Code4Lib: Feb. 16: 20 minute sessions 2 + breakouts/lighting talks

Teaching the Library and Information Community How to Remix Information
Raymond Yee
The one thing that sticks out in this session is that someone is actually showing MLIS students how information can be remixed.  I just got out of an MLIS program 3 years ago, and I don’t remember this type of a class being available.  Hopefully this means that library schools are starting to teach this concept.
Two Paths to Interoperable Metadata
Devon Smith
Because of MarcEdit, I was very interested in Devon’s presentation.  To be honest, he got my attention when he said that XSLT was simply the wrong model for doing metadata transformation (at this point, it’s the best the rest of us got) since nearly every transformation system I’m working on uses XSLT.  However, apparently, OCLC uses a different system that they have been developing called Steel and ROM (Record Object Model).  The process uses maps and provides transform reversability.  Its something I’d like to test, but unfortunately, OCLC isn’t currently looking to make this tool available as open source.
The Case for Code4Lib 501c(3)
Roy Tennant
Roy talked about some of the different options code4lib could utilize if the group wanted to become more formalized.  The conversation ranged from non-profit, a cooperative, etc.  A breakout session followed that discussed this in further detail.
Breakouts/Lighting sessions:
I attended the metadata crosswalk breakout session to get a bit more information on the OCLC steel methodology and then was one of 22 folks that gave lighting talks.  I did mine on MarcEdit 5.0, partly because I think that this group could find a lot of its functionality useful for testing their own tools or to have others within their organization use.