MARBI at ALA Midwinter

MARBI has the following papers available for review by the MARC community:

• Proposal No. 2007-01: Definition of subfields $b and $j in field 041 in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
• Proposal No. 2007-02: Incorporating invalid former headings in 4XX fields of the MARC 21 Authority Format
• Proposal No. 2007-03: Addition of subfield $5 in fields 533 and 538
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP01: Changes for the German and Austrian conversion to MARC 21
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP02: Use of field 520 for content advice statements
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP03: Recording the linking ISSN (ISSN-L) in the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats
• Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP04: Definition of Field 004 in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format

The draft agenda for the ALA Midwinter MARBI meetings is available.

MARC

Improving Our Catalogs

10 Ways to Improve Data Quality by Jeffrey Beall in American Libraries, 36(3) pp. 36-37 is now available on ELIS. Pretty standard stuff. It did include one suggestion I'd not thought of before. Some older autobiographies lack a subject heading for the author/subject of the book. I'd add a step and make it 11 ways.... We should check the URLs to make sure they are still working.

Cataloging

Library Geeks

It is always rewarding to listen to Library Geeks. The latest episode is especially worthwhile. The guests had recently returned from an eIFL meeting.

Electronic Information for Libraries. eIFL.net is an independent foundation that strives to lead, negotiate, support and advocate for the wide availability of electronic resources by library users in transition and developing countries. Its main focus is on negotiating affordable subscriptions on a multi-country consortial basis, while supporting the enhancement of emerging national library consortia in member countries.

Some important work being done to bridge the digital divide. One project is Library in a Box. The plan is to distribute a cutting-edge open-source ILS on a CD. What they are describing sounds better than our current system. The catalog would be PINES and/or Koha, with all the required libraries. No additional downloads required. Then a front end like NCSU recently unveiled. This would be based on Collex/Solr/Lucene. Amazing.

Collex

Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control

The Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control has been charged to:

• Present findings on how bibliographic control and other descriptive practices can effectively support management of and access to library materials in the evolving information and technology environment
• Recommend ways in which the library community can collectively move toward achieving this vision
• Advise the Library of Congress on its role and priorities

Cataloging

SXSW Awards

The deadline is fast approaching for the chance to enter your site in the SXSW Interactive Web Awards. Your site must have had a redesign or launch in 2006 to be considered. Let's see some library sites in the running if not the winner's circle.

Awards