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Weinheimer Jim | 1 Mar 17:13

Re: opac live search

Tim Spalding wrote:
> I fundamentally disagree. I really need to write something about this
> some day--how and why many librarians love the "semantic web."
> Fundamentally, and with respect, I think librarian interest in the
> semantic web, is effectively about learning as *little* as
> possible—learning nothing from Google, particularly. The semantic web
> feels familiar because it is or seems authoritative, controlled,
> top-down, binary/certain, standards-driven, committee-based, highly
> ordered and in opposition to the "mess" that proven so amazingly
> useful. The semantic web is a sort of "web do-over," the web as
> envisioned by librarians. As a matter of development, the idea keeps
> getting smaller and smaller—from a sort of AI utopia to "linked data"
> and "microformats."

I am surprised that you are against the semantic web concept and I will be interested in more details of your
opinions. To me, the semantic web is not about doing things the way we have always done them, i.e.
"authoritative, controlled, top-down, binary/certain, standards-driven, committee-based, highly
ordered" but it rather attempts to let people get some sort of reliable results from their searches. It
seems to me that even semi-serious research is all about finding reliable groups of materials related
conceptually in different ways, such as from my previous example, "the memoirs of U.S. soldiers who
fought in WWI." I think this is a realistic search and is nothing strange. 

What do people believe they are retrieving when they search that kind of phrase in Google? Perhaps people
really don't care about the results when they do a search like this and they are satisfied with anything
that they comes up, but that is certainly not my experience and appears to go against any serious
definition of research. So, for those people who actually care about the results for the materials they
are searching for, do they realize that doing a Google search is like putting a pair of dice into a cup,
shaking it and watching what comes out? Do they actually believe that the 500,000 or so hits that they get
really are what is available in Google concerning "the memoirs of U.S. soldiers who fought in WWI?" And
that the top hits really are the most "relevant" to their topic?
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B.G. Sloan | 1 Mar 20:05
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Re: opac live search

Jim Weinheimer said:

"Our worldview must change along with the world, and if the worldview of our users has changed to include
materials on the internet, so must ours. Will libraries be able to adapt to this 'new' world? (It's already
been around for almost 10 years and can hardly be called 'new' anymore!) My personal optimism waxes and
wanes, and right now it is waning. I see no real push in the library world for methods and projects that
seriously deal with this reality." 

I agree with what Jim says, but my "personal optimism" is more than waning...it's pretty much gone.

Simply put, if the library community was capable of adapting to this new worldview it would have done so
years ago. Sure, there's been nice rhetoric over the years, and some changes, but not much in the way of
actual progress towards adapting to this "new" world.

Bernie Sloan
Sora Associates
Bloomington, IN
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A Tenglund | 1 Mar 22:01
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Call for papers: Journal of Library Innovation

The Journal of Library Innovation is seeking submissions for publication for its inaugural  issue in
January 2010.

The Journal of Library Innovation, one of the first journals devoted explicitly to innovation and
creativity in libraries, is a peer reviewed, electronic journal published by the Western New York
Library Resources Council. Its mission is to disseminate research and information on innovative
practice in libraries of all types.

Innovation in libraries can include, but is not limited to the following: 

The discovery of unmet user needs. 
The introduction of new services or the retooling of traditional services resulting in a better user
experience. 
Creative collaboration between libraries, or between libraries and other types of institutions,
resulting in demonstrable improvements in service to users. 
Implementing new technologies to improve and extend library service to meet user needs. 
Explorations of the future of libraries. 
Pilot testing unconventional ideas and services. 
Redefining the roles of library staff to better serve users. 
Developing processes that encourage organizational innovation. 
Reaching out to and engaging library users and non-users in new and creative ways. 
Creative library instruction and patron programming. 
Finding new ways to make library collections or library facilities more useful.   

The Journal of Library Innovation publishes original research, literature reviews,  commentaries, case
studies, reports on innovative practices, and book, conference and product reviews. 

The journal also welcomes provocative essays that will stimulate thought on the current and future role of
libraries in an Internet Age.
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daRoza, Ida | 2 Mar 01:25
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CLA Spring Fling RDA & Foreign Language Cataloging Programs

Please join the Access, Collections and Technical Services Section of the 

California Library Association for our 2009 Spring Fling Workshops. 

We are proud to feature for the first time a selection of foreign language cataloging

programs and a timely RDA update. 

Hope to see you at one or all of the workshops described below. 

Link to registration http://cla-net.org/included/docs/SpringFling_Registration.pdf
<https://mail.plsinfo.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://cla-net.org/included/docs/SpringFling_Registration.pdf> 

Chinese Cataloging Workshop

This workshop will cover issues regarding cataloging workflows, policies, experience with vendors,
acquisition records, batch process, Chinese scripts, Unicode, ILS, and all other specifics pertaining
to Chinese cataloging for monographic, continuous, microform and audiovisual resources. Authority
records will not be covered. This workshop will be targeted to public library catalogers desiring to
learn more about Chinese cataloging issues within the context of public libraries. A knowledge of MARC
and AACR2 is required, as well as knowledge of Chinese. Lunch and refreshments are included.

DATE:                                     Friday, April 24, 2009

TIME:                                      9:30-3:30pm

LOCATION:                            San Jose Public Library

                                                150 E San Fernando Street, San Jose, CA 95112
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Jan Szczepanski | 2 Mar 08:21
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Re: opac live search

Which library is collecting every book produced? The bookwire figures 
are just not relevant.
Quality selection makes it possible to handle. Secondly, more and more 
countries are now
joining OCLC and more and more metadata are shared.

