Re: [CODE4LIB] authority work with isni
I don't have any useful answers for most of your questions. But you might be interested to know that ISNI is working with Library of Congress to get ISNI identifiers into LC name authority records. When this gets implemented, any existing ISNI identifiers in the National Authority File will be removed, and new ISNI identifiers based on VIAF matching will be inserted. Thereafter, the NAF will be periodically updated with new ISNI identifiers. It is not clear to me how soon this might be implemented. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu > -Original Message- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of > Eric Lease Morgan > Sent: Friday, April 15, 2016 5:17 AM > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > Subject: [CODE4LIB] authority work with isni > > I am thinking about doing some authority work with content from ISNI, and I > have a few questions about the resource. > > As yo may or may not know, ISNI is a sort of authority database. [1] One can > search for an identity in ISNI, identify a person of interest, get a key, > transform the key into a URI, and use the URI to get back both human- > readable and machine readable data about the person. For example, the > following URIs return the same content in different forms: > > * human-readable - http://isni.org/isni/35046923 > * XML - http://isni.org/isni/35046923.xml > > I discovered the former URI through a tiny bit of reading. [2] And I > discovered > the later URI through a simple guess. What other URIs exist? > > When it comes to the authority work, my goal is to enhance authority > records; to more thoroughly associate global identifiers with named entities > in a local authority database. Once this goal is accomplished, the library > catalog experience can be enhanced, and the door is opened for supporting > linked data initiatives. In order to accomplish the goal, I believe I can: > > 1. get a list of authority records > 2. search for name in a global authority database (like VIAF or ISNI) > 3. if found, then update local authority record accordingly > 4. go to Step #2 for all records > 5. done > > My questions are: > > * What remote authority databases are available programmatically? I > already know of one from the Library of Congress, VIAF, and probably > WorldCat Identities. Does ISNI support some sort of API, and if so, where is > some documentation? > > * I believe the Library Of Congress, VIAF, and probably WorldCat Identities > all support linked data. Does ISNI, and if so, then how is it implemented and > can you point me to documentation? > > * When it comes to updating the local (MARC) authority records, how do > you suggest the updates happen? More specifically, what types of values do > you suggest I insert into what specific (MARC) fields/subfields? Some people > advocate $0 of 1xx, 6xx, and 7xx fields. Other people suggest 024 subfields 2 > and a. Inquiring minds would like to know. > > Fun with authorities!? And, “What’s in a name anyway?" > > [1] ISNI - http://isni.org > [2] some documentation - http://isni.org/how-isni-works > > — > Eric Lease Morgan > Lost In Rome
Re: [CODE4LIB] LCSH, Bisac, facets, hierarchy?
LCSH is only subject headings, not genres. LCSH has been used in the past for fiction and non-fiction genres, but that is now technically incorrect. Genres are now covered by LCGFT. This is why I said you would have difficulty covering both non-fiction subjects and fiction genres with any translation from LCSH. You will still find fiction genres coded as subject headings in prior decades, but going into the future you should expect those to disappear as they are cleaned up. To get both subject headings and fiction genres, you will probably have to look at both LCSH and LCGFT. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu > -Original Message- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of > Mark Watkins > Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 10:42 AM > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LCSH, Bisac, facets, hierarchy? > > Very interesting thank you! It looks to be only Non-Fiction, does that sound > correct? > > Thanks! > > mark
Re: [CODE4LIB] LCSH, Bisac, facets, hierarchy?
