NISO STANDARDS 

Are you tired of hearing the description for metadata as “data about data?”  I certainly am!  Well, fresh from the NISO Press is an updated and expanded version of Metadata Made Simpler: A Guide for Libraries (2001). The new version is titled Understanding Metadata (2004) and begins with a great definition of metadata. 

“Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource.” (p. 1) 

This new publication covers the structuring of metadata, metadata schemes (such as Dublin Core, Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), Encoded Archival Description (EAD)), creation of metadata, metadata interoperability and exchange, and future directions of metadata. It is concise and easy to read, so check it out at http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf. 

Announced July 12, were three new members elected to the NISO Board:  Douglas Cheney (Barnes & Noble), Robin Murray (Fretwell-Downing Informatics), and James Neal (Columbia Univesity). To read the full press release, go to, http://www.niso.org/news/releases/pr-BOD-election04.html. 

The MLA Technical Services Standards Committee is currently busy reviewing the “Information and documentation-Interlibrary Loan Application Protocol Specification,” whose purpose is “to provide a set of messages and associated behaviours that can be used by libraries to perform resource-sharing activities in a distributed network environment.” (p. vii) This standard can be read at http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf and if you would like to send your comments, please do to Nadine@virginia.edu. 

APPLICATIONS 

At the American Library Association’s Annual Meeting (held this past June in Orlando, Florida) a session, entitled “Top Technology Trends,” has become a traditional well-attended event.  The session featured a panel of technology pundits who shared their forecasts on present and future technological developments.  Roy Tennant  ( User Services Architect, California Digital Library, University of California, http://roytennant.com/professional.html) was one of the panel members and he expressed his hope of entering a “Golden Age of Digital Libraries” soon as evidenced by our common terminology  and basic standards and protocols. OCLC held a session entitled, “OCLC Digital Projects: Standards in the Digital World.” One of speakers, Bill Walker, from Amigos gave an extensive review of all the major standards in our field (“Decoding the Standards Alphabet Soup: New & Emerging Standards for Digitization). It is exciting to continue to hear how central standards are to our whole enterprise (especially in the digital realm) and best practices for our digital resources, repositories, and preservation efforts.     

Related Readings: 

Farb, Sharon E. and Angela Riggio. 2004. “Medium or Message? A New Look at Standards, Structures, and Schemata for Managing Electronic Resources.”  Library Hi Tech 22 (Issue 2): 144-152. 

Kurth, Martin, David Ruddy, and Nathan Rupp. 2004. “Repurposing MARC Metadata: Using Digital Project Experience to Develop a Metadata Management Design.” Library Hi Tech 22 (Issue 2): 153-165. 

Tennant, Roy. 2004. “A Bibliographic Metadata Infrastructure for the Twenty-first Century.” Library Hi Tech 22 (Issue 2): 175-181.    

OPPORTUNITIES 

We are always looking for people interested in reviewing standards, please contact Leopoldo Montoya (lm46@EXCHANGE1.DREXEL.EDU), Head of the Medical Library Association’s Standards 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.  Please contact Nadine@virginia.edu. 

Note: URLS are accurate as of article submission, July 16, 2004. 

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 Business Meeting Minutes 

TSS Business Meeting I
Business Meeting Minutes
Washington, D.C.

The Section Chair, Virginia Lingle, called the meeting to order at 4:00PM.  She welcomed everyone and introductions were made. She provided copies of the Technical Services Section Annual Report for 2003-2004. 

Program Committee: Incoming Chair Judy Wilkerson presented the Technical Services Section programming for the 2004 Annual Meeting.  The section is the primary sponsor of the Presented Papers session “Lighting the Path: Digital Repositories in the Real World.”  TSS is co-sponsoring with the Collection Development Section a Presented Papers session “Cease the Power: Libraries and the Open Access Movement.”  In a segment of the program  “Morning of Innovation” TSS is co-sponsoring with Collection Development Section and Public Services Section the session “Cease the Power: Returning Scientific Publishing to the Academy.” Judy thanked TSS members Mary Hawks, Junie Janzen and Virginia Lingle for serving on the committee. 

