TS and OBS Go To Philly! July 23-26, 2011

Is it just me?

2011-08-05T11:58:00.002-04:00

I had good intentions of blogging throughout the AALL Conference in Philadelphia. But that was before I hit a major snag with the Safari browser on my new iPad, along with some connectivity hassles. And then the hectic pace of the meetings and programs just got away from me. The compressed schedule seems to be getting tougher to keep up with. Or is it just me?

From the TS list . . .

2011-07-28T12:10:00.000-04:00

What a great week in Philadelphia!
If you attended any of the great TS-SIS sponsored programs at AALL this past week, please complete our online program evaluation. Your feedback is important for future programming. Click here to get started. Survey closes August 10.

TS-SIS sponsored programs included:

Is-ness vs. About-ness: Development and Implementation of LC Law Genre/Form Terms

The Elusive Updating Loose-Leaf: Cataloging Standards and Practices for the 21st Century

Hot Topic: The RDA Decision and What It Will Mean For Me and My Library!

Analyzing, Managing and Communication About Library Budgets: How Are You Doing it?

Thank you on behalf of the TS-SIS Education Committee and our talented speakers.

Best,

Suzanne Graham
TS-SIS Member-at-Large, 2010-2012

De Arte et de Jurisprudentia: Meditationes ad Res

2011-07-28T11:56:00.001-04:00

Dr. Jolande Goldberg, inaugural winner of the AALL Distinguished Lectureship, gave an address Monday entitled De Arte et de Jurisprudentia: Meditationes ad Res. The subtitle given in the program, Some Aspects of Legal Iconography, gave more of an idea of what they talk was about. She explored the images in legal books describing first consanguinity relationships in religious law -- i.e. who you are related and who you are not allowed to marry -- and then showed how the same images (often presented as a tree) are used to describe the inheritance relationships in civil law -- i.e. who inherits first, etc. Interestingly, Goldberg claims that it was the issue of inheritance that was the very first bit of civil law that was worked out. It seems that this was thing in life that first needed a legal expression. It was a fascinating talk, and it will be interesting to see it in print, where we can see the images up close. She opened it by discussing how she came to be writing the classification schedules for civil and then religious laws, and how they too use similar "tree" to explain the relationship not of relatives but of parts of the law. She liked this project, she said, finding it good for "testing the wits and pushing the envelope." Anyone who knows Dr. Goldberg knows that that is something she would like very much. Look for the published version in Law Library Journal.

More about Emerging technologies

2011-07-28T11:07:00.001-04:00

Going through my notes again on the Emerging technologies and the library manager program I found a few more interesting points. Again, it was great program, I thought, in that it was pretty informal. We were all in the position of wondering what Richard should or could have done. Could he have done something differently to get the support of his director for Digital Commons? Should he have acted differently when he did not get that support? In hindsight yes -- not wasted time on the other product. But could he have known that without trying it? Was it not possible that he might have been able to build something on the other product that would have convinced his director that it was a worthy project, worthy of the $15,000 that Digital Commons would cost?

In any case, Simon had a few tips on middle management.

If all you're hearing about is the budget, then you can assume that any costly product is a no-go.
Are other libraries doing it? This might be important information.
Capitalize on strengths. Do you have a staff member who's being wasted in the spot they're in? Give people challenging projects. Don't waste them. Do your library and your IT department coexist peacefully? If so, take advantage of that. Then go talk to your boss. But still don't be attached to your idea.
Reward people who are truthful. This makes the environment lighter and better.
There's a time for getting information, and a time for being done.

We've all been in the position of having a great idea, and then having that great idea stymied. It's still not clear what to do about this, but having Richard hold his problem up to the light for us to look at and think about is very helpful, as is the recognition that you (okay, me) are not the only one in this situation.

Cat and Class Roundtable

2011-07-27T15:32:00.000-04:00

The Cat and Class roundtable was given over to a discussion by four AALL catalogers who had tested RDA: Pat Sayre-McCoy at the University of Chicago, Pam Deemer at Emory, Lia Contursi at Columbia and Cindy May at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. All of them discussed what training materials they had used. Pat recommended the LC webinars (available with other LC training materials here) and the ALCTS RDA webinars (available here). She has also compiled a list of wikis and blogs which she found helpful, and would be willing to share that list via email to interested parties (psm1 AT uchicago.edu). Lia recommended Adam Schiff's document (they all seem to be listed here). Cindy recommended Mark Ehlert's webinars, which she called outstanding. (I can't seem to find this readily available on the web. It seems to be this, though. I'll check further.) Lia recommended Chris Oliver's book, Introducing RDA: a guide to the basics.

The main points I took from this session were: that the RDA Toolkit really is an online tool, and should be used online. There is a paper version, but Pat did not recommend using it. That collaboration and open discussion were really useful in trying to understand how to use RDA. That th RDA Toolkit is based on FRBR concepts, and that an understanding of FRBR concepts was necessary in order to make headway with the Tookit, as was a mapping feature to lead you from AACR2 areas to RDA areas. There is now a better index, which is also helpful. According to Lia, navigating the toolkit was the hard part -- actually cataloging in RDA was not so difficult, although Pam found that integrating resources were somewhat difficult.

When asked if the switch to RDA was worth all the bother, one cataloger said no, but two others said yes, and in a later session both Pat and Jean Pajerek at Cornell were actually excited about RDA. John Hostage, AALL's CC:DA rep, was asked the same question. He replied that staying with AACR2 was not really a long term possibilty, that the linking of library catalogs with the semantic web was inevitable, and not possible with MARC. According to him, this move will be a big adjustment, but is necessary in order to retain the relevance of libraries.

Poking around on the internet for this post has revealed this outline for a NOCALL program given by Stanford University's (and AALL member) Kathy Winzer on Stanford's experience as an RDA tester, with a lot of useful links.

Emerging technologies and the library manager

2011-07-26T07:14:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite programs this conference has been Richard Jost's decidedly non-flashy OBS program entitled "Emerging technologies and the library manager." It was just Richard, and his friend Simon Canick, Associate Dean of Information Resources at William Mitchell College of Law in St Paul. Simon provided the administrative perspective. Richard discussed a case study from his own experience. He had wanted to set up a digital repository. Investigation revealed that the best product for this was B-Press's Digital Commons. Not getting the go=ahead from his director (but also not a clear "no"), and not getting the funding for Digital Commons, he went ahead with a free alternative product which ended up being not as good -- which he knew -- but also a wasted effort. He talked about what he had learned from the experience, and the talk turned into a larger discussion of how to approach administration to get what you want, and what to do when they are not receptive to one's great ideas. Simon's zen-like 5 points regarding committee work were especially helpful They are:

1. Avoid committees. Especially big ones. No more than 5 members -- 5 is okay. 3 is great.
2. If you have to chair a committee, pick the people yourself. Have a limited charge -- something you can achieve.
3. Do the legwork. Investigate what your committee members are concerned about int advance. Talk to everyone.
4. There's nothing to defend. You're just trying to get to the truth.
5. Always be constructive. Don't be "that guy."

The informal nature of the program prompted lots of participation from the audience.

Dahlia Lithwick

2011-07-26T06:54:00.000-04:00

Dahlia Lithwick gave the keynote address Monday at the opening session. Apologies for the awful photograph -- there's a much better one on the front page of yesterday's Philadelphia Story. Lithwick spoke on free speech in the Supreme Court. She sees a schism in the court on the issue of free speech which has no relation to ideology. On this issue, Justices Scalia and Alito, who are in deep agreement elsewhere, are in deep disagreement. She ultimately traces this schism back to the Senate confirmation process, in which the justices, shy people not used to media attention at all, are subjected to a brutal confirmation in the media spotlight. Everyone knows it's a game except the justices, Lithwick says, and this then becomes their exposure to the media. Her talk was a great insight into what actually happens on the court. Lithwick feels that 90% of the work of the court is nuanced, thoughtful deliberation with great respect for the law. Lithwick feels that the court's fear of the media and the new technologies which serve to amplify that media actually works to ensure that what we hear about the court does not give a real sense of what actually happens on the court. If the court would embrace media, mainstream legal coverage would be less sensational and more informative.

Convention Center art

2011-07-25T07:21:00.000-04:00

Convention centers often have art scattered around. Remember the huge gingko fruits in the Portland (Oregon) convention center? Philadelphia seems to have a particularly large and interesting collection, established when a city ordinance required that 1% of the building costs of the convention center be put aside to start the collection. So if, like me, you've been too busy to make it down to Museum Mile (I'm hoping to get there Tuesday afternoon), there are also things to see in the convention center itself.

One of the first pieces I noticed was China Wedge by Mei-Ling Hom, an enormous sculpture made of chinese restaurant bowls, cups and spoons framing an escalator.

Two other sculptures

Transitions, Sidney Goodman

Two paintings by David Hopkins

Joyce Mansfield

and three others . . .

More about the Philadelphia Convention Center art collection here.

Rene Chapman Award winner Yael Mandelstam

2011-07-24T18:52:00.003-04:00

The 2011 Renee D. Chapman Memorial Award was presented to Yael Mandelstam, Head of Cataloging at Fordham University School of Law Library in New York, New York, at the Technical Services Special Interest Section business meeting on Sunday, July 24, 2011. Her contributions include:

Serving as the AALL representative to the ALA Subject Analysis Committee;

Founder and Chair, Genre/Form Terms for law material project;

Member, Provider Neutral E-monograph Record Task Group;

Founder and frequent presenter, Big Apple Catalogers' Klatsch.(B.A.C.K.);

Member, AALL-Task Group on Vender-Supplied Bibliographic Records

Yael was joined at the presentation by her husband and her son.

In the exhibit hall

2011-07-24T13:56:00.002-04:00

At the TS-SIS table, Aaron Kuperman demonstrates tricks to make ClassWeb more user friendly. Aaron will be available at the TS table on Monday, July 25, from 11:30 a.m.-2:15 p.m. and 3:15-5:00 p.m., and on Tuesday, July 26, from 11:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m.

and items continue to pour in for the silent auction.

The used book exchange is underway at the OBS table, with the added bonus of tiny flashlights

Hi Ellen!

And in the poster section, Susan Goldner explains her research into the holdings of statute law available in print at state, academic and private law libraries in MAALL

Don't miss the poster section, by the way, which is new this year. Two that stood out to me are posters by the University of Washington and the University of Chicago demonstrating two answers to the question of how to handle the less than scintillating task of shelf reading collections. Well worth checking out. And for next year, a poster is another opportunity to present if you have something specific, and maybe not quite big enough to be a program.

A trip to the Reading Market

2011-07-24T13:33:00.000-04:00

Silent Auction at 2011 TS-SIS Activities Table

2011-07-23T21:50:00.003-04:00

This year TS-SIS is again sponsoring a silent action to promote and raise money for the Marla Schwartz Grants. These grants enable law librarians to attend conferences.

Below are some of the items available. Thanks to member-at-large Katrina Piechnik for organizing the auction!

