App-titude

In its latest issue, The Charleston Advisor launches a new regular column focusing on "apps of interest in the library community".  The initial column provides a brief overview of vendor mobile apps with the promise of closer examination of specific apps in the future. Additionally, formal reviews of some apps will be offered in the review section of this publication.

Program for Cooperative Cataloging task group issues list of RDA training materials

The PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) Standing Committee on Training Task Group on RDA Training Materials submitted its final report to the PCC Standing Committee on Training in May 2012. The Task Group was charged with collecting existing RDA training materials to be used for PCC training.  The 36-page report contains an extensive list of freely available RDA training materials created by a wide variety of libraries and organizations. After gathering and evaluating more than 100 resources, the Task Group created an annotated list of 38 recommended resources. The recommended materials are divided into six categories: general documentation, theoretical foundations, introductions to the RDA Toolkit, RDA for general cataloging, RDA for special formats, and RDA and authority records. Libraries nationwide will benefit from the wide dissemination of these RDA training materials, regardless of whether they are PCC members or not. The Task Group report is available at: http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/sct/documents/Final%20Report%20of%20the%20SCT%20RDA%20Training%20Materials%20Task%20Group.docm.

Digital Preservation in a Box

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance just unveiled a new resource, Digital Preservation in a Box. This is an online collection of resources for the learning and teaching of digital preservation. Please see the following blog post on the Signal for more information about the collection:

http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/07/digital-preservation-in-a-box-have-a-look-inside/

The Digital Preservation in a Box is located at: http://dpoutreach.net/

The site contains the following resources:

*Digital Preservation 101 – introductory materials, including videos, articles, and tutorials explaining the concepts involved in digital preservation
*Glossary – collection of glossaries from various institutions and programs, containing explanations of relevant terms
*Preservation by Format – where to find information for specific digital formats including photographs, audio, video, email, etc.
*Digital Preservation Tools – basic tools listed for either “consumer” or “information professional”
*Digital Storage – some options geared towards personal archiving or the basic knowledge needed to understand preservation storage technology.
*Resources for Educators – curriculum guidance and teaching materials
*Marketing and Outreach – links to marketing materials that can be adapted to support specific events.
*Event Guidance – what you need to know to prepare a digital preservation event at your institution
*Brief Introduction to Digitization – all about scanning, and making the distinction between digital preservation and digitization

ALCTS/LITA slides available

PowerPoint slides from the LITA/ALCTS Authority Control Interest Group Programs from ALA Annual 2012 are now available on ALA Connect.

Their speakers were:

Janis Young, Library of Congress - LC update to the Authority Control Interest Group.

Gary Strawn, Northwestern University - RDA and the LC/NACO authority file.

Ana Cristan, Library of Congress - Name authorities - What's new?

Karen Anderson, Backstage Library Works - Planning for RDA authority conversion.

 

PCC issues guidelines for the 264 field

http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/264-Guidelines.doc

On June 11, 2012 the Program for Cooperative Cataloging issued guidelines for the use of the 264 field in the MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data. The 264 field is used for encoding information pertaining to the production, publication, distribution, manufacture, and copyright date associated with resources. The repeatability of the 264 field allows for separate encoding of each of these different functions, which were previously all rolled up into the 260 field. The enhanced granularity of these data will facilitate machine processing and hopefully improve discovery and retrieval of resources. While acknowledging that 260 and 264 fields may coexist in pre-RDA records and in RDA records created prior to the implementation of the 264, the guidelines state that all new original RDA records should use the 264 field. In an email dated June 12, 2012, Jay Weitz of OCLC confirmed that OCLC users may now begin to use the 264 field in accordance with the PCC guidelines (http://listserv.oclc.org/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1206b&L=oclc-cjk&D=1&F=P&P=408). If your library uses records downloaded from OCLC, you may already have records with 264 fields in your catalog, even if you didn't create those fields yourself! Catalogers will want to make sure their ILS recognizes the 264 as a valid field. You will also want to check out how this new field displays in your online catalog. In my library's OPAC, we discovered that the 264 will not appear in the "brief" display without some tweaking by our staff.

How to search Google

A colleague's Facebook post lead to this fascinating article by John Tedesco about Daniel Russell's demonstration for a group of investigative journalists of how to search Google like a pro. The problem he posed for them was, given the view of a skyscraper, how would you find the phone number of the office from which the photo was taken. The article went on to detail Russell's Google searching techniques, which are well worth reading, before giving a link to Russell's blog, Search ReSearch, where the riddle about the phone number is answered. It turns out Russell's blog is full of many other research puzzles. Russell works for Google, but claims that his blog reflects his own thoughts. He calls himself an "anthropologist of search." Both articles well worth checking out.

OCLC Board of Trustees Rejects Jack Blount; Keeps Jay Jordan On

On June 20, I received this OCLC Member Update, which I found surprising since it came just 12 days after the OCLC Member Update announcing that Jack B. Blount is OCLC's next President and CEO. I reproduce yesterday's announcement from OCLC in full below:




Dear OCLC Members,

The OCLC Board of Trustees has concluded that rather than moving forward with the appointment of Jack B. Blount as its President and CEO, it is in the best interest of OCLC to have Jay Jordan continue serving in these capacities. Mr. Jordan has agreed to postpone his retirement to continue leading OCLC.

The OCLC Board of Trustees believes Mr. Jordan's strong track record, his skills as a leader, and his ability to identify and navigate emerging trends, make him uniquely qualified to serve the nearly 72,000 institutions that use OCLC services.

The Board of Trustees has complete confidence in the global management team and the 1,250 employees, who are working diligently to serve libraries around the world and fulfill OCLC's mission and goals.

The Board is committed to an orderly transition of leadership and will be assessing its succession planning process as it moves forward.


Sincerely,

Larry Alford
Chair, OCLC Board of Trustees