Winter, Vol. 17, no. 3 (2004)
Winter, Vol. 17, no. 3 (2004)
| From the Editors | From the Chair |
| NISO News | Professional Development |
| Midyear Report | Program Planning |
| Mentoring | Writing on XML & XOBIS |
| Membership | NASIG |
- "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)
Within each of us lies this invincible summer that we are often fain to call upon when winter months bring cloudy, dull and dreary days. However, Dick Miller heard this call and took upon himself the adventure of writing a book! He shares with us this experience and another that came as a result of his knowledge of XOBIS. It behooves each of us to find the writer in ourselves and express our knowledge in a format that we can share with our peers and others who work in the information arena.
Start making plans for MLA in Washington, D.C., and we will Seize the Power that we are given as informationists (for lack of a more alliterate term!). There are TSS committees crying out for members, new and old, to assist in forming meaningful and thought provoking sessions for all to hear. We need TSS members to volunteer to write summaries of these wonderful sessions shared at MLA in Washington. Membership is important, as many of the 'baby boomers' are reaching retirement age, and taking this opportunity to enjoy some leisure time. We need young, inspired professionals to step into our shoes and keep working hard behind the scenes in libraries around the world! In order for these young librarians to step up to the plate, we need to mentor at every opportunity. Work with your graduate schools, seek out high school career days, espouse the cause of librarianship!
We send our heartfelt thanks to all members of TSS that have contributed to this issue. It is not an easy time of year to stop and add one more item to your "to do" list, but we are deeply grateful! It makes our job so much easier.
We wish you and your family the happiest of
holidays, whatever your traditions and celebrations! May you enjoy them to
the fullest!
Happy New Year, also!
Connie & Jan
Connie Machado
Head of Cataloging
Rowland Medical Library
University of Mississippi Medical Center
cmachado@rowland.umsmed.eduJan Cox
Head Librarian
IU School of Dentistry Library
Indianapolis, Indiana
jcox2@iupui.edu
Hello all! Greetings from Pennsylvania and best wishes for a wonderful new year!
The section has been working to meet the goals that we set in San Diego. Thank you to all of the committee members who have taken the time to make a contribution to the profession through your work for the section. This fall has been a very challenging time for technical services librarians who deal with collection budgets, contracts, open-access initiatives, and the tracking and cataloging of all of the decisions being made. Below are some news highlights from MLA Headquarters as well as a copy of the section’s mid-year report. Open access journals have been an issue on the minds of many people. Thought I’d share the citations to some interesting articles that I’ve seen on the topic lately.
All the best to you and yours this holiday season,
Gin Lingle
Open Access Journals:
Crawford, B. D. "Open-access
publishing: where is the value?" Lancet 362(9395): 1578-, November 8,
2003.
Halsted, Charles H. "Copyright protection and open access." American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition 78:899-901, 2003.
Horton, R. "21st-century biomedical journals: failures and futures."
Lancet 362(9395):1510-, November 8, 2003.
Tamber, P. S. "Open access to peer-reviewed research: making it happen."
Lancet 362(9395): 1575- , November 8, 2003.
Zandonella, Catherine. "Open access: will it spell the end of the medical
library?" Medicine on the Net 9(11):1-7, November 2003.
(Interview with Beverlee French) "A Crisis on Campus." The Scientist
17(22), A2-A3, November 17, 2003.
News from MLA:
*CALL FOR MLA '05 COURSES AND SYMPOSIA
If you would like to submit an idea for a continuing education (CE) course that should be offered at MLA's 2005 annual meeting or if you would like to teach a course at MLA '05 in San Antonio, TX, please visit: http://www.mlanet.org/education/callcourses2005.html.
MLA units are encouraged to sponsor a CE symposia at MLA '05, please visit: http://www.mlanet.org/education/symp2005.html for instructions.
Perhaps you have an expertise in an area of technical services that you could share in a CE course.
* LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS ENDORSE ELECTRONIC RESERVES STATEMENT
Changes to copyright legislation--such as the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002 (TEACH Act)--have raised questions in the library community concerning electronic reserve practices. To address this issue, Georgia Harper, manager of the Intellectual Property Section of the University of Texas System Office of General Counsel, and Peggy Hoon, scholarly communication librarian at North Carolina State University, developed the statement, Applying Fair Use in the Development of Electronic Reserves Systems. The statement has been endorsed by MLA and other library associations and can be accessed at http://www.mlanet.org/government/positions/e-reserves_fairuse.html.
*FELLOWSHIPS FOR HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARIANS
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, in association with the National Library of Medicine, is accepting applications for fellowships to prepare librarians for careers in health sciences libraries. Only U.S. citizens with master's degrees from accredited library schools are eligible. The deadline for applications is February 16, 2004. Eight individual fellows will each receive a $40,044 stipend for one year, renewable for a second year. To learn more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/xsa1.
