by Louise Ratliff
Social Sciences and Map Cataloger, UCLA,
and Vice-Chair of MAGIRT
lratliff@library.ucla.edu
The world of cataloging and metadata is just hoppin’ with activity these days with an alphabet-soup aggregation of things to report! Since the last issue of the WAML IB in November 2015, there is news from the ALA Midwinter Meeting (January 8-12, 2016 in Boston) along with progress reports on BIBFRAME, RDA, DCRM(C), FRBR and LD4P. I hope to avoid boring you with long-winded paragraphs, so will give you some brief news and some links to further information.
The two top items of interest to cartographic catalogers are the publication of Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Cartographic) DCRM(C), and the formation of the Linked Data for Libraries Cartographic Materials project.
DCRM(C) was approved at the end of January and is now freely available as a PDF file here: http://rbms.info/dcrm/dcrmc/ . This comprehensive work has been in development since 2008. Based on then-current editions of DCRM(B) and Cartographic Materials, it is based on DCRM(B) and AACR2 practices, and it is now the standard for cataloging rare cartographic materials. Congratulations to the DCRM(C) editorial team for their years of dedicated work on this project! Next steps will be to work with the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) to update the BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) for rare cartographic materials.
On June 21st at the RBMS Conference in Coral Gables, FL, there will be a full-day workshop using the newly updated DCRM for Cartographic manual. Randy Brandt and Nancy Kandoian will be the instructors. (http://conference16.rbms.info/workshops/)
In case you are wondering, the RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee (BSC) “is neutral regarding RDA, neither encouraging nor discouraging agencies regarding implementation of RDA-acceptable DCRM records.” (http://rbms.info/dcrm/rda/). RBM cartographic catalogers have two options: (1) use DCRM(C) and AACR2 for descriptive cataloging and RDA guidelines for access points, or (2) create RDA records using the RDA BIBCO Standard Record with its provisions for rare materials. A BSC task force has been formed to draft DCRM guidelines consisting of rules where deviation from RDA is necessary or where RDA requires elaboration. See the Task Force wiki for details: http://dcrmrda.pbworks.com/w/page/68595829/DCRM-RDA%20wiki
At a meeting of the MAGIRT Cataloging and Classification Committee at ALA in Boston, Marc McGee, Harvard Library, provided background information and updates on the Linked Data for Libraries Cartographic Materials project grant proposal. This sub-project of the Linked Data for Libraries: Linked Data for Production project will explore best practices for creating linked data descriptions for library cartographic resources including printed maps, atlases, digital geospatial datasets, and other cartographic information resources.
This sub-project of the Linked Data for Libraries/Production will explore best practices for creating native Linked Data descriptions for library cartographic resources including printed maps, atlases, digital geospatial datasets, and other cartographic information resources. The project will evaluate BIBFRAME’s effectiveness as a data model for describing cartographic materials for research needs and will compare BIBFRAME’s effectiveness versus other available Linked Data descriptive schemas. In addition the group will evaluate the thesauri and controlled vocabularies associated with the description of cartographic resources to identify those vocabularies best suited to describe cartographic resources in a linked data environment. The group’s deliverables will include: a BIBFRAME profile for cartographic resources; a set of published BIBFRAME descriptions for a variety of cartographic resource types; a written evaluation of the project and set of recommendations for future research and development; and presentation of project findings to appropriate library cartographic materials and linked data communities. – Cartographic Materials LD4P wiki (not yet published).
A group of people interested in this project will attend a virtual kick-off meeting led by Marc McGee later in March to discuss the project, set short-term objectives, and define individuals’ areas of contribution. Among the project volunteers thus far are myself, Paige Andrew (Penn State), Iris Taylor and Tammy Wong (Library of Congress), Kathy Weimer (Rice), and several others. March 10th is the date when a grant funding decision will be announced. For more information on LD4P, just search using your favorite search engine.
BIBFRAME development continues at the Library of Congress, where many catalogers have been trained to catalog materials using one of the BIBFRAME editors. A BIBFRAME editor profile for cartographic materials is being tested by catalogers in the Geography and Maps Division. You can find downloadable and demonstration versions of the profiles here: http://bibframe.org/tools/ . This work forms part of the basis for work to be done by the LD4P cartographic materials project.
Other News
The slides from the presentations at the ALA 2016 Midwinter Library of Congress BIBFRAME Update Forum (Sunday morning, Jan. 10, 10:30) are now available. They may be accessed from the agenda for the session posted on the www.loc.gov/bibframe home page. The session included, in addition to the updates from the Library of Congress, information on projects that are being planned by Casalini, several Linked Data for Production project participants (Columbia, Cornell, and Princeton), OCLC, and Zepheira.
Phase 3 of the automated update to the Library of Congress Name Authority File (NAF) will add International Standard Name Identifiers (ISNI) to all established headings if the program’s algorithms can identify one that has been established for the same entity.
In late February IFLA announced the world-wide review of the FRBR-Library Reference Model, a consolidation of the FRBR, FRAD and FRSAD conceptual models. This new model consolidates and replaces the three former individual models. Comments are due by May 1, 2016. For complete information, see: http://www.ifla.org/node/10280?og=54 . An abstract is available here: http://library.ifla.org/1084/1/207-riva-en.pdf
The 2016 Midwinter Meeting RDA Forum (http://www.ala.org/alctsnews/conference/mw2016-rda-forum ) took place on January 9. Gordon Dunsire, chair of the Resource Description and Access (RDA) Steering Committee (RSC), spoke first on “RDA Progress on Governance and Strategy.” Two major name changes took place in November 2015. The Committee of Principals became the RDA Board and the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) became the RDA Steering Committee (RSC). The website has been changed to reflect the new names (http://www.rda-rsc.org/).
IFLA Metadata Newsletter – news item by George Prager in ALCTS News:
The Classification and Indexing Section published its own section newsletter until the end of 2014. It is now issuing a newsletter jointly with two other IFLA sections, the Cataloguing and the Bibliography Sections, under the title: IFLA Metadata Newsletter. The first two issues (June and December 2015) of the joint publication are available at http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/classification-and-indexing/newsletters/metadata-newsletter-201506.pdf and: http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/classification-and-indexing/newsletters/metadata-newsletter-20151224.pdf
Finally, I encourage you to review Tammy Wong’s column in MAGIRT’s base line newsletter, volume 37, no. 1, February 2016 for more information, including reports from CC:DA, the LC Geography and Map Division, OCLC, the MARC Advisory Committee, and RBMS, starting on page 4.
http://www.ala.org/magirt/sites/ala.org.magirt/files/content/publicationsab/baseline/BL-37-1.pdf
Winter Weather Precipitation Outlook map
So, looking at this map from NOAA, how did your winter stack up against the prediction? Here in Southern California, El Nino has fizzled out; our rain has been close to normal thus far. There is still March but I’m not optimistic about large amounts of rain, although I can remember one March years ago when we had about 10 inches of rain. Normal rainfall in the Los Angeles region is about 15 inches. We shall see!
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