VAIF Webinars

OCLC has made available the recordings of the VIAF Show and Tell Webinars.

The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) now comprises almost 20 million records from 24 different sources. In the last two months VIAF had over 70,000 visits from 147 countries/territories, with two-thirds "returning visitors." In addition, VIAF sees 6 million hits per month from automated systems such as Web harvesters or other programs retrieving VIAF information.

The "show and tell" VIAF demonstrations you'll see in this webinar recording include:

• Using VIAF as the primary reference for LC/NACO authority work to differentiate names—Spencer Anspach, Indiana University
• Using VIAF to create a record in Fihrist, a multi-institutional Islamic manuscript catalog, incorporating the URI to an author's VIAF page—Alasdair Watson, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
• How VIAF helps researchers—Magda El-Sherbini, Ohio State University
• Using VIAF to identify provenance of rare books and adding VIAF links to images of bookplates, inscriptions and other marks of ownership in Flickr—Regan Kladstrup, University of Pennsylvania
• Using VIAF to identify issues in the VIAF matching process and how to respond and report them—Stephen Hearn, University of Minnesota

Related articles

• Viaf (viaf.org)

AACR2 Rule Interpretations

The Rule Interpretations for AACR2 have been made available online. This is co-operative work, so join in the fun. Thanks to all involved. And thanks to the site where I saw this at A portal to my Cataloguing Aids website.

Related articles

• aacr2 (cataids.wordpress.com)

New Music Cataloging Book

A new book for music catalogers, Directions in Music Cataloging.

a new title in the Music Library Association’s (MLA) Technical Reports Series, Directions in Music Cataloging, edited by Peter H. Lisius and Richard Griscom. In Directions in Music Cataloging, ten of the field’s top theoreticians and practitioners address issues affecting the discovery and use of music in libraries today. The roots of today’s issues lie in the past, and the first part of the volume opens with two articles by Richard P. Smiraglia that establish the context of modern music cataloging through research conducted in the early 1980s. The second part explores cataloging theory in its current state of transition, and the concluding part looks to the future by considering the application of emerging standards. The volume closes with a remembrance of A. Ralph Papakhian (1948–2010), the most prominent music cataloger of the past thirty years—a figure who initiated many of the developments covered in the volume and who served as a teacher and mentor for all of the contributors. Sue Ellen Stancu’s remembrance and H. Stephen Wright’s introduction provide a context for the volume in relation to Papakhian’s legacy.

ALA Midwinter

While at ALA Midwinter in Dallas spin your cares away at the North Texas Traditional Dance (i.e. contra dance). Sat Jan 21, 8-11 pm

The main kind of dance we do is called Contra Dancing. It is a form of American folk dance derived from English Country Dancing. It has no fancy footwork, so is easy (and fun) enough for beginners to enjoy almost immediately, especially with occasional help from our friendly experienced dancers.

By far our most popular activities are the Community Dances we hold almost every week: English Country dances on 4th Saturdays, and Contra dances on most other Saturdays. These are open to the public and feature live music in a smoke- and alcohol-free environment. No experience is needed, because all the dances are taught. You don't need to bring a partner. We encourage everyone to change partners for each dance.

MARBI News

The 2011 Annual MARBI Meeting minutes are now available.

Discussion Paper 2012-DP01: Identifying Titles Related to the Entity Represented by the Authority Record in the MARC 21 Authority Format

A final discussion paper (2012-DP02) will be posted next week.

The MARBI ALA Midwinter Conference 2012 agenda is available.

Related articles

• MARBI Paper Available for Review (catalogablog.blogspot.com)