New books vs. Old books - What's up with the smell of old books?

Every wonder about the smell of old books? Here is what is happening.

BIBFRAME / Linkeddata survey - Heads up catalogers & metadata librarians

Survey from LC-PCC:

On June 20, 2014, the Library of Congress announced its desire to collaborate with the Program for Cooperative Cataloging in the endorsement and support of BIBFRAME as the model to help the library community move into the Linked Data environment.
PCC and LC strongly encourage the PCC membership and the broader library community to become more knowledgeable and attuned to the development and rollout of BIBFRAME and how it fits within libraries and the larger Linked Data sphere.
The PCC Secretariat has created a BIBFRAME survey that aims to assess the current level of understanding of BIBFRAME within the PCC community and the wider information community. The survey also asks for ways in which information and announcements on BIBFRAME can be shared more widely within the communities.
The PCC Secretariat encourages all PCC members to take the survey, and requests that PCC members share the survey widely with colleagues in all spheres of library work – vendors, systems, acquisitions, and other areas.
You do not need to be a PCC member in order to take the survey!
The survey should take approximately 10 minutes or less to complete, and you may remain anonymous if you wish.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PCC-BIBFRAME-2014
The survey will close on Monday, July 14, 2014.

The difference between marketing and community

This is excellent article, because it gets to the purpose of social media. Marketing is to sell something and while higher ed (and especially libraries) have things to sell, we also are about making something - communities, literacy, empowering our communities, educating our students, energizing our faculty, helping ... So, we are both.

The fundamental difference between marketing and community http://tnw.to/q3Kx7 

Information Literacy Standards in Higher Ed - Draft and survey request

Framework draft for Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Ed:

http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Framework-for-IL-for-HE-Draft-1-Part-1.pdf

Survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JCVY3GW

It will be interesting to see how these mesh with the ACRL Visual Literacy Standards:

http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy

Time to provide some feedback and your thoughts.

The song of the library staff

This is cool.

3D makerspaces & libraries (webinar/video)

interesting and some good insights.

Embedded librarianship notes from an ACRL webinar

Getting started with Embedded Librarianship

1. Define partners

2. goals - priorities

3. How to embed

a. traditional classroom : co-teacher model; works well with 1st year students

b. embedding in LMS/ Course Manageemnt Systems “virtual” librarian

c. Project teams - business programs, student groups, etc.

d. liaison - student groups(?)

e. curriculum (accreditation, new departments, new programs, reorganization)

f. credit course (teaching)

David Schumaker - part to whole, engage meaningfully, history of collaboration and value of collaboration

Challenges

Staffing?

How could embedded librarians help with staffing? Spread out workload.

Where can embedded librarians make the most impact on student success?

Barriers

Others might not know what you do (opportunity to educate) and barriers within institution (inconsistency of curriculum)

Course specific technology - social media,  wikis, tool itself doesn’t matter

Create reusable learning materials: learning objects, video, podcasts

Pilot project - embedding custom content, team-teaching class

Scalable - collaborate with composition program on content development, literacy (example)

Success of the Embedded Librarian

Criteria for success - measures of growth in embedded librarianship

Online instruction only - eliminate face to face (radical but may be necessary if stretched then)

tinyurl.com/ACRLembed worksheet

Assessment

Think of assessment as a way to tell the story of your project

Revision-Goal setting - Collaboration- Planning/Design-Assessment (a loop)

Embedded vs. one shot instruction

Measure student learning over time vs. learn about your teaching style that day

Collect and compare longitudinal data

• Research questions + keywords (easy to do with LMS)
• Search strategies
• Citation analysis
• Pre-test/Post-test (not especially effective for creative writing or humanities)
• Attitude inventory
• Reflection
• Log Data
  
  

http://www.ala.org/acrl/onlinelearning/elearning/courses/embedded

Cataloging: Cuttering resources

I put this together for someone else and thought I would share it with you too! ________________________________________
cutter tables at
http://www.itsmarc.com/crs/mergedProjects/cutter/cutter/basic_table_cutter.htm

and the cataloging calculator is a pretty nifty tool:
http://calculate.alptown.com/

This is a good overall resource:
http://www.itsmarc.com/crs/mergedProjects/cutter/cutter/contents.htm

One of the main things to be aware of in cuttering, is the local shelflist. ;-)

As for creating call numbers, for us that would be LC classification, so there is the subject analysis part to get the class and then the cutter. LCSH can be browsed via this list
http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/db/lcsh/index.htm
I'm not sure how detailed it is, but it seems like a good overall tool.