Secretary-Treasurer:  Karleen Darr distributed the business minutes from May 2003. The Treasurer’s report was also distributed:

                                                Income              Expenses                     Balance         

            May 1, 2003                                                                              $11,948.22

            Dues                             $880.45

            Interest                         $155.99

            Research/CE Award                               $260.00                                        

            2003 Annual Meeting

Expenses                                              $975.76

            May 10, 2004              $1,036.44           1,235.76                         $11,748.90 

Section  Council Representative: Mary Holcomb presented a brief summary of the Section Council meeting she attended yesterday. Veterinary Medical Libraries Section presented a document “Standards for Veterinary Academic Libraries" which has been approved by Section Council. The Section Council Standards Committee has developed a bibliography on the production of standards. San Antonio is the site for the annual meeting in 2005. The meeting date has been changed to start Sunday May 14-May 19 2005. Mary encouraged everyone to attend MLA’s business meeting. The agenda includes several issues requiring membership voting. One motion stipulates that MLA ceases accepting funding from publishers who do not support open access. Mary Holcomb reported that she would send her notes from 2004 Section Council to MLATSS list. 

Committee Reports 

Membership Committee: Janice Cox distributed her report for the year. As of March 24, 2004 the section has 148 members, with 15 new members joining. This year the committee reviewed new membership reports from other organizations and contacted new health sciences librarians working in technical services specialties. Letters and brochures were developed to promote awareness of the section.  A membership brochure is also available on the Section’s web site. Plans are underway to add the section’s quilt square to the TSS web site. Janice thanked committee members Hanna Kwasik, Cecilia Botero, Mary Holcomb, and Ying Jia.

Nominating Committee: Pat Rodgers chaired the committee. Her report was published in Technical Trends, v.18, no.1.  She reported 136 ballots were sent and 34 valid ballots were received by the fax or postmark deadline. The incoming officers for 2004-2005 were announced: Chair-Elect, Janice Cox; Secretary/Treasurer, Valerie Gordon; Nominee to the MLA Nominating Committee, Marianne Burke.

Standards Committee: Leopoldo Montoya, Chair, submitted a report that was made available to attendees. He also encouraged members interested in reviewing standards to contact him.

Continuing Education Committee: Mary Holcomb presented and distributed copies of the report on behalf of the Chair, Sue Trombley.

Ad-Hoc Research Committee: Bob Pisciotta introduced the following motion at the business meeting:

That the Technical Services Section appropriate, as necessary, funds to support the tuition costs of one TSS member annually who wishes to take a continuing education course supporting the development of research skills.  The courses eligible for support shall be identified and publicized by the Research Committee via the TSS web site.  Additional eligibility rules for applicants will be also publicized via the TSS web site.  The Research Committee shall select a grant recipient when applications are made.  Grants shall cover the costs of tuition only (not any other expenses).  Actual tuition costs shall be reimbursed not to exceed the cost of MLA’s most expensive single day program.

Mary Holcomb seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Ad-Hoc Mentoring:  Maggie Wineburgh-Freed reported on the announcement of the mentoring opportunity on either side of the process to the TSS list. The Section newsletter published an article and tip sheet on mentoring.  Jan Cox suggested that she would send Maggie a list of new members to contact directly.

Web Site and E-Mail List: There were no consequential actions or issues for the chairs to report.

Technical Trends Newsletter: Janice Cox submitted a report on behalf of the co-editors Connie Machado and herself. Three issues were published during the year. She encouraged contributions to the newsletter.  

Bylaws Committee: Virginia Lingle reported on behalf of Sandy Arnesen that there were no revisions to the Bylaws this year. Ginny also announced that Sandy Arnesen retired from the University of Colorado, Health Sciences Center, Denison Memorial Library. Ginny reported that as 2004-2005 Past Chair, she has responsibility for the Bylaws and she will review areas for changes to voting procedures.  

NASIG: Maggie Wineburgh-Freed announced that the next annual meeting will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 17-20, 2004. 

ALA Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA): Karleen Darr submitted a report that was made available to attendees.  

NISO (National Information Standards Organization): Nadine Ellero submitted her report and it was published in the Technical Trends newsletter, v.18, no.1.  The article welcomes communications and encourages members to volunteer to review standards if interested. 

Chair-Elect, Jan Cox, announced that preparations for the 2005 MLA conference are underway. MLA President-elect Joanne Gard Marshall announced the theme “Past, Present,  Futuro Magnifico”. Programs will focus on linking 1) Education and Outreach 2) Technology 3) Clinical 4) Diversity  5) Research. Possible topics include: SNOMED taxonomy and organizing digital images. Dick Miller was encouraged to submit an article to the newsletter on how UMLS is incorporating Snomed taxonomy. J an reminded the audience of the TSS planning meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning, May 25^th. 

In response to a query regarding the appropriateness of posting vendor announcements to the section’s listserv, it was suggested that members use their own judgment as to whether the information would be of interest to the larger membership. 

