Library Visits

Today Cora and I visited the Library of Congress and the Folger Shakespeare Libraries. They don't build libraries like that any more. LC is so monumental. Fitting for the library at the center of an empire. The Folger is so traditionally academic. At LC we visited the exhibit of the Saint John's Bible. Remarkable, wondrous. We never seem to be in town when either have music. I'd love to hear a concert in either venue.

Libraries

OAI DC or SRU DC Schemata to MODS

The Network Development and MARC Standards Office have made available a stylesheet to transform simple Dublin Core (DC) expressed in either OAI DC or SRU DC schemata to MODS (version 3.2).

The transformation may be used in cases where simple Dublin Core records are available, but richer metadata in MODS may be desirable (e.g. by enhancing the records). For instance, there have been some METS profiles that have been developed that require MODS descriptive metadata.

There may be a need to develop a companion stylesheet that transforms qualified DC (or some version of qualified DC, e.g. DSpace's). We would be interested in any feedback on this.

MODS

Reston Regional Library

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the Reston Regional Library. In late afternoon it was busy. Folks were checking Value Line on-line, the books on CD, browsing in the stacks, and on the public Internet access machines. The parking lot was about 75% full. Seems to be well used by the local community. They had a good selection of computer books, including many animal titles, and downloadable audio-books.

Libraries

OCLC & Authority Records

From OCLC:

As a result of changes outside of OCLC's control that impact the authorities distribution
files, OCLC will not load new authorities files (names and subjects) until after the
first of the year.

This decision will have an impact on all OCLC users (Connexion and Z39.50) of the LC Names and Subject Authority Files:

The most recent distributed files loaded into OCLC systems from the Library of Congress were those dated 12/18. Any records currently in the distribution queue will remain in that state. Please note: No data will be lost.

OCLC has additional details.

OCLC

Solr 1.1 Release

Solr 1.1 is now available for download. What is Sorl?

Solr is an open source enterprise search server based on the Lucene Java search library, with XML/HTTP and JSON APIs, hit highlighting, faceted search, caching, replication, and a web administration interface.

This tool is going to be part of a preconference at the Code4lib get-together.

Solr

CONSER Standard Record

Draft documentation related to the CONSER standard record is now available. Comments on the drafts are due by January 29, 2007. These comments should relate to the clarity of the wording of the documents, not to decisions related to the adoption of the CONSER standard record.

Serials