Ebooks and print books can co-exist (infographic)

Catalogers don't blog (well some do - at least 10 years!)

I've been blogging since mmm... 2000, maybe 2001? I didn't do a very good job of announcing myself. I just jumped into the stream... The first entry for content divergent is 2003, but before that I was photoblogging (story and some screenshots here) that evolved into a more personal site which was featured on about.com (predominantly in the migraines section). In 2007, I shifted gears to focus more on technology and I started moving my art blogging to social media sites.

 True, cataloging is only a fraction of the topics I cover primarily because I have a very strong web-based world view in terms of cataloging (metadata creation). I love libraries, but for me, I love technology more. I love what it can do for us. I love how we can use it to make our lives easier, better, more interesting. Libraries just happen to be the house of my technology interests at the moment and with RDA, FRBR and the BIBFRAME, maybe we can finally take our rightful place at the Semantic Web table... but I digress... (metadata makes it happen, btw).  So, my blog evolves... and will continue to do so.

 So, why do I do it? For technology, it is a way for me to bookmark, curate and also to comment on topics. For art, a way for me to share but also document my body of work. I guess that is what it is for all of my web presence - to share my experience and document my body of work. I don't think professionals need to blog daily (I don't) nor do they need to blog, but we do have an obligation to share through some avenue. Listservs and other forums, published articles, and/or social media may work better for some individuals.


 in response to Why Catalogers Seldom Blog http://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2013/01/28/why-catalogers-seldom-blog/#comment-5462

The current state of libraries and trends (infographic)

Attribution: Open-Site.org

Not at ALA? No problem - harvesting alamw news from twitter...

For those of you who couldn't make it to ala:
you can see all of the tagged ala midwinter (#alamw13) tweets at this link https://twitter.com/search?q=alamw13&src=tyah ; you can also save it in your twitter searches so that you can see as many posts  ;-)

Perhaps, even more useful, use the RSS feed for this hashtag http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=alamw13 to subscribe via your reader, which then gives you the ability to search and filter better.

So, there ya go.

(btw, you can use this for any conference or keyword - just replace the alamw13 with your keyword.)

Georgia (regional) linked data discussion group

I can't remember if I posted this here before, but if you are interested, this discussion group about linked data was started by Laura @ Emory, Doug G @ Ga Tech and a little help from me. 

Please feel free to join us - (and it does not matter what kind of library you are in or how much you know - or don't - about linked data - we're all in some stage of learning.)
 
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/glamlod

Also, we are interested in voices and resources outside of libraries, too (though we hope to keep the focus somewhat regional). 

ExLibris joins W3C Schema Bib Extend Community Group (Schema.org)

So very cool!  Exactly - library bib data has a very viable place in the larger semantic web - ESPECIALLY, our controlled vocabularies (subject headings) and authority (series and names) data. 

-------------------

Ex Libris joins W3C Schema Bib Extend Community Group, part of the Schema.org linked data initiative http://http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=17470 

----------

:"Our customer community is very keen to take advantage of linked data methodology," remarked Oren Beit-Arie, chief strategy officer at Ex Libris. "At our recent international user meeting, a special interest working group on linked open data was established and members wrote a manifesto in support of linked open data. We have already begun discussing with the working group various ways in which we can use linked data in our solutions."

About Schema.org

Schema.org is platform where the Web community can come together and share structured schemas that improve the ability for search engines to understand the content of Web pages.

Launched just over a year ago, the Schema.org initiative, backed by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Yandex, and others, has been very successful in encouraging the sharing of structured data on the Web. Within a year, search engines were already seeing more than 7% of pages crawled containing Schema.org markup.

For more information, see the schema.org blog at http://blog.schema.org/.