* The full text of MLA's policy
statement on the role of expert searching in health sciences libraries is
available at http://www.mlanet.org/resources/expert_search/policy_expert_search.html.
An edited version appeared in the November/December 2003 MLA News, pages 20-1.
* The MLA '04 Website includes a section called Breaking News. Visit it
regularly for updates to current information, hot topics of interest to meeting
attendees, and schedule changes:
www.mlanet.org/am/am2004/break_news.html.
TSS MEMBERSHIP NEEDS YOU
It’s TSS
Membership Renewal Time!
All memberships in the Technical Services Section of MLA expire
December 31, 2003.
Renew Today!
Visit http://www.mlanet.org/joinmla/index.html to access MLA’s online application or renewal form.
TSS
Program Update:
2004 Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.
The Technical Services Section Program Committee has been working hard on reviewing abstracts for the 2004 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
The TSS is the primary sponsor for the session: Lighting the Path: Digital Repositories in the Real World. We have selected three papers on the topic:
1) “18 months and counting... a report from the trenches”
2) “Feeling around in the dark: Establishing the role of the library in a campus-wide digitization project”
3) “Health & life sciences collection promotes collaboration throughout university by providing digital resources for teaching”
We are working on the 4th time slot for the session. We are still ambivalent about the expansion of one of the papers into two time slots vs. having an invited speaker. We would also like to consider an expanded Q&A for the 4th time slot if that is permitted. I don't think we can make a good decision on that without knowing the identity and more about the content of the project. I am assuming we will have that information when the selection process is complete. Input from section members is welcome, especially if you know a speaker from D.C. that would enhance the program.
We have agreed to co-sponsor two other sessions. The session organized by the Collection Development Section has the title, Seizing the Power. This session will focus on Open Access Publishing. The third session is "Using the Power of the Past to Energize the Present," co-sponsored by the Dental Section, Health Association Libraries, Technical Services Section and the History of the Health Sciences Section.
The good news is that the proposal for the Morning of Innovation that we submitted with the Collection Development Section has been approved. It is further programming on Open Access Publishing. Mark Funk, Chair-Elect of the Collection Development Section, is the primary program planner.
The Program Committee welcomes input for hot topics and topics you would like to see covered at the Business Meeting. You may send your suggestions to Mary Hawks (mailto:mshawks@uams.edu), Junie Janzen (mailto:junie-janzen@ouhsc.edu) or Judy Wilkerson (mailto:judy-wilkerson@ouhsc.edu)
Judy Wilkerson
TSS Chair Elect & 2004 Program Committee Chair
judy-wilkerson@ouhsc.edu
405-271-2285 x4875
Opportunities
for Professional Development
The purpose of this column is to list opportunities which may be of interest to our members. While the column is not intended to be a comprehensive listing, the compiler/editor welcomes information on continuing education opportunities for possible inclusion in future editions of the column. Although some of the courses listed below may indicate the awarding of continuing education units, only those specifically indicated as being MLA-approved have received prior approval from the Medical Library Association.
Winter ' 04 Learning Opportunities
Happy Winter! Opportunities are abundant this quarter. As a bonus, we found information on NLM fellowships for Informationist training.
We’d love to hear from you regarding past and future classes, sessions, or workshops that you’ve attended or would like to see posted here for the future. (I’ll start: One of the speakers participating in “Copyright In A Digital Age - A Practical Workshop” – Georgia Harper - presented at the University of Arizona about a year ago, and quite impressively.)
Your CE Committee,
Sue Trombley Lynne Bowman Kristin Sawyer
TSS CE Chair lbowman@email.uky.edu ksawyer555@yahoo.com
susant@ahsl.arizona.edu
Calendar of Events
February 18-20 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Early Bird Registration Deadline: 1/27/2004
March 30-April 1 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Early Bird Registration Deadline: 3/6/2004
Filters: How Do They Work?
January 16 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Early Bird Registration Deadline: 1/5/2004
March 5 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Early Bird Registration Deadline: 2/12/2004
January 26-27 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Early Bird Registration Deadline: 1/5/2004
February 16-17 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Early Bird Registration Deadline: 1/26/2004
January 5-7 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM Early Bird Registration Deadline: 12/19/2003
February 17-19 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Early Bird Registration Deadline: 1/26/2004
March 23-25 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Early Bird Registration Deadline: 3/1/2004
Visit http://www.amigos.org/learning/calendar/index3.php for a complete live online training schedule, course descriptions, technical requirements, and online registration form, or contact Chris Brown at Amigos, 1-800-843-8482, (972-851-8000 in the Dallas area), ext. 2829, or brown@amigos.org. Learning @ Amigos.Org's self-paced courses also include cataloging, interlibrary loan, web publishing, and preservation. For more details, visit http://www.amigos.org/learning/description.html.
