Ms. Annette Smith from Barbados, West Indies, was the winner of the 2007 LITA-IRC Travel Grant to the 2007 LITA Forum. Ms. Smith is the Director of the National Library Service, Bridgetown, Barbados, WI. In her candidate’s report, she gives her impressions of the 2007 LITA Forum in Denver, Colorado. ————————————————————————— 2007 LITA Forum Phew! The flight was touching down in Denver, I had made it. I hadn’t dared to say this before; it wasn’t unheard of to have an aircraft turn back for one reason or other. I arrived in Denver on October 5 late at night, too late even to buy a toothbrush. I didn’t care; I had made it. I was the lucky recipient of the 2007 LITA Travel Grant and I had made it to the main conference of the National Forum. I had registered in August to catch the “early bird special.†My plan was…
For Specialists: Thai Transliteration
A systematic review ballot of the published standard, ISO 11940, Information and documentation – Transliteration of Thai has been announced by NISO. “Since there are fewer Roman characters than Thai characters, diacritical marks, punctuation marks, and a combination of two Roman characters, or a digraph, are needed to represent one Thai character.” Cindy Hepfer, ALA Voting Representative to NISO, reminds us that our vote options are: Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm. As usual, ALA is not voting on the standard itself but rather is providing feedback to NISO as to whether to approve or disapprove the standard. NISO will review and consider the feedback that it receives prior to submitting the US vote. ALA members interested in reviewing the standard should apply directly to Cindy at HSLcindy@buffalo.edu (please confirm to her that you’re an…
ISO 8777:1993, Commands for Interactive Text Searching
According to the announcement forwarded by Cindy Hepfer, ALA Voting Representative to NISO, “This International Standard specifies