Tuesday, November 24, 2009

BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) guidelines for printed books

The PCC Policy Committee (PoCo) has set January 4, 2010 as the implementation date for the BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) guidelines for printed books as outlined in the Final Report of the Task Group on BIBCO Standard Record Requirements.   

●       The PCC has posted the BSR guidelines, Metadata Application Profile (MAP), and a BSR FAQ to support implementation.  
●       Libraries contributing BSR records for printed books (excluding rare books) using the BIBCO Standard Record requirements will use the single encoding level “blank.”  This replaces the use of BIBCO Full and Core standards for printed books. 
●       Libraries contributing BIBCO records for rare books, electronic books, and materials in non-book formats will continue to code full records “blank” and core records “4”, until BSR guidelines can be developed. 
●       Encoding level “4” will remain as a valid encoding level in OCLC for earlier BIBCO core records and for records not contributed as PCC printed book records in the future.  It is understood that batch loading processes by libraries that catalog in local systems may result in some BIBCO core level records entering OCLC even after January 4, 2010. 
●       The Standing Committee on Standards is charged with developing BSR guidelines for rare books, for electronic books, and for monographs in non-book formats, in consultation with appropriate stakeholders. 
●       The Standing Committee on Training is charged with developing training materials aimed primarily at libraries joining the BIBCO program.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Searching for legal opinions and journals on Google Scholar

Google itself has an interesting discussion of its new Google Scholar legal opinions and journals search engine, now in Beta, on its blog:
As many of us recall from our civics lessons in school, the United States is a common law country. That means when judges issue opinions in legal cases, they often establish precedents that will guide the rulings of other judges in similar cases and jurisdictions. Over time, these legal opinions build, refine and clarify the laws that govern our land. For average citizens, however, it can be difficult to find or even read these landmark opinions. We think that's a problem: Laws that you don't know about, you can't follow — or make effective arguments to change. Starting today, we're enabling people everywhere to find and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar. You can find these opinions by searching for cases (like Planned Parenthood v. Casey), or by topics (like desegregation) or other queries that you are interested in. . . . We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of several pioneers, who have worked on making it possible for an average citizen to educate herself about the laws of the land: Tom Bruce (Cornell LII), Jerry Dupont (LLMC), Graham Greenleaf and Andrew Mowbray (AustLII), Carl Malamud (Public.Resource.Org), Daniel Poulin (LexUM), Tim Stanley (Justia), Joe Ury (BAILII), Tim Wu (AltLaw) and many others. It is an honor to follow in their footsteps. We would also like to acknowledge the judges who have built this cathedral of justice brick by brick and have tried to make it accessible to the rest of us. We hope Google Scholar will help all of us stand on the shoulders of these giants.

CS-SIS has a good overview of the new Google Scholar service, citing other sources, like the Just in Case, the Case Western Reserve Law School Library Blog, which have done some actual testing. According to Andrew Plumb-Larrick, in Just in Case, it sounds like sometimes Google Scholar works well, and sometimes it doesn't. It cites to full text opinions, but journal articles tend to be hosted by third parties and not available in full text. Its search mechanism, based on citation analysis, works differently from the usual keyword approach, which makes it interesting. There will be more to come on this one.

Classification at a Crossroads

I don't think many of us use the Universal Decimal Classification, but the materials for the 2009 International UDC Seminar are now available on the web, and they seem quite interesting even apart from the UDC. Topics include: Classifying Web resources; Classification and thesauri; Classification frameworks, concepts, structure and relationships; and Classification and the Semantic Web, as well as other topics. Worth a look.

Found via Catalogablog

That 2.0 thing

Who among us is not tired of hearing about Library 2.0? But here (via here) are the notes to a talk Jessamyn West gave recently, encouraging librarians "to think about the content that they may be generating elsewhere [via blog, twitter, facebook, whatever] and how to bring that back to their library’s website." If you put it that way, it doesn't sound quite so insipid after all.

MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data Updated - new fields to accommodate RDA

The MARC 21 Bibliographic Format has been updated through Update No. 10 (October 2009). The update includes several changes to accommodate RDA. For instance, 336 (Content Type), 337 (Media Type) and 338 (Carrier Type). 

Changes to the MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data that resulted from Update No. 10 (October 2009) are displayed in red print.