Christopher Brown
AMIGOS Training Registrar
ALA Midwinter, San Diego, CA, January 9-14, 2004
http://www.ala.org/Content/ContentGroups/Events_and_Conferences2/Midwinter/2004/home.htm
Copyright In A Digital Age - A Practical Workshop,
January 9, 2004
American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference San
Diego,
California (See
description below: Digital Age)
Preparing
21st Century Cataloging and Metadata Professionals, ALCTS January 9, 2004
The ALCTS/ALISE Task Force for Preparing Cataloging and Metadata Educators
and Trainers has been appointed with members from ALCTS, ALISE, the Library of
Congress, OCLC, and other organizations to implement this workshop. The workshop
is aimed at LIS faculty and continuing education training providers, to
highlight strategies for integrating metadata and Web resource cataloging into
LIS and continuing education courses and curricula.
Through presentations, discussions and group activities, participants will
exchange ideas and techniques for teaching the competencies needed to organize
and manage Web resources. More information:
ALCTS/21st Century
SURA/ViDe
Digital Video Workshop, March 22-26, 2004, University
Place Conference
Center and Hotel, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI),
Indianapolis,
Indiana (http://universityplace.iupui.edu
)
This annual workshop has become recognized as the essential annual learning venue in collaborative videoconferencing, streaming video, and storing/serving video-on-demand. Workshop content will include examples of digital video projects in the research and education community, how-to sessions, and information on emerging technologies. More details will become available at: http://www.vide.net/conferences/spr2004.
Planning Ahead
SLA Annual Conference, Nashville, TN, June 5-10, 2004
"Putting Knowledge to Work"
http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/2004annual/index.htm
ALA Annual Conference, Orlando, FL, June 24-30, 2004
http://www.ala.org/Content/ContentGroups/Events_and_Conferences2/Annual/AN2004/home.htm
2004 NASIG Annual Conference,
Milwaukee, WI, June 17-20, 2004
"Growth, Creativity and Collaboration"
http://www.nasig.org/conference/nasig04.html
20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning,
Madison, Wisconsin, August 4-6, 2004
The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and
Learning is sponsored by
©University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Organized by: The Graduate Program in Continuing and Vocational Education
For more information: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/
2004 LITA National Forum,
Sheraton Westport Hotel, St. Louis, MO, October
7-10, 2004
"10
Years of Connectivity: Libraries, the World Wide Web, and the Next Decade,"
7th Annual LITA National Forum,
For more information: LITA
National Forum
Medical Library Association
Click here for descriptions of all these MLA courses:
http://www.mlanet.org/education/web/web_courses.html
Courses marked with the
icon are approved for MLA's Consumer Health Information Specialist Program
(http://www.mlanet.org/education/chc/index.html)
(NCBI)
Introduction to Molecular Biology Information Resources
This 3-day course if being offered by the
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in
various regions of the U.S. during the 2003-2004 academic year and will continue
to be offered at NLM one or two times per year. The course is approved for
20 MLA CE credit hours. Although there is no registration fee,
participants must cover their own travel, hotel and meal expenses. The
dates and locations for the near future are:
| November 5-7, 2003 (course full) | National Library of Medicine |
| November 17-19, 2003 | UCLA, Los Angeles, CA |
| December 10-12, 2003 | University of Illinois, Chicago |
| March 24-26, 2004 | University of Florida, Gainesville |
| June 14-16, 2004 | University of Washington, Seattle |
Complete information is available from NCBI:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Class/MLACourse/
NLM
Informationist Training Fellowships
NLM is pleased to announce 2 new fellowships that support Informationist training: F37 NLM Individual Fellowship for Informationist and F38 NLM Senior Fellowship for Informationists. These fellowships provide support for salary stipends, tuition and administrative needs for those who wish to prepare for careers as informationists. The training program involves coursework, mentorship, a research project and practicum experience in the area of interset. These can be used by librarians and others to obtain the cross-training and in-context work experience appropriate to one of our areas of interest. These are: (1) clinical informationist; (2) research informationist; (3) public health informationist; (4) consumer health informationist.
Eligibility details and other requirements can be found in the two program announcements. Applications will be accepted three times per year: December 5, April 5 and August 5. F37 NLM Individual Fellowship for Informationist Training supports early career librarians, health professionals and scientists, using the standard stipend levels established for other NLM F37 fellowships (i.e., those for research training in informatics.) http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-04-013.html
F38 NLM Senior Fellowship for Informationist
Training supports those with 10 years or more of professional experience,
providing salary support at the documented level of their current salary.
http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-04-014.html
Copyright in a Digital Age
- A Practical Workshop, ALA Mid-Winter, January 9, 2004, San Diego, CA
The Colorado Digitization Program, the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage, and OCLC's Digital Collection & Preservation Services Division invite you to participate, free of charge, in Copyright In A Digital Age - A Practical Workshop. This daylong workshop will be held on January 9, 2004, from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm during the American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference in San Diego, California. The workshop takes place at the San Diego Convention Center, Room 6E.
