Z666.7.L364 (www.jenniferlang.net)

From Shawne Miksa via the eduCAT mailing list:

Did you know that catalogers use only 10-20% of available MARC fields/subfields? Given evolving search behaviors and the amazoogle effects do our bibliographic records provide information users need?

The MARC Content Designation Utilization (MCDU) project team would like to invite you to “Informing the Future of MARC: An Empirical Approach”, a panel presentation at the ALA 2007 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. The session will take place on Saturday, June 23rd, 8am-10am.

This is an ALCTS sponsored event and will feature Dr. William E. Moen, Associate Professor and Dr. Shawne D. Miksa, Assistant Professor, from the School of Library and Information Sciences, University of North Texas and Sally H. McCallum, Chief, Network Development and MARC Standards Office, Library of Congress.

This program presents findings from a major IMLS-funded research study on catalogers’ use of MARC ( http://www.mcdu.unt.edu ) and an opportunity to discuss future directions for MARC and cataloging practices in the context of FRBR, RDA, and XML. The results of this study provide a much needed empirical basis to better inform MARC’s future in the bibliographic control
environment. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is an independent Federal agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities.

Project reports can be read on the MCDU Project website.

• LibDex - Worldwide index of library catalogues, web sites and Friends of Libraries pages
  Libdex is a worldwide directory of:

  library homepages,
  web-based OPACs,
  Friends of the Library pages, and
  library e-commerce affiliate links.
  (tags: libraries librarians catalogs)
LISZEN: Library & Information Science Search Engine
LISZEN a search engine of over 600 library blogs.
(tags: blogs libraries librarians)

Thanks, Kevin!

Walt Crawford will be leaving OCLC at the end of September. He writes:

The RLG-OCLC transition will be complete in September. I’ve received a termination notice from OCLC, effective September 30, 2007.

He’s in the market for a job. If you’ve never read anything of his, here is his ezine: Cites & Insights.

Totally off topic, I really like the clean layout of his blog…

• Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control (Library of Congress)

  The group’s charge is to:

  Present findings on how bibliographic control and other descriptive practices can effectively support management of and access to library materials in the evolving information and technology environment

  Recommend ways in which the library community can collectively move toward achieving this vision

  Advise the Library of Congress on its role and priorities

  (tags: cataloging libraries)
• Four sources of metadata about things
  Lorcan Dempsey writes,

  I think it is useful to think of four sources of descriptive metadata in libraries. These are not mutually exclusive, and one of the interesting questions we have to address is how they will be mobilized effectively together.

  (tags: metadata cataloging)

I started this book on Wednesday, so I’ve only read a little of it… the “Prologue.” I’ve never read anything by David Weinberger before this, but I have a feeling that this book will be very engaging. He begins by making observations about the way the physical world is ordered, based on his visit to the the Staples Prototype Lab, the “testing ground for making shopping at Staples easier for customers.” The lab is used to find ways to create an environment in which the customer doesn’t have to walk very far to get everything he or she needs.

Weinberger asserts that the limitations of the physical world are so much a part of our lives that we don’t even recognize them:

He gives an example of how these limitations hinder us in the physical world by pointing out that, in the case of a Staples store, no matter how well the store is organized, if he goes in the store looking for only a few items, all of the other items get in the way:

If I come in with a shopping list of fifteen items, the other 7,185 items Staples stocks not only are irrelevant, they hide what I’m looking for.

(Here comes the fun part!)

Weinberger goes on to say that there is an “alternative universe … the digital world,” and in this environment, it doesn’t matter how much stuff is out there; things get rearranged and sorted depending on each person’s needs. But there’s a problem, according to Weinberger. We have been trying to organize our digital world (i.e., the world of knowledge) according to what we know about the physical world. It is the limitations of the physical world that have limited how we’ve organized the digital world.

He finishes the prologue by suggesting that as we strive to move away from traditional ways of organization, we will discover not only that information wants to be free, but that it “wants to be miscellaneous,” too!

I can’t wait to continue reading!!! Stay tuned….