ALCTS Network News

Index

Volume 12 Number 19 1997

ISSN: 1056-6694

ALCTS NETWORK NEWS

An electronic publication of the
Association for Library Collections & Technical Services

Volume 12, Number 19
January 2, 1997

In this issue

ALCTS TO HOLD FOUR PRECONFERENCES IN SAN FRANCISCO
PCC ANNOUNCES POSITION PAPER ON WORKSTATION CREATION OF AUTHORITY
RECORDS
CCS CATALOG MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION GROUP SETS TOPIC FOR MIDWINTER
ALA AMONG LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS APPLAUDING GENEVA COPYRIGHT TREATY
COMPUTERS AVAILABLE FOR MEMBER USE AT MIDWINTER MEETING
LC PUBLISHES _USMARC CODE LIST FOR ORGANIZATIONS_

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ALCTS TO HOLD FOUR PRECONFERENCES IN SAN FRANCISCO

ALCTS and three of its sections are sponsoring preconferences to the
ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. Although brochures and
registration forms are not yet mounted on the ALCTS gopher, pending
complete listing of preconference faculty, you may register now by
contacting LaTisha Reynolds at 800-545-2433 ext. 5035 or
lreynolds@ala.org. For information on the content of any of the
preconferences, contact Karen Whittlesey at ext. 5034 or
kwhittlesey@ala.org. As soon as the brochure has been posted, we will
announce it in _AN2_. ALCTS members will also receive a print brochure
in March.

The Acquisition Section's advanced Business of Acquisitions
preconference, titled Rethinking and Transforming Acquisitions, was
reported in _AN2_ v12_no17 (Dec. 13, 1996).

In addition ALCTS is sponsoring the following preconferences:

DEMYSTIFYING SUBJECT CATALOGING OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
As more and more libraries consider the cataloging of electronic
resources, the need for subject analysis of these materials becomes
more important. The Subject Analysis Committee of the ALCTS
Cataloging and Classification Section is addressing this need in a
one and a half day preconference on June 26 and 27, 1997.

Presenters who are experts in the field will review and update
fundamental subject cataloging principles, particularly as they
relate to the cataloging of electronic resources, covering the
process of analyzing the subject content of electronic documents and
the structure and application of Library of Congress subject headings
to such documents. The speakers are Arlene G. Taylor, School of
Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh; Lynn El-Hoshy,
Library of Congress; and Allene Hayes, Library of Congress.
Participants can expect to understand better how to analyze
electronic documents and apply subject headings, and to assist users
in finding such resources by subject. There is a substantial amount
of time allotted to hands-on practice in small groups and evaluation
of the solutions these small groups produce.

The preconference will be especially helpful to professionals
involved in the creation, use, or management of subject cataloging
data relating to electronic documents, especially catalogers and
reference librarians in all types of libraries and information
agencies.

The cost is $135 for ALCTS members; $185 for ALA members; and $235
for non-members.

SCANNING FOR DUMMIES
Scanning technology is moving forward rapidly, leaving librarians and
archivists wondering if and where it will finally settle. The ALCTS
Preservation and Reformatting Section is presenting a basic course on
scanning on Friday, June 27, 1997, to familiarize the interested but
uninitiated librarian and archivist to the world of scanning
technology. Participants will receive a thorough review of the
terminology associated with scanning; an overview of the current uses
of scanning within libraries and archives; an examination of the
issues relating to equipment costs, staffing, and training; and an
exposure to current scanning equipment, including vendor services and
standards.

Faculty will be announced when available.

The registration fee is $130 for ALCTS members; $180 for ALA members;
and $230 for non-members.

MAKING STATISTICS WORK FOR YOUR LIBRARY
Statistical data can play an important role in the management of your
library. This preconference, to be held Thursday, June 26, brings
together the producers of library statistical data, practitioners who
have discovered creative ways to take information from disparate
vendor systems and manipulate them locally, and administrators who
use the synthesized information to make decisions. The intent is to
demonstrate that this is not difficult to accomplish and that the
effort to create useful statistics has practical uses in the library.

Sponsored by the ALCTS Research and Statistics Committee, the
preconference features a keynote address by George D'Elia (SUNY
Buffalo School of Information and Library Studies) on the use of
practical statistics in libraries for management. Other presenters
and panelists will look at guidelines and pitfalls in data
collection; the value and essentials of data in decision-making; how
to present data effectively to your administration or library board.

This preconference will be of special interest to those who generate
management statistics and reports, and to administrators who use them
in all types of libraries.

The registration fee is $125 for ALCTS members; $175 for ALA members;
and $225 for non-members.

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PCC ANNOUNCES POSITION PAPER ON WORKSTATION CREATION OF AUTHORITY
RECORDS

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging's Standing Committee on
Automation announces the formal release of a position paper detailing
a strategy for creating authority records on the workstation level.

Gary Strawn, Authorities Librarian at Northwestern University and
creator of CLARR, the Cataloger's Toolkit in use at Northwestern and
at several other NOTIS sites, has drawn on his experience in
developing CLARR, to author this important paper for the PCC SC Auto.
In this paper he presents a detailed strategy for the infrastructure
of a module for creating machine-assisted, operator-approved
authority records. These records would be used in the first instance
for local systems and eventually perhaps for submission to NACO.

Strawn's paper is located on the WWW at
http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/strawn.html and is stored there in 3
parts (be sure to get all 3).  We recommend your reading this paper
and sharing it widely with your colleagues, especially your
colleagues in systems.

