Terry's Worklog

Updated: Apparently Live writer truncated my links. I’ve fixed them.

Terry Reese, Oregon State University

Sorry, no picture and yes, I gave a talk at the Readex conference as well.  I thought it was fairly well received given the topic — though I think it surprised folks as well.  Lots of fun though.  Key quotes from my talk:

• Metadata wants to be free…free the metadata
• Libraries == middleware

I recorded my talk, so if anyone has ~50 minutes to kill, they can listen to it from here: http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/dspace/handle/1957/3134

Or, if you want, you can read a quick summary from Vika Zafrin’s blog at: http://wordsend.org/archives/2006/10/06/readex-ree….  I took a quick look at it and it pretty much covers the basics.

–TR

Ed Redmond, LC

Ed talked about the current digitization program being used in the LC map reading room.  He then looked at some of the research that can now be done because of the items currently digitized.

Something interesting — these are research quality scans — which the idea being that once digitized, these items will never be pulled for reference again.  Another interesting thing — Ed had mentioned that LC, since starting map digitization, had digitized some 10,000 maps in the past 10 or so years.  However, they acquire close to 70,000 maps a year.  I’m not a math wiz, but looking at those numbers simply shows how much content simply isn’t be digitized.

Also, Ed talked about maps that are actually created by the LC maps room.  This was something I was aware of.  When I visited the LC about two years ago, one of the things that I had an opportunity to see was the GIS lab in the Map room where LC creates custom maps for Congress on a number of topics.  At the time, I was told that LC couldn’t make those generated maps available because of the sensitivity of the requests.  However, Ed seemed to indicate that LC is looking at ways to overcome some of the privacy issues currently keeping these maps from circulation.  And they are at this point out of circulation.  He’d noted afterwards, that even though LC creates the maps and keeps a digital copy of the GIS project — the library itself, doesn’t archive a copy of the generated map.  In only exists within the archives of the laboratory.  Interesting…

Ed also showed off a number of interesting maps from the reading room.  He was kind enough to give me a copy of his presentation.  See below.

• Slides (ppt)

–TR

Matthew Beacom, Yale

RDA will be:

• Multinational content standard providing bibliographic description and access for a variety of media and formats collected by libraries today.
• Developed for use in English language environment; it can also be used in other language communities.
• Independence of format (i.e., like MARC21)
• Will support FRBR tags
• Enable users of library catalogs, etc., to find and user resources appropriate to their information needs.

Who develops and supports RDA:

• ALA CC:DA, ACOC, BL, CCC, CILIP, LC, etc.

“New” Part A (formally part I) for RDA:

1. Introduction
2. General Guidelines for resource description
3. Identification of the resource
4. Technical description — FRBR “Select”
5. Content description — FRBR “Select”
6. Terms of availability — FRBR “Obtain”
7. Item specific information (Now sprinkled through the proposal)

Chapters 6-7 — FRBR Find

• Relationships between FRBR and Group 1
  • works
  • expressions
  • manifestations
  • items
• Relationships between FRBR Group 1 and Group 2 entities
  • persons
  • corporate bodies
  • families

“New” Part B

• General guidelines for Access point control
• Authorized forms
• Variant forms

Some “big issues”

• Its a compromise between AACR2 and what’s new.
  • Means compatibility is important
  • needed to maintain international agreements
• Content vs. display
  • RDA will be a content, not display standard
• Transcription
  • How important is data transcription to record identification?

Questions:

How many countries are involved in the RDA development?
US, Canada, UK and Australia.

–TR

August Imholtz, Readex
Kolakowski’s “What the past is for”: a reflection on the irreality of the past and its consequences in the digital world

August provided a philosophical discussion of Kolakowski’s lecture, “What the past is for” (http://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/kluge-prize-speech.html).  The talk was a discussion of history and the idea that there is no historical truth, only interpreted events.  It was a fun talk to listen to — but one that  I’ll admit I’d have a difficult time putting into words.  Had I been on the ball, I would have simply recorded it because it was I think an appropriate way to start the institute.  I’ve attended this institute over the last two years (this being my third) and one thing that I have found is that our work in libraries seems to be a product of interpretation.  How do we interpret our place within this new digital reality — what do we see as our user communities, how do we deal with the varied forms of metadata and digital media.  We live in a changing world filled with different perspectives and goals.  So onward.

–TR