I wouldn't say that metadata is the problem. The real problem is that 
noby cares about the
open acces resources out there. Who is making quality selection of the 
hundred of thousands
free e-books? We can't just rely on the Google machine we have to build 
our own collections
and connect the collections with good metadata that are out there 
already. What we have done
during the lat hundred years has to be repeated once more and that is 
possible to don within
say ten years because we can build on the metadata already done. But the 
point is that no
library is interested in collecting free e-books.

Jan

Karen Coyle wrote:
> Tim Spalding wrote:
>>>  1. Quality collection building and metadata production is becoming 
>>> unsustainable.
>>>     
>>
>> This I wonder about. Librarians aren't getting more expensive. If the
>> data is good, it's good. How does it become unsustainable?
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Alexander Johannesen | 2 Mar 08:53
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Re: opac live search

Hi,

On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 18:21, Jan Szczepanski <jan.szczepanski <at> ub.gu.se> wrote:
> We can't just rely on the Google machine

Why?

> But the point is that no
> library is interested in collecting free e-books.

Why not?

Alex
--

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian, Topic Maps
------------------------------------------ http://shelter.nu/blog/ --------
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Jan Szczepanski | 2 Mar 09:08
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Re: opac live search

I got this letter this morning.  When no infrastructure exists
there can be no free flow of metadata and resources.

What shall answer my Czech collegue? Maybe the answer
is WorldCat? Sweden will join and maybe the Czech Republic
will also and then we somehow could exchange records and
resources in the grand scale. I don't know. Maybe my collegue
will get some help from the people working with our national
catalogue, LIBRIS. I hope it will be possible to export the
more than 28.000 titles to my collegue. It should in the best
of world. But the obstacles are enormous at the borders.
We have a long way to free trade!

Jan

Dear Jan,

Do you make your collection metadata available 
for download? Do you have somewhere official 
words about the project in English?

I am not sure if http://www.ub.gu.se/Gdig or 
http://www.ub.gu.se/info/projekt/paperfinalrev.pdf
is the right place where to start reading. 
Thanks for guiding me.

We are very interested in cooperation and have 
some hundreds (now maybe almost one of thousand)  
freely available Czech materials, also picked up 
carefully and checked regularly.
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Jan Szczepanski | 2 Mar 09:33
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Re: opac live search

Alexander Johannesen wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 18:21, Jan Szczepanski <jan.szczepanski <at> ub.gu.se> wrote:
>   
>> We can't just rely on the Google machine
>>     
>
> Why?
>   
Because we are in the library business and we are trying to build 
collections for our users and we
don't need information about everything, we just needs good catalogues.
>   
>> But the point is that no
>> library is interested in collecting free e-books.
>>     
>
> Why not?
>   
There is an interest in buying commercial packages of second rate 
e-books but it's cheap and
you got a lot of e-books at once. This is part of the macdonalization of 
acquistion policy that
since the last ten years been very popular in the journal business and 
now even spread to books.
I am extremely surprised to find out that every library in the world 
needs the same journals and
the same books.
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Alexander Johannesen | 2 Mar 11:11
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Re: opac live search

On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 19:33, Jan Szczepanski <jan.szczepanski <at> ub.gu.se> wrote:
>>> We can't just rely on the Google machine

Me:
>> Why?

> Because we are in the library business

Which is what, exactly, these days?

> and we are trying to build
> collections for our users and we
> don't need information about everything, we just needs good catalogues.

Ah, but the Google machine is a good catalogue, so that reflects my
original question; why can't you trust Google to make a darn good
cataloge (which it really is)? What can you possibly hope to do
better?

>> But the point is that no
>>> library is interested in collecting free e-books.

>> Why not?

> I am extremely surprised to find out that every library in the world needs
> the same journals and the same books.

I agree with you to some extent, and it certainly doesn't make sense
in an electronic world.
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Weinheimer Jim | 2 Mar 11:19

Re: opac live search

Alexander Johannesen wrote:

If I may enter into this...

> > We can't just rely on the Google machine
> 
> Why?

As in my message to Tim, librarians go into some pains to show that the results from a Google search are not
reliable enough for genuine research. Certainly they are a great supplement, but research demands some
more rigid and assured methods of access. I will be the first to concede that the current library methods
leave a lot to be desired as well, but it has still not been shown that full-text searches are so good that the
traditional methods can be eliminated. As I have pointed out, in Google Book Search, it can't even bring
multiple volumes of booksets together. If it can't do that, what else can it not do?

But just because I find fault with the Google machine doesn't mean that I also cannot use it in some great ways.

> > But the point is that no
> > library is interested in collecting free e-books.
> 
> Why not?

This goes to an entire batch of reasons. First reason for not collecting them (at least I believe), free
e-books can disappear tomorrow, or they change, or who knows what will happen to it. If you buy access to
ebooks (which in effect, is often renting them since in some plans you pay a yearly charge for them), if you
buy say, 50,000 volumes and next year you can't afford it, all that work at cataloging is gone. (this is the
way old hands look at it, and few of the arguments I bring up here are really valid).

But I think the main reason is that it bypasses normal library workflows. With printed books, there have
been long established relationships with book dealers, who provide selectors with pre-order slips,
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Gmane