We would also like to enlist your help in alerting your local system
vendor to the existence of this position paper.  We have brought it
to the attention of various vendors as it has evolved, but few, if
any, have adopted this strategy yet. We need to let them know that we
consider developments of this sort to be crucial to furthering the
goals of cooperative cataloging and the international authority file,
and that this is an ongoing priority for all of us, both creators and
users of authority records!

-- Michael Kaplan
Head, Database Management
Coordinator for OCLC/RLIN Operations
in the Harvard College Library
mkaplan@fas.harvard.edu

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CCS CATALOG MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION GROUP SETS TOPIC FOR MIDWINTER

The CCS Catalog Management Discussion Group will meet Saturday,
February 15, from 2-4 p.m. in the Franklin Park Rooms A & B of the
Crowne Plaza Hotel.

The topic for discussion is "The Program for Cooperative Cataloging's
Core Cataloging Program and its Implications for Catalog Management."
Presenters are Joan Schuitema, Northwestern University; Kate
Harcourt, Columbia University, and Christian Boissannas, Cornell
University. This session is being planned by Sheila Intner, Simmons
College, and Joan Swanekamp, Columbia University. For more
information, contact, Tommy Richardson, Chair, Catalog Management
Discussion Group,  tommy.richardson@mvs.udel.edu.

************

ALA AMONG LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS APPLAUDING GENEVA COPYRIGHT TREATY

Five national library associations, including the American Library
Association, have expressed cautious optimism that the rights of both
copyright proprietors and those who use copyrighted materials can be
accommodated in the new digital information environment based on
agreements reached December 20 after more than two weeks of
international negotiations. In addition to ALA, the associations are
the American Association of Law Libraries, Association of Research
Libraries, Medical Library Association, and Special Libraries
Association.

Some 160 governments participated in the diplomatic conference on
intellectual property issues convened by the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva. The final treaties represent
significant progress over earlier proposals in balancing the rights
of copyright proprietors with the interests of users of copyrighted
materials.

Adam Eisgrau, legislative counsel for the ALA Washington Office,
represented the International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions at the Geneva conference. He cited as particularly
noteworthy the diplomatic consensus in favor of the extension and
evolution of limits on copyright, including fair use, into the
digital environment.

He also noted that many participants expressed deep opposition to a
proposed treaty for a broad new system of database protection in
addition to copyright. The proposal had been opposed by the five
library associations as being overly broad and because it had not
been subjected to domestic scrutiny in the U.S. Although such a
treaty was proposed, it was not acted on.

The library community had worked with many other interests and
organizations to ensure a balanced process and outcome in the treaty
negotiations, including scholarly, scientific and research societies,
education organizations, public interest groups, and online service
providers and telecommunications and high tech industries.

Like many treaties, the Geneva agreements impose broadly phrased
obligations on signatory nations. In many countries, including the
U.S., the treaties will require domestic approval and legislative
implementation.

The library associations are engaged in further analysis of the
Geneva agreements, and will continue to work with the Administration,
Congress and other interested parties.

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COMPUTERS AVAILABLE FOR MEMBER USE AT MIDWINTER MEETING

Members attending the Midwinter Meeting in Washington, D.C., will
have IBM computers with 5.25" and 3.5" disk drives, WordPerfect 5.1
and Microsoft Word software and printers available in the temporary
office area. Apple Computers loaded with Microsoft Word 5.1,
Microsoft Works 3.0 and WordPerfect 3.1 will also be available in the
office.

Conference Services will provide ALA letterhead and plain paper, but
you must bring your own diskettes. NO diskettes will be provided by
Conference Services.

There will also be Selectric typewriters available in the office
area. The office will be located in Hall D of the Washington D.C.
Convention Center.

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LC PUBLISHES _USMARC CODE LIST FOR ORGANIZATIONS_

The _USMARC Code List for Organizations_ is now available from the
Cataloging Distribution Service of the Library of Congress. This
publication replaces the _Symbols of American Libraries_, 14th
edition, which was last published in 1992.

This new code list contains the short alphabetic codes used to
represent libraries, archives and other organizations that need to be
identified in the bibliographical environment. The publication is a
key to codes for holdings institutions represented in the Library of
Congress National Union Catalog (NUC) and other union list
publications and is used in a number of data elements in the MARC
format that call for institutional identifiers. It is a reference
tool for those dealing with MARC records, for systems reporting
library holdings, for many interlibrary loan systems, and for those
organizing cooperative cataloging projects on a regional or larger
scale.

_USMARC Code Lists for Organizations_ sells for $35 (North America)
and $36 elsewhere.  1996.  ISBN: 0-8444-0883-2.  476 pages.  Order
from Library of Congress, Customer Services Section, Cataloging
Distribution Service, P. O. Box 75720, Washington, DC  20013-5720;
phone:  800/255-3666 or 202/707-6100; fax: 202/707-1334; TDD
202/707-0012; E-mail cdsinfo@mail.loc.gov.

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ALCTS NETWORK NEWS (ISSN 1056-6694) is published irregularly by the
Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, a division
of the American Library Association. Editorial offices: ALCTS, 50 E.
Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; Carol Chamberlain, President; Karen
Muller, Executive Director. Editor: Karen Whittlesey
(kwhittlesey@ala.org); Editorial Assistance: Karen Muller, Shonda
Russell.

ALCTS NETWORK NEWS is available free of charge and is available only
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Chicago, IL 60611.

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an2 v12_no19


Submitted by: bubladmin  (cijs27@ccsun.strath.ac.uk)
               Fri, 17 Jan 1997 11:38:57 +0000 (GMT)