The workshop will address the complex issues surrounding copyright. Topics include: "Copyright Basics in a Digital Age," "Get It Down in Writing: Institutional and Policy Issues," "Identifying Your Copyright Assets," "What Can I Do and How Safe Is It?" and "The Permissions Process."
Rina Pantalony, Legal Counsel for the Canadian Heritage Information Network, will give the keynote address. Other presenters include: Lolly Gasaway, University of North Carolina, Georgia Harper, University of Texas; Maureen Whalen, J. Paul Getty Trust; Rachelle Browne, Smithsonian Institution; and Linda Tadic, ARTstor.
A Web-based Resource Kit provides additional resources for use by participants and their institutions. The workshop is free, but seating is limited and registration is required. Please register online at www.oclc.org/alaregister <http://www.oclc.org/alaregister>. For more information, please contact Amy Lytle at lytlea@oclc.org or by phone at 800.848.5878.
The current calendar of workshops, online + distance courses, study tours, and conferences from University of Wisconsin Madison School of Library and Information Studies http://www.slis.wisc.edu/academic/ces/ Topics include: Virtual Collection Development, short courses to improve your technology skills, Organization of Information, and Metadata.
Kristin B. Sawyer, M.L.I.S.
MLA/TSS CE Chair
ksawyer555@yahoo.com
North
American Serials Interest Group 2003 annual conference
"Serials in the Park," Portland Oregon,
June 26th-29th, 2003
Serials make up the majority of health science libraries’ collection expenditures. The NASIG annual conference is an excellent place to find out what is happening in all facets of the serials world. NASIG offers personal membership only. NASIG’s membership includes librarians, publishers, vendors, and “anyone interested in the serials information chain.” This meeting provides a forum where members meet on a college campus to discuss serials issues and problems in lectures, workshops, and casual encounters. NASIG is also the one professional meeting where vendors are not stuck in exhibit booths (there are none), but have the opportunity to attend the programs.
This year’s meeting was dynamic and rewarding. Issues ranged from the keynote topic, Trends in the Information Content Industry, to questions surrounding electronic journals and how we buy them, provide access to our users, count their usage, and many topics in between. There is a link to the program at: http://www.nasig.org/conference/progdescriptions.html NASIG members have access to conference handouts and the proceedings of previous conferences at http://www.nasig.org/conferences/index.htm
One of the most interesting and lively sessions I attended this year was a “hot topic” panel discussion entitled Industry Consolidation and Its Effects on Serials—a view from several sides. Panelists were Miriam Gilbert (Marcel Dekker), Michael Markwith (TDNet), Kim Maxwell (MIT), and Keith Courtney (Taylor & Francis). Panelists agreed that this trend was not going to stop and each had comments on what we can and should do in the face of continued industry consolidation. Keith talked about some recent mergers and buyouts. Miriam expressed the need for the smaller publishers to find their own core competency and concentrate on their own excellence. Mike talked about developing “co-opetition” where competitors can find a way to cooperate, to help keep options open for smaller companies. Kim talked about working with an ever-shrinking number of vendors, and maintaining performance standards as these changes occur.
Numerous approaches to managing electronic journals were offered in workshops, presentations, and posters. There was agreement that these management problems are not going away soon. I also heard an interesting presentation about a benchmarking study on time and cost of serials operations at the University of Oregon.
If you are interested in more information about any of these presentations, or to see what else went on, look at the web site, and contact the authors for further details.
Maggie Wineburgh-Freed
MLA liaison to NASIG
NISO
News Plus
NISO STANDARDS
This fall has been a busy and full period for NISO with
some exciting new initiatives and people coming on board. There was also some
sad news as Robert W. Frase, an ardent supporter and developer of standards
passed away in November 2003 (1912-2003). He was the first Executive Director
(1978) of NISO and was awarded the NISO Fellow Award in 1982. Robert worked on
the Z39, ISBN, Book Publishing Statistics standards. He is most noted for his
work on the Z39.48 Standard for Paper Permanence. His publications included:
Frase, Robert W. “ Permanent Paper : a Progress Report.” IFLA Journal 17 (1991) : 366-370.
Frase, Robert W. “ Permanent Paper : Progress Report II. ” IFLA Journal 21 (1995) : 44-47.
Frase, Robert W. “ Permanent Paper : Progress Report III ; the Unesco Resolution. ” IFLA Journal 24 (March 1998) : 177-119.
Frase, Robert W. and Jean I. Whiffin. Preserving our Documentary Heritage : The Case for Permanent Paper. The Hague: IFLA, 1996.
Frase, Robert W. “ Preserving out Documentary Heritage : The Case for Permanent Paper.” IFLA Journal 23 (1997): 140-143.
