Cataloging Futures

New report: Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD)

There is so much to read right now in cataloging and metadata that it's hard not to feel overwhelmed. Last night I was clueless as to where to begin. But this morning I decided that the report that should go to the top of the pile is: Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD) [pdf].

This is the third conceptual model along with FRBR and FRAD.

The draft report is now open for public comment. If you're inclined (like I am) to throw in your two-cents, the comments have to be emailed in by July 31, 2009.

Via Catalogablog and The FRBR Blog

New metadata tool under development: Vocabulary Mapping Framework

A couple of the other cataloging blogs posted this news over a week ago. But I also wanted to weigh in on the Vocabulary Mapping Framework [pdf].

Work is under way to create an extensive and authoritative mapping of vocabularies from major content metadata standards, creating a downloadable tool to support interoperability across communities.

The work is an expansion of the existing RDA/ONIX Framework into a comprehensive vocabulary of resource relators and categories, which will be a superset of those used in major standards from the publisher/producer, education and bibliographic/heritage communities (CIDOC CRM; DCMI; DDEX; DOI; FRBR; MARC21; LOM; ONIX; RDA – see reference section below for details).

The resulting tool will be known as the Vocabulary Mapping Framework (VMF).

This is the kind of tool that will be very helpful for metadata work, not just in the future, but right now.

For example, last year I mentioned that I'd been using XQuery to map Dublin Core elements to CrossRef XML Metadata Deposit Schema elements to create XML documents to submit to CrossRef, our DOI provider. I definitely could have used the VMF for that project.

RDA Online: demo screenshots available

Are you curious to see what RDA Online will look like?

Over on the RDA Online website there are some demo screenshots. Looks good!

Via Patrick Hogan

RDA to be published end of November 2009

From the RDA-L list:

News from the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA:

• Finalization of RDA text: The RDA text was handed to the co-publishers on schedule on 22 June. RDA is scheduled to be released at the end of November 2009. [emphasis mine]
• New Chair: Alan Danskin will be the JSC Chair from 1 July 2009.Danskin is the Metadata and Bibliographic Standards Coordinator at the British Library.
• During July, the JSC Secretariat will move to the British Library: jscsecretary@bl.uk
• Web site: The JSC Web site has moved to http://www.rda-jsc.org/. There are redirections in place from the old site to pages on the new site explaining the change.

Nathalie Schulz
Secretary, JSC

My question: What happened to the RDA Online demo scheduled for May 2009?

ALCTS developing an online cataloging class

Over at Nearly There Librarian, Jordan Fields, an intern for the Association of Library Collections & Technical Services at the American Library Association (ALCTS) gives a nice overview of the web courses being offered by ALCTS.

Turns out they are developing a new course, Fundamentals of Cataloging.

So far all of these classes have been very popular, usually filling up. Later this year we will be offering even more frequent sessions of FOA, FCDM, and FERA. There is also a new course, Fundamentals of Cataloging, that is in the works. I’ve read through the first draft of the course, and right now it’s looking to be on par with the cataloging class that I took at Syracuse.

Another positive of these courses is the price. As anyone taking classes from a university knows, education is not cheap. ALCTS classes are a great bargain at $109 for ALCTS members and $129 for non-members.

New MOBIUS presentation: What's New in Cataloging 2009?

Here's an excellent presentation recently given at the MOBIUS Annual Conference: What's New in Cataloging 2009? [ppt]

Wayne Sanders and Felicity Dykas presented a session at the MOBIUS Annual Conference 2009 on June 3 entitled “What’s New in Cataloging 2009.” They gave a whirlwind tour of 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.

Via News from the Catalog Department

Allan Cho's new article on RDF, MARC, and the Semantic Web

Allan Cho, who blogs over at Allan's Library, has a new article out: How RDF Can Use MARC in the Semantic Web World: Using Existing Library Cataloguing Methods in Organizing the Web.

BTW, Allan also blogs at: The Postcolonial Librarian.

Shawne Miksa's new article on RDA

There's a new article by Shawne Miska: Resource Description and Access (RDA) and New Research Potentials [pdf]. 

Found in: the June/July 2009 issue of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology [pdf] on pages 47-51.

RDA, FRBR, FRAD: helpful links

Over on the MARS Authority Control blog there's a good list of Helpful Links on RDA, FRBR, and FRAD. It's annotated and very up-to-date. 

Dan Chudnov on linked data and libraries

Last week Dan Chudnov gave an excellent presentation on linked data: Better Living through Linking. Check it out.

TCDL 2009 keynote: Better living through linking

View more Microsoft Word documents from Dan Chudnov.

Via One Big Library