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The Bibliography:
Advanced Technology Libraries, 25 (3) (March 1996), p.
4-5.
Sirsi and OCLC have announced a pilot project to use the Z39.50
protocol for cataloging. Library staff will be able to use a common
user interface to search the OCLC Online Union Catalog, download
the records to their local system, and attach holdings symbols
to OCLC. Users would be able to search the OLUC using familiar
local commands. Libraries involved in the pilot project include:
The University of Southern California, Carnegie-Mellon University,
the New York State Library and the White Plains Public Library.-R.
Bazirjian
Ayres, F. H. "Bibliographic control at the cross roads,"
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, v. 20, no. 3,
1995.
A call for a re-examination of principles, i.e. the cataloguing
codes, for the automation age. In the briefest summary, main entry
must be replaced by something called the "manifestation entry",
which is a form of enhanced uniform title which will include all
editions, translations, formats, etc. etc. As well as providing
world wide linking and availability information for all.-A. Zuckerman.
Bangalore, Nirmala S. "Authority files in online catalogs
revisited," Cataloging & Classification Quarterly,
v. 20, no. 3, 1995.
User requests resulting in zero hits for author searches in an
online catalog are analyzed. The need for bibliographic records
relating to a name to be brought together under one form of the
name and the need for cross references to direct a user from variant
forms of the name are discussed. Arlene Taylor's study of this
problem in 1983 is replicated. Data are given to prove that linked
bibliographic/authority files and the availability of see references
online in the public view of OPACs are reducing zero hits.-A.
Zuckerman
Basili, Carla. "Subject searching for information: what does
it mean in today's Internet environment?" Electronic Library,
v. 13, no. 5 (Oct. 1995) pp. 459-466.
This article discusses and illustrates the need for organization
of Internet resources and better search tools. The author uses
concrete examples.
Burton, Pam and Mayo, Jan, "Cataloging functionality in the
Horizon Information Management System" Library Software
Review, ISSN 0742-5799, v.15, no.1 (spring 1996), p.25-30.
Two catalogers discuss basic functionality including strengths
and weaknesses, of the cataloging module. The authors place emphasis
on the authority control component of this module. East Carolina
University is one of the oldest and largest users of the Horizon
client/service information management system, developed and supported
by Ameritech Library Systems. Although cataloging has proved to
be one of the strongest modules in Horizon, there is a definite
need for better authority control, improved bibliographic editing,
and item manipulation. In contrast to existing online systems
on the market, such as NOTIS, Innovative Interfaces, Inc., and
SIRSI, Horizon's handling of these features is still in the developmental
stage.-M. Turitz
Chalfen, Daniel Hilton, and Farb, Sharon E., "Universal access
and the ADA : a disability access design specification for the
new UCLA Library Online Information System." Library Hi
Tech v.14, no.1 (consecutive. issue #53) 1996. p.51-56.
This article provides:
1.) a brief discussion of the barriers traditionally faced by
people with disabilities in accessing library collections, materials,
and services;
2.) ADA compliance requirements for libraries;
3.) an overview of the importance of adaptive computing technology
in making library information accessible; and,
4.) a disability access design specification for the new UCLA
library online information system, with the flexibility needed
to adapt to a library's changing needs in providing universal
information access. The specification includes extensive references
for system design guidelines. Some of the ORION2 disability specifications
include accessible user interface. Example: screen design must
be readable by users of speech and Braille devices.-M. Turitz
Commings, Karen, "Two All in One Workstation Projects."
Computers in Libraries, 16 (May 1996): 26-27.
This article discusses one stop shopping workstations at Cowles
Library, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, and at the Howard
County Library, Maryland. The Cowles Library project review does
not address the OPAC, but the discussion of the Howard County
Library does discuss the OPAC. The Howard County Library project
involves the Howard County government, Patuxent Publishing Co.,
and the Mall of Columbia. The cooperative project has resulted
in the establishment of a Data Depot which is a public information
kiosk that provides direct connection to the library's online
public catalog, to county government information, and to community
resources.-J. Greenberg
Corthouts, Jan & Phillips, Richard. "SGML: a librarian's
perception." Electronic Library, v. 14, no. 2. (April
1996) pp. 101-110.
