Re: send it to me

I think this is a great example of functionality that if incorporated
into the overall picture will result in catalogs that can contain great
service-oriented software. The software side of catalog-design is
something I'm catching up with, but I've followed with intense interest
the evolution of AACR2>FRBR>RDA.

One of the user tasks defined in FRBR is "OBTAIN". In the drafts of RDA,
there is an attempt to organize the chapters around user tasks, and the
draft chapter 5 is all about obtaining a resource. I think the
disappointment people have with RDA is that these cataloging rules
really only cover how to write good descriptive information, not set the
ground rules for new types of services. The draft of RDA chapter 5
covers terms of availability and contact information to obtain a
resource. Chapter 6, which is about item-specific information, has a
section on notes to use to describe restrictions on access to a physical
item.

There are lots of ideas that cover the OBTAIN user task...

Holdings information on OPAC screens that also show circulation data and
links to a HOLDS function-- this alone wins people over to use our OPAC.
I also like the idea of integrating maps and virtual shelf browse
capabilities to the holdings information, but that's for another day.
The 856 tag for URLs has expanded the OBTAIN function in MARC records.
External services such as OpenURL have begun the process of creating
great services by merging the silos of information that we are always
running between. There is also the notion of the library being
"everywhere." We shouldn't just have a single destination OPAC-- we
should be out there, at Google and Amazon, driving people back to the
library's resources where they can obtain what they want.

I do like the idea of services that find records out on the Internet,
such as at the Library of Congress. I think bibliographic and authority
information should be part of the common good-- a service originating
with libraries that anyone can use to create value-added services. Each
library could contribute to and partake of that information in the
process of building their own catalog to their own resources. As
information is updated centrally local catalogs should automatically
reflect that-- that's a big missing piece now it seems.

Just as an example that illustrates how FRBR should work in a next-gen
catalog (and this takes xISBN and thingISBN to the next level) ...

We can have different records for different formats of the same work--
regular print, paperback, large print, book on tape, book on CD, book on
MP3 CD, downloadable digital audio (soon), and PDF e-book. The subject
headings may not be consistent across them, but the promised land vision
with FRBR is that the subject headings should really be attached at the
work level, not repeated for every expression and manifestation. I'd
like the "top level" FRBR entities of work and expression, as well as
author and subject, to be part of some public domain web services
utility. Essentially, let's free the Library of Congress authorities,
and other authorities, let's FRBRize MARC records as best we can and
over time let's put these up on the web have them serve as anchors for
additional services, dynamically integrating them with library local
information.

Thomas Brenndorfer, B.A, M.L.I.S.
Guelph Public Library
100 Norfolk St.
Guelph, ON
N1H 4J6
(519) 824-6220 ext. 276
tbrenndorfer_at_library.guelph.on.ca









> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Eric Lease Morgan
> Sent: May 11, 2007 2:49 PM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] send it to me
>
> I think the "next generation" library catalog is not really a
> "catalog" at all, but more like a tool or a foundation for providing
> various types of services, and as an example I wrote a program I call
> Send It To Me:
>
>    http://mylibrary.library.nd.edu/send/
>
> Given an ISBN number the program will try to find the item in our
> local catalog and prompt the user for their University ID if it is
> found. The system would then update a local database and get somebody
> to actually send the item to the user. "Send it to me!"
>
> If the item is not found, then it uses xisbn and thingisbn to
> generate similar ISBN numbers and search for those locally. Again, if
> found, it prompts the user for their ID and sets up a delivery
> mechanism.
>
> If all is lost, then the system locates the item in the Library of
> Congress, and offers the user four choices: 1) ILL, 2) library
> purchase, 3) user purchase, 4) find similar items and borrow them
> instead.
>
> The whole thing is just a prototype; it demonstrates how libraries
> could make things easier for students, instructors, and researchers
> when it comes to acquiring known items from library catalogs.
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
> University Libraries of Notre Dame