Fiction->Mysteries->Historical Mysteries is an example of genres, not subject headings. There is a subtle difference--the difference between "what is this type" and "what is this about". LCSH does have a very structured hierarchy, but it was not intended for the kind of shelf browsing you seem to be interested in. Different taxonomies have different purposes, and it is quite difficult to repurpose a taxonomy or translate between taxonomies intended for different purposes. It will never work as well as a dedicated taxonomy. That's one reason that genres never worked well in LCSH. LCGFT was created to remove genres from LCSH. I think it might be useful to go further and split LCGFT into separate taxonomies for forms and for genres. BISAC was created for yet another purpose. It is a combination of broad subjects (where LCSH focuses on very specific subjects) and fiction genres (where LCGFT includes both fiction and non-fiction genres plus forms). It works well in a specific setting--a bookstore type environment for casual browsing of both fiction and non-fiction materials. I'm not sure it is possible to translate LCSH into BISAC, at least not very well. You could probably do all right for the non-fiction categories, but LCSH really doesn't have fiction genres. Our library did create a taxonomy for our libguides and our database list. The taxonomy is basically a cut-down version of LCSH, focusing on the subjects of greatest interest to the university, falling generally along the lines of departments and degrees. It works well for our purposes. But it does not include fiction genres, because specific genres are not an important category of study for the university. (Certain programs do study fictional material, such as film studies, but the subject terms we use are adequate for these interests.) Our taxonomy is designed for a specific audience--the faculty and students of our university--and works well within that environment. If you are looking for a combined non-fiction subject plus fiction genre hierarchy, I think it will be rather difficult to translate or cut down LCSH the way we have. I would suggest that, before you begin working, you make some decisions about the scope and nature of the project. What is the intended audience for this taxonomy? What is the purpose of the taxonomy? Will it include fiction genres? Non-fiction genres? Forms? Subjects? How broad will the categories be? How deeply layered will the hierarchy be? After answering these (and other) questions, you can do a better analysis of whether it will be possible to translate LCSH into what you seek. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu > -Original Message- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of > Mark Watkins > Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 8:05 AM > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > Subject: [CODE4LIB] LCSH, Bisac, facets, hierarchy? > > I'm interested to use the LCSH data contained in the Harvard Open Metadata > project to provide some hierarchical browsing (e.g. Fiction -> Mysteries -> > Historical Mysteries on top of a book database. > > I'm a library sciences newbie, but it seems like LCSH doesn't really provide a > formal hierarchy of genre/topic, just a giant controlled vocabulary. Bisac > seems to provide the "expected" hierarchy. > > Is anyone aware of any approaches (or better yet code!) that translates lcsh > to something like BISAC categories (either BISAC specifically or some other > hierarchy/ontology)? General web searching didn't find anything obvious. > > Thanks! > > Mark
Re: [CODE4LIB] talking about digital collections vs electronic resources
My question would be, why are you trying to keep them separate? Why not group them all together? People don't want to have to look all over the place to find what they want. They want it all in one place.
Re: [CODE4LIB] lita
Another problem with the ALA data is that some of us have an MLS but work in a position classified as support staff that does not require the MLS. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Andreas Orphanides Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2015 12:06 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] lita I don't disagree with that, that's for sure. What it DOES suggest is that the closest thing to tracking librarian vs not is likely how they self-identify for dues purposes, which means that the data is probably not so good. On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 12:01 PM, Cindi Blyberg cindi...@gmail.com wrote: Based on previous experience, I doubt this truly captures whether someone thinks of themselves as a librarian. I've always found those categories arbitrary (an MLS does not a librarian make) and sometimes divisive. On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 11:58 AM, Andreas Orphanides akorp...@ncsu.edu wrote: There's a different dues schedule for librarians (-slash-certification required-slash-managerial) and support staff, so along that dimension it presumably gets tracked, at the very least. On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 11:51 AM, Cindi Blyberg cindi...@gmail.com wrote: Honestly, I don't know if ALA tracks whether people have an MLS/related degree or if that's self-selected. I know folks who call themselves librarians but who aren't degreed--those would be self- selected. I'll see if we can find this out--I'm curious! -Cindi (wearing my LITA hat) On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 11:43 AM, Haitz, Lisa (haitzlm) hait...@ucmail.uc.edu wrote: I'd be curious about something: how many LITA members are not librarians? I work in a library as a web developer, which includes a medical library, but I don’t have an MLS. So, question: is the Code4Lib list more open to technical folks, but not necessarily librarians? Lisa Haitz University of Cincinnati Libraries