(http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdhome.html)






Friday, November 20, 2009

PCC Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate Policy and Standards Division decisions

ACQUISITIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC ACCESS DIRECTORATE
POLICY AND STANDARDS DIVISION

SUMMARY OF DECISIONS, EDITORIAL MEETING NUMBER 46

November 18, 2009


PSD policy specialist responsible for this weekly list: L. Dechman


CLASSIFICATION

BS2098.5.A-Z
Private versions of the New Testament would be better classified in BS2095, which does not restrict the kinds of versions and revisions that are classed there. A number for the Paul version will be established at BS2095.P38-.P382. The proposal to establish a private versions number in BS2098.5 was not approved.


SUBJECT HEADINGS

Subdivisions to be added to lists of free-floating subdivisions:

H 1154, Languages
$x Age differences (May Subd Geog)

H 1200, Wars
$x Mountain warfare

Other decisions:

Conspiracy theory
The heading Conspiracy theories was approved on WL 09-37. The proposal was not necessary.

John C. Green School of Science (Princeton, N.J. : Building)
This heading falls into the category of buildings that have the same name as the corporate body residing in them, and according to SHM H 1334, the corporate heading should be assigned. The proposal was not approved.

Palmer Hall (Princeton, N.J.)
The authority record indicates that Palmer Hall was completely gutted and renamed Frist Campus Center. Frist Campus Center (Princeton, N.J.) is a heading that appears on this list (WL 09-46) and is approved. Palmer Hall (Princeton, N.J.) will be added as a UF on the Frist Campus Center record. The proposal for a separate heading for Palmer Hall (Princeton, N.J.) was not approved.


From the PCC list

New Searching Tool for Google Books

A recent message from Bryan Carson of Western Kentucky University Libraries to LAW-LIB reported that the Chronicle of Higher Education reported recently that the group of college libraries working with Google on their book scanning project, the HathiTrust Digital Library, has released its own search tool for Google Books. According to the article (which can be found at http://tinyurl.com/yc3nlhv), this will return all pages with the search term. This is an improvement over the regular Google book search, which only returns a partial result list.

This search tool is especially important now that Google Books has actually digitized a fair number of opinions, statutes, treatises, and legislative hearing records. Carson reports that a student searching his library for the 1919 Civil Code of California found it in full text on Google Books.

The Hathitrust Digital Library Search can be found at http://catalog.hathitrust.org/

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

R. David Lankes gives thought-provoking keynote address at the Charleston Conference

R. David Lankes, associate professor and director of the Information Institute of Syracuse, gave a keynote address at the 29th Annual Charleston Conference on November 5, 2009. According to the abstract of the presentation, entitled "New Librarianship," "The best days of librarianship are ahead of us. However, to get there the field must step back, refocus, and reexamine our core principles. We as a profession have become so focused on the trees of standards and process that we are now at risk from missing the larger forest of opportunities. This talk will present a view of a new librarianship, one focused on knowledge and action instead of artifacts and collection. The presentation will look beyond the trends of today’s technologies to a durable new librarianship that focuses on innovation, leadership, and service."
Slides, audio, and a link to a screencast of the presentation are available at: http://www.resourceshelf.com/2009/11/05/slides-audio-and-screencast-of-dr-r-david-lankes-keynote-at-the-charleston-conference-now-online/.

WorldCat Local single-search access expands with metasearch functionality

WorldCat Local metasearth represents a new approach for consolidated access to library resources. The combination of a rich central index of content in WorldCat, WorldCat.org and FirstSearch databases with a growing number of well-known, remotely indexed databases delivers a single, integrated set of search results to users. Users also get the items they need more quickly through a variety of smart delivery options. Metasearch is available at no additional charge to all libraries that subscribe to the WorldCat Local service.

See article at http://www.oclc.org/worldcatlocal/overview/metasearch/default.htm?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=OCLC+Abstracts&utm_campaign=OCLC+Abstracts

From OCLC Abstracts

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Blacklight

Blacklight is a new, open source ruby-on-rails discovery interface, AKA a next-gen catalog that can be used as a front end for heterogeneous collections. What does that really mean? I'm not entirely sure, but here's a list of people who are trying it out, including Stanford. Check it out.

Found via Catalogablog

Web scale for libraries: a sea change for the 21st century

In April, OCLC announced plans to launch new services for web-scale library management: network-level tools for managing library collections through circulation and delivery, print and licensed acquisitions, and license management. These new services will complement existing OCLC web-scale services, such as cataloging, resource sharing and integrated discovery.

New services will be built upon new technologies and platforms that allow libraries to customize workflows based on the changing nature of their collections, their users and their business processes.

Internal LC Group Distills "On the Record" Report into Actions

"On the Record Report: Recommendations the Library of Congress Should Pursue Over the Next Four Years" was released on September 15th, 2009. This is an important report because it distills the recommendations from the 2008 Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control (http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/news/lcwg-ontherecord-jan08-final.pdf) into activities that LC should include in its planning process over the next four years.