TS/OBS/RIPS/CS-SIS Joint Reception

2011-07-23T21:23:00.003-04:00

The 2011 "Alphabet Soup" reception was sponsored by Innovative Interfaces, Inc. and held at Maggiano's Little Italy.

Event organizer and hostess "Betsy Ross" (aka Katrina)

The food was goooood!

Philly is hot!

2011-07-23T16:14:00.002-04:00

I just arrived in Philadelphia this afternoon. The heat is intense, but luckily my hotel is right next to the convention center. I bumped into a number of friends on my way to registration. Chris Tarr said to get blogging, so here I am ... Looking forward to the exhibits opening and the alphabet soup reception tonight. Tomorrow I dive in with my first 7:00 AM meeting. (I have one every day!) We tech services types are dedicated, aren't we?

Welcome 2011!

2011-07-23T16:11:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday. I'm in Philadelphia. From my limited exposure it seems that it's not as hot today as it was yesterday. And we're live!

Slides available for Catalogers Today

2010-07-20T13:35:00.002-04:00

The PowerPoint slides for the program "Catalogers Today: Skill Sets, Expectations and Challenges" are now available on the OBS website at:

http://www.aallnet.org/sis/obssis/meetings/2010/index.htm

Many thanks to the speakers, Dr. Sylvia D. Hall-Ellis and Stacey L. Bowers, for their engaging presentation. The Q&A portion was also interesting, so I encourage all to listen to the audio if possible.

Ellen McGrath

RDA Cafe

2010-07-16T18:00:00.000-04:00

A post by Brian Striman on the TS and OBS lists:

Colleagues,

For facebook members who are interested in RDA news and views. A facebook group has begun and already has nearly 200 members in just a few days.

The menu offers a unique selection where you'll find collegial chat and help in a wide variety of flavors. The main course, of course, is Resource Description and Access, with desserts being related RDA standards---- later will be offering side dishes about LC policy statements, plus any OCLC stuff on the flip side of the menu.

If you don't have a facebook account and haven't found a reason to have one, this is it. It takes a few minutes to create an account. After that, just do a facebook (fb) search under RDA Cafe.

http://www.facebook.com/?page=1&sk=messages&tid=1523488368915#!/group.php?gid=133281713372685&ref=ts

This was a collaborative effort involving University of North Texas School of Library and Information Science grad student (2010) Jolanta Radzick and myself.

Come stop at the cafe.

-Brian

RDA

2010-07-16T15:04:00.004-04:00

Having signed on for the free access period for the RDA Toolkit, I made one of my goals for AALL in Denver to find out as much as possible about RDA so once back home I could begin to use it. THANKS to all of you who both provided information and provided the forums for sharing this information. I have a better understanding, but as Ellen expressed in her recent post, there are still many things to be figured out. Now back home, I am reflecting on what I saw and heard. My reflections at this point:

--I was encouraged about the degree of openness (along with anxiety, etc.) to RDA which I observed

--I hope that this rollout of RDA will be a transition period leading to more dynamic way of showcasing our resources

--I agree with Hillman and Coyle (The Semantic Web and RDA) that we need a networked environment bringing together information from different sources allowing people to interact with and use the information

--I hope that the younger generation of technical services librarians will have the vision to get us to that point

-- Right now I am thinking about more mundane things like will we need to do reindexing of our ILS in order to download and display the new fields? How will the RDA records display in the catalog? Will it be a steep learning curve? How about the load tables for our shelf ready books?

I think it will be a fun and challenging summer.

Mapping Still Unclear

2010-07-14T09:59:00.003-04:00

I get the vision of where we are going in terms of the semantic web, RDA, FRBR, etc. Believe me, I want to be there as much as anyone. But I still cannot for the life of me understand how we will get there. To paraphrase Janet Swan Hill, I need the intervening steps mapped out and I do not seem to be hearing those. Or else, I am missing them, which is entirely possible ...

Thanks to Georgie Briscoe for her interesting program on quality control in our catalogs! Hopefully we can pursue Barbara Bintliff's suggestion of a new column in TSLL to share our strategies for cleanup projects to catch the errors that Georgia described to us. Look for her article on her research project in an upcoming LLJ.

It was exciting the way the program Q&A portions often produced ideas like this that tech services law librarians could tackle to achieve a desired end. My concern is whether we have the time and energy to make them all a reality. After all, the themes I heard this year remained: budget and staff shortfalls, cross training, justification of what we do to administration (usually in terms of measurement of data), etc. And of course it is the year of RDA, so we are wondering how to grapple with that. How little sleep can tech services law librarians operate on? I guess we will find out!

The meeting was exhausting because there was so much content to absorb in such a short amount of time. I extend my sincere thanks to TS and OBS for their hard work in providing that content. And thanks especially to my committed and enthusiastic colleagues who make up those SISs. You are all amazing!

TS-SIS Silent Auction

2010-07-13T16:15:00.002-04:00

DSC02147, originally uploaded by SpruceSt.

The TS-SIS silent auction is now over. It raised over $200 for the Marla Schwartz Award. Thanks so much to Katrina Piechnik for contributing her amazing fiber and ceramic objects to the auction, and to thinking up the auction in the first place. (You can see the pin I won on the left!)

Charting New Roles for Technical Services

2010-07-13T16:09:00.001-04:00

Attending an interesting program given by Carol Avery Nicholson and Karen Davis on making an institutional repository for faculty made me realize I should also have gone to the program, 10 things every law library needs to now about copyright. Luckily, there's a live webcast of it here.

John Hostage

2010-07-13T10:08:00.003-04:00

John Hostage, originally uploaded by SpruceSt.

Here's a picture of John Hostage kicking off RDA Day with the CC:DA report yesterday at the Cat and Class Committee meeting, 7 am. He's looking a little blurry, but I don't think that's his fault.

RDA Day

2010-07-13T08:45:00.004-04:00

Monday turned out to be an almost all-day RDA fest. And by the end, I was exhausted ... I came away with more information about changes associated with RDA and the testing process, but the level of uncertainty remains very high. My concern now is how my ILS will handle the RDA records that are possibly appearing in OCLC even as I type this. Thank you to our colleagues for informing us about RDA!

The snafus surrounding the Cat & Class events at the Hyatt makes me wonder: What does the Hyatt have against law catalogers? I hope George Prager got a good night sleep after his busy day on Monday :-)

High tea at the Brown Palace was a welcome oasis in the middle of a long, info-packed day.

Blue bear

2010-07-13T01:44:00.002-04:00

Blue bear, originally uploaded by SpruceSt.

I don't know why I like this bear so much.

Slides for the Keynote address

2010-07-12T22:36:00.003-04:00

Here are the slides for the keynote address, Turn left at the obelisk, by David Lankes, associate professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies.

#AALL2010 Denver Big Blue Bear - from the inside on Twitpic

2010-07-12T22:29:00.001-04:00

#AALL2010 Denver Big Blue Bear - from the inside on Twitpic

Book swap at OBS-SIS table

2010-07-12T22:22:00.001-04:00

Book swap at OBS-SIS table, originally uploaded by SpruceSt.

Books available yesterday at the OBS-SIS table.

Blair and Marie

2010-07-12T22:13:00.001-04:00

Blair and Marie, originally uploaded by SpruceSt.

Blair Kauffman and Marian Gould Gallagher Award winner, Marie Whited.

HIVE December One-minute Showcase

2010-07-12T21:59:00.003-04:00

How cool is this? A YouTube video of a condensed version of today's program, SKOS and HIVE: enhancing the creation, design and flow of information.

TS-SIS Business Meeting

2010-07-12T21:30:00.003-04:00

A few highlights from the TS-SIS Business Meeting, Sunday, July 11.

The Board: Secretary/Treasurer Wendy Moore, Outgoing Chair Chris Long, Incoming Chair Pam Deemer.

Margie Maes introduces this year's winner of the Rene D. Chapman Award for Outstanding Service in Technical Services Law Librarianship:

Carol Avery Nicholson,

and Chair Chris Long presents this year's Marian Gould Gallagher Award winner Marie Whited with a certificate of appreciation from TS-SIS.

Incoming chair, Pam Deemer gives Chris Long a gift and brings the meeting to a close.

Watching the World Cup

2010-07-12T08:27:00.006-04:00

A small but international group gathers to watch Spain defeat the Netherlands, 1-0. The Octopus was right.

Bid on Silent Auction at Activities Table

2010-07-12T00:48:00.005-04:00

TS-SIS is sponsoring a silent action to promote and raise money for the Marla Schwartz Grants. These grants enable law librarians to attend conferences. Auction items include: ceramic book box (old leather binding look); ceramic colorful flower vase; green ceramic goblet; one dozen handmade greeting cards. Bidding ends at 2:05 p.m. on Monday, July 12, 2010.

Arrival in Denver

2010-07-10T18:05:00.002-04:00

I am here, and probably you are, too!

It was sunny, and then it was overcast, and it does feel very high. I'm quite thirsty, and the beer I had at the Tilted Kilt while watching the Germany-Uruguay game has me very tired.

Hope to see you at the Alphabet Soup Reception, and then let the fun begin!

Off to Denver

2010-07-09T10:23:00.004-04:00

It's my last day in the office and I'm pulling all my stuff together for the AALL conference. I fly out to Denver early tomorrow morning.

As you plan your conference schedule, don't forget all the great offerings from the OBS and TS-SISs. Details are on their websites:

http://www.aallnet.org/sis/obssis/programs2010.htm

http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/annualmeeting/2010/

Be sure to bring your sunscreen and prepare to drink lots of water to stave off any altitude sickness. I look forward to seeing you all soon in the Mile High City!

Program Proposals for Summit 2010

2009-08-03T18:46:00.001-04:00

To all TS-SIS Members:
For those who attended the AALL Annual Meeting in Washington, DC - welcome back! And for those who were not able to attend, you missed some wonderful educational programs... but we're already hard at work putting together more educational programs and learning opportunities for AALL's 2010 conference in Denver.

If you plan to submit a 2010 program proposal, the TS-SIS Education Committee would like to help give your program the best chance of being approved. Please consult the instructions found at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/annualmeeting/2009/#programideas.

Then "Share" your program proposal with me at Carol_Nicholson@unc.edu on behalf of the TS-SIS Education Committee by Monday, August 10th.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Carol Nicholson, Chair

AALL TS-SIS Education Committee

Vendor neutral e-monograph record guide

2009-08-03T18:45:00.001-04:00

In anticipation of an implementation date of August 1, 2009, the Provider-Neutral E-Monograph MARC Record Guide has been posted to the BIBCO Web site: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/PN-Guide.pdf. Thanks to Provider Neutral Task Force members Becky Culbertson, Yael Mandelstam, and George Prager for preparing the guide. The document contains background information, a metadata application profile (MAP), and examples to guide BIBCO and other catalogers in creating provider neutral e-monograph records.

