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The article discusses a method of classifying the subject matter of nonfiction books using software script developed by the author that searches content on the Wikipedia web site using the Google web site. The author introduces ways that Wikipedia has been used by other researchers for metadata enrichment, text clustering, and classification. The author describes a test case he conducted for his book-subject classification system using the book "A Brief History of Time," by Stephen Hawking. Results of a broader test of the author's approach are tabulated and discussed.

The concept of a classified catalog, or using classification as a form of subject access, has been almost forgotten by contemporary librarians. Recent developments indicate that this is changing as libraries seek to enhance the capabilities of their online catalogs. The Western North Carolina Library Network (WNCLN) has developed a "classified browse" feature for its shared online catalog that makes use of Library of Congress classification. While this feature is not expected to replace keyword searching, it offers both novice and experienced library users another way of identifying relevant materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the authors' insight on the changes in librarianship. Topics discussed include several functions of libraries such as organizing information, collecting and preserving information, and promoting information to the community, the impact of the Internet on the changes, and the art of reference.

Libraries have long struggled with the question of how to best classify and enable access to videorecordings. While giving a presentation at a state library conference, the authors observed from comments during the question and answer portion of the presentation that the libraries represented in the audience use a variety of video classification and organization practices. To better understand how local practices and librarians' attitudes regarding the efficacy of these practices vary, we conducted a survey soliciting responses from librarians representing a broad array of library types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the results of a comparative study of user search logs in two large-scale, domain-specific digital libraries functioning in the United States: the National Science Digital Library and Opening History. Results demonstrate varying levels of use of advanced search options and substantial differences in the search query lengths, search query frequencies, and distribution of search categories in queries. The empirical data on how the members of the target communities search can be used in deriving important information for domain-specific digital library developers' decisions regarding both the details of information organization and support of various search features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared different types and sizes of academic libraries on how they currently engage in name authority work. Findings were that smaller libraries were more likely to do their cataloging in-house and less likely to purchase vendor services. Large libraries and libraries at graduate institutions were more likely to engage in some outsourcing and were more likely to do name authority control for a variety of types of names and materials. The study documents name authority control practices before the implementation of the anticipated new cataloging rules. The results provide comparative data that could be useful for making decisions concerning, for example, allocating staff positions or budgets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Library catalog systems worldwide are based on collections of MARC records. New kinds of Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)-based catalog retrieval systems, displays, and cataloging rules will build on ever-growing MARC record collections. Characterizing the kinds of information held in MARC records is thus an important step in developing new systems and rules. This study examined the incidence and prevalence rates of MARC fields in two different sets of library catalog records: a random selection of bibliographic records from the Library of Congress online catalog and a selection of records for two specific works, Lord of the Flies and Plato's Republic. Analysis showed that most fields were used in only a small percentage of records, while a small number of fields were used in almost all records. Power law functions proved to be a good model for the observed distribution of MARC fields. The results of this study have implications for the design of new cataloging procedures as well as for the design of catalog interfaces that are based on the FRBR entity-relationship model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluative and comparative studies of catalog data have tended to focus on methods that are labor intensive, demand expertise, and can examine only a limited number of records. This study explores an alternative approach to gathering and analyzing catalog data, focusing on the currency and consistency of controlled headings. The resulting data provide insight into libraries' use of changed headings and their success in maintaining currency and consistency, and the systems needed to support the current pace of heading changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews library literature on cataloging and classification published in 2005-06. It covers pertinent literature in the following areas: the future of cataloging; Functional Requirement for Bibliographic Records (FRBR); metadata and its applications and relation to Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC); cataloging tools and standards; authority control; and recruitment, training, and the changing role of catalogers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New education models based essentially on competencies and skills are gradually displacing the old systems based on teacher instruction and passive and memory-based learning in students, as these new competencies allow the student to learn actively with better levels of performance. We consider abstracting as a transcendent learning tool to analyze the basic role of information analysis and synthesis skills within the learning processes and their relation to the abstracting processes. Using an action-research methodology, we analyze the abstracting skill of students on the first and final courses of the Faculty of Library and Information Science at the University of Granada (Spain). Based on postulates from information literacy, analysis and synthesis competencies are studied through the students' modus operandi at the different abstracting stages. Similarities and differences between the two groups of students are perceived and displayed, with reference to the relation between the learned subjects and the levels of competence and skill. In the light of these results, meaningful patterns and recommendations for improving students' skill levels are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) is the new archival content standard published by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The publication of this forward-thinking and comprehensive response to changing information needs and technologies should be of interest to all cataloging communities. DACS raises issues about content standards for resource description that should be addressed much more broadly. The library cataloging community is in the process of an extensive revision of its cataloging codes, and new approaches in this standard appear to be embodying some of the same concepts as DACS. DACS, therefore, can be seen as a smaller and more focused implementation of some of the principles that will emerge in the new Resource Description and Access (RDA). Simultaneously, the standard can be used to examine whether taking some of these developments further would improve access to materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) presents a complex conceptual model. Because of this, it is not easy for everyone to understand. The purpose of this paper is to make some of the more difficult aspects of the FRBR model, in particular the Group 1 entities work, expression, manifestation, and item, easier to understand by placing FRBR in the context of what it is: a conceptual entity-relationship model. To this end, a definition of the term ‘model’ is presented, a variety of types and functions of models are introduced, conceptual models are discussed in detail, modeling an abstraction is explained, and different ways of interpreting FRBR are suggested. Various models used in the history of cataloging are introduced to place FRBR in the context of the historical development of document models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing interest in ephemera collections within libraries will necessitate the bibliographic control of materials that do not easily fall into traditional categories. This paper discusses the many challenges confronting catalogers when approaching a mixed collection of unique materials of an ephemeral nature. Based on their experience cataloging a collection of Pennsylvania German broadsides and Fraktur at the Pennsylvania State University, the authors describe the process of deciphering handwriting, preserving genealogical information, deciding on cataloging approaches at the format and field level, and furthering access to the materials through digitization and the Encoded Archival Description finding aid. Observations are made on expanding the skills of traditional book catalogers to include manuscript cataloging, and on project management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) to assess the extent to which its catalogers were using Classification Web (Class Web), the subscription-based, online cataloging documentation resource provided by the Library of Congress. In addition, this paper will explore assumptions made by management regarding CU-Boulder catalogers' use of the product, possible reasons for the lower-than-expected use, and recommendations for promoting a more efficient and cost-effective use of Class Web at other institutions similar to CU-Boulder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the enrichment of traditional cataloging for improved access to information particularly in the Library of Congress Tables of Contents projects. Catalog users expect access to information well beyond what can be offered by traditional approaches to bibliographic description and access. The Library of Congress has responded to the challenge of enticing patrons to continue to include the online catalog among the tools they use for information retrieval. The staff of the Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team have created and implemented a variety of initiatives to link researchers, catalogs, and Web resources; increase the content of the catalog record; and link the catalog to electronic resources. The paper also illustrate such points by demonstrate how library automation wherein it can make significant bibliographic enhancement efforts easy and quick.