Survey on digital literacy, social media, ereaders, & more

I  realize this survey is for public libraries, but I know a few of you ;-) Please consider taking the survey. 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/digitallearningcenter

“More frequently, public libraries and community organizations are becoming the go-to place for digital literacy education. Users come searching for help to understand and use computer programs, printers and other hardware, the Internet (web browsing, e-mail, social media), digital media (cameras, e-readers, music players) and more.

The Public Library Association (PLA) recently received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to build an online Digital Learning Center. This site will hold self-directed trainings for end-users to increase their digital literacy and will be a place for digital literacy trainers to share tools and best practices. Please help us with this important work by completing the survey below. The survey will be open until December 15, 2012.”

For more information on the project:  http://www.ala.org/news/pr?id=11454

Semantic web, data, social networking, art and more (radio interview)

Ok, so you have a couple of days left to listen to the archive - so get with it people. We talk about semantic web, but also the social web, serendipity, user experience, libraries as place AND art. All wrapped around some great indie music. 

Now how cool is that?

On burning books - thoughts on books as sacred object vs. knowledge holders

I stumbled across an interesting post from a librarian who created a display for banned book week. Of course, this wasn't just any old poster session about Banned Book Week -- no, this one actually contained books that she had burned. Responding to some feedback about this particular display and her actions, Jessica blogged these thoughts:

Personally? I love books. Love them to pieces. I'm a bibliophile of the first order. I love the smell of old books, the soft *crack* when you open a new hardcover book for the first time, and the rustle of pages turning. I grieve when someone tells me they don't like to read, because reading is such a huge part of my life.
Professionally? I'm a librarian, not a curator of a collection of books. Books are just one (sometimes small) part of what I do for a living. Further, being a librarian means I get rid of books sometimes......

 I get rid of them, most times without the slightest regret, because books are NOT sacred objects. They are just objects.  

On the other hand, information (and access thereto), education, and learning ARE sacred.  

----- 

Postcards from the Deep
http://www.facebook.com/RobinFayArts

 I sometimes use snippets of book pages in my artwork and while I haven't received any negative feedback about it (YET), I am sure some wonder why *I* as a librarian would do such a thing.

However, the books I use are not books as art or sacred objects - no first editions, no significant literary works, etc. (Yes, it is a subjective criteria). The book as a medium to communicate information has little intrinsic value beyond its information; however, when it approaches a level of art through quality paper, bindings, illustrations, marginalia, printing technique, number of the printing or edition, among other characteristics, then it moves from a container of information to a sacred object. In some cases what is sacred is what we - archives, libraries, museeums - say so.  

Even knowing a particular book was unloved or unappreciated enough for no one to want it, I do feel a moment of sadness when I rip out pages of a book or cut it up. In spite of my educated viewpoint in terms of book as communication device vs. sacred object, I wonder if I am still destroying knowledge or extinguishing a human voice. However, I am also giving new life to the book and truly making it into a sacred object - a one of a kind piece of artwork.

Information is important, the medium, not so much (as long as it is accessible). There are books to me that are sacred (an early edition William Wordsworth collection of poetry that I own; the book I wrote and illustrated in 2nd grade), but for the most part, no.Obviously the book I wrote in second grade has no value beyond sentimentality, but that is important, too.

Reference: http://letterstoayounglibrarian.blogspot.com/2012/10/burning-books-been-there-done-that.html

Linked data, Libraries - How, Why & MARC

Two excellent presentations together, one focused on MARC/linked data; the second focuses on user experience but in terms of how linked data and the FRBR (Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records) model could possibly impact that experience.

The first (Philip E. Schreur, Stanford) focuses on bibliographic data and MARC.  Really great overview and explanation of linked data and its potential impact on libraries with a focus on MARC records and library data, name authority records/control, bibliographic data, and how linking data works. Also discusses challenges of traditional data control (siloed data, etc.) and how linked data can address those challenges. Great example using a music bib record (~13 minutes). 