The NISO Annual Meeting will take place January 11, 2004 (in conjunction with the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Diego, California). Bruce Perens will be the featured speaker and will address “legal and technical curbs on information exchange.” On the 12th of January there will be a session on the ISBN changes entitled, “AN ISBN Briefing: Size Matters!” January 9, 2004 there will be a joint NISO/AVIAC (Automation Vendor Information Advisory Committee) meeting where the NISO Networked Reference Protocol will be discussed. See: http://www.niso.org/news/events_workshops/NISO-ALA-04.html. Additionally on January 10, 2004, NISO will update the American Library Association’s LITA (Library & Information Technology Association) Division on the current state of standards, especially the new Statistics and Metrics Standard, Onix for Serials, the OpenURL, and the Metasearch Initiative.
On December 9, 2003 NISO announced that the International Organization for Standardization published “ISO 1586:2003, Information and Documentation-The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set.” A copy may be purchased at: http://www.iso.ch/ and the ANSI/NISO version of this element set may be freely obtained at http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-85.pdf.
On December 4, 2003 NISO held a program during London Online 2003 where recent developments in standards to improve communication and interchange of information between publishers and the academic library community were discussed For more information see: http://www.niso.org/news/events_workshops/NISO_BIC_12-03.html.
NISO is picking up speed with the development of the Metasearch Initiative. An email was distributed on December 4, 2003 requesting participation. Read more about this initiative at: http://www.niso.org/committees/MetaSearch-info.html.
Dr. William E. Moen, a NISO participant, spoke on December 3, 2003 at the Library of Congress’ Luminary Lectures Series. The title of his talk was “No Longer Under Our Control: The Nature and Role of Standards in the 21st Century Library.” Dr. Moen talked about the effect that technological change has and will continue to have on libraries and standards. He began by describing a history of standards and the process used at NISO. A definition for standards, Dr. Moen postulated, would be more accurately stated as, “agreements by communities to do things in a specified way to address a common problem.” This definition highlights the fact that standards (contrary to the common perception as being permanent and unchanging) may have to change as technology changes and be agreed upon and developed by various interested communities. He later described what he called the “emerging/networked library,” an entity that is “service based and user driven.” Dr. Moen emphatically stressed that libraries are just one example of an information community and that libraries will need to collaborate with other information communities (e.g. museums, archives, geospatial centers, etc.) to achieve common goals. This talk was available live via Real Player, which was how this author participated. For more details see: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/lectures/moen.html.
On October 30, NISO announced four new appointments to the Standards Development Committee: Peter Noerr (Chief Technical Officer of MuseGlobal), Ed Pastorius (Executive Vice President, Operations, and Chief Information Office at Gale Group), Richard Rodgers (Clinical Specialty Consultant at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications), and Jenny Walker (Vice-President, Marketing and Business Development for the Information Services Division of Ex Libris (USA) Inc.) for three year terms.
NISO held two workshops in October entitled “The Next Generation of Access: OpenURL and Metasearch”: (1) OpenURL: Demystifying Link Resolution (October 29) and (2) Metasearch: What it is Now, What it Could Be, and How Standards Can Help Us Get There. For more information see: http://www.niso.org/news/events_workshops/MS-2003_workshop.html.
October 21st was the NISO Annual Meeting and Program featuring Bruce Perens as the keynote speaker. Bruce is a leader in the W3C® (World Wide Web Consortium), a creator of the Open Source Definition, and a series editor for Prentice Hall. He spoke on the issue of patents and their impact on standards development. See also: http://www.perens.com/. Perens will also be speaking at the January 11, 2004 NISO Annual Meeting.
Announced on October 13 was the completed trial period for the Metrics and Statistics Standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.7). This standard will be released for final ballot and approval and a November 24th deadline was set for seeking a maintenance agency.
A Memorandum-of-Understanding was signed between NISO and IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) to transfer to NISO the responsibility for the IMLS-developed Framework for Good Digital Collections (September 2003).
Also in September 2003, the NISO Board approved the appointment of the Colorado State Library as the maintenance agency for the NCIP (National Protocol to Facilitate the Interchange of Circulation Records, ANSI/NISO Z39.83).
There are two initiatives being developed in the Pre Standards Stage: (1) Metasearch Initiative (Ed Pastorius and Peter Noerr) and (2) Historical Newspaper DTD (an initiative to extend the current DTD for newspapers to include historical newspapers).
Effective August 2003-March 2004, is a new registration process for documenting specifications and guidelines, best practices, and other benchmark processes as NISO Registrations. For details see: http://www.niso.org/registration/registration.html.
APPLICATIONS
NISO placed on their Website, in December 2003, a white paper by Priscilla Caplan entitled: “Patents and Open Standards.” This paper was originally published in Information Standards Quarterly vol. 14, no.4, October 2003. The paper outlines the implications that patented technologies have in the development of open standards. Caplan pointed out that “…undiscovered patent claims can impact the use of standardized technology through unanticipated royalties, complex licensing requirements, or litigation.” (p. 2). Read the full paper at: http://www.niso.org/press/whitepapers/Patents_Caplan.pdf.
On November 24, 2003, The Washington Post featured an article (“On the Web, Research Work Proves Ephemeral”) The article discusses the frequency and impact of disappearing URLS and concludes with mentions of DOI’s and CrossRef, both standards supported by NISO. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8730-2003Nov23.html.