Monday, November 16, 2009

NISO to Develop Recommended Practice for Physical Delivery of Library Materials

Document aims to facilitate library resource sharing 

November 11, 2009 - Baltimore, MD - 

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Voting Members have approved a new work item to develop a Recommended Practice related to the physical delivery of library materials. NISO is pleased to announce that the Working Group roster for this project is now finalized, and work will be commencing with a kick-off call of the group on November 18, 2009. Building on the efforts of three recent projects--Moving Mountains, Rethinking Resource Sharing's Physical Delivery Committee, and the American Library Association's ASCLA ICANS' Physical Delivery Discussion Group-the recommended practice document is proposed to include recommendations for: packaging, shipping codes, labeling, acceptable turn-around time, lost or damaged materials handling, package tracking, ergonomic considerations, statistics, sorting, a set of elements to be used for comparison purposes to determine costs, linking of regional and local library carriers, and international delivery.

"A recent study found that 77% of academic libraries participate in state or provincial resource sharing networks above and beyond the 10,000,000 interlibrary loan (ILL) transactions that OCLC annually processes," Valerie Horton, Executive Director, Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC), who proposed the project and will be serving as co-chair, explained. "The increased volume and costs of library delivery is creating a demand for more information about how to run efficient and effective delivery operations." Diana Sachs-Silveira, Virtual Reference Manager, Tampa Bay Library Consortium, will be co-chairing the group with Ms. Horton.

"We can't ignore the tremendous number of books, journals, DVDs, and other physical library resources that continue to be borrowed by patrons," commented Tony O'Brien, co-chair of NISO's Discovery to Delivery Topic Committee, which reviewed and approved the proposal prior to its submittal to NISO's voting membership. Added co-chair Tim Shearer, "In today's economic environment, libraries have become borrowers too, sharing more of their resources with each other and across greater geographical distances. New services and technologies offer opportunities to improve the traditional ways such sharing and delivery has been done."

"The three groups that have already done work in this area expressed interest in working with NISO to further develop their efforts into a set of recommended practices," states Todd Carpenter, NISO Managing Director. "We are also hoping to involve carrier organizations and consultants for the delivery industry in addition to libraries, consortia, and cooperatives."  

An interest group list for this project is available for those who would like to receive updates on the Working Group's progress and provide feedback to the group on its work. Information on how to subscribe is available at www.niso.org/lists/physdelinfo. Visit the Working Group website at www.niso.org/workrooms/physdel. Additional questions may be directed to Karen A. Wetzel, NISO's Standards Program Manager at kwetzel@niso.org.   

About NISO 
NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire lifecycle of an information standard. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). More information about NISO is available on its website: www.niso.org. For more information please contact NISO on (301) 654-2512 or via email on nisohq@niso.org.   

For More Information, Contact: 
Victoria Kinnear 
Business Development and Operations Manager, NISO 
Phone: 301-654-2512 

Karen A. Wetzel Standards Program Manager, NISO 
Phone: 301-654-2512 

(NISO website: http://www.niso.org/news/pr/view?item_key=85529122530e18e6753743fbc834ac40d4226702)

The Open Library Environment Project issues its final report

The Open Library Environment Project (OLE Project) has issued its final report, available at: http://oleproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/OLE_FINAL_Report1.pdf. From the Executive Overview of the report:
"With funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Open Library Environment project (OLE Project) convened a multi-national group of libraries to analyze library business processes and to define a next-generation library technology platform. The resulting OLE platform is predicated on Service Oriented Architecture and a community-source model of development and governance. Over 300 libraries, educational institutions, professional organizations and business participated in some phase of the project. Using input from those participants, the project planners produced an OLE design framework that embeds libraries directly in the key processes of scholarship generation, knowledge management, teaching and learning by utilizing existing enterprise systems where appropriate and by delivering new services built on connections between the library’s business systems and other technology systems."

