ALCTS Network News v14n12 (October 16, 1997) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/ann/ann-v14n12 ISSN: 1056-6694 ALCTS NETWORK NEWS An electronic publication of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Volume 14, Number 12 October 16, 1997 In this issue REGISTER FOR MIDWINTER ON THE WEB AACR2-e AVAILABLE ON CD-ROM ALA MEMBERSHIP DISCUSSION LIST READY FOR USE NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR HUGH ATKINSON AWARD AID FOR EFFECTIVE SEARCHING UNDER DEVELOPMENT ************ REGISTER FOR MIDWINTER ON THE WEB Interactive forms for Midwinter 1998 (New Orleans) registration and personal membership made their debut yesterday on the ALA web site. Members and others wishing to register for the Midwinter Meeting may access the form at www.ala.org/events/mw98/online_reg.html or go to the ALA web site (http://www.ala.org) and selecting "Register Online" from the Events section. An application for personal membership is located under the Membership section of the ALA web site. Both forms require a valid credit card for processing, and work best with Netscape Navigator v. 2.0 or Internet Explorer v. 3.0 or newer, with JavaScript enabled. If you have questions or problems, send a message to webmaster@ala.org. ************ AACR2-e AVAILABLE ON CD-ROM The Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed., 1988 rev., with the 1993 and 1997 amendments has been published jointly on CD-ROM by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and The Library Association. ALA Editions offers the complete authorized cataloging rules on CD-ROM with all rule revisions approved by the Joint Steering Committee. Using Folio VIEWS hypertext software, which also supports the Library of Congress Cataloger's Desktop and Classifications Plus, AACR2-e provides advanced searching capabilities that will greatly improve cataloging productivity. Catalogers will be able to jump quickly and easily to particular rules with keyword or rule-number searches; access related rules either in sequence or simultaneously in multiple windows; use the searchable contents and index to find specific topics; limit searches to specific chapters and subhead levels, or expand them to all of AACR2-e; highlight key text; replace handwritten marginal comments with searchable Notes - for long remarks - and Pop-Up Notes, which function like footnotes; and build customized groups of related topics and rules for reference to often-used rule sets. (Notes, highlighted text, and saved groups of related topics can all be transferred to future updates.) Libraries with their own Folio Infobase Production Kit license can create hypertext links between AACR2-e and the Library of Congress Cataloger's Desktop, Classification Plus, and other Folio-based cataloging tools and customized databases. Platform hardware requirements: Windows 3.x interface. Runs on a minimum configuration of 80386/25 PC with 4MB of RAM, CD-ROM drive, and 16MB of free hard disk space. Recommended minimum configuration: 80486/33 PC with 8MB of RAM. A VGA or SVGA color monitor is also recommended. No additional software is required. Single-user license $250; ALA Members $225 (for more information on network version, call 1-800-545-2433, ext. 5101); ISBN 0-8389-2197-1. ************ ALA MEMBERSHIP DISCUSSION LIST READY FOR USE By action of the ALA Council at the Annual Conference in San Francisco, ALA members now have access to their own discussion list. Effective immediately, Member-forum is available to all ALA members. The purpose of the list is largely defined by the original motion, Encouragement of Membership Participation in ALA Governance, moved by Mary Jane Anderson, and seconded by Patricia M. Wong: Resolved, that an ALA member subscription listserv be developed and mounted by ALA for the purposes of 1) making information about ALA issues and projects more immediately available to members, 2) providing members an opportunity to ask questions and receive answers from officers, staff and councilors; and 3) facilitating member discussion of concerns and interests, and 4) providing a way for members to speak directly to those representing them on council about issues they would like to see ALA Council and/or their officers address. Additionally, the list will provide an avenue for ALA committee chairs and others wishing to consult with members. The list, called Member-forum@ala.org, will be unmoderated and self-subscribing. Undeliverable addresses will be automatically deleted. To subscribe: Send an email message to listproc@ala.org with the following command as the first line of text in the body of the message: subscribe member-forum Drop down two lines and enter your membership number. Enter your full name. Do not use angle brackets in entering your name or membership number. Although membership numbers will not be verified initially, work is underway toward an automatic verification at time of subscription. No one will be automatically subscribed in accordance with the original intent of the motion. Only subscribers can view list archives. If you prefer to receive messages from Member-forum in digest form (that is, one message to you per day, which will contain all messages posted to the list in the previous 24 hours), send the following command to listproc@ala.org: set member-forum mail digest If later you wish to resume receiving Member-forum mail in real time,* send the following command to listproc@ala.org: set member-forum mail The list owners are Mary Ghikas, Gerald Hodges, and Lois Ann Gregory-Wood. Only list owners can review the list of subscribers, in order to keep subscriber addresses out of the hands of "spammers." Information about the list and directions for subscribing will be available on the ALA website, posted to various existing lists, and placed in American Libraries. If you have technical questions or problems subscribing, contact Rob Carlson, ALA Internet Services Coordinator, at 1-800-545-2433 x 2431 or rcarlson@ala.org. ************ NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR HUGH ATKINSON AWARD Nominations are being sought for the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. The deadline for nominations is December 1. The Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award is presented annually to recognize outstanding accomplishments of an academic librarian who has worked in the areas of library automation or library management and has made contributions (including risk taking) toward the improvement of library services or to library development or research. The award is jointly sponsored by ALCTS, the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA). It is funded by an endowment created by divisional, individual, and vendor contributions given in memory of Hugh C. Atkinson. The award recipient in 1997 was William Gray Potter. Nominations should be sent to Jack Briody, American Library Association, 50 East Huron, Chicago, IL 60611. E-mail: jbriody@ala.org. For further information, contact Jennifer Cargill, Dean, LSU Libraries Baton Rouge, LA. Telephone: 504-388-2217. E-mail: notjsc@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu. ************ AID FOR EFFECTIVE SEARCHING UNDER DEVELOPMENT The University of California, Berkeley, School of Information Management & Systems has been awarded a $954,180 research contract to make searching for documents and for data easier and more cost-effective. The project is called "Search Support for Unfamiliar Metadata Vocabularies". Searching is likely to be effective and efficient only when the searcher is familiar with the classification, categorizing, and indexing schemes ("metadata vocabularies") being searched. The rapid increase in the number of databases that can be accessed over the Internet means that searches will increasingly require use of indexes and classification schemes that are unfamiliar to person searching. To provide a cost-effective remedy, the researchers will develop Entry Vocabulary Modules that accept topical statements in the searcher's terms and respond with a ranked list of terms in the system's vocabulary. The principal investigator for the three-year project is Professor Michael Buckland, with Ray Larson, Associate Professor in the School, and Fred Gey, Assistant Director of Campus UC Data Archive & Technical Assistance and a recent Ph.D graduate of the School. This project builds directly on several years' research in the School on improved searching techniques. The Classification Clustering technique developed by Larson for the CHESHIRE I system will be used with probabilistic document retrieval algorithms developed by Gey with support from the National Science Foundation. The contract will run from July 1997 through June 2000. Any interested in the following project is encouraged to visit the project website at: www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/metadata/index.html ************ 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; Janet Swan Hill, 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 in electronic form. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the division. News items should be sent to the editor at the e-mail address above. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listproc@ala.org with the only line of text being "subscribe an2 [your name]" (without quotation marks). Back issues of AN2 are available through the listserver. To find out what's available, send the following command to listproc@ala.org: "index an2" (without quotation marks). Send questions about membership in ALCTS to the ALCTS Office, alcts@ala.org. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or education advancement. For other reprinting or redistribution or translations, address requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions, 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611. ************ an2 v14_no12