OPPORTUNITIES
We are always looking for people interested in reviewing standards, please contact Leopoldo Montoya (lm46@EXCHANGE1.DREXEL.EDU, Head of the Statistics Task Force, if you are interested in doing this as part of your professional growth on a continuing basis.
As always, Nadine Ellero welcomes any communication regarding standards that are being developed, up for review, etc. You may contact Nadine at: Nadine@virginia.edu.
Note: URLS are accurate as of article submission, December 15, 2003
Nadine P. Ellero
Head of Intellectual Access
University of Virginia Health System
The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library
Nadine@virginia.edu
TECHNICAL SERVICES SECTION
MLA MIDYEAR REPORT
2003-04
Goal 1: Recruitment, Membership and Leadership in the Profession: Maggie Wineburgh-Freed and the Ad-Hoc Mentoring Committee are working with the MLA Mentoring Committee and the Section Membership Committee to build mentoring relationships for new TSS members.
Goal 2. Life Long Learning: Continuing education opportunities for technical services librarians are published in the section newsletter by Susan Trombley, the CE chair. Members of the section are considering a proposal for a CE course at the MLA Annual Meeting in 2005.
Goal 3. Advocacy: The Standards Committee, chaired by Leopoldo Montoya, is continuing to identify and evaluate national standards that apply to technical services.
Goal 4. Create and Communicate Knowledge: Two issues of a very informative section newsletter have been published online so far this year by newsletter co-editors Jan Cox and Connie Machado.
Goal 5: Building a Network of Partners: Judy Wilkerson and the Program Committee are finalizing plans for the Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. in 2004. Several members of the section serve as liaisons for MLA to other professional organizations: Karleen Darr is the ALA Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access liaison until 2005; Maggie Wineburgh-Freed is the NASIG liaison; Nadine Ellero is the NISO liaison; and Pat Rodgers is the liaison to the ALA Publisher/Vendor-Library Relations Committee.
No action is required at this time.
Virginia A. Lingle
TSS Chair 2003-2004
Technical Services Section Officers
Judy Wilkerson, Chair-Elect and Program Chair
Sandy Arnesen, Past Chair and Bylaws Chair
Karleen Darr, Secretary/Treasurer
Mary Holcomb, Section Council Representative
Connie Machado, Section Council Representative Elect
Jan Cox/Connie Machado, Newsletter Editors
Jan Cox, Membership Chair
Pat Rodgers, Nominating Committee Chair
Leopoldo Montoya, Standards Committee Chair
Bob Pisciotta, Ad-Hoc Research Committee Chair
Pat Rodgers, Nominee to MLA Nominating Committee
Walter Morton, Web Site Editor
Susan Trombley, Continuing Education Chair
Maggie Wineburgh-Freed, Ad-Hoc Mentoring Committee Chair
Mentoring:
Words of Encouragement from your Ad Hoc Mentoring Committee
Someone new to the profession or beginning a new kind of work may want to
establish a relationship with a mentor on a relatively long-term basis. MLA’s
mentoring program fills that need. MLA maintains a roster at their web site at
http://www.mlanet.org/mentor/ of members who are willing to serve as
mentors, with a place to include specialized skills and expertise. The
committee hereby urges TSS members to register at the MLA web site to become
mentors. If you are one of those experts, PLEASE SIGN UP to provide assistance
to less experienced librarians.
However, we are often not interested in a long-term relationship, but we have a
particular question or need assistance in a specific area. These might be areas
such as working with a new product (OCLC Connexion), performing database
migration, planning retrospective conversion, considering using a new service (Marcive
or OCLC PromptCat), being involved in digital library projects, trying to decide
how to make electronic journals available to our patrons, add your question
here! SOMEWHERE THERE ARE TSS MEMBERS WHO ARE EXPERTS IN ALL THESE ISSUES!
The TSS mentoring committee would like to encourage you to use our existing
e-mail list to connect members to those who might be able to help with such
projects. PLEASE ASK our membership for any specific help you might need at:
mlatsslist@lists.stanford.edu And for prospective mentors, we have
developed a mentoring tip sheet (based on MLA’s) with some guidelines for
mentoring that might be useful to you (see below).
Maggie Wineburgh-Freed
Chair, MLA Technical Services Section Ad hoc mentoring committee
Ying Jia, member
December 2003
Tip Sheet for Technical Services Mentors (cribbed from MLA’s tip sheet)
1. Keep communications open.
If a prospective mentee contacts you, respond promptly to his/her message. If you will be unavailable because of business or personal travel, notify the mentee. Reply promptly to all messages sent to you.
2. Define expectations.
Clearly communicate with each other about what processes or activities the mentee needs help with and what assistance you can provide.
3. Be available.
Mentee may need help with a new technical service activity. If you agree to help, be available to talk with the mentee, answer questions, and provide advice.