Virginia Lingle closed the meeting by thanking everyone for a successful year. She introduced the new chair, Judy Wilkerson and acknowledged the start of the 2004-2005 terms for new TSS officers. The audience gave Ginny a round of applause for her efforts as Chair. 

Pat Thibodeau, MLA’s current president and Carla Funk, MLA’s Executive Director, met with our section at the business meeting. They discussed actions MLA is taking related to the stresses in the serials industry  (e.g. merging of vendors, publishers, confusion tracking moving journals, open access issues, new pricing models, etc.). 

The TSS Program followed with Sharon Willis from the Cataloging Section of the National Library of Medicine, speaking on the updated NLM Classification.  

Respectfully submitted,
Karleen Darr, Secretary-Treasurer

Presentations by Carla Funk and Pat Thibodeau 

Carla Funk, MLA Executive Director, highlighted some of the issues affecting scholarly publishing today.  These include open access issues, the economics of journal bundling, and the consolidation of publishers.  Some of the organizations that are addressing these issues include SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), the Information Access Alliance, and the Open Access Working Group.  These organizations along with MLA are working to educate users and publishers and support plans that will work for both academic institutions and publishers.  These topics are presented in more depth at http://www.mlanet.org/resources/publish/index.html.   MLA is also planning a teleconference on September 22 on The Art and Practice of Electronic Journal, Book, and Database Licenses: Practical Tips for Health Care Organizations.   

Pat Thibodeau, MLA president, announced that MLA has formed the MLA Scholarly Publishing Task Force.  She emphasized that we need to take a balanced approach and not draw a line in the sand.  As we look at the issues and understand the concerns, we want to open the dialogue with publishers.  We want to influence publishers, insure stability, and support open access.  MLA has a role to educate users about these issues so the task force will be developing educational materials to share with libraries.   

There are so many new issues that come with these resources and open access.  How will we fulfill the repository role of libraries?  Are articles indexed or described?  How will we handle link resolving, claiming, backing-up, and metadata issues?  We are cataloging smaller and smaller pieces that are bundled together in new ways.  These issues provide both a challenge and an opportunity for technical services librarians.  MLA is interested in hearing from technical services librarians and the Technical Services Section for ideas for a position statement or statement of concern.  Send your feedback to Pat and Carla.   

        Valerie S. Gordon
        University of Alabama, Birmingham   

Business Meeting Minutes
Technical Services Section/MLA
May 24, 2004
Washington, D.C. 

Incoming chair Judy Wilkerson began the meeting by acknowledging Virginia Lingle, past-chair.  Virginia recognized Mary Holcombe who had served as Section Council representative and Connie Machado who is taking her place.  Virginia thanked the section members for all their work.  

Individuals at the meeting introduced themselves and the committees/offices they represent. 

Judy asked the group to think about themes we want to consider for the upcoming year to help Jan Cox as she begins plans for MLA 2005 programming.   

Charge from Section Council from the New Leader’s Group: 

• Recruitment, Membership and Leadership in the Profession
• Lifelong Learning
• Advocacy
• Creating and Communicating our Knowledge
• Building a Network of Partners

Jan shared the program theme for MLA 2005 in San Antonio: “Futuro Magnifico - Celebrating our Diversity.” 

The five program themes will be:

• Education & Outreach
• Technology
• Clinical
• Diversity
• Research

Specific ideas suggested included:

• Keeping up and complying with emerging standards
• Developing local electronic resources management tools
• Integrating functions within the library
• Open URL issues
• Intellectual property issues
• Changing roles of technical services professionals

In conclusion, Jan said she would focus on the Education, Technology, and Diversity themes and see which of ther sections might be interested in co-sponsoring programs.     

As a follow-up to the discussion on standards, Judy suggested that a special task force be formed to look at administrative metadata for the MARC records.  Nadine Ellero agreed to serve as chair and Joan Gregory and Leopoldo Montoya agreed to serve on the committee.  Judy will ask for additional volunteers.   

Update on Technical Services Section membership:  148 members.  The new brochure for the Technical Services Section is available on the website. 

Judy listed current committees and their members or chair:

• CE:                         Susan Trombley, Lynne Bowman, Kristin Sawyer and Joan Gregory
• Program:                 Jan Cox
• Membership:            June Janson, Mary Holcomb
• Bylaws:                   Maggie Wineburgh-Freed
• Standards:               Leopoldo Montoya
• Ad-Hoc Research:    Bob Pisciotta
• Ad-Hoc Mentoring:    Maggie Wineburgh-Freed
• Section Council:       Connie Machado