LISNews: Librarian News

Jenna Freedman declares the six weeks or so from now until his birthday on October 6, Sandy Berman appreciation month. She's asking for participatiion by sending him cards, flowers, subject heading suggestions, and low fat schnitzel.

Sanford Berman
Room 615 - Bed 2
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital
6500 Excelsior Blvd.
St. Louis Park, MN 55426

He'll probably be at the above address for at least a month. While his condition isn't life threatening, it is very serious. He has two broken vertebrae in his neck and secondary injuries from the surgery and will be in a series of body, back and neck braces for some time. But don't feel that you have to know him to write to him. Sandy has long been a friend and mentor to librarians, LIS students, and activists that he's never met.

Further reading: -- Read More

• Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sandy Berman but Were Afraid to Ask

Lorcan Dempsey's weblog: Classify is a protoype service which provides a snapshot of what class numbers (DDC, LCC, NLM) have been assigned to works in Worldcat.

The records are grouped using the OCLC FRBR Work-Set algorithm resulting in a work-level summary of the class numbers assigned a title. You can retrieve a classification summary by ISBN, ISSN, UPC, OCLC number, or author/title. [About Classify [OCLC]]

He points out the LCC numbers assigned to The Consequences of Modernity by Anthony Giddens

I don't normally point to LJ (not because I don't read/like it, but because you should already be reading it, and I normally try to point at things you would never read elsewhere.) but you should go read Google Books vs. BISON right now.

"We invest so much effort getting students to use our resources; it is absolutely excruciating to know we are frequently sending them off with nothing, especially when they don't ask for help from librarians."

"The bar has been raised. The maturing Internet and evolving array of Web 2.0 services has turned our customer base into what many have called a “Google Generation.” We can debate that moniker, but, clearly, no one is calling this the “Academic Library Generation.” Our BISON catalog may not be extinct, but it is being hunted down by the competition. As in nature, libraries had best adapt, change quickly, and build on past successes."

Tip O' The Hat to Bernie Sloan for the link.

The following is a round up of the subject headings (24), cross-references (6), and subdivisions (2) suggested to the Library of Congress during our LCSH Blog-a-Thon. Included is anything that was legitimately tagged with rr_lcsh2008 on del.icio.us. Thanks to everyone who helped promote this effort, and huge thanks to everyone who participated.

Members of Radical Reference hope to work with catalogers, particularly those from the RADCAT discussion list to SACOfy suggested headings that haven't previously been submitted to LC in a formal manner. However, we also think that it would be nice if the form weren't the barrier that it is for non-cataloging librarians to contribute subject heading ideas.