The second presentation (Jennifer Bowen, Univ. of Rochester, at about 16 minutes in) starts out with a study of users but then moves to whether linked data can meet their needs (and how). Examples of tools include Drupal (the newest version of which does have semantic web functionalities built in). FRBR (Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records) data model/linked data discussion starts about 37 minutes.

 
http://www.infodocket.com/2012/08/28/new-video-from-cni-linked-data-for-libraries-why-should-we-care-where-should-we-start/

ERIC removes PDFs due to privacy issues

Researchers have started hitting deadends in ERIC (the Educational Resources Information Center) database when trying to download/view fulltext PDFs. PDFs downloads were ceased due to privacy concerns. I haven't seen much written about this other than a brief post at Inside Higher Ed.

ERIC's statement included this message:

A limited number of ERIC full-text documents are available at this time due to privacy concerns about information contained in some of the collection. Although the documents in ERIC had been publicly available in microfiche for many years, the advent of the Internet has amplified the possibility that someone could make improper use of information in these ERIC documents.

 On 8/23/2012, they posted an update about the restoration of access to some PDFs including a list of what has been restored.http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/resources/html/news/eric_news_132.html

"While searching for full text on the ERIC website at eric.ed.gov, note that there are some temporary search and display limitations caused by the recent, unexpected suspension of PDF downloading. As soon as the majority of full text is restored to the site, all features will return to normal operation. Limitations include:

• PDF links continue to display in ERIC records, even when full text is currently not available.

The ability to limit search results to only records with associated full text may not return reliable results."

HMMM..... As if patrons aren't confused enough with the results they receive.

In the article from Inside Higher Ed (published prior to the update statement at ERIC):

There’s nothing on the site explaining exactly what that concern is, but some speculate that documents that once were distributed to libraries on microfiche (if the library could afford it) are much more exposed on the web, and it may be that someone discovered that one or more of the documents contained sensitive material  that identified subjects in a study or possibly revealed a social security number.

This does seem to be the case as a separate ERIC post states:

We apologize for the inconvenience, and we are working to isolate the affected documents to ensure that personally identifying information that authors may have inadvertently included is not displayed. Our goal is to return full text access to users as quickly as possible.

All of this does raise interesting questions about preweb materials being digitized or uploaded to web based databases. Tools and better scanners have made scanning and dumping content into a database much easier; yet, the ability to review materials and assign appropriate metadata for better search results - at some point those require human oversight. I'm not sure how the materials get into ERIC, but I've worked on enough digital projects where content is dumped in, with either machine generated or user generated metadata to know that there has to be experienced staff involved - otherwise, things which should not be in the database end up there, materials are hard to find due to a lack of appropriate keywords/subject headings (metadata), and mistakes abound. Our machines are just not able to effectively apply context to data (yet).

Updates on RDA (LIbrary metadata; 264; authority records, more)

New MARC 264 field (publishing):

Few examples of RDA records in OCLC (and/or in LC's catalog) with the new MARC 264 field; most seem to be using only a 264 in lieu of a 260 which seems to follow the recommendations of the RDA proposal.

#56451778

264 1Sawtry, Cambs : ǂb Dedalus, ǂc 2004.

#20722916 (record in LC has not been updated) but the fields in question:

264 1Carbondale ; ǂa Edwardsville : ǂb Southern Illinois University Press, ǂc [1990]
264 4ǂc ©1990

#61821848 ; via the LC catalog

Updates to authority records:

[Snipped from a list]

The PCC Acceptable Headings Implementation Task Group (PCCAHITG) has successfully tested the programming code for Phase 1 in preparation for the LC/PCC Phased Implementation of RDA as described in the document entitled "The phased conversion of the LC/NACO Authority File to RDA" found at the Task Group's page at: http://files.library.northwestern.edu/public/pccahitg/.

Changes to name authority records (NARs) that are not susceptible to a mechanical change under Phase 2 will have a 667 note aded to them with the statement:

                THIS 1XX FIELD CANNOT BE USED UNDER RDA UNTIL THIS RECORD HAS BEEN REVIEWED AND/OR UPDATED

Some other enhancements will be made, when applicable, if the record is being updated to add the note (e.g., 046 fields are added to records for persons when the information is available).

If a record is a candidate for a mechanical change in Phase 2, no note will be added to the record during Phase 1.