Re: [CODE4LIB] Library Services on Small Devices (like Watches): Discuss
Interesting question. What if future devices could interact with local wireless systems to questions relevant to the local services, which can respond to questions like Siri, such as: Where is the bathroom? I want a librarian Where are books on metaphysics? Is a study room available? When does the library close? The device checks with local servers to see whether the question can be answered locally, before checking more globally. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] CLARIFICATION : Anybody know a way to add a MARC tag on-mass to a file of MARC records
You CAN do that with MarcEdit. I have several MarcEdit scripts which I use regularly. MarcEdit allows you to create Tasks, which are basically just a series of standard MarcEdit operations in sequence, executed through a menu or by assigning it to a keystroke combination. MarcEdit also has a Script Wizard, which can create a VB script executing MarcEdit COM functions. The resulting script can be further customized to do logic which is not possible in the script wizard. I have a script which I run frequently on batches of e-resource records, which modifies them to vendor-neutral compliance, and adds certain fields depending on material type and open access status. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Schwartz, Raymond Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 2:47 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] CLARIFICATION : Anybody know a way to add a MARC tag on-mass to a file of MARC records Sorry for not being more explicit. I need to automated this in a script on our voyager server to be performed monthly. So any windows programs like MarcEdit would not be appropriate. Thanks again, /Ray From: Schwartz, Raymond Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 2:27 PM To: 'Code for Libraries' Cc: Schwartz, Raymond Subject: Anybody know a way to add a MARC tag on-mass to a file of MARC records Anybody know a way to add a MARC tag on-mass to a file of MARC records. I need to add the tag 918 $a with the contents DELETE to each of the records. Thanks in advance. /Ray Ray Schwartz Systems Specialist Librarian schwart...@wpunj.edublocked::mailto:schwart...@wpunj.edu David and Lorraine Cheng Library Tel: +1 973 720-3192 William Paterson University Fax: +1 973 720-2585 300 Pompton RoadMobile: +1 201 424-4491 Wayne, NJ 07470-2103 USA http://nova.wpunj.edu/schwartzr2/http://euphrates.wpunj.edu/faculty/sc hwartzr2/
Re: [CODE4LIB] What can be done to stop deleting of records belonging to users of our Minuteman Library Network in Massachusetts?
Don Warner Saklad said: a) Forensics studies deal with how to retrieve deleted unarchived data. So called deleted data is actually available. Computer forensics cannot always get the data back. Television crime shows greatly exaggerate the capabilities of computer forensics. It depends on what format the data was in, how the data was deleted, and what has happened on the computer since it was deleted. Even in the cases where it is possible, it requires taking the system offline (making it unavailable for other people to use), requires specialized software, can take days of work, and often can retrieve only part of the data. This is not feasible in a working database like your library network. b) Setup the system not to delete records belonging to users. Let users keep their information saved for followup. Or at the very least notify users beforehand. Millennium cannot do that. The only internal mechanism in Millennium to prevent records from being deleted is by controlling who can perform deletions. There is no mechanism in Millennium to notify either the person deleting or the owner of a review file that a record being deleted is in a review file. It is not feasible for someone deleting records to manually check every review file to see whether a record is in one of them. The only way to control deletions is by careful training, limiting who can delete data, and establishing policies on when and how data are deleted. This is something between you and the consortium, but it sounds like Minuteman has established policies and is following them. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] De-dup MARC Ebook records
Michael Beccaria said: Thanks for the replies. To clarify, I am working with 2 (or more in the future) marc records outside of the ILS. I've tried using Marcedit but my usage did vary...not much overlap with the control fields that were available to me. I have a feeling they are a bit varied. I'm also messing around with marcXimiL a little but I'm having trouble getting it to output any records at all. I also was looking at the XC aggregation module but I was having trouble getting that to work properly as well and the listserv was unresponsive. It seemed like good software but it required me to set up an OAI harvest source to allow it to ingest the records and that...well...enough is enough... I think I will probably need to write something, and at least that way I know what it will be doing rather than plowing through software that has little to no support. Please feel free to let me know of a particular strategy you think might work best in this regard... If you couldn't get adequate deduping from the control fields available in MarcEdit deduping, what control fields do you think you need to dedup on? You can actually specify any arbitrary field and subfield for deduping in MarcEdit. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] Libraries and IT Innovation