Amazon.com offers convenience, Web extras, and competitive pricing to its customers. Does this mean it could be a major player in the library marketplace? To answer the hypothetical question "What if the library bought everything from Amazon?" this paper reports on an in-house study of Amazon's potential and performance as a library vendor, using order data from the Belk Library at Appalachian State University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cornell University Library (CUL) has developed a largely automated method for providing title-level catalog access to electronic journals made available through aggregator packages. CUL's technique for automated e-journal record creation and maintenance relies largely on the conversion of externally supplied metadata into streamlined, abbreviated-level MARC records. Unlike the Cooperative Online Serials Cataloging Program's recently implemented "aggregator-neutral" approach to e-journal cataloging, CUL's method involves the creation of a separate bibliographic record for each version of an e-journal title in order to facilitate automated record maintenance. An indexed local field indicates the aggregation to which each title belongs and enables machine manipulation of all the records associated with a specific aggregation. Information encoded in another locally defined field facilitates the identification of all of the library's e-journal titles and allows for the automatic generation of a Web-based title list of e-journals. CUL's approach to providing title-level catalog access to its e-journal aggregations involves a number of tradeoffs in which some elements of traditional bibliographic description (such as subject headings and linking fields) are sacrificed in the interest of timeliness and affordability. URLs and holdings information are updated on a regular basis by use of automated methods that save on staff costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, the ALCTS Cataloging and Classification Section Subject Analysis Committee (SAC) produced the report "Recommendations for Providing Access to, Display of, Navigation within and among, and Modifications of Existing Practice Regarding Subject Reference Structures in Automated Systems." This document is one important outcome of nearly ten years' work by three SAC subcommittees investigating the theoretical, pragmatic, and political dimensions of improving subject access through better use of reference structure data. The work of those subcommittees is reviewed and their recommendations are described and summarized. Potential future effects of the report are discussed, as is a snapshot view of several major automation systems' current compliance with the recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the preservation of intergovernmental organization (IGO) documents in the digital era. The author cites the Arizona State University (ASU) which fully catalogs state and local documents collections, and provides more documents than local government agencies. The State and Local Arizona Documents (SALAD) project will be launched by the ASU headed by Carl Cross to achieve a more comprehensive level of collection.

The article commemorates the former head of technical services at the State Library of Pennsylvania George W. Bordner. He died last January 23, 2008 at Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania at the age of 89. Born in Kutztown on April 1, 1918, he received his master's degree at Columbia University in 1949 under library services. Bordner became the dean of the library school at Rutgers and later guides the automated cataloging of the State Library. His greatest achievement is a library classification system which he used to organize some Pennsylvania documents. His work entitled "Classification Scheme for Pennsylvania State Publications," which focuses on the formation of the classification numbers, was published in 1975 by the State Library.

The article discusses the contributions of Susan Grey Akers, in the field of library cataloging and classification in the U.S. Akers, a well-known author and teacher and leader of the cataloging activities in the Southeast and in the U.S. was awarded with the Margaret Mann Citation in Cataloging and Classification in 1956. With her works, she molded the cataloging practices of thousands of small libraries across the country. Akers was one of the founding members of a library school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and had retired after 23 years of being a member of the faculty of the School of Library Science of the University of North Carolina.