The article proposes a strategy libraries can consider when implementing
SGML applications. Using the example of VUBIS-Antwepen Library
Network (Belgium), the article discusses using SGML for exchange
of bibliographical data, document ordering, and publishing guides
on the World Wide Web. SGML applications for local journal article
databases and current awareness are also discussed.-R. Schwartz
Drabenstott, Karen M., "Enhancing a new design for subject
access to online catalogs." Library Hi Tech v.14,
no.1 (consecutive. issue #53) 1996. p.87-109
Article identifies characteristics of the most difficult user
questions and recommends enhancements to the new subject-searching
design. The design would enable system to produce useful retrievals
in response to the wide variety of queries users pose to online
catalogs. Design and development is required to upgrade existing
online catalogs with search trees and new subject-searching functionality.-M.
Turitz
Edwards, Alistair D.N., "The Rise of the Graphical User Interface."
Library Hi Tech v.14, no.1 (consecutive. issue #53) 1996.
p.46-50.
Article describes the development of the GUI [Graphical User Interface],
explains why it is so significant, and discusses whether it has
been "tamed" with respect to use by people with visual
disabilities.-M. Turitz
Elrod, J. McRee, "Cataloger's role in catalog construction
: a modest proposal" Library Software Review, ISSN
0742-5799, v.15, no.2 (summer 1996) p.68-71.
Elrod, proposes that catalogers have a role in designing the public
displays of OPACs. He suggests our cataloging rules may have to
be modified to address the question of optimal display of information.
"We need to return to having catalog use skills fully transferable
among libraries. This would be best accomplished ... if we catalogers
returned to catalog building."-M. Turitz
Frants, Valery I., Shapiro, Jacob, and Voiskunskii, Vladimir,
G., "Optimal Search Available to an Individual User,"
Journal of Information Science, vol. 22, no. 3 (1996):
181-191.
Again, this article, like the other JIS article does not focus
on the OPAC, but I think that it also raises a very interesting
issue. The article describes an approach for designing an implementing
and information retrieval (IR) system that provides an the optimal
search for each individual user. The calculations of individual
need are based on an algorithm which performs SDI (selective dissemination
of information).-J. Greenberg
Gagos, Traianos, "Scanning the past : a modern approach to
ancient culture" Library Hi Tech v.14, no.1 (consecutive.
issue #53) 1996. p.11-22.
Article focuses on a project that digitized ancient papyri at
the University of Michigan to create a detailed online catalog.
The papyri were scanned and stored as images into a database.
The databases were constructed with 4th Dimension. It allows the
construction of relational databases and the link of images and
records with hypertext markers. The long-range goal is to create
a "virtual" library with the holdings of these collections,
including MARC records and LC subject headings. The article also
discusses a similar project at Duke University, using color images
and corresponding catalog records in US-MARC AMC format (now available
for viewing and research <http://odyssey.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/>.-M.
Turitz
Hartley, James and Sydnes, Matthew, "Which Layout Do You
Prefer? An Analysis of Readers Preferences for Different Typographic
Layouts of Structured Abstracts," Journal of Information
Science, vol. 22, no. 1 (1996): 27-37.
While this article has nothing to do with the OPAC, I thought
it raises an interesting issue, especially as online catalogs
are beginning to provide access to abstracts and other informational
resources. The article discusses the results of a survey of 400
readers (students, postgraduates, research workers and academics
in the social sciences). The results indicate that most of the
respondents preferred abstracts with subheadings, that were printed
in bold capital letters. Readers also preferred to have a line
space above the main headings.-J. Greenberg
Huesmann, James, and Downing, Deb, "Extending Access and
Delivery (Far) Beyond the Library Walls," Computers in
Libraries, 16 (May 1996): 28-31.
Linda Hall Library (LHL), and independently funded public library
of science, engineering, and technology based in Kansas City,
has opened an East Coast Branch in New York City. The catalog,
LEONARDO, which is shared with the Spencer Art Reference Library
of the NelsonAtkins Museum of Art is now shared with LHLs New
York site. LEONARDO is used over the Internet to assist with internal
library operations (i.e., acquisitions, cataloging, etc.). The
Internet is also used for public access. LEONARD can operates
via Windows or Macintosh GUI client software.-J. Greenberg
Ingrid, Hsieh-Yee, "Student Use of Online Catalogs and Other
Information Channels," College & Research Libraries,
57 (2) (March 1996), p. 161-175.
This article describes how students use online catalogs. The author
cites, from her findings, that keyword and subject searching is
the most popular form of access. For the most part, however, students
do not understand the difference between keyword and subject searching.
Race, school variables, economic background and gender were also
studied in the search for patterns in online catalog use and information
channels.-R. Bazirjian
Jeapes, Ben. "Digital library projects: where they are now-part
one." Electronic Library, v. 13, no. 6 (Dec. 1995)
pp. 551-554.