4. Be an active, innovative, and creative participant.
Engage in your own learning while you are mentoring, being open to new ideas and procedures. Give advice, and be a resource for new ideas but also ask questions, and experiment.
5. Be supportive and positive.
Establish realistic goals in your mentoring relationship, suggest resources, continuing education courses, and encourage conference and other professional participation. Recognize the work the mentee has done and the progress they have made.
6. Be prepared to offer honest feedback.
Be truthful in your evaluations
but also be tactful.
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Connie asked me to write
about my recent book writing experience and/or speaking to the FRBR Working
Group at IFLA this
summer. These experiences may not be typical. Perhaps that
alone suggests that anyone thinking about writing or speaking
should be
encouraged to try his hand or vocal cords if so inclined or when the enticement
pops up unexpectedly. I feel very much
like an ordinary person living in
extraordinary times -- ones that are, seemingly at the same time, full of
possibilities and limitations.
First, the book...
The Writing
A lot transpired before
Putting XML to Work in the Library was released in October. Email to
Acquisitions Editor at ALA Editions,
2001-09-14: "I have not completed the
proposal as projected. With our new library system implementation going live
the same day
as the terrorist attack, we've just been overwhelmed." This gives
an indication of the ups and downs of the process that began during
the summer
after two publishers had contacted me in June regarding writing a book on XML.
Mary Buttner and I met with
the editor at ALA over lunch. Although I had written articles before, the idea
of a book was rather daunting. However, it seemed appealing as a vehicle to try
to get libraries to better appreciate the need for XML standards since the old
stand-by, MARC, was showing its age.
The editor indicated that
controversy wasn't necessarily bad for book sales (which remains to be seen).
After canvassing Lane's XML
aficionados, having some help, but not too much, seemed the best course. Kevin
Clarke agreed to co-author. Kevin is a fairly new professional with strong XML
technical skills.
Because we are both interested in the bibliographic underpinnings of libraries,
having a
mix of fresh and seasoned perspectives seemed to bode well.
We could just draw upon the
Lane's 2001 MLA CE course on XML,
redo my speech to MARBI:CCDA on replacing
MARC, expand on my XML "strategic opportunity" article, and add some new
sections
on software, specific projects, etc.
A year seemed like a
generous time period, especially when rationalizing that each of us would
only
be writing half a book.
We decided to write
generally, rather than for a more limited medical audience, since the principles
hold regardless of context.
ALA seemed the better choice
of publishers, mostly to lend more legitimacy to what we knew might be
controversial in some quarters.
That was the easy part.
There is a long interval between receiving an initial advance and the payment
for sending in the "completed" manuscript. The small sum of money certainly
didn't provide the persistent self-motivation that was required to keep plugging
away
over many months. Once some sample text was submitted, there was not much
external stimuli to keep up the process. We drifted from the outline and failed
to meet our self-set deadlines. Spending weekends and nights researching and
writing certainly took the "glamour" out of being an author. Trying to choose
others' projects to cover became a non-problem when we realized that Roy
Tennant's compilation, XML in Libraries, would provide a nice complement
in the contributors' own words. Rewriting my speech to
be a formal statement of
ideas was almost like starting from scratch. It was a challenge to know when to
stop exploring ideas. There was always a new development to entice
reconsideration of "completed" text. It was also interesting to use the
Internet and Google,
not knowing where a line of inquiry would lead or end.
Trying to verify or cite something you "know" tended to reveal a great deal of
variety in terminology and spark discussions about where we should come down on
a particular issue was also a challenge.
It's wise to expect frustrations during such a long process. There were many. Despite the frustrations, the end goal always served as the beckoning carrot. Lack of feedback, problems in continuity, delays, changes in guidelines, misunderstandings over illustrations, complexities in layout requirements, etc. revealed much about the mysterious process of creating a book. After the second draft, the novelty of an idea can wear off. Coordinating how parts written by two authors fit together also requires some give and take. As the deadline approached, we knew we were not going to make it. Ahead of time, we requested a month's extension to the end of February. No problem, but there was the hint that it really needed to be ready this time. Due to exceeding the contracted word limit, the relief from submitting the "completed" manuscript was short-lived. Taking a few nips and tucks, getting permissions for illustrations, and Tada, we had yet another "competed" manuscript. After a bit of a lull, April arrived and suddenly we were "in production."
Being in production was great. There was lots of editorial help, responsive emails, and generally more immediacy. All those problems relating to flow, consistency, and context that crept in over the long months were identified and addressed. Actually seeing edits of our manuscript and responding to them was motivating. However, it was work getting everything back in your head months after it had been initially written. Text looks different after you've seen it many times and you can't remember which changes were in which revision. Was the change in an illustration reflected in the text? We were happy to see the text improve so much with professional editing and responsiveness to our having to respond that the intent was lost by certain changes. Just as we had almost "completed" the manuscript yet again, it didn't help that I had to make a trip to the emergency room with a kidney stone and was woozy from the medication for a week. Just another good reason for having a co-author!
