Cataloging matters podcast by Jim Weinheimer

Here are Cataloging Matters, a series of podcasts about the future of libraries and cataloging by Jim Weinheimer. Looking forward to next ones.

FRBR: Things You Should Know...

Presentation for non-catalogers by Barbara B. Tillett, chief of the Policy and Standards Division, Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate, at the Library of Congress.

What's new in cataloging 2009

A presentation worth reading by Wayne Sanders and Felicity Dykas “What’s New in Cataloging 2009.”. In the presentation, they summarize the changes and pending changes that have taken place in descriptive and subject cataloging standards and in the MARC format. They also reviewed relevant changes that have occurred at places such as the Library of Congress, OCLC, and GPO.

UPCs, EANs, and ISBNs

A blog post by jrochkind clamied that he has figured out the relations among UPCs, EANs, and ISBNs. He said that EAN=0+UPC; ISBN-13=EAN; 978, 979 are bookland prefixes. Sound interesting? After reading the post and responses, you may still confusing. Yeah, Sometimes industries tend to choose more complicated ways to organize information not otherwise...

MARC "is nothing more than a digitised printed catalog card"

We heard the debate about MARC should die or live long time ago. Here is a blog post "Who needs MARC?" talked this old topic again, with some fresh points of views though: "MARC is NOT a data storage format. In my opinion MARC is not even an exchange format, but merely a presentation format."
"It really does not matter how you store bibliographic metadata in your database, as long as you can present and exchange the data in any format requested, be it MARC or Dublin Core or anything else."
However, the post had to admit that there is no widely accepted alternative so far and it takes time to develop a better international standard.

OCLC's Experiment program allows cataloging members to correct, improve and upgrade WorldCat master records

In response to requests from the cataloging community, OCLC is introducing the Expert Community Experiment which enables cataloging members to make more changes to WorldCat records. During the Experiment, members with full level cataloging authorizations have the ability to improve and upgrade WorldCat master records. The Experiment begins in February 2009, and lasts six months. Participants can upgrade all records except PCC records (BIBCO and CONSER records). Library of Congress records that are not PCC records are included in the Experiment.

New web-based cataloging tool-‡biblios.net

I am not sure yet what it is exactly and how it works. But it seems interesting-open source, from LibLime, freely-licensed library records, Open data commoms, etc. all these are interesting concepts. Here are the announcement, the website you can sign in to try out, and FAQs .

Temporary access to RDA Online

Be an early bird to learn RDA rules online? visit this website. Also full draft of RDA as of Nov 2008

Library of Congress merges Acquisition and Cataloging

Library of Congress News Release on Nov 13, 2008 announced that Acquisition and Cataloging were merged and formed into a new unit-Ac Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate. "The new organizational structure--the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate (ABA)--fully merges acquisitions and cataloging functions, streamlines workflows and deploys staff to take advantage of their unique language and subject skills," said ABA Director Beacher Wiggins. He noted that the new organization will be better designed and staffed to acquire new digital materials, which will be processed in the same work units as collections in printed and other formats. A footnote: LC predicted loss of 50% of technical services staff next 5-10 years.

PCC Guidelines made MARC field 440 obsolete: implement on Oct. 24, 2008

PCC Guidelines for Field 440
Field 440 has been made obsolete, but it may still exist in bibliographic records.
Implementation: The PCC recommends that members implement this change on the date suggested below as long as existing coding meets local processing needs. It is recognized that there may be local circumstances that delay implementation for some institutions.
Implementation date: Oct. 24, 2008
Practice for existing records: PCC members are not required to change 440 to 490 1, OCLC investigate changing these in the near future.
Coding for 490 first indicator definitions:
The definition of "0" will not change. The following new definition for "1" is now valid:
1st indicator--Series tracing policy The series has no corresponding added entry (not traced) or has a corresponding 800-830 series added entry field (traced differently).
0 - Series not traced
No series added entry is desired for the series.
1 - Series traced in 8XX field
New Definition:
When value "1" is used, the appropriate field 800-830 is included in the bibliographic record to provide the series added entry.

LC Catalogers Learning Workshop trainging materials are available free

Library of Congress Catalogers Learning Workshops training materials now are available free. The trainings include cataloging skills, Digital environment, and Continuing resources. Among the listed, Basic Creation of Name and Title Authorities is not yet available. Post from Cataloging Future