There is a link to the Provider-Neutral E-Monograph MARC Record Guide on the BIBCO Web site, listed under the BIBCO Participants Manual http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/bibco.html

The Provider Neutral E-Monograph Task Group Final Report revised July 30,
2009 is available
from: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/PN-Final-Report.pdf. Task group members are working on an update of the PCC MARC Record Guide for Monograph Aggregator Vendors to incorporate provider neutral practices and expect to make the revised version available in the next month or so.

Also in anticipation of an August 1, 2009 implementation date, CONSER standard record guidelines
(CSR) (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/conserdoc.pdf) have been revised to incorporate PCC practices for online series qualifiers (for background please see: http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/Online-Series.pdf).

LCRI 25.5B has been revised to support the CONSER practice of not requiring a uniform title for an online monographic series solely to differentiate online from other physical mediums. This revision is included in the Cataloger's Desktop 2009 Issue 3 released today.

Thanks to Judy Kuhagen of the Library of Congress Policy and Standards Division for working on LCRI revisions and for reviewing the provider neutral record documentation.

Sincerely,
Les Hawkins
CONSER Coordinator
Library of Congress

OCLC Update available online

2009-08-03T18:44:00.001-04:00

The OCLC Update presented at the AALL conference in Washington on July 26 is now available on the OCLC web site at http://www.oclc.org/us/en/news/events/presentations/default.htm.

Glenn E. Patton

Director, WorldCat Quality Management

OCLC

6565 Kilgour Place

Dublin OH 43017-3395

Phone: +1.800.828.5878, ext. 6371 or +1.614.764.6371

Fax: +1.614.718.7187

Email: pattong@oclc.org

Photos from TS/OBS/RIPS/CS-SIS Joint Reception

2009-08-02T16:57:00.014-04:00

Photos from the 2009 Alphabet Soup Reception held at the Renaissance Hotel. Thanks again to Innovative Interfaces for their sponsorship again this year.

Law Library of Congress Tour

2009-07-31T17:13:00.004-04:00

I was one of the 18-20 fortunate members to take the Law Library of Congress tour on Monday morning. I missed several valuable sessions being held at the same time, but decided it was a great opportunity. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the conference.

We left the conference center on the Metro about 8:30am in order to begin our 9:00am tour of the Law Library located in the Madison Building on schedule. This was a good introduction to the Metro rush hour traffic. We started our tour with an overview of the services provided by both the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the Law Library of Congress itself.

CRS provides research services by librarians and attorneys for members of congress on requested issues
The Law Library provides Guide to Law Online (GLIN), Thomas, Directorate of Legal Research (primarily international), Ask a Librarian (online), to name only a few of their services

I was struck by the enthusiasm of the librarians we met, and came away with the feeling that this would be a great place to work.

Mark Strattner, Chief of the Collections Services Division, provided a tour of the Law Library. He is both enthusiastic and has a great sense of humor. We had a brief tour of the closed stacks and a small number of the 2.65 million volumes. His stories of cataloging backlog and limited resources made our problems pale by comparison.

As a bonus, Mark offered us a tour of the Jefferson Building. In addition to the Great Hall and a peek at the beautiful reading room, we saw the Jefferson Collection and the private Senate and House rooms. Thanks to Mark and all the library staff who made these tour possible.

Petition for free access to PACER

2009-07-30T11:48:00.000-04:00

Hello folks,

Below is an email explaining how you can sign the PACER petition that was mentioned in Sunday’s keynote address at AALL.

Thanks,

Chris

*********************************************************

Chris Long

Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis

*******************************************************************************************************************

Hey Everyone,

Erika Wayne has asked that we post the message below to our lists. It provides a like to where people can sign the petition asking the government to make PACER access free to depository libraries. Free PACER access is one of the issues being addressed by the AALL Government Relations Office, and this petition was touched on by the AALL Annual Meeting keynote speaker Jonathan Zittrain.

If anyone would like to see (and sign) the PACER petition that Jonathan Zittrain talked about in his keynote address, it is here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/improve-pacer

And, if you can, please share this petition with your colleagues, faculty, students and alumni.

Let us make Jonathan Zittrain proud and get a *lot* more signatures!

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks and take care,

Erika

Training at LC

2009-07-30T11:09:00.004-04:00

The Cataloger's Desktop and ClassWeb training sessions held at the Library of Congress on Wednesday were wonderful and well worth staying on for. Thanks to OBS for sponsoring them and especially to Karen Selden for her always impressive organizational skills in pulling it off smoothly.

On the content side, thank you to Bruce Johnson and Patricia Hayward for presenting and to Aaron Kuperman and Paul Weiss for their valuable assistance.

Unfortunately I could not stay for the Library of Congress tour in the afternoon.

Some AALL2009 programs available free on web

2009-07-29T19:24:00.003-04:00

The Capital Crier reports that free video recordings will be available for seven of the sessions from the 2009 annual conference. I was not able to access the seven at the link given in the Capital Crier, but did find everything for sale at AALL2go. Which I suppose is also helpful.

Opening session

2009-07-29T19:11:00.002-04:00

Here's a link to a discussion of the opening session, including a link to the slideshow at the beginning, and also the parts of Zittrain's speech that were expressly about libraries.

I'd forgotten the whole library as noun, verb and adjective thing --

Classification and Subject Cataloging Policy Advisory Working Group

2009-07-28T15:24:00.005-04:00

The CSCPAWG met at 7:30 this morning. Thanks to the Serials Committee for sharing their coffee! We opened with a discussion of the Genre/Form Editorial Group's recent trip to meet with the PSD of LC's ABA (formerly known as CPSO)to discussion the Editorial Group's draft of the Legal Genre/Form terms. Issues resolved at the meeting include:

Editorial Group will submit proposals to remove form terms from LCSH, essentially by changing scope notes.
Since 185s ($v's) wil be around for the forseeable future, the EG will submit proposals to harmonize 185 terms with the proposed 155 (G/F) terms. (It was interesting that LC said that the trend is to make 185s as generic as possible - i.e. maps, not maps, topographic.)
EG will submit proposals to change inverted 150 headings to direct order for terms in which the direct order term matches an inverted order 150 --i.e. there is a G/F term Legislative bills. EG will submit a proposal to change the 150 Bills, legislative to Legislative bills.
EG should make no attempt to cross reference the G/F terms to Subject Headings -- the two thesauri are seen as different species which should not interact.
It's okay to add terms which for us will only be archival -- i.e. Wills, Contracts -- but we should consult with the rare book people in doing so.
We are allowed to include some non-legal terms (i.e. Periodicals) as they are needed for our reference structures. It was recognized that it was not realistic that we have a thesaurus without including some general terms.
PSD approved of the EG's balance of common/civil law and terms as used by various groups -- catalogers, reference librarians, practitioners, students, lay people.
There was some discussion of specific terms which resulted in some terms being bumped up to the general list, one dropped (Fiction (Law)), new references added.
It was a very positive and helpful discussion, and left the Editorial Group with a clear picture of what to do to complete their work on the list.

Additional discussion at the CSCPAWG meeting included

Gabe Horchler at LC Law Library Cataloging is very focussed on getting materials out (40,000 title last year). They don't want to jeopardize that progress. They are worried that applying the terms may slow then down.
We should attempt to contact catalogers at IFLA and see what they think of the list. John Hostage and George Praeger are both going to IFLA and can take it with them.
Implementation should be by machine as much as possible. Yael Mandelstam intends to start figuring out ways to add them to her catalog and is willing to share ways that work. We agree that they will be of little use unless applied retroactively to the whole collection.
A cooperative project -- Perhaps AALL libraries could add them through some kind of cooperative effort on OCLC?
Formats (i.e. electronic resources) are NOT included in new list -- that will be handled through RDA.

The second topic of discussion was what to do with the International Criminal Court, and with the developing concept of international crimes -- including, so far, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression, and possibly expanding to include crimes against social and cultural interests. Currently the ICC is in KZ, the crimes are scattered throughout K and also the individual jurisdictions. Jolande and Marie proposed developing an international crimes section at the end of KZ which would include both the ICC and theoretical discussion of various international crimes. Jolande will prepare a mockup of what the schedule might look like. We will look at our collections and see what we think about this in the contexts of our own libraries.

Descriptive Cataloging Policy Advisory Working Group

2009-07-28T15:09:00.004-04:00

The Descriptive Cataloging Policy Advisory Group met on Monday. With the retirement of Ann Sitkin the group lacks a head, and in this interim period before LC and other libraries (including 5 law libraries -- Chicago, Columbia, Emory, Northeastern and Stanford) begin testing RDA, we're in a bit of a lull.

A few things we could start to think about, in a desultory sort of way, are the treatment of court reports, and the designation of official court reports, in AACR2 and RDA. We should start to think about the new legal rules under RDA, which are apparently not so different from AACR2 and in some respects go back to AACR. We should look at the treatment of treaties, which is said to be unsatisfactory. We should get ready to think about RDA, because it's coming.

TS-SIS Serials Committee Meeting

2009-07-28T11:21:00.002-04:00

The TS-SIS Serials Committee Meeting was held this morning at 7:30 a.m. in the Convention Center. Under Old Business a report on the Exchange of Duplicates Program was given. There were 36 libraries in the program this year. There was also a report on the work of the Project COUNTER group. They noted that Hein has contact them about becoming COUNTER compliant. We need to speak to our reps at companies, such as CCH and BNA, about providing COUNTER compliant statistics to libraries. Under New Business ideas were discussed for possible program proposals. For TS-SIS sponsorship proposals need to be turned in to the Education Committee by Aug 10. There were ideas about the development of a library of last resort program in coordination with LIPA, what to cut when there is nothing left to cut, and looking at pricing models for electronic resources.

Monday Quote of the Day

2009-07-28T09:19:00.002-04:00

"Everyone benefits from better data."

This is my nomination for quote of the day as stated by Kara Killough (Serials Solutions) in her presentation during the program on aggregator/provider-neutral records. It was a well-attended and timely program, given that the implementation of provider-neutral records for e-monographs is scheduled for August 1st. Congratulations to Karen Selden, coordinator, and to Gene Dickerson, who also spoke. Let's all make a point to extend a special welcome to Gene on his first AALL conference!

Just another thought: Why isn't anyone applying for the OBS/TS Joint Research Grant? Maybe you should apply!

Jolande's power point on linking from class schedules

2009-07-27T22:16:00.002-04:00

As discussed today in the Cat and Class business meeting

The Library of Congress is investigating using the inherent access and linking functionality of the Library of Congress online classification system as a finding tool for web resources, taking the KIA, the new Law Classification for Indigenous Peoples in the Americas as an example. KIA works particularly well for this, since it is jurisdictionally based (allowing searching from an online maps -- very cool), and since many of the resources organized in the schedule are not published in traditional formats but rather available only through websites.

View Dr. Jolande Goldberg's poster on the new possibilities for classification schedules as reference tools here, in PDF. She will present it at the 2009 National Conference of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums to be held this October in Portland, Oregon.