It was around this time that our new library director arrived. Having lots of new and interesting ideas during the day added to the intensity. Regular work issues never stopped during the entire course of writing and actually provided needed distraction from the book writing. Returning to stale text sometimes makes it easier to freshen up, rather than plugging away doggedly when you're stuck. Keeping work and writing separate was easier than I had expected. We didn't want to bore our colleagues with minutia.
Then there were periods of waiting, followed by short turn around times for proof-reading, submitting photos, reviewing the indexing, etc. We were pleased with the book design, but had little say in such matters. Our "catchy" title and "clever" bios were rejected. Having a purple cover, associated with XOBIS and Kevin's favorite color, may have resulted in a bit of purple on the otherwise green cover. Likewise, the idea of using multi-script XML from the introduction as background on the cover became a bit blander as a snippet of plain XML. We were also surprised to see the ECIP and our authority records. I inquired about the prospects of getting one of the LC subject headings changed. To our surprise, LC accepted the overture made by ALA Editions on our behalf, which we understand is quite a rarity. We learned that ECIP was based on the table of contents and the first and last chapters. The longest chapter including cataloging had not been seen. Because the table of contents only includes two levels of headers below the chapter titles, the emphasis was not under the circumstances evident. Talking directly with the indexer was also a fascinating foray into an area of little familiarity. In July the last few details were finished and the book was finally off to the printer. Just in time for preparing a speech for IFLA!
The Speaking
Somewhere during this saga, I "unwittingly" accepted an invitation to speak on XOBIS at IFLA in Berlin in August. Patrick Le Bœuf of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, chair of the FRBR Working Group, had contacted me regarding this and suggested that I attend a meeting in Washington in February on the CRM (Conceptual Reference Model) of CIDOC, a museum informatics group. Both meetings were extremely interesting. This was my first IFLA. I can heartily recommend it based on the high caliber of the presentations that I attended. The CRM meeting was almost eerie in some similarities of discussion on XOBIS that we had last year at Lane--at the same time the CRM group was meeting just down the coast in Asilomar, California, unbeknownst to us.
There are many interesting correlations among FRBR, FRANAR (its authorities companion), the CRM, and XOBIS, our experimental schema for bibliographic and authority information that attempts to address library and museum resources. It does seem that more cooperation is needed in a digital environment than is often the case. Memory institutions need coordinated new standards for the digital environment--easier said than done.
Patrick's views on XOBIS are
humbling, cf.
http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/wgfrbr/related_efforts.htm. XOBIS is better
known abroad than
in the United States, even in Latvia, cf. slides 8-12 of:
http://www.lu.lv/szf/BZIZN/DELOS/images/XML24.pdf. (If anyone can read
this,
we would love to know what it says.)
However, XOBIS' low profile may be beginning to change. It was included in Priscilla Caplan's review of Tennant's book, although not mentioned in the book itself: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may03/05bookreview.html.
XOBIS' core precepts have
held up well as we continue to poke at it. This helped me speak confidently in
Berlin to the FRBR Working Group, an august body of mostly folks from national
libraries and bibliographic utilities. After I spoke, there was a bit of a
pregnant pause, but then quite a few interesting questions ensued, although none
from the LC representative. While it is too soon to tell
whether the speech
will have any impact, it was a wonderful opportunity to present an overview in
an international forum. I tried to
convey the fundamentals without all the
complexity of the original documentation, cf.
http://elane.stanford.edu/laneauth/IFLA_Berlin.html. My emphasis was on
relationships, how having clear identities makes it easier
to accomplish crisp
linkage between entities, and how all the pieces fit together recursively. One
area that seemed to strike a chord (perhaps due to issues with FRBR's
expressions) was the idea of "substitutable" content in regard to multiple
versions, which is
currently covered by embedded versions in the alpha release
of XOBIS.
I avoided problems with AACR and MARC at IFLA since there are so many unfamiliar cataloging codes and INTERMARC to consider. Chapter 3 of our book treats such problems extensively in relation to XML. The more I learn about international issues, the more I think we can learn from those in other countries. Perhaps XML can be a vehicle for fostering cooperation among the world's libraries and even those within the United States.
Envoi
Kevin and I received 5
copies each of "the book" around October 14, cf.
http://www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog2&_pn=product_detail&_op=1264.
Oddly, publication has been anticlimactic
for me. Kevin had other distractions,
as his wife was due the same day as the book was projected to be available.
Kylie was a little early, the book a little late. I can just hear her asking
her daddy one day why her sister is in the book and she isn't. Now, it's back
to
uncertainly. One can't help but wonder how one’s work will be received.
After all, Putting XML to Work in the Library was a first book
for both
Kevin and me. I have come to enjoy writing more than I ever thought I would.
It's another growth experience. If you have something you want to say, I would
recommend it -- preferably when you don't have too much else going on in your
life.