As for cloud computing I am rather unsure of how that can be applied to the libraries. Possibly it can be used as part of the collaborative space? Possibly it can be utilized for file redundancy in digital archives to help with preservation of born digital records? I simply am not sure but it is an area of IT innovation so it would be neat to hear people's ideas. Several discovery platforms qualify as cloud-based services. One example is the EBSCOhost Discovery Service. OCLC WorldCat Local has long been an example of a cloud-based library service. Now, WorldCat Local is also a component of OCLC WorldShare Management System. WorldShare (previously called Webscale Services) is an attempt to move the services provided by the traditional ILS into the cloud--acquisitions, licensing, catalog maintenance, discovery, circulation, and patron management. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] III loading module cannot handle non-English characters
It sounds like your catalog is set to use MARC-8 encoding, and you are trying to load records with UTF8 encoding. You can use MarcEdit to change the encoding of the records to MARC-8, or you can ask III to switch your encoding to UTF8 (which may require a service fee). Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Han, Yan Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013 7:03 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] III loading module cannot handle non-English characters Hello, We have problems using III loading module to load MARC files (.mrc) to our catalog. This is to use Data Exchange Load Electronic Records (itm). Basically non- English characters (French, Arabic ) will be changed to unknown symbols. The MARC files (.mrk and .mrc) are verified before loading to III. There are only two issues: 1. the III configuration might be wrong. 2. The III loading module has a bug and it probably does not know how to deal with non-English characters. Anyone having similar experience or resolving it? Thanks, Yan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Question abt the code4libwomen idea
I believe the problem is that you somehow read that initial post proposing the IRC group as saying it would be exclusively for women. As far as I can tell, no one else read it that way. If that is your only concern, I believe you can be reassured. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of MJ Ray Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 12:28 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Question abt the code4libwomen idea Tim Donohue tdono...@duraspace.org However, I think some/many are taking offense to the implication that 'libtechwomen' is discriminatory or prejudice against men or minority groups just because its name includes women. [...] To call a group discriminatory just because they initially planned to concentrate on specific gender issues is just wrong (in my opinion). Whoa! Hang on a minute! I don't think the name is great and I feel that we could do better for a first support group, but I'm not objecting to either of those. It's not just because either of those and it's rather frustrating if anyone still thinks it is. (Similarly in the other email from Steve, I never meant to suggest the completely spurious thing.) My objection arose because the opening post in this thread suggested it would be discriminatory: https://listserv.nd.edu/cgi- bin/wa?A2=ind1212L=CODE4LIBF=S=P=166649 described it as a group for just women. There are later emails which claim otherwise. twitter.com/libtechwomen and http://libtechwomen.tumblr.com/ don't say either way, as far as I can see (if you'll excuse the pun). I don't really want to hop on IRC and ask because of past bad experiences with a previous group. Is there clarity that deliberately-discriminatory groups should have no platform in code4lib? And is it sure that libtechwomen is not the aforementioned women-only group? Thanks -- MJ Ray m...@phonecoop.coop Setchey, Norfolk, England
Re: [CODE4LIB] Maker Spaces and Academic Libraries
I agree. These are basically the same reasons we built a Digital Design Studio in the Library last year. During the past year, the director of the DDS worked closely with several professors who incorporated multimedia assignments into their coursework. In addition to an instruction session for each class, there are student staff available to assist while they use the high-end multimedia design software on high-resolution screens. As usage expands, we expect that students will start coming to the studio on their own for projects they want to do. I think this may become a trend in academic libraries, moving from where do I get information to participating in the entire information life-cycle, from identifying and selecting information sources to integrating information together, presenting results, and creating new information. Steve McDonald Tufts University steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Emily Lynema Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 9:07 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Maker Spaces and Academic Libraries I find this conversation interesting, mostly because the why do it reasons given parallel so closely what we are working on at NC State in our new library building. Except it doesn't have anything to do with makerspaces! Our emphasis is on taking expensive visualization and high performance computing capacity and making it available to students all across our campus. Some would ask why we are building massive visualization walls and working on creating a cloud computing environment where anyone can request temporary access to high performance computing in order to build stuff to render on the visualization walls. And it's just the same as the reason given for doing makerspaces in academic libraries: while faculty on fancy grant projects have access to high performance computing nodes, nowhere on campus is this kind of computing and visualization openly available for undergraduate students to creatively use. It's neat to see the different directions we go with the same underlying reason. -emily
Re: [CODE4LIB] whimsical homepage idea
Hm. And if you collected and recorded the data for some period of time, you might be able to use it to convince Building Services (or whoever) to try to fix the problem. -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Junior Tidal Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2012 4:09 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] whimsical homepage idea Hi Ellen, I think this is a great idea. If you could collect temperature readings with a date/timestamp, you could even create graphs of indoor weather over time. Maybe this could be done with a PHP/MySQL script, or even have the temperature tweeted using the Twitter API? I actually had the idea of scraping temperature readings from weather.com and running Javascript on our blog to represent the weather. Things like snow or changing the brightness of the page if there's overcast. Best, Junior Tidal Assistant Professor Web Services and Multimedia Librarian New York City College of Technology, CUNY 300 Jay Street, Rm A434 Brooklyn, NY 11201 718.260.5481 http://library.citytech.cuny.edu Ellen K. Wilson ewil...@jaguar1.usouthal.edu 5/1/2012 3:39 PM This is really more of a thought experiment than an actual project, but I thought some people might get a kick out of it - maybe someone has even done it. We are in the process of redesigning our library homepage. During the fall semester we had a team of freshmen CIS students do a basic usability and design service learning project and we are now incorporating as much of their feedback as possible. We'd like to be as student-centric as possible. This got me thinking about the top two suggestions in the library's feedback box - 1) we want a coffee shop and 2) it's too cold/hot in the library. I figure I covered number one by throwing in some Javascript on the page (*groan*) but I see an opportunity with the second one. We do have microclimates within the library, so while it may be hot on 3N, chances are good it's freezing on 4S. Given that actually fixing this is beyond the library's control, what if we put wireless temperature sensors throughout the building and displayed their readings on the library homepage? So, if one were to attempt this: -How would you go about it? (hardware- or software-wise) -Could it be done for cheap? -Would it be OCLC-approved? Best regards, Ellen DISCLAIMER: The a/c is out in the library (again) and I think the high temperatures in my office may be frying my brain. -- Ellen Knowlton Wilson Instructional Services Librarian Room 250, University Library University of South Alabama 5901 USA Drive North Mobile, AL 36688 (251) 460-6045 ewil...@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] copyright/fair use considerations for re-using Seattle World's Fair images
Look at the page for the image you found on Flickr. Near the bottom of the page is a link labeled Request to license. If you click that link, it gives you directions on how to license that image for your own use through Getty. That would be the first thing I would check. Getty might be in a better position to find out the copyright status. And even if the original artwork is no longer under copyright, you might have trouble using this particular image of that artwork. But Getty has people who deal with this type of stuff. I have no expertise in copyright law. But because there is that easy link right on the page, I suspect that simply using that image without even trying the license link it would be viewed as flagrant disregard if there turns out to be a problem. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Doran, Michael D Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 1:34 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] copyright/fair use considerations for re-using Seattle World's Fair images I was hoping to re-use/re-purpose a couple of 1962 Seattle World's Fair images found on the interwebs [1][2]. Both images were originally created for souvenir decals. According to the U.S. Copyright Office's Copyrights Basics [3] section on works originally created and published or registered before January 1, 1978, copyright endured for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured -- i.e. for these images, from 1962 to 1990. It goes on to say that During the last (28th) year of the first term, the copyright was eligible for renewal. This however, was *not* an automatic renewal. So, unless the copyright was explicitly renewed in 1990, the images are in the public domain. Since these images were for souvenir decals (rather than something like a poster), I'm inclined to think the original copyright owner probably didn't renew the copyright. However, I don't know who the original copyright owner is and really have no way of finding out, and therefore I can't ascertain whether or not the copyright was renewed. For those with more experience in copyright, any thoughts regarding situations like this? I realize this isn't a coding question, but figured I might get some helpful responses from those of y'all working in archives and various digital projects where copyright issues regularly come up. ps I've eliminated the Century 21 Exposition logo in my proposed reuse, if that matters (on one image, there is a registered trademark symbol next to the logo). I'm also not retaining the original Seattle World's Fair text. -- Michael [1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollywoodplace/6007390480/ [2] http://media.photobucket.com/image/seattle%20world%2527s%20fair%20monor ail/bananaphone5000/NEWGORILLA/SeattleWFDecal.jpg [3] http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf # Michael Doran, Systems Librarian # University of Texas at Arlington # 817-272-5326 office # 817-688-1926 mobile # do...@uta.edu # http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/
Re: [CODE4LIB] Announcing OLAC's prototype FRBR-inspired moving image discovery interface
Susan Kane said: This is not my area of expertise ... but if Work in FRBR doesn't mean any particular manifestation, expression or item ... what does it mean? Do Works live in Plato's world of Ideas where abstracted version of things exist in a more real and more true sense than any shifty mimes in our world of sensation and change? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Forms Sort of. You could also say that it is similar to a meme. A Work is independent of any particular Manifestation, and has no physical form form itself. When a Work is represented in a physical form, that form is a Manifestation. The Work-Manifestation relationship applies equally to all manifestations of the Work. There can be a first Manifestation of a Work (and a library would have little reason to catalog a Work if there were no physical Manifestation), but every Manifestation of that Work is just as much a physical representation of the Work as any other. In many ways, it is indeed similar to the Platonic Ideal. Is it a bit like copyright law -- Works (ideas) can't be copyrighted but manifestations, expressions and items can? Or is Work actually an empty container that doesn't really exist -- even in the World of Ideas hovering over the Earth -- until it is filled with at least one (manifestation, expression, item)? I couldn't really say, and I'm not sure that it matters. Libraries have no need to worry about Works which have no Manifestation, so in practice I don't find it hard to recognize the Work-Manifestation relationship in the materials we actually work with. And if so, who chose this particular word? Was something wrong with calling it ... Idea? Or even ... Thing? Why work? Work to me in plain English and even librarianese definitely implies a manifested thing, not the idea of thing that transcends any particular and specific expression. Idea and Thing are way too vague for my comfort. The word Work is already used with a definition similar to FRBR's. When we speak of Shakespeare's works, we aren't talking about any particular edition, translation, or adaptation. We are talking about the stories themselves, independent of any physical manifestation (unless we are more specific by saying Shakespeare's works in English, etc.). An author working on his masterpiece might call it his life's work. He may wave around the manuscript when saying it, but he really isn't talking about the physical document, but the conceptual content of the material. It will still be his life's work when it comes out in first edition, and third paperback reprint. All FRBR has done is take this definition which already exists in the English language and refine it into a formal structure with other components describing both the physical and conceptual aspects of bibliographic material. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] simple,flexible ILS for a small library.
I was only thinking that if any ILS had the ability to handle book lending, it would be through creative use of ILL, as no other common function has anything to do with a library borrowing a book. So, while looking through available ILSs, ILL was the functionality I was most curious about. And I agree that even creative use of ILL is probably not good enough. ILL is a _lot_ more complicated than simple borrowing. Almost all ILS systems have a mechanism to handle simple borrowing. Only a few are designed to handle ILL. Out of curiosity, where does the difficulty of implementing borrowing come in? It _isn't_ that difficult. As I said above, it is ILL that is difficult. If what you really want is support for borrowing, then you don't need to require ILL support. Say what you _really_ want, not what you assume you need in order to get that. Steve McDonald steve.mcdon...@tufts.edu
