The discussion on Moving from MODS to usable RDF, originally planned for March 8, will be rescheduled (date TBD). Stay tuned!
Since the time was blocked off on everyone’s calendars (and since we hadn’t met in a while), group members participated in a round robin. Below is a summary of the updates. Errors and misunderstandings on my part may be corrected in the comments below and I’ll do my best to update the post.
ORCHiD
- Andrea Morrison reported seeing more and more ORCiD identifiers in Library of Congress Name Authority File (NAF) records
Browse Functionality in Progress for IUCAT
- Rachael Cohen reported on the progress to implement browse for IUCAT
- Working from code developed by Cornell (they also use Blacklight for their discovery layer)
- Development team will start with author browse, then tackle Kinsey subject headings, then Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
- Spencer Anspach clarified how browse will work:
- Authorized access points in bibliographical records will be hyperlinked
- Browse results will display all access points (authorized and unauthorized) that appear in bibliographic records–all results will have a number next to it, denoting how many times that access point is used in the bibliographic records database; some access points will have an icon next to them, which will denote that the access point is the authorized version (NAF, etc.)
- Clicking on the icon will take a user to the authority record for that authorized access point (MARC 670 fields will NOT display to users)
- Clicking on any of the access points will conduct a search on that access point
- Concerns: batch loaded records from vendors (we won’t mention names) do not have authority control; one vendor in particular never includes dates (MARC subfield d) in authorized access points–this will certainly have an adverse impact on browse!
- Shelf ready materials often do not have authority control–those errors are picked up in post-cataloging, by the Database Management team
Use of BoundingBox Tool Adds Value to Map Records
- Heiko Mühr reported a pilot (and subsequent adoption) of the BoundingBox Tool
- The tool allows catalogers to find geographical coordinates for an area and outputs longitude and latitude data in a number of formats (including–but not limited to!–OCLC MARC)
- After piloting use of the tool in the month of December, catalogers determined that use of the tool did not adversely impact cataloging productivity–the quality of records increased
- Coordinate data is now required in bibliographic records for sheet maps
Government Publications Metadata Update
- Andrea Morrison reported on her collaboration with the new GIMMS librarian
- Working on finding ways to streamline acquisitions and cataloging workflows and provide better metadata services for federal documents
Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative
- Ronda Sewald reported on progress made in the Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative (MDPI) project
- Tens of thousands of media objects have been digitized to date
- Digitization is ongoing
- Currently sorting out ways to determine the rights for digital objects and how to create metadata (at such a huge scale) for discovery
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Deconstruction Update
- James Castrataro reported that the deconstruction of MeSH headings seems to be complete
- It was uncertain whether or not MeSH access points could by subdivided chronologically before the December 2015 decision to deconstruct
- No one present was sure whether or not MeSH access points can be subdivided chronologically at present
Using the Catalog to Support Teaching
- Bob Noel sought recommendations from the group for providing access to individual vendor streaming video titles (records were batch loaded at the item-level, rather than the collection-level)
- Participants came up with a handful of possible strategies including, creating a LibGuide where all updates to links, etc., would be handled in one place
- Interesting discussion about making access as easy as possible for the user (faculty, researchers, and students)
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