The article briefly describes the digital library project proposals
of the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California,
Santa Barbara, and the University of Michigan. The article then
summarizes the progress of each project. Projects include digital
libraries for spatially-indexed information (GIS), texts, and
multimedia digital formats. The projects utilize HTML, Z39.50,
USMARC, scanning of text and images, GIS software, and/or any
combination of them.-R. Schwartz
Jeapes, Ben. (Feb. 1996). "Digital library projects: where
they are now-part two." Electronic Library, v. 14,
no. 1 (Feb. 1996) pp. 62-64.
The article briefly describes the digital library project proposals
of the University of Illinois, the Carnegie Mellon University,
and Stanford University. The article then summarizes the progress
of each project. Projects include digital libraries for video
and audio collections, engineering collections, and access structures
for a diversity of subject materials (e.g., humanities, sciences,
etc.).-R. Schwartz
(Rosann also saw this same article and this is what she had to say about it:)
This article looks at digital library projects currently taking place at Carnegie-Mellon University, the University of Illinois and Stanford University. CMU's project was to establish a "large online digital video library." It allows for full-content search and retrieval via computers and area networks. It integrates speech, language and image technologies. The University of Illinois' project was to construct a digital library for the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center. It was to "establish and interlink a large collection of digital documents and databases; to develop search software; and to evaluate usage over the Internet." Stanford University's project was to develop enabling technologies for a single, integrated library, composed from the "large numbers of emerging individual heterogeneous repositories." They want to manage "information space" in a consistent and standard way.-R. Bazirjian
Lazinger, Susan S. and Levi, Judith, "Multiple non-Roman
scripts in ALEPH -Israel's research library network." Library
Hi Tech v.14, no.1 (consecutive. issue #53) 1996. p.111-116.
Israel found it necessary to develop software enabling its research
library catalogs to handle several alphabets - Hebrew (including
Yiddish and Ladino), Roman, Arabic and Cyrillic. This led to the
development of soft fonts, which can display on any VT320 or upwardly
compatible terminal in Roman-alphabet, Hebrew, Arabic and Cyrillic.-M.
Turitz
Lee, Claire, "Cataloging a small library collection with
a bibliographic database management system" Library Software
Review, ISSN 0742-5799, v.15, no.2 (summer 1996) p.82-87.
Software review of Library Master, a bibliographic and textual
database manager. The program runs on an IBM PC with 512K RAM,
DOS 3.3 or higher and at least 5 MB of hard disk space. $250 for
single user. The program can be used to create a library catalog
of more than 65,500 records, each of up to 65,000 characters,
in one database. The number of databases is limited only by disk
storage space.-M. Turitz
Noble, Steve, "Recording for the blind and dyslexic : the
development of an Internet accessible online catalog" Library
Hi Tech v.14, no.1 (consecutive. issue #53) 1996. p.69-73.
Article describes a 1992 project to develop an online public access
catalog that would allow both institutional providers and individual
borrowers to search is holdings and to order recorded texts via
the Internet. The primary impetus behind the development of RFB&D's
Internet catalog was to support an automated online ordering process.-M.
Turitz
"RLG, Pica Form International Alliance," Advanced
Technology Libraries, 25 (2) (February 1996).
The Research Libraries Group and Pica, the Dutch Centre for Library
Automation in Leiden, have agreed to codevelop WebDOC. This will
be a document "discovery" and delivery service on the
WWW. It will be designed to let end users search WebCAT (a special
catalog of bibliographic records) via Web browsers, and retrieve
documents linked to them. WebDOC also places a licensing and accounting
server between the online record and access to the document it
retrieves in order to verify that the user is covered by an institutional
license, or to debit a user's personal account.-R. Bazirjian
Roundy, Tamara and Parthasarathy, Kalyani, The Procedures Manual
Goes Online: Creating an Online Manual Using a Word Processor,
Computers in Libraries, 16 (May 1996): 32-35.
Pullen Library, Georgia State University, has worked with WordPerfect
6.0 for Windows to create an online manual. WordPerfect supports
Hypertext, templates, a customized button bar, and other features.
Cataloging policy documents, such as links to OCLC documentation,
are included in the manual.-J. Greenberg
Sha, Vianne T. "Cataloging Internet resources: the library
approach." Electronic Library, v. 13, no. 5 (Oct.
1995) pp. 467-476.
The article describes three approaches to organize Internet resources:
Web software indexing robots (e.g., Webcrawler), the Clearinghouse
for Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides, and the traditional
library cataloging approach. The advantages and disadvantages
of the third approach are discussed in detail.-R. Schwartz
Steele, Colin. "The Digital library: dos, don'ts and developments."