General information about the project is available at: http://oleproject.org/.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Challenges for Great Libraries in the Age of the Digital Native

Brindley, Lynne. "Challenges for Great Libraries in the Age of the Digital Native." Information Services and Use 29(1) (2009): 3-12.
http://iospress.metapress.com/content/c7t6417n2484vk22/?p=0f0e081b63ff47b7af84f5b26a27fa7d&pi=1

Abstract:
Lynne Brindley has played a key role in digital library developments since the early 1980s, and since 2000 as Chief Executive of the British Library. During that time the role of academic and national libraries has changed significantly, with ever-increasing expectations of researchers requiring libraries to re-focus their priorities.
This speech will discuss what the emergence of Digital Natives means for great libraries, now and in the future. Amongst areas libraries will need to tackle is an increased focus on e-science and e-research, utilizing web 2.0 and 3.0 and digital preservation. The digital age offers huge opportunities, but the decline of information literacy skills risks robbing a generation of the ability to fully utilize these. Lynne assesses the changing role of special collections and the continuing relevance of inspiring physical space. Libraries and information services must step up to the plate to provide services which meet the needs of the new generation of researchers, and which add value beyond the search engine.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

OCLC Americas Regional Council to hold its first meeting at ALA Midwinter 2010

Plan now to join OCLC for the first meeting of the OCLC Americas Regional Council, which will be held on Friday, January 15, 2010, 8:30 – 11:30 am (ET), in conjunction with the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

The meeting location, agenda and online registration details will be announced in the next few weeks. (If you will be unable to attend in-person, please watch for details on how you can view portions of the meeting that will be broadcast live on the Web.)

The Americas Regional Council meeting will provide an open forum to discuss issues of importance to its members and to advise OCLC about its products, services, policies and operating direction. The Americas Regional Council Executive Committee, members of OCLC Board of Trustees, Global Council and OCLC Management will be present for interactive discussions. Bring your ideas and be ready to participate.

Comprised of members from libraries and other cultural heritage organizations from Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States, The Americas Regional Council is part of the OCLC cooperative’s new governance structure that consists of three Regional Councils and a Global Council to facilitate member-to-member discussions across the cooperative.

Remember, every member has a voice! The Americas Regional Council is interested in what you have to say. Plan now to make this meeting a part of your ALA Midwinter experience.

If you have questions about the meeting or the Americas Regional Council, please contact Patrick Wilkinson, the Chair of the Americas Regional Council at wilkinso@UWOSH.EDU. Learn more about OCLC Global Council and the three Regional Councils.

(reposted from OCLC email list)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Technical services consolidation a possibility in Massachusetts college libraries

Leonard Kniffel reports in American Libraries on efforts that are underway to consolidate the technical services operations of five Massachusetts college libraries: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Since the Sept. 29 release of a Technical Services Consolidation Task Force report, a decision has been made to study the issues further, based on reactions to the report. Jay Schafer, director of libraries at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, maintains that “consolidating these services is a difficult task and impacts many layers in our libraries and our organizations, but we’ve been talking about this for a couple of years. It’s not easy, but it’s something that we have to explore.”

2010 NISO Education Schedule

2010 NISO Education Schedule and Discount Program 

Building on the success of its 2009 educational programs, NISO will be hosting 16 educational events throughout the coming year—13 webinars and three in-person events—focusing on a range of  technology- and standards-related topics affecting the library and publishing communities. Among the important topics that will be addressed are: assessment, interoperability, preservation, identification, RFID, metadata, and accessibility. 

NISO is also pleased to announce a discount program for organizations interested in having staff participate in multiple events. The entire 12-part series of webinars can be purchased for the price of six events. There is also a "buy 4 and get 2 free" discount. This is an excellent opportunity for professional development without the expense of travel. 

NISO's web seminars are held on the second Wednesday of each month, except July, from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern Time). There are two 2-part seminars planned for March and September, which will take place on consecutive Wednesdays. 

NISO will hold three in-person forums in 2010: Discovery to Delivery: Creating a First-Class User Experience (March 23rd in Atlanta, GA); The 4th Annual NISO/BISG Changing Standards Landscape Forum (free, open event at ALA Annual, June 25th, Washington, DC); and E-Resource Management: From Start to Finish (and Back Again) (October 7th, Chicago, IL). NISO educational forums are routinely praised for their excellent selection of speakers representing a diversity of viewpoints across the scholarly information community and the small size that provides opportunities to network with speakers and other attendees. 

Free teleconferences are also held on the second Monday of every month (except July) to discuss projects underway in NISO and to provide the community with an opportunity to provide feedback and input on areas where NISO is or ought to be engaged. 

The complete list of 2010 NISO educational events is available on the NISO website. Registration is now open for all events.

(http://www.niso.org/publications/newsline/2009/newslinenov09.html#report3)

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

SirsiDynix VP of Innovation Stephen Abram fires a shot over the bow of open source ILSs

Stephen Abram, VP of Innovation for SirsiDynix, has written a paper called "Integrated Library System Platforms on Open Source" in which he "set[s] out to clarify what open source is, how it is different from proprietary software platforms, and why Integrated Library Systems (ILS) are not ready for open source at this point." Accused of spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt, Abram defends the report on his blog, saying, "I call it critical thinking and constructive debate—something that everyone in libraries should embrace and engage in."