Genre/Form Editorial Group meets with the Policy Standards Division

2009-07-27T17:42:00.003-04:00

The Law Genre/Form Editorial Group, chaired by Yael Mandelstam, met with the LC Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate Policy and Standards Division today to talk about the recently completed draft of the Genre/Form Terms for Law Materials list. It was a very productive meeting. PSD liked the list. We were able to jump into a discussion of unresolved policy issues, which were quickly resolved, and then into a discussion of some individual terms. The Group left with a clear idea of how to tie up the remaining loose ends, after which the list will be handed over and the Group's work will be done.

While we were there, we got a tour of Marie Whited's office. (George Praeger had to leave before the tour.)

And a (blurry) picture of Marie.

Acqusitions Committee Meeting and Roundtable

2009-07-27T10:27:00.002-04:00

The TS-SIS Acquisitions Committee Meeting and Roundtable was held this morning at 7am in the Convention Center - much coffee was consumed and bagels eaten. Heard reports on Old Business concerning ACQWEB and the Collection Development Policies webpage. Talked about possible proposals for AALL 2010. Discussed during roundtable issues of concern about control we have over ILS selection, vendor customer service issues, and pricing negotiations. It was noted that sometime we have to tell sales reps, "We're just not that into you."

Random Thoughts from Sunday

2009-07-27T08:40:00.002-04:00

Attendance at this conference was announced as 2,179. Is that on track with recent years? I know I miss seeing a number of my colleagues who are at home due to budget problems.
Keynote: Libraries tend to let the perfect become the enemy of the good. The social, F2F aspect of libraries is our best quality. There is a huge untapped desire to be part of something.
RDA: How much more will the timeline slip? How/when will we all be trained? How will the relationship with FRBR "manifest" itself? And what if the testing results in a decision NOT to implement?
Library Automation: How painful will the transition from OPACs ("a dying breed") be? The good news is we are seeing innovation in the library automation industry. The bad news is, innovative change is often a challenge to weather.
Food: Why are all the plates in this town square?

Become a blogger!

2009-07-27T08:39:00.001-04:00

Have something you want to contribute to the blog?

Email it to: readersguide.dcblog[AT]blogger.com and we'll post it!

Trapeze School

2009-07-26T21:05:00.001-04:00

This is what's going on outside my window. In the huge vacant lot where the Convention Center used to be.

Keynote speech

2009-07-26T17:05:00.003-04:00

Here's a link to a review of (pretty much) the keynote address. It was an interesting speech.

Link via @zittrain via @robtruman.

And here's an article (and more pictures!) of the Opening Reception last night.

A-6 Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?

2009-07-26T14:31:00.002-04:00

Future of print periodicals session Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? (A-6) covered examples of libraries that are using online access to journal literature through HeinOnline primarily and no longer receiving or retaining print versions of these journals. "Just in Time" service seems well-excepted by patrons generally. Financial pressures and space pressures pushing libraries in this direction. Good points about LONG-Term access needs during questions, which were not really covered during the session. Also a desire for best practices from maybe AALL during questions. Should we be concerned about driving law reviews out of business? (Plug for TS-SIS Serials Committee meeting!)

Opening reception

2009-07-26T08:25:00.001-04:00

NISO Training

2009-07-26T08:13:00.003-04:00

Saturday afternoon I attended the NISO Training session arranged by Mary Alice Baish and sponsored by the OBS, TS, and CS SISs. NISO standards can be offputting because they are often complex and seem almost to be written in another language at times :-) But Karen Wetzel helped us see that the effort is worthwhile because in the long run standards are there to make our work easier and more efficient. Karen is determined to do whatever she can to help AALL participate more in the NISO standards process.

Stay tuned, you'll be hearing more about NISO. Thank you Karen and Mary Alice!

Pictures from Alphabet Soup (more to come)

2009-07-26T08:12:00.003-04:00

Nice ribbons!

CONELL Marketplace

2009-07-25T14:36:00.002-04:00

TS-SIS and OBS-SIS had tables this morning at CONELL Marketplace to introduce our sections to new law librarians. It was great to meet so many people interested in our SISs - including our CONELL Registration Award Recipients! For more information about TS-SIS and OBS-SIS stop by our tables in the Exhibit Hall - there might even be some Skittles left to track with the Skittles Tracker (come by the table to see!)

Another amazing twitter link

2009-07-23T20:02:00.000-04:00

Mark Strattner is the 1o millionth Nationals fan.

In Appreciation of Catalogers and Cataloging Standards

2009-07-23T19:55:00.003-04:00

Dear Colleagues,

Since I will be unable to attend the AALL Annual Meeting and participate in the TS-SIS programs in Washington, D.C., I have decided to do what is hopefully the next best thing, write an article/posting emphasizing the positive aspects and continuing relevance of cataloging and cataloging to a more general audience incluing some decision makers. I have therefore prepared a posting "In Appreciation of Cataloging and Catalog Standards," and have published it today on the Criminal Law Library Blog which reaches a broad audience of both librarians and others. It is a generalized posting which emphasizes my appreciation for, catalogers and cataloging standards rather than going into details at any depth. Joni Cassidy has agreed write a subsequent article which will cover some of the material I did not include. To see my posting go to:

http://www.criminallawlibraryblog.com/2009/07/in_appreciation_of_library_cat.html

As a member of TS-SIS I really appreciate the many e-mails and other documentation that is distributed to the membership on a regular basis. It is very informative. For example I could not have completed this posting without some of thie information provided by TS-SIS and many of its members separately.

Here's wishing all a wonderful time in Washington, D.C. and great TS-SIS meetings.

Best regards,

David

David G. Badertscher
Principal Law Librarian
New York Supreme Court
Criminal Term

MARBI 2008-2009 Report available

2009-07-23T12:34:00.002-04:00

Esteemed colleagues,
 The 2008-2009 AALL MARBI Representative Report is now available on the TS website.  The direct URL is:
http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/representatives/2009/marbi2009.htm

(There are also links on the TS homepage and the TS 2009 Annual
Meeting pages.)

I will also be giving a short (I hear sighs of relief) report at the TS-SIS C & C Standing Committee Meeting on Monday, July 27 (9-10:30 AM; Renaissance-Room 13).

George

George Praeger, AALL rep to MARBI

TS/OBS/RIPS/CS-SIS Joint Reception

2009-07-23T12:34:00.001-04:00

Hi All,

If you’ll be in D.C. on Saturday evening, please plan to stop by the “Alphabet Soup” Reception, sponsored once again by a generous donation from Innovative Interfaces. It’ll be held in the Renaissance Hotel, Ballroom West AB from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. I know the Reception Committee worked very hard to create a tempting menu. Please come mingle with all of your SIS colleagues.

See you soon!

Linda

Linda Tesar

TS-SIS Chair, 2008/2009

TSSIS Serials Standing Committee

2009-07-23T12:30:00.000-04:00

TS-SIS Serials Standing Committee
AALL Annual Meeting Agenda

Washington Convention Center, Room 143-C
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
7:30 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.

I. Introductions (New Chair & Recorder)

II. Announcements

a. Serials Committee program sponsored by TS-SIS:

i. Sunday, 1:30-2:45 p.m. — Program A-6: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? The Future of Print Periodicals in Law Libraries — WCC, Room 146 C

b. Tuesday programs sponsored by TS-SIS:

i. 9:00-10:30 a.m. — TS-SIS Program H-3: Here's to Your (Digital Archive's) Good Health! Auditing and Evaluating Digital Preservation Projects — WCC, Room 147 AB

ii. 10:45-11:45 a.m. — TS-SIS Program I-3: Next-Gen Integrated Library System Features Relevant to the Private Law Firm Library — WCC, Room 147 AB

iii. 2:30-3:15 p.m. — TS-SIS Program: Redefining Work Roles in Response to Changing Collection Environments — WCC, Room 156

c. Full list of TS-SIS programs:

i. http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/annualmeeting/2009

III. Old business

a. Exchange of Duplicates Program

b. Project Counter Subcommittee

IV. New Business

a. 2010 Annual Meeting Program Proposals

b. Project Ideas for 2009/10

V. Open

Carol Avery Nicholson, Chair

Useful links

2009-07-22T12:54:00.002-04:00

Strangely, I keep finding useful links via twitter -- the feed is right there on the right. I'm going to list them all here just in case anyone else finds them useful.

Here is a roundup of advice and tips on attending the conference from the Law Librarian Blog.

Here is a link to the weather in DC.

Here is a printable schedule for the conference, updated with room assignments, from Tom Boone.

And here, also from Tom Boone, is the final program.

Huh.

TS-SIS Hot topic discussion "Working With OCLC's Record Transfer Policy"

2009-07-22T12:48:00.000-04:00

DON'T MISS the TS-SIS Hot topic discussion "Working
With OCLC's Record Transfer Policy" this coming
Monday, July 27, from 12:15-1:15 PM, in Rm. 156 of the
WCC.

As you are aware, the new OCLC policy on Record transfer
will not be implemented. The panelists on this program will bring
you up to date on the latest developments and impact on
your library's management and technical services issues. We will
have the chance to present concerns about any new policies, and
make suggestions about a future one.

The panelists are:

Michael Maben, Moderator, Chair of the OBS-SIS

Roberta Shaffer, Member of the OCLC Review Board of Shared
Data Creation and Stewardship

Pat Callahan, Chair of the OBS-SIS Special Committee
on Record Sharing

Glenn Patton, OCLC Representative, Director, WorldCat Quality Management

Keiko Okuhara and Phoebe Ruiz-Valera, Co-Coordinators

Please come, listen, speak up, and make a difference!

AALL Program - Peer Collaboration

2009-07-21T17:27:00.002-04:00

Peer Collaboration - TS-SIS Program - AALL Annual Meeting

Monday July 27, 4:00-5:15 pm

WCC-Room 156

How many people think team management is a crazy idea? Why do you think it is crazy?

Who shudders to think about their work being dependent on others?

Who has attended meetings that were dominated by one person while others were mainly silent?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, consider attending our Peer Collaboration presentation (and bring a colleague!). We hope to address your concerns and make a believer out of you. If you'd like to provide any comments or feedback on this topic, feel free to add them below. We promise to discuss them in our session.

Now here's the official description of our presentation...

Colleagues, often from different departments, must frequently work together to achieve library goals. This can be difficult to manage as neither has supervisory responsibility for the other, and therefore, cannot set deadlines or duties for the other. Tensions can occur if they don’t understand each other’s goals and deadlines. Ideally, two colleagues can share the joys and pains of working together either as part of daily work or together on special projects. Issues to be addressed include how labor is divided, issues of joint supervision of staff, or equitable split of credit.

Wendy Moore and Carol Watson will describe the team management structure that has been successfully implemented at the University of Georgia Law Library for close to ten years now. Topics to be discussed include: a description of the UGA Law Library team management system, major concepts of team management, pluses and minuses, a pecha kucha view of real life scenarios in the UGA library, as well as tips for implementing the team structure in your library.