Electronic Library, v. 13, no. 5 (Oct. 1995) pp. 435-437.
This article describes what the digital library is today and discusses
its probable developments. In addition, the author discusses what
are the implications to the future of libraries and information
provision.
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Also, this document submitted by Ray Schwartz:
"A Proposed Convention for Embedding Metadata in HTML." Reported by Stuart Weibel (weibel@oclc.org) June 2, 1996
The following proposed convention reflects the consensus of a break-out group at the W3C Distributed Indexing and Searching Workshop, May 28-29, 1996, concerning tagging of meta information in HTML. This break out group included representatives of the Dublin Core/Warwick Framework Metadata meetings, Lycos, Microsoft, WebCrawler, the IEEE metadata effort, Verity Software, and the W3C.
Attendees (alphabetically):
Nick Arnett narnett@verity.com
Mic
Bowman bowman@transarc.com
Eliot Christian echristi@usgs.gov
Dan Connolly conolly@w3.org
Martijn Koster m.koster@webcrawler.com
John Kunze jak@ckm.ucsf.edu
Carl Lagoze lagoze@cs.cornell.edu
Michael Mauldin fuzzy@lycos.com
Christian Mogensen christian@vivid.com
Wick Nichols wickn@microsoft.com
Timothy Niesen tmn@swl.msd.ray.com
Stuart Weibel weibel@oclc.org
Andrew Wood woody@dstc.edu.au
The problem is to identify a simple means of embedding metadata within HTML documents
without requiring additional tags or changes to browser software, and without unnecessarily compromising current practices for robot collection of data.
While metadata is intended for display in some situations, it is judged undesireable for such embedded metadata to display on browser screens as a side effect of displaying a document. Therefore, any solution requires encoding information in attribute tags rather than as container element content.
The goal was to agree on a simple convention for encoding structured
metadata information of a variety of types (which may or may not
be registered with a central registry analogous to the Mime Type
registry). It was judged that a registry may be a necessary feature
of the metadata infrastructure as alternative schema are elaborated,
but that deployment in the short-term could go forward without
such a registry, especially in light of the proposed use of the
LINK tag to link descriptions to a standard schema description
as described below.
The solution agreed upon is to encode schema elements in META tags, one element per META tag, and as many META tags as are necessary. Grouping of schema elements is achieved by a prefix schema identifier associated with each schema element.
The convention agreed upon is as follows:
<META NAME = "schema_identifier.element_name"
CONTENT = "string data">
Thus, a partial Dublin Core citation might be encoded as follows:
<META NAME = "DC.title"
CONTENT = "HTML 2.0 Specification">
<META NAME = "DC.author"
CONTENT = "Tim Berners-Lee">
<META NAME = "DC.author"
CONTENT = "Dan Connolly">
<META NAME = "DC.date"
CONTENT = "November, 1995">
<META NAME = "DC.identifier"
CONTENT = "ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1866.txt">
And a collection of Microsoft Word metadata might be encoded as follows:
<META NAME = "MSW.title"
CONTENT = "W3C Indexing Work Shop Report">
<META NAME = "MSW.author"
CONTENT = "Wick Nichols >
<META NAME = "MSW.date"
CONTENT = "May 30, 1996">
It is judged useful to provide a means for linking to the reference definition of the metadata schema (or schemata) used in a document. Doing so serves as a primitive registration mechanism for metadata schemata, and lays the foundation for a more formal, machine-readable linkage mechanism in the future. The proposed convention for doing so is as follows:
<LINK REL = SCHEMA.schema_identifier HREF="URL">
Thus, the reference description of one metadata scheme, the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, would be referenced in the LINK HREF as follows:
<LINK REL = SCHEMA.dc HREF = "http://purl.org/metadata/dublin_core">
The description of an element could be accessed by the construction of URL using the # token to identify a named anchor. Thus, the derived URL below actually links to the title element in the
reference description of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set.
[1]http://purl.org/metadata/dublin_core_elements#title
This URL would correspond to the human-readable description of the title element within the document by a NAME anchor such as:
<A NAME = "title"> Title </A>
The name of the work provided by the author or publisher.
While use of the LINK tag is not required for a given schema, when used, it will make possible retrieval of the reference definition of a given schema element, and will therefore reduce the need for a formal metadata scheme registry. Multiple LINK tags can be used so that elements derived from multiple schemas can be referenced within a single document.
To promote consistency among resource description schemas, it is suggested that the semantics for metadata elements be related to existing well-known schemas whenever feasible.
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