For a good overview of the controversy, see Josh Hadro's article in Library Journal: "SirsiDynix Report on Open Source: Promoting Debate or Sowing Fear?"

Monday, November 2, 2009

Digital Preservation: "This is how the world ends, not with a bang but an error message"

NDIIPP Partners Play Major Role at iPRES 2009

October 29, 2009 -- The 2009 International Conference on Preservation of Digital Objects was held in San Francisco, CA, October 5 and 6. The California Digital Library, a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program partner, hosted the meeting, which brought together digital-preservation researchers and practitioners from 70 universities and 33 national libraries, as well as a variety of other interested parties.

Martha Anderson, NDIIPP Director of Program Management, gave a keynote address that focused on the growth of the NDIIPP distributed collaborative effort. She announced intent to develop a National Digital Stewardship Alliance with a goal of enabling collaboration across institutional, industrial and state boundaries while encouraging diverse solutions.

The financial cost of digital preservation received particular attention during the conference. A panel session considered the work of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access and all the speakers were united on the need for increasing financial incentives and reducing economic risk. They also agreed that digital preservation projects must be well-justified to receive financial support.

In a panel session, Martha Anderson said that Congress understands digital preservation but they have limited resources to allocate. They want to see the immediate impact of their investment rather than promises for results at a distant point in time. Another panelist, Paul Courant, the University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at the University of Michigan, said that the academic world needed to collaborate in addressing the digital preservation challenge. Anderson echoed the shared-work solution as a practical strategy; later, in another panel session, Anderson called attention to the success of the MetaArchive cooperative, who has distributed stewardship of their content at a relatively low cost.

The panel also suggested that a tax credit or write-off might be an incentive for individuals or corporations to preserve their digital collections. Other sessions during the conference -- such as "Predicting Long Term Preservation Costs" and "Cost Model for Digital Preservation: Cost of Digital Migration" -- also addressed economic sustainability issues.

There were several other presentations about other projects in which the Library is involved: keynote speaker David Kirsch of the University of Maryland talked about preserving the digital records of corporations; Henry Lowood of Stanford University talked about preserving virtual worlds (and included the memorable quote, "This is how the world ends, not with a bang but an error message"); Ardys Kozbial discussed the Chronopolis project and Rebecca Guenther spoke on best practices for expressing preservation metadata.

(http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/news/2009/20091029news_article_iPRES.html)

December webinar: The Potential of Partnerships: Dissolving Silos for a Successful IR Implementation

The Potential of Partnerships: Dissolving Silos for a Successful IR Implementation
Presented by Marilyn Billings
Wednesday, December 16 at 2pm Eastern (11am Pacific; noon Mountain; 1pm Central)

Click Here to Register

This webinar will use the University of Massachusetts’ institutional repository as a case study to explore how the new digital repository service has affected the way librarians envision our place in the future of the academy, how the academy is changing its view of the library’s role, new tools and skills that we are developing to fulfill this service, and new partnerships that we have created and fostered to exploit this new vision. We hope to foster discussion and provide insights and opportunities for further exploration of how the role of libraries as publishers enables us to be key partners in the creation, dissemination, and archiving of academic scholarship.

Marilyn Billings (mbillings@library.umass.edu) is the Scholarly Communication & Special Initiatives Librarian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She provides campus-wide leadership and education in alternative scholarly communication strategies and is frequently an invited speaker at faculty department colloquia. 

(http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar/ir_series.cfm#7)

Upcoming ALCTS webinar: Bringing Research Data into the Library: Expanding the Horizons of Institutional Repositories

Upcoming ALCTS webinar:  
Bringing Research Data into the Library: Expanding the Horizons of Institutional Repositories 
Presented by MacKenzie Smith 

Tuesday, November 10 at 2pm Eastern (11am Pacific; noon Mountain; 1pm Central) 

The focus of Library-managed Institutional Repositories has so far been on document-like items (published articles, preprints, theses, reports, working papers, etc.) but there is growing demand to expand their use into new genres such as scientific research datasets (sensor readings, genomics data, neuroimages,etc.). The presentation will explain how IRs are including this type of collection, what librarians need to know in order to manage such collections, and a few case studies from the MIT Libraries. 

MacKenzie Smith (kenzie@mit.edu) is the Associate Director for Technology at the MIT Libraries, where she oversees the Libraries' technology strategy and its digital library research and development program. 

(http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar/ir_series.cfm#6)