Wendy E. Moore, Acquisitions Librarian, University of Georgia Law Library

Carol A. Watson, Associate Director for Information Technology, University of Georgia Law Library

OBS in Washington, DC

2009-07-21T16:20:00.000-04:00

Dear OBS Colleagues:

I hope to see many of you at the AALL annual meeting in Washington DC starting this Saturday. OBS has a number of events scheduled—this list is available on our website at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/obssis/meetings/2009/OBSMeetings.html. The OBS Business Meeting is on Monday, July 27^th from 5:30pm to 6:30pm in the Renaissance Room 3. The agenda for the business meeting is in the attached file.

Also, I am pleased that our VIP for this meeting is Mr. Bruce Johnson. Mr. Johnson is with the Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service, and he presented the program on Cataloger’s Desktop last year in Portland. This year he will be teaching the advanced course in Cataloger’s Desktop at the OBS-sponsored program on Wednesday at LC. We are very fortunate to have Bruce Johnson as our guest this year.

Finally, the Softlink local systems roundtable on Tuesday, July 28^th has been canceled.

For those of you who will not be in Washington, we will miss you. For those of you coming, have a safe trip.

--Michael Maben
OBS Chair

AALL Program: Redesigning Work Roles in Response to Changing Collection Environments

2009-07-21T11:54:00.000-04:00

Hello TS-SISers,

For those of you who will still be around AALL on Tuesday afternoon, I would like to invite you to the TS-SIS sponsored program, "Redefining Work Roles in Response to Changing Collection Environments" on Tuesday, July 28 from 2:30-3:15, in WCC-156.

As libraries have adjusted to their changing collection environments by taking on new roles within their institutions, by purchasing fewer resources or changing formats of resources purchased, managers have seen an increased need to reallocate some staff from tasks that are less in demand to others now in greater demand.  Ajaye Bloomstone and I will be talking about our respective experiences in the past year at Louisiana State and Northwestern, respectively.  However, we also plan to leave ample time for discussion, and encourage you to come and share your ideas and experiences from your own institutions.

Thank you, and hope to see you there.

Eric Parker
Acquisitions Librarian
Pritzker Legal Research Center
Northwestern University School of Law

Task Group on Vendor-Supplied Bibliographic Records

2009-07-21T11:51:00.001-04:00

The Task Group on Vendor-Supplied Bibliographic Records will be meeting at AALL on Tuesday, July 28, from 12:00 to 1:15. Our meeting room is WCC room 158B. The meeting is open to any interested party, so please join us!

Our agenda for the meeting is:

n Update on VBR wiki

n Update on provider-neutral e-monograph records

n Report on conference call with Serials Solutions

n Planning for the coming year (i.e., where do we go from here?)

Hope to see you there!

Angela Jones

2008/2009 chair, Task Group on Vendor-Supplied Bibliographic Records

TS-SIS VIP Guest

2009-07-21T09:50:00.002-04:00

TS-SIS is pleased that Gabriel Horchler, Head of the Law Section of the U.S. and Publisher Liaison Division of the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services Directorate of Library Services at the Library of Congress, will be our VIP Guest at this year's AALL Annual Meeting. His section at LC does 90% of the law cataloging for the Law Library of Congress. Gabe has never attended an AALL meeting before, so please say hello and thank him for coming if you see him at the Alphabet Soup Reception or one of our various meetings. We are extremely fortunate to have him as our guest!

TS-SIS Business Meeting

2009-07-21T09:39:00.002-04:00

A reminder that the TS-SIS Business Meeting will be held, Sunday, July 26, 5:30-6:30pm at the Renaissance Ballroom East.

The agenda, the minutes from last year's business meeting, and the various annual reports are available at the TS-SIS Annual Meeting website. You can also review the changes to the Bylaws, which will be voted on during the meeting. Only a limited number of copies will be available at the meeting itself, so please review them online prior to the meeting.

LC Classification as Gateway to Web Resources?

2009-07-20T17:42:00.004-04:00

The Library of Congress is investigating using the inherent access and linking functionality of the Library of Congress online classification system as a finding tool for web resources, taking the KIA, the new Law Classification for Indigenous Peoples in the Americas as an example. KIA works particularly well for this, since it is jurisdictionally based (allowing searching from an online maps -- very cool), and since many of the resources organized in the schedule are not published in traditional formats but rather available only through websites.

View Dr. Jolande Goldberg's poster on the new possibilities for classification schedules as reference tools here, in PDF. She will present it at the 2009 National Conference of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums to be held this October in Portland, Oregon.

OBS Education Committee

2009-07-20T17:13:00.000-04:00

Dear Colleagues,
The OBS Education Committee will meet Tuesday, July 28 2009, 7:00 AM - 8:45 AM in Washington Convention Center Room 158 A. Everyone is welcome with ideas and suggestions for programs for next year's conference
"Mapping Our Future" in Denver, Colorado. You do not have to be a member of the committee to propose panels. If you've never done this before, the Committee will help you. Forgive the early hour and the fact that we won't have food or coffee. I hope to see some of you then.
Pat

Patricia Sayre McCoy 
Head, Law Cataloging & Reserves    
D'Angelo Law Library                       
University of Chicago

SAC report available

2009-07-20T14:44:00.001-04:00

My report from the Subject Analysis Committee (SAC) is now posted on the TS-SIS site here.

See you in DC!

Yael

OBS table

2009-07-17T15:56:00.001-04:00

Dear OBS-SIS,

I'm setting up the OBS-SIS Exhibit Table this time, so please send me info about any time you have available Sunday-early Tuesday to sit at the table. Any time you have free would be appreciated in hour or half hour stints.

Thanks and looking forward to seeing everyone,

Susan Karpuk

AALL: July 28 EOSi Roundtable Room 144C Reminder

2009-07-17T15:54:00.001-04:00

EOSi Roundtable
July 28, 2009
Noon-1:15
Convention Center Room 144C [Check your final program to confirm that the room has not changed]

This is our second annual meeting. This year we will have light snacks only. It was decided last year that we would rather have EOSi personnel rather than a big lunch. This year we will have a speaker phone in the room to talk to EOSi personnel. They will be available for our questions and concerns.

Needed for the meeting:
1. Volunteer to write a report for OBS. Jackie Prentice will be taking notes so she will have the names of the people in her report.
2. Topics you are interested in so EOSi can schedule the appropriate personnel.

Thank you.

BETTY L. ROESKE
Technical Services Librarian
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

TS-SIS program proposals for Summit 2010: Mapping Our Future

2009-07-17T13:31:00.005-04:00

To all TS-SIS Members:

If you plan to submit a program proposal, the TS-SIS Education Committee would like to help give your program the best chance of being approved.

Please "Share" your program proposal with me at Carol_Nicholson AT unc.edu on behalf of the TS-SIS Education Committee. Further instructions can be found at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/annualmeeting/2009/#programideas.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Carol Nicholson, Chair

AALL TS-SIS Education Committee

Classification and Subject Cataloging Policy Advisory Working Group Meeting

2009-07-17T11:48:00.005-04:00

Working Group Members and any interested parties are invited to attend the Classification and Subject Cataloging Policy Advisory Working Group Meeting, to be held Tuesday, July 28, 7:30 am – 8:45 am in WCC Rm. 144C. We'll be discussing issues relating to where to class the International Criminal Court (K vs. KZ) and the recently released Genre/Form projects report. In preparation, please read Marie Whited's articles for TSLL at

http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/tsll/34-04/34-04.pdf (p. 7-9)
http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/tsll/34-03/34-03.pdf (p. 10-11)

and Yael Mandelstam and the Form/Genre Editorial Group's list of Genre/Form terms for Law Materials.

Hope to see you there --

Chris Tarr
Chair, CSCPAWG

TS-SIS Serials Committee Meeting

2009-07-17T11:47:00.001-04:00

Greetings TS-SISers:

Please plan to attend, and let me know if you are willing to serve as the Recorder.
TS-SIS Serials Committee Meeting
Tuesday, July 28th from 7:30am - 8:45 am
Washington Convention Center, Room 143-C
Preliminary Agenda:

I. Introductions (New Chair & Recorder)

II. Announcements

III. Old business

a. Exchange of Duplicates Program
b. Project Counter Subcommittee

IV. New Business

a. 2010 Annual Meeting Program Proposals
b. Project Ideas for 2009-10

Also, I hope that you will attend the educational program: A-6: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? The Future of Print Periodicals in Law Libraries — WCC, Room 146C on Sunday, July 26, 2009 at 1:30-2:45 p.m.

Other TS-SIS sponsored events and programs can be found at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/annualmeeting/2009. Coffee and light refreshments will be served at the Serials Committee meeting. (come early, supplies are limited)

Carol Nicholson, Chair
TS-SIS Serials Committee

TS-SIS Annual Meeting Activities & Programs

2009-07-17T11:11:00.002-04:00

Don't miss out on TS-SIS Activities & Programs during AALL in DC! The 2009 Annual Meeting Information page contains a calendar with all TS-SIS meetings and programs. There are also annual reports from various committees, proposed bylaws changes to be voted on at the Business Meeting, a form to volunteer to help at the TS-SIS exhibit hall table, and information about program proposals for next year.

Dinner with an AALL VIP!

2009-07-16T15:09:00.000-04:00

Hi OBS & TS Colleagues,

Are you attending the Annual Meeting Closing Banquet on Tuesday evening July 28?

Are you interested in meeting a Library of Congress colleague whose work products are widely used in technical services departments throughout the world?

If so, RSVP for one of the limited seats available at the table with OBS-SIS VIP (Valuable Invited Participant) Bruce Johnson. Mr. Johnson is a prominent member of the Policy & Standards Division of the Library of Congress and is very active in the American Library Association (ALA). He is a former Chair of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), ALA’s home for catalogers and technical services librarians. During his nearly 25 year tenure at the Library of Congress, he developed the LC Rule Interpretations looseleaf service. His efforts for the past fifteen years have been largely focused on Cataloger’s Desktop, which has revolutionized how many catalogers find answers to their cataloging questions. Mr. Johnson presented a program highlighting tips and tricks for using Cataloger's Desktop at the AALL Annual Meeting in Portland in 2009, and is offering free training sessions on this product on July 29, 2010 at the Library of Congress (a few slots are still available; contact Karen Selden (karen.selden@colorado.edu) for details). In addition, Mr. Johnson is an avid and accomplished sailor who regularly participates in regattas on Chesapeake Bay.

Don't miss this unique opportunity to meet, welcome, and introduce this special guest to our law library community! RSVP to Karen Selden (karen.selden AT colorado DOT edu) by Friday July 24!

You are invited!

2009-07-16T15:03:00.001-04:00

OBS Sponsored Program
Tuesday, July 28, 2:30-4:00 pm

TOC Market Report :

Undervalued TOCs Yield Huge Dividends

OCLC Committee Update and Roundtable

2009-07-15T20:46:00.004-04:00

Aloha Washington DC Conference Participants,

Just a quick reminder that OCLC Committee Update and Roundtable will be held on *Sunday, July 26* in* WCC Room 143-A.*

*Update session (Noon-1:15 pm)
*
OCLC's Glenn Patton will give a report and update as follows:

1. A Brief Update on the Record Use Policy (3 min)
The most updated report on Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship.

2. Online Catalogs: What Users and Librarians Want (20-30 min)
A report based on a number of focus groups and surveys conducted during 2008.

Main web page:
http://www.oclc.org/reports/onlinecatalogs/default.htm

Executive Summary:
http://www.oclc.org/reports/onlinecatalogs/summary.htm

Full report:
http://www.oclc.org/reports/onlinecatalogs/fullreport.pdf

3. Library Management Services to Web scale (15 min)
What's Web-scale management services and what are the benefits of the services.
http://www.oclc.org/productworks/webscale.htm

A & Q Session

*Roundtable discussion (1:30 pm-2:45 pm) *

1. WorldCat Local (20 min)
Effective communication protocol to make suggestions to OCLC for enhancing your WorldCat Local.

2. Expert Community Experiment (15 min)
How we can share our expert to OCLC's cooperative cataloging.
http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/quality/expert/

3. xISSN OCLC Web Service (15 min)
The xISSN Web service provides ISSNs and other information associated with serial publications in WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/asiapacific/en/xissn/default.htm

Please join us!

OCLC Committee Co-Chair
Ming Lu
Keiko Okuhara

OBS programs and meetings

2009-07-15T20:46:00.001-04:00

Dear OBS Colleagues:

Here is a list of the OBS programs and meetings at AALL. I hope to see many of you there!

OBS-SIS Meeting List in Washington, D.C.

* OBS-SIS & TS-SIS Joint Research Grant Committee Meeting
Saturday, July 25, 2009, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Renaissance-Room 1
* OBS/TS/CS-SIS NISO Training Session
Saturday, July 25, 2009, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Renaissance-Room 2
* OBS-SIS Executive Board Meeting (outgoing)
Saturday, July 25, 2009, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Renaissance-Room 5

* OBS-SIS OCLC/RLIN Update
Sunday, July 26, 2009, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
WCC-Room 143 A
* OBS-SIS OCLC/RLIN Roundtable
Sunday, July 26, 2009, 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
WCC-Room 143 A
* OBS-SIS Roundtable: MarcEdit
Sunday, July 26, 2009, 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
WCC-Room 156

* OBS-SIS Local Systems Committee Meeting
Monday, July 27, 2009, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
Renaissance-Room 10
* OBS-SIS Special Committee on Record Sharing
Monday, July 27, 2009, 4:00 PM - 5:15 PM
WCC-Room 159 B
* OBS-SIS Business Meeting
Monday, July 27, 2009, 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Renaissance-Room 3

* OBS-SIS Education Committee
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 7:00 AM - 8:45 AM
WCC-Room 158 A
* OBS-SIS & TS-SIS Research Roundtable
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
WCC-Room 142
* OBS-SIS ALEPH Law Users Roundtable
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
WCC-Room 142
* OBS-SIS EOSi Law Users Roundtable
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
WCC-Room 144 C
* OBS-SIS InMagic Users Roundtable
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
WCC-Room 148
* OBS-SIS Voyager Law Users Roundtable
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
WCC-Room 143 C
* OBS-SIS Program: The TOC Market Report
Undervalued TOCs Yield Huge Dividends
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
WCC-Room 143 A
* OBS-SIS Program: The TOC Market Report
Undervalued TOCs Yield Huge Dividends (Discussion)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
WCC-Room 143 A
* OBS-SIS Executive Board Meeting (incoming)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 4:15 PM - 5:15 PM
WCC-Room 142

* OBS-SIS Classification Web and Catalogers Desktop Training at the Library of Congress
Wednesday, July 29, 2009, 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM
OFFSITE-Library of Congress

-Michael Maben

OBS VIP -- Bruce Johnson

2009-07-15T20:45:00.001-04:00

Hi OBS Colleagues,

Each year AALL allows each SIS and chapter to invite a VIP (Valuable Invited Participant) to the AALL Annual Meeting. The OBS-SIS Board was pleased that Bruce Johnson, a very prominent member of the Policy & Standards Division of the Library of Congress, accepted the inviation to serve as the OBS VIP at the 2009 AALL Annual Meeting. Mr. Johnson is very active in American Library Association (ALA) activities (he is a former Chair of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), ALA’s home for catalogers and technical services librarians), and during his nearly 25 year tenure at the Library of Congress he developed the LC Rule Interpretations looseleaf service. His efforts for the past fifteen years have been largely focused on Cataloger’s Desktop, a web-based cataloging knowledge system, which has revolutionized how many catalogers find answers to their cataloging questions. Mr. Johnson very generously presented a program highlighting tips and tricks for using Cataloger's Desktop at the AALL Annual Meeting in Portland in 2009, and is also offering free smaller training sessions on this product on July 29, 2010 at the Library of Congress (a few slots are still available; contact me for details).

Mr. Johnson will be attending many programs and sessions at the Annual Meeting, but if you would like the opportunity to meet him personally, he plans to attend the Annual Meeting Closing Banquet on Tuesday evening July 28. If you or someone you know would be interested in joining Mr. Johnson at the closing banquet, please RSVP to me and I'll make arrangements to reserve a table for our group.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in DC in less than 2 weeks!

Karen

InMagic Roundtable

2009-07-15T20:42:00.000-04:00

Colleagues:

Elliott Blevins (who through the magic work of IT folk is unable to post himself) would like me to draw your attention to the Inmagic Rountable, to be held at the AALL Annual Meeting. Details follow:

OBS-SIS INMAGIC ROUDTABLE

TUESDAY, JULY 28; 12 nooN-1:15pm

WALTER E. WASHINGTON CONVENTION CENTER (WASHINGTON D.C.)

WCC-Room 148

Elliott suggested that participants bring their lunch and noted that he plans to offer “show and tell” with his laptop. You may reach him at eblevins@sandbergphoenix.com if you have specific questions.

Caitlin Robinson

Voyager Law users Roundtable

2009-07-15T20:41:00.001-04:00

The meeting of the Voyager Law Users Roundtable is scheduled for Tuesday, July 28, 2009, from noon until 1:15 PM, in the Washington Convention Center, room 143C. We will be sharing the Ex Libris representative (as we did last year) with the Aleph users' group, which is meeting at the same time. The Ex Libris rep will have about 35 minutes to spend with us, and the rest of the time is open for us to use as we wish.

If you have any particular Voyager-related issues you would like to have the Ex Libris rep address during her time with us, please email me at jmp8@cornell.edu and let me know, so I can let her know. Also, if you have any ideas for discussion topics for the remainder of the meeting time (without the rep), please email them to me as well. The two suggestions I have received so far are:

* A review of enhancement recommendations from law libraries (you can see the list here: http://lawmail.pepperdine.edu/voyager/supplemental/revised_law_enhancement_recommendations.shtml )
* A discussion of non-Roman (Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, plus some others) cataloging in Voyager

Additional discussion topics are welcome. We also need to be thinking about selecting a convener or conveners for next year.

Thank you.

--Jean Pajerek
Cornell Law Library

TOC Market Report

2009-07-15T20:40:00.001-04:00

The TOC Market Report: Undervalued TOCs Yield Huge Dividends

at the AALL Annual Meeting in DC

Tuesday, July 28 • 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. (presentation)

3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (discussion)

Mary Whisner moderates; Chris Mitchell of Blackwell and David Williamson of LC speak.

Rare Book cataloging Roundtable

2009-07-15T20:39:00.001-04:00

RARE BOOK CATALOGING ROUNDTABLE

Tues. July 28 10:45-11:45 a.m.
WCC -- Room 158 A

Please bring any and all questions and concerns about rare materials you have to deal with.

Susan Karpuk will talk about cataloging 17th-18th century German dissertations.
Monica Kauppi will talk about a local implementation of genre terms for rare books.

Books for Business

2009-07-15T20:32:00.000-04:00

Books for Business, which AALL has engaged to be the at the AALL book
store in D.C. and provide all book selling services in the Exhibit Hall
at our 2009 Meeting, has agreed to give its full support to our book
drive! Jane Cooper, Books for Business founder, has agreed to stock
books from the Book Drive amazon.com wish list at the Books for Business
booth in the exhibit hall during the meeting. She will be pricing the
books the same as Amazon.com and there is no additional shipping cost.

Books for Business is a retail/wholesale/consulting business with
offices in Toronto Canada and Niagara Falls N.Y. Books for Business
founder, Jane Cooper, started the business 20 years ago after a long
career as a librarian. Jane was recently named the Canadian Bookseller
of the Year! Jane writes: "We are looking forward to being at AALL
this year and hope that our selection of books supporting the conference
program and supporting the work of law librarians will appeal."

For more about Books for Business and its guiding force Jane Cooney,
check out: www.booksforbusiness.com. Jane's amazing journey from
librarian, to professor at the University of Toronto, to manager of
information resources worldwide for the Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce, to vice president and director of Information Services for the
Bank Marketing Association in the U.S., and finally to the executive
director of the Canadian Library Association is described in: "Network,
know your customers, and sell: former librarian, now a bookseller, has
the same advice for information professionals and entrepreneurs" - See article here.

So, stop by the Books For Business booth, meet Jane and buy a book for
the 2009 Book Drive! And, remember, purchasing books in the exhibit
hall directly from "Books for Business" supports an independent,
librarian-owned bookstore and also avoids shipping costs! A true
win-win for all.

If you are not going to get to the meeting, you can still support the
drive: Here's how:

1) Order a book online from the "AALL Book Drive 2009 Wish List"
on Amazon.com, by searching the Wish Lists for the keyword "aall", or by
going straight here. Books
ordered this way will be delivered directly to Heather Hill Elementary
School.

2) Send check [made out to AALL] or online bookstore gift card to
our Book Drive team:
Leslie M. Campbell
Law Library Program Administrator
Administrative Office of the United States Courts
One Columbus Circle, NE
Room 4-513 South
Washington, DC 20544

Lawberry camp

2009-07-15T20:31:00.000-04:00

A new Saturday afternoon in DC activity ...
________________________________________________________________________
_

WHO: You. Yes, you. It doesn't matter if what type of librarian you are,
how long you've been a librarian, if your management or not, or what
type of library you work in (or if you're employed at all!). If you are
coming to AALL, you are the right person to attend Lawberry Camp.

WHAT: Lawberry Camp, an unconference before AALL. What's an
"unconference?" An unconference is a participant driven meeting. There
are no planned presentations and the topics of discussion will be
decided on by attendees on that day. Facilitators are present to keep
the conversation flowing.

WHERE: WCC-Room 144 C

WHEN: Saturday, July 25 3pm - 6pm

WHY: Because you have something to share. Because you want to hear
what others have to say. Because you want to meet with other law
librarians in an informal setting. Because you have nothing to do the
Saturday afternoon before AALL starts.

