue lookup
• OCLC Audience Level
• Alternative ISBNs (OCLC xISBN)
• Alternative ISBNs (Library Thing thingISBN)
• Compare xISBN and thingISBN
• ISBN Book Info (isbn.org.uk)
• ISBN Book Info (isbn.org.uk)(XML)
• A (not quite working) web service
• ISBNdb.com (full record)
• ISBNdb.com (XML Info)
• Open WorldCat Info
• Open WorldCat Info (book details)
• Open WorldCat Info (book editions)
• O'Relly Safari
• O'Relly Safari (OU proxied)

ISBN

OPML

OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is interesting. There are better formats out there to do the same thing, XOXO (Extensible Open XHTML Outlines) for example. However, it works well with RSS, and seems to have become the most widespread of the formats. Usage counts for a lot, just as in creating subject headings.

There is an interesting audio discussion I just found about OPML that took place back in Feb. Reading Lists (OPML) podcast : Danny Ayers and Adam Green with Joshua Porter and Alex Barnett

OPML

MARC Changes

Just finished filing the updates for my MARC documentation. Got the new pages for 662 - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--HIERARCHICAL PLACE NAME. The other major change was the addition of $e - Relator term in most of the 6XX fields.

MARC21