Monthly Archives: December 2005

Christmas is over

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Well, Christmas is over. I’m tired out and so is Michele. We are still in our PJs and it’s almost noon! The kids are playing with their new toys on the living room floor, recovering from late nights, sugar highs, and excessive excitement. I’m listening to some of the songs I bought with a gift certificate to iTunes. I’ve never bought so many songs before in my life. I’m thrilled with the ability to buy just the songs I like, many of whom have special meaning or move me with their sentiments. Among my purchases are Johnny Cash singing “I Walk the Line” and “Ring of Fire” as well as LeAnn Rimes singing “Unchained Melody” with a voice that gives me goosebumps. Oh yeah, and I’m downloading the rest of the episodes of the tv show “Lost” that I don’t have already.

Keegan is staying at his grandparents’ house for the next few days and will go hunting with his grandpa today for the first time. He is very, very excited about this. Tonight he and his Uncle Bryan and his grandparents are going to see “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”

Tomorrow I go back to work and back to the daily grind.

Tristan turns five

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Monday we celebrated Tristan’s 5th birthday. Hard to believe he is five already! Next year he starts school. I hope to post pictures from his birthday party soon. On Sunday afternoon as part of celebrating his birthday, I took Tristan and Brinley to see Chicken Little at a nearby theater. It was Tristan’s second time going to see a movie and Brinley’s first. We had a good time and in general, the movie was good. Some parts of the movie were a little too intense, I thought, and I worried that Brinley in particular might get scared and start to cry. But she did ok. She just kept saying that the movie was too loud! The funny part was when one scene featured a sudden movement accompanied by a loud sound, and I levitated a few inches from my seat whereas Brinley and Tristan remained calmly sitting in their chairs. I laughed ’til I cried. I’m notoriously jumpy when it comes to startling movie scenes and if I go to a movie with others in our family, they usually refuse to sit next to me for fear that I might spill popcorn all over them, or worse, a drink. They usually say, “OK, get a seatbelt, would ya?!”

ONIX for Serials and MARC21 for Holdings

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2006-05: Changes to Holdings data fields to accommodate ONIX for Serials in the MARC 21 Holdings Format (Network Development and MARC Standards Office, Library of Congress)

Just came across an announcement of proposals for changes to MARC that will be discussed by MARBI (Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information Committee) at ALA Midwinter. One proposal, referenced above, is of particular interest to serialists because it suggests a means to add ONIX for Serials information, specifically for two message types, Serials Release Notice and Serials Online Holdings, into the MARC Holdings record. This should be interesting…

UKSG allows open access

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In an email sent out on December 1, UKSG (the United Kingdom Serials Group) announced that it had completed digitization of all back issues of its journal, Serials, and made them freely available as open access. Click here to access it. This is a very welcome and important example of a library organization “putting its money where its mouth is” by supporting open access to journal literature in a very direct way. UKSG is the sister organization (really, more of a parent) to NASIG and there is a very strong historic connection between the two.

Some Thoughts on RDA and ILS vendors [Updated]

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Some time ago I noted here that an acquaintence of mine had snagged an interesting job at ALA as RDA Project Manager. Yesterday I sat down and read more about RDA, which stands for Resource Description and Access. In particular I read through the RDA Prospectus, published by an international group called the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR, or JSC for short. This group is responsible for implementing changes to the cataloging code of practice in use by the majority of libraries in North America, the U.K., and Canada. The current cataloging code is known as the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR) and this has been the standard code for cataloging since the 1960s when the first edition of AACR was published. Having taken all of the cataloging coursework in library school and then starting out in the profession as a serials cataloger at the University of Chicago Library and then managing a large cataloging unit there for quite a while, I have “grown up” on AACR and have been actively involved in the cataloging community, particularly the serials cataloging part, in the past. I’ve since moved away from that professional focus somewhat and am no longer as current in my knowledge as I used to be. I had heard about RDA but didn’t really pay much attention to it. So it was a big surprise to me to read yesterday that RDA will be replacing AACR (or rather, AACR2R, which is the 2nd, rev. ed. of AACR that is currently in use). I decided to delve into RDA in more detail.

What I learned from the prospectus and from some of the discussion surrounding RDA that I could find is very intriguing. This is a very big change, and, in my view, a positive one. It is a big change on many levels but since I work for a major ILS (integrated library systems) vendor, I focused on what this new standard might mean for them. Here are some thoughts or impressions that came to mind:

  • Acceleration of the end of MARC, or at least, the lessening of emphasis on MARC. MARC (which stands for MAchine Readable Cataloging) is not directly tied to AACR2R or RDA in theory but nevertheless the two are closely entwined in practice. While AACR2R (and soon, RDA) describes cataloging rules such as how to choose the title of a book, MARC is the standard for how to record and transmit cataloging information electronically. MARC also drives or controls much of what cataloging information gets displayed to users in online catalogs. My reading of the prospectus makes it seem very clear that RDA will not assume the use of MARC but instead will be designed to be of use in a variety of metadata formats, of which MARC will be one of many. Of course there are already many other metadata formats in use by libraries other than MARC (e.g. EAD, Dublic Core, etc.), but this kind of emphasis by RDA on multiplicity of formats has far-reaching implications and solidifies or adds weight to the trend toward multiplicity of formats that’s been underway for several years. Why does this matter to ILS vendors? It matters because the core record or basis for just about every major ILS system is the MARC record. Expansion of multiplicity of metadata formats supported by an ILS calls for radical system redesign — assuming, of course (which I personally do not), the need for an integrated (some say, monolithic) library system continues to exist.
  • The prospectus makes it clear that RDA will be predicated on FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) and FRAR (Functional Requirements for Authority Records), conceptual models developed under the auspices of IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions). These models have been around for quite a while yet very few ILS vendors have made their systems compatible with them as of yet. Implementation of RDA, as it is currently proposed, anyway, will change that from “it would be nice, but…” to “must be capable of…” In other words, it will no longer be desirable, but required. That’s a big difference. Those ILS vendors who have maintained the status quo on this one won’t be able to do so for much longer.
  • According to the prospectus, “RDA is being developed to provide a better fit with emerging database technologies, and to take advantage of efficiencies and flexibility that such technologies offer with respect to data capture, storage, retrieval, and display.” This could mean all kinds of things for ILS vendors and I am not certain really of what JSC has in mind. However, database design and maintenance is perhaps the most integral, complicated, and proprietary aspect of modern library systems. Any changes in that aspect of ILS work will be of huge significance for vendors.
  • Perhaps if RDA is successfully implemented, the idea of an ILS will enjoy a renaissance if/when vendors and/or libraries develop a system that can readily ingest, output, and manipulate library data no matter how it is encoded. Rather than component-izing (a madeup word) the disparate pieces of traditional ILS functionality as seems to be the general trend nowadays, maybe RDA, with its inherent tolerance for a multiplicity of metadata formats, will result in one central system that can handle those formats in one place with the flexibility that libraries need. Who knows?
  • One major portion of RDA will be dedicated to relationships. I find this interesting and a good thing. One of the biggest failings of ILS systems is that they have largely failed to readily help librarians piece together disparate works so that the user of the online catalog can readily see relationships among them.
  • One thing not mentioned at all in the prospectus is the whole concept of user-supplied metadata, e.g. tagging, and how that will play a role in the future for online catalogs and bibliographic utilities. I believe that tagging as a phenomenon is here to stay, even if I have my doubts about its efficacy right now. How can or should ILS vendors enable user-supplied metadata in conjunction with library-supplied cataloging?

I admit that I don’t know as much as I should know about RDA and surrounding issues, and I may have misinterpreted some of what I’ve read. Or maybe there are even more radical implications for ILS vendors than what I can think of right now. Regardless, I am fairly confident that RDA’s progressive approach bodes for a lot of upheaval for a lot of stakeholders. I’m going to pay a lot more attention to it than I have heretofore!

Shark attacks NZ racing boat

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Those who know me well know that I have this “thing” about sharks and shark attacks. I also love New Zealand, where my sister and her family lives. So it should be no surprise that I read about a shark attack on a NZ racing team’s boat with great interest. The name of the racing team is Team Sun Latte and the story is available on their website.

Posting from You’re It reviewing the past year in tags

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I recommend reading the summary of the year’s activity in tags as written by Gene Smith at You’re It. Very interesting. It helps to set things in perspective for me. Probably the most compelling piece in this post is a quote from Tim Bray (I wish I had the source of it but don’t):

“Are tags useful? Are there any questions you want to ask, or jobs you want to do, where tags are part of the solution, and clearly work better than old-fashioned search? I really want to believe that tagging is big, a game-changer, but the longer I go on asking this question and not getting an answer, the more nervous I get.”

Some things I’m thankful for

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On my way to work this morning, I thought about things to be thankful for. Here are some that came to mind (not in any order):

  • warm clothes, e.g. scarves, Gore-Tex gloves, down jackets, long underwear
  • train conductors
  • bus drivers
  • public transportation
  • good health
  • a job
  • instant messaging (so I can keep in touch with my wife throughout the day)
  • email anywhere, including on my cell phone
  • Michele, my wife
  • my children
  • a place to live
  • the many choices for nearby shopping
  • above all, that I know God’s love and faithfulness

Questions about tagging

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I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but I have been experimenting for a while now with tagging my posts using Technorati tags. I’ve settled on using Flock as my preferred blogging platform, at least in part because of the ease with which I can associate tags and categories with each post. (By the way, I also love the way that I can use Flock to access my Flickr account and associate tags with my photos and/or quickly insert them into blog postings.) I’ve mentioned in the past that I am somewhat dubious about tagging, but I also can see some of its benefits from the user perspective. The jury is still out. In the meantime, I have some tagging questions that are nagging me. Maybe I am simply exhibiting the anal retentive stereotype of someone with a library cataloging background, who knows?!

  1. Does it matter that there is frequent divergence in how others are tagging the same concept or entity? I’m not even talking about using different (more specific or more general) words. Even when we use the same terms, we can input them in different ways. To illustrate, here is one recent example I’ve come across: “library 2.0″ (what I’ve used) vs. “library2.0″ (notice that lack of a space in between “library” and “2.0″). Then there is the use of capitalization or lack thereof. E.g. “Library 2.0″ vs. “library 2.0″. I don’t view this as mattering that much, but it may matter in certain situations.
  2. I love the concept of developing a tag cloud, and am intrigued by the work of some to tie this into the library online catalog. See, e.g., the work being done at the University Libraries at George Mason University using subject headings extracted from a Voyager system. This is just one example; there are many others. What I am not clear on, though, is whether this is really the answer or solution to the inherent disparity in tags used by different people. Does this disparity not really matter? Of course, there has always been disparity in library cataloging, even when using subject thesauri like LCSH.
  3. It seems that different services develop their own sets of tags. E.g. there are Technorati tags, del.icio.us tags, Flickr tags, and even LibraryThing tags. It seems logical to think about über tags, that allow the user to map between disparate systems. Is that (or would that be) beneficial? A sort of Dublin Core for the tagging world? Is anyone developing something like this or even thinking about it, or am I way off?

There are other niggly things that I can’t think of right now, but if I can remember them later, I’ll jot them down and ask about them in a separate post.