HOW: More information and registration can be found at
Lawberrycamp Attendance is limited to 50 people, so don't
delay!

TS Hot Topic

2009-07-15T20:29:00.000-04:00

Aloha the SIS member,

This year's TS-SIS hot topic is "Dealing With OCLC's Record Transfer
Policy." The program will be held on *Monday, July 27, 12:15 -1:15 pm
in* *Room 156 of the WCC.*

Come to the Hot Topic session and pose any questions to a panel of
experts who can clarify the direction we are heading in. Program
proposal was made by Phoebe Ruiz-Valera at the Cleary Gottlieb Steen &
Hamilton LLP. The program will be featured by the following individuals:

Moderator: Michael Maben, Chair of the OBS-SIS

Panelists: Roberta Shaffer, Member of the OCLC Review Board of Shared
Data Creation and Stewardship
Pat Callahan, Chair of the OBS-SIS Special Committee
on Record Sharing

OCLC Representative: Glenn Patton, Director, WorldCat Quality Management

Meetings of interest to catalogers . . .

2009-07-15T20:26:00.001-04:00

Technical Services Special Interest Section
Cataloging and Classification Standing Committee

2009 Meetings at a Glance

Below is a summary of the meetings and programs scheduled for the annual meeting in Washington, DC that may be of interest to catalogers. It is not a comprehensive list of TS-SIS-sponsored programs.

Sunday, July 26, 2009
12:00-1:15 p.m.
Heads of Cataloging in Large Libraries Roundtable
New Catalogers Roundtable

3:00-4:00 p.m.
Program B-6: “MarcEdit: A Magic Wand for MARC Records”
Cataloging and Classification Roundtable with guest Beacher Wiggins (LC)

Monday, July 27, 2009
9:00-10:30 a.m.
Cataloging & Classification Standing Committee Meeting

10:45 a.m.-11:45 a.m.
Program F-6: “Taking the Aggravation Out of Aggregators: An Update on Aggregator-Neutral Bibliographic Records”
TS-SIS Program: “Cataloging Video Recordings-AACR2 Chapter 7”

12:00-1:15 p.m.
Descriptive Cataloging Policy Advisory Working Group Meeting
TS-SIS ‘Hot Topic’ Program: “Working with OCLC's Record Transfer Policy”

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
7:30-8:45 a.m.
Classification and Subject Cataloging Policy Advisory Working Group Meeting

10:45-11:45 a.m.
Rare Book Cataloging Roundtable

12:00-1:15 p.m.
Task Force on Standards for Vendor-Supplied Bibliographic Records Meeting

2:30-3:15 p.m.
TS-SIS Program: “Redefining Work Roles in Response to Changing Collection Environments”

Agenda -- TS-SIS Cataloging and Classification Standing Committee Meeting

2009-07-15T19:31:00.000-04:00

TS-SIS Cataloging and Classification Standing Committee Meeting
Agenda
July 27, 2009
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Renaissance-Room 13
Washington, D.C.

Announcements (5 minutes)

Representatives’ reports
• ALA ALCTS CCS Subject Analysis Committee (SAC) – Yael Mandelstam –also Task Force on Inherently Legal Subject Headings (15 minutes)

• Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information (MARBI) – George Prager (15 minutes)

• Cataloging and Classification Section: Description and Access (CC:DA)- John Hostage (15 minutes)

Task group reports
• Task Group on Standards for Vendor-supplied Bibliographic Records – Angela Jones (10 minutes)

• Classification and Subject Cataloging Policy Advisory Working Group – Chris Tarr (10 minutes)

• Descriptive Cataloging Policy Advisory Working Group – Chris Tarr (5 minutes)

LC Update – Jolande Goldberg (15 minutes)

Law Aleph Users Group Meeting Notes

2008-08-19T09:10:00.000-04:00

Law Aleph Users Group
July 15, 2008 Meeting
AALL Conference in Portland, Oregon

Mila Rush (Minnesota), chairing.

Agenda is transcribed from Mila’s handout, with notes taken by Ellen McGrath during the meeting following each item.

Housekeeping:
*All expressed gratitude to Ex Libris for supplying us with delicious box lunches, which were also provided for the Law Voyager users meeting next door.
*Mila explained that we would switch rooms with the Voyager users after 45 minutes so we could hear/view the presentation from the Ex Libris staff member in attendance.

Participants’ self-introductions.

Scope of Group’s attention: some shift to other products (both from Ex Libris and other ILS vendors) that directly/intimately affect Aleph.
*There was general agreement that discussions should include other products too.

Caitlin Robinson (Iowa): Aleph and the reorganization at Iowa. To what extent and how did it influence the decision. Planning, process, experience, lessons learned, satisfaction.
*Unfortunately Caitlin was not able to travel to Portland at the last minute. All were interested in it though and Mila said she would followup with Caitlin to see if there was some way it could be shared with the group.

On demand discussions. Possible action plans? Spontaneous contributions from the floor.
*Buffalo is upgrading to Aleph version 19 about 3 weeks after the AALL conference. We would like to hear if anyone else is on version 19 or plans to be and what changes have been experienced on that version — Minnesota will be upgrading to version 19 fairly soon, but Mila was not sure of the exact date. Nobody else is on version 19.
*Any libraries using another discovery tool on top of their Aleph OPAC, either Ex Libris’ own product (Primo) or an open source product, such as Endeca? -- Minnesota is bringing up Primo as the primary OPAC interface very soon. Florida State has not had a good experience with Endeca and even tried to create its own system (Mango), but without much luck. It was suggested that questions about Endeca be directed to Jon Lutz, who was not present at this meeting.
*Fantasy serials module – We did not get to this agenda item.
*Changes in electronic counting as asked by ABA. How can we generate these figures from our Aleph data? Or Verde? – We didn’t really discuss this, though Baltimore had to cancel their Verde contract since the product was delayed so long.
*Other items from the floor -- There was a discussion about handling of budgets and interaction with separate business systems. Specific topics included how many budgets are optimal and how they are setup. The suggestion of transferring acquisitions data to a spreadsheet so that it can be re-sorted in many different ways was offered. (I confess that much of this was over my head, as I am a cataloger.) Minnesota is looking into use of the booking module, but nobody else uses it. Buffalo also looked into it, but their AV department did not like the system and decided to stick with their own scheduling system.

Jenny Forbes (Ex Libris): Development report on, and plans for, Aleph and related products.
*The group swapped rooms with the Voyager users so Jenny could keep her projector setup in one place.
*Aleph version 19 was released in January 2008 and included improvements to course reserves, batch job management, and staff privileges. If there are specific questions about these changes, perhaps Jenny would be willing to share her slides, which included many screen shots. There are some acquisitions options to update Aleph with data from the university accounting system, as well as enhancements to the generic vendor records loader.
*Ex Libris is always working to implement evolving standards. Specifically mentioned were the SRU/SRW protocol that enhances Z39.50 and MARC-XML as a record output option.
*Aleph version 20 is currently being developed. Ex Libris is also working on a next generation product, of which there will be only one, not the separate Aleph and Voyager products. It was mentioned that at present, even with a discovery tool added to the catalog, it is necessary to have a federated searching tool in place too. Jenny mentioned that there is a message from the President of Ex Libris online about the next gen system, but I was unable to find it quickly on their website.

Miscellaneous (we did not get to discuss any of these items before adjourning)
*New leadership.
*Subscribe to ELUNA-LAW-IG-L@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
*Updates to list of Aleph law libraries: http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/library/aleph.html
*New project: Current state of installations, including near-term plans. Cf. June/July 2004 list.
*Any other business.

Notes taken by Ellen McGrath

Demystifying Batch-Load Analysis: What You Need to Know About Vendor-Supplied Bibliographic Records

2008-08-07T11:55:00.000-04:00

When: Sunday, July 13, 2008, 4:15-5:15 PM

*Coordinator: Ellen McGrath, University at Buffalo
*Moderator: Kevin Butterfield, College of William and Mary
*Speaker: Yael Mandelstam, Fordham University

This program was standing room only–-well, actually a number of people were sitting on the floor, but you get the idea, it was popular!

There are a number of vendor-supplied record sets of interest to law libraries, including: Making of Modern Law (MOML), LLMC-Digital, BNA, CALI, HeinOnline Legal Classics, HeinOnline World Trials, and LexisNexis/Westlaw Cassidy collections.

Yael Mandelstam got right down to the nitty-gritty and showed us how she analyzes batches of vendor-supplied bibliographic records before she loads them into Fordham’s catalog. The importance of the “before” part became evident when Yael described the situation with the original batch of MOML records. Many law libraries loaded them, only to discover that the bibliographic records for the electronic versions overlaid the records for the microfiche versions by mistake. Oops … there were a number of nodding heads in the room, which I took to mean some of those present had been burned in that manner. But never again, as Yael gave us valuable advice about how to keep that from happening.

Before getting down to specifics, Yael cautioned that “this technique is not meant to replace proper authority control, use of URL checkers, etc.” She makes use of two readily-available tools in her analysis: MarcEdit (a free editing utility available for download at http://oregonstate.edu/~reeset/marcedit/html/) and Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet software). She emphasized repeatedly how essential it is that you save a copy of your original file of records before you start rearranging it and that you save each iteration of a file.

The PowerPoint handout Yael prepared is excellent, so I am not going to spend time here on details you can more easily see there. It is available at: http://tsvbr.pbwiki.com/Batchload+Analysis

The approach to record set analysis was presented in three steps:
* step 1: Examine several individual records
* step 2: Count fields in file
* step 3: View isolated fields

The first step is important and should almost go without saying. Step 2 is a quick way to verify the number of occurrences of certain fields. For example, if you have 100 records in your batch, there must be 100 each of required fields, such as the 245 (title) and 856 (URL). If there are less, that is a big red flag! The “What’s wrong with this picture?” examples on the slides are very revealing.

I especially like the subtitle on the slides for step 3: The power of eyeballing. The value of isolating fields for analysis became clear immediately when each individual field was removed from its record and grouped together with its counterparts. When all the same fields are sorted together, the errors and inconsistencies truly do just jump out at you—amazing!

Yael shared helpful tips on how to cleanup those errors and inconsistencies using the global update capabilities of MarcEdit. Unfortunately it is not possible to view the changes in MarcEdit before you apply them, so she recommended doing that in your ILS instead. She concluded by giving a general overview of the work of the TS-SIS Task Group on Vendor-Supplied Bibliographic Records (http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/committees/cataloging/vendorbibrecords/) which has setup a wiki (http://tsvbr.pbwiki.com/) in order to share the results of such batch-load analysis.

There wasn’t much time for questions: Should a batch be analyzed every time you are ready to load it? Yes. But there were a few comments, one of which was that MarcEdit cannot be used with some ILSs unless the whole database is extracted. The session closed with a comment about the fact that these batches are creating many duplicates for the same content in our catalogs. The aggregator-neutral record approach for e-resources (both serials and monographs) was mentioned, but naturally that raises other complexities for which there is no easy solution at present. Many thanks to OBS and TS for sponsoring this excellent program!

Session A5: Encore, Enterprise, Primo and WorldCat Local: Explore the Evolving Discovery Tools for Your Catalog

2008-07-23T14:49:00.000-04:00

Sunday, July 13, 2008 1:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.

Richard M. Jost, University of Washington, Gallagher Law Library
Mary Jane Kelsey, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Library
Julie Loder, Vanderbilt University
Debra Moore, Cerritos College

This session was a great way to get a taste of four of the major "discovery" products in a vendor-neutral setting. An excellent comparison of the features of all four platforms was compiled by the moderator, Keiko Okuhara of the University of Hawaii, and is available from the AALL handouts page at http://programmaterials.aallnet.org.

Mary Jane Kelsey spoke first about her experiences with Encore, Innovative Interfaces' (III) entry into the faceted browser market. They were development partners for Encore, and so were involved with its design from the beginning of the project.

Their goals for implementing Encore included improving the user experience, increasing their return on their investment in the ILS and cataloging, maintaining a credible Web presence, and bridging the gap between the Law and University OPACs (the main library is currently on Voyager).
As a current III customer, setup was pretty much plug-and-play, though increasing customization is available. Encore will also work with non-III systems, but the data is not displayed in real time.
Encore displays a Google-like single search box. (A link to perform an index search is present on subsequent pages after the main search page.) Results are relevancy-ranked, with journal titles and electronic resources "pushed" to the top of the list; the latter are Yale's customizations to the ranking algorithm.
Book jackets are shown at both the results and individual record level. Version 2.0 of Encore also features images from Yahoo "Safe Search" – though Mary Jane found some of those images not so "safe!"
A built-in spell-check validates against the database to prevent dead-ends (though this sometimes gives odd results; for example, a search on "voter fraud" responds "do you mean violin fraud?").
She finds the subject facts very useful; the ability to refine by tag includes a tag cloud displaying relative font sizes.

Debra Moore of Cerritos College presented their experiences with SirsiDynix's Enterprise Portal Solution (EPS) interface. They had not intended originally to implement a discovery platform, but they needed to migrate systems anyway and found funds available to make the switch, so they went ahead with EPS as their new interface for the new system.

EPS is intended to be a total portal to the library, not just to its resources. It is built on a proprietary software system that allows the library to create content modules (called "rooms"). The library can customize the design of each "room" within limited parameters and can select which resources appear in each "room" (for example, you could have a "psychology room" with links to your local or other OPACs, journal databases, Web searches, etc.).
Her favorite things about the system are the links to reviews, book jackets, and RSS feeds, and how the built-in federated search results display. (However, it is necessary to purchase a third-party product, such as Serial Solutions' 360 Search, to implement federated search.)
Her not-so-favorite things are the lack of authority control (e.g., a search on "movies" instead of "motion pictures" will retrieve nothing), the clunkiness of the "room builder" software, the lack of faceted search results (though this is under development by SirsiDynix as a separate product), and the speed of the system.

Julie Loder of Vanderbilt University presented an overview of ExLibris' Primo. As Yale was with III, Vanderbilt was a development partner with ExLibris for Primo, and did a soft rollout of their "DiscoverLibrary" in Spring 2008.

Their underlying OPAC is actually Unicorn, with Primo sitting "on top." At present the use of the native catalog is still required for "My Account" functions and requesting.
Primo works by building "pipes" to various collections (local OPAC, digital repositories, other databases) from which it extracts metadata into a standard form and "normalizes" it into an XML or PNX record.
Primo features include faceted search to refine results, built-in federated searching, "did you mean" spell-check based on the library's catalog metadata, user tagging, and user-customizable views. A new feature, called "third node searching," converts remote compatible databases to a Primo-type index for faster searching.
Initial feedback from their students has been positive, and the Primo interface is increasing the visibility of their TVNews Archives.

Richard Jost spoke last about the University of Washington's experience with WorldCat Local. (Note: the law library is not yet implementing WorldCat Local; these experiences are based on the main library.) Their implementation searches three catalogs and four article databases through one interface, including links to full text via an OpenURL resolver. WorldCat Local is still under development and not officially in release; UW is a beta partner on the project. They are still doing testing on design, the results algorithm, and request methods.

Results can be sorted for the user: in UW's case they display UW libraries first, consortial libraries second, and WorldCat results last. If all UW/consortial copies are checked out, the system automatically brings up an ILL form. The ease in which items can now be requested from non-UW libraries has increased their borrowing significantly.
Record results are displayed in a tabbed format so users can easily navigate to information about subjects, editions, libraries holding the item, item details, and reviews. WorldCat Local also offers faceted search, advanced search options and a built-in SFX-like link for articles.
One drawback is that WorldCat Local does not contain any 3rd-party resources for which OCLC does not have a license to put in WorldCat, such as Early English Books Online and some microform sets. For those materials users must return to the current catalog. Richard mentioned he expected these materials would eventually be able to be included, but he was dependent on OCLC obtaining the relevant licenses.

The Q&A session afterwards revealed some interesting similarities and differences among the systems. Most systems highlight the user's search terms in results (though this wasn't always apparent from the PowerPoint screenshots). Most also allow libraries some control over how results display and are sorted. Interestingly, none of the libraries had done a multi-vendor evaluation before choosing their now-implemented platform: three of the four were development partners or beta test sites, and Cerritos College chose EPS because it came with their new SirsiDynix system. In response to a comment from the audience that faceting is breaking apart pre-coordinated data, all four librarians said they did not think anything was being lost by this. Instead, users are now finding things they never would have before, and faceting is an improvement over plain keyword searching.

This was a truly interesting look at the state of things to come in library interfaces, and the 75 minutes really flew by.

Session D-2: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Rethinking Bibliographic Services in the 21st Century

2008-07-22T18:29:00.000-04:00

Monday, July 14 8:45 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Richard Amelung, Saint Louis University, Omer Poos Law Library
Diane I. Hillmann, Director of Metadata Initiatives, the Information Institute of Syracuse

This session began with Richard Amelung, the AALL representative to the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control presenting an overview of the Group's members and of its final report, which was disseminated in November 2007. Along the way he clarified several aspects of the report, the role of the Working Group, and the involvement of non-library parties that have evidently been causing misconceptions among libraries and librarians:

Working Group members have been careful to make sure they are all sending out the same message to various library communities when individual members of the Group are invited to speak. However, they are not speaking on behalf of the Library of Congress, only the Working Group. Only LC speaks for LC.
The Working Group is not responding to responses to the report. (As Richard noted, "the report's done, folks!") However, Working Group members are staying on in an advisory capacity to LC.
The report was structured to identify what would happen if nothing was done, then provide several recommendations for action and the anticipated outcomes if the recommendations were implemented.
The report was intentionally "long on ideas, but short on 'how'" – that is, it was focused on outcomes, not how they might be achieved. In this way, all involved parties would be given the maximum flexibility to develop their own ideas as to how best to achieve a given outcome. Planning for how to achieve these outcomes is what needs to happen next – the detailed steps behind how we will get from Point A to Point B.
LC is involved with a vast amount of projects, but communication between various areas within LC– and to the outside world in general – about what is going on has been an ongoing problem. Many of these projects are in various stages of development, from fully implemented to pilot stages only, but they all seem to get mentioned as if they are all at the same stage – which they're not.
The Working Group made recommendations to many entities outside of LC and the library/cataloging community, but many of these groups (publishers, vendors, etc.) need to be convinced of the importance of bibliographic control to their community, and to get involved.
Standards creation currently takes so long that by the time a standard is completed the community has moved beyond it. Multiple groups are usually involved in standards development, and unfortunately they aren't necessarily working in a coordinated fashion.

After Richard's presentation, Diane Hillmann took the podium to present "After the Report," where she described what she agreed and didn't agree with in the final version of the report. Her detailed PowerPoint slides are available at http://hdl.handle.net/1813/11115 (with even more detailed comments at http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dn8z3gs_51dsqc77), but here are some of the highlights:

In the age of mashups, is there any need to continue seeking the "holy grail" of a "unified philosophy of bibliographic control"? Libraries are no longer the only players in the information universe – yes, we may "do it better" than others, but maybe "good enough" is in fact good enough. Can we survive and thrive if we continue to insist on "unified" anything? Do we all have to agree on everything before any progress can be made?
While the report recommended increasing efficiencies, it's possible we may have wrung all of the efficiencies possible out of our current systems. It's time to explore alternate distribution systems beyond our current networks. "Sharing materials" does not necessarily have to take place only within bibliographic utilities. OCLC doesn't handle images, single items, and media well on an item-level basis. Sharing data about these types of materials may be better handled through other distribution methods.
Two big "YES"es from Diane: internationalizing authority files & transforming LCSH.
Traditional cataloging has focused too long on the secondary products of research. The new mindset needs to be more like that of archivists and Metadata Librarians, focusing on primary materials.
Without improved abilities for machines to manipulate our data, we are going to be locked out of participating in a world where the Web is everyone's platform. While we need a more flexible and extensible metadata carrier than MARC, LC is not necessarily well prepared to create it.
The idea of "return on investment" is a non-starter, because right now we really don't know what that means, or how to achieve it.
Suspending work on RDA made vendors breathe a sigh of relief (one less thing to do!) but it isn't realistic.
For a good explanation of why user data will be important in relevance ranking and selection, Diane referred to LibraryThing founder Tim Spaulding's ALA presentation on his Thingology blog, http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2008/07/future-of-cataloging.php. (BTW, in the interests of full disclosure, I recently joined LibraryThing and think it's a blast.).

This was a very stimulating discussion, and for folks (like me, sorry) who just couldn't quite motivate themselves to read the final report in its entirety when it came out, a good overview of the highlights. It looks like the report will be generating discussion for some time to come, and stimulating the library profession to do some serious thinking about what we will want and need to do with "our" data (if we can even call it "ours" any more!) in the years ahead.

Task Group on Vendor Supplied Bibliographic Records

2008-07-21T13:17:00.000-04:00

Good morning!

The Task Group on Vendor-Supplied Bibliographic Records has been working on a wiki, where we can publish evaluations of MARC record sets provided by various vendors, as well as any related information. We are happy to announce that the wiki is ready to go “live”, and can be found here.

Currently we have reviews and other information posted for BNA, CALI, HeinOnline, World Trials, MOML, and the Westlaw/Lexis records from Cassidy. Please note that some of these reviews are works in progress and may not yet be complete. The reviews will also be edited or updated as new information is received.

In addition, the VBR wiki also contains a link to Yael Mandelstam’s excellent AALL presentation, “ Demystifying Batchload Analysis.” It contains very useful information for analyzing large MARC record sets.

Angela
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Angela Jones
Senior Technical Services Librarian
Underwood Law Library
Southern Methodist University