LISNews: Librarian News

Exploration, acceptance or even the concession that library catalogues can never be more than an inventory should give us all pause; given the technology at our fingertips and the continual growth and maturation of “social” (what I have recently been calling “Collaborative”) catalogues.

In response to On the Record (the final report created by the LC commissioned Task Force for the Future of Bibliographic Control), the American Library Association and the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) are highlighting the need for research in bibliographic control by declaring 2010 the Year of Cataloging Research.

The Year of Cataloging Research website is now available at: http://faculty.washington.edu/acarlyle/yocr/index.html

It features announcements, event information, links to relevant videos, and other information highlighting cataloging research.

One of my favorite lists to read is NGC4Lib "'next generation' library catalogs" list. I'm not much of a cataloger, nor do I even use a catalog at work, but NGC4Lib has some of the best discussions anywhere. This one is no exception, and worth a read. Set off by This Article over on LJ about the dispute over cost to use non-OCLC records for ILL. It's a great discussion on the role of OCLC, WorldCat, SkyRiver and DIY approaches to resource sharing and collaboration. Tim Spalding of LibraryThing takes a big swing at OCLC:

The real work here is done by librarians, not OCLC.... Today, when libraries are starting to realize OCLC's core service isn't worth what it was worth in 1967, OCLC is looking to permanently lock up their central position with viral contracts and, as the MSU case makes clear, monopoly pricing and flat-out bullying.

Book: Crash Course in Cataloging for Non-Catalogers: A Casual Conversation on Organizing Information

Written with minimal theory and much practical and hands-on experience, this work by an associate faculty associate in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Madison is of great value not only to the nonprofessional cataloger but also to the cataloging student or any librarian wishing to know more about what goes on in the process of cataloging. . . . Kaplan provides a fast read to one wishing only a quick overview, while simultaneously providing practical experience for the one wishing to delve more into the topics addressed. . . . A very detailed index enables use of the volume as a reference book, while the chapters themselves enable self-teaching or use as a text in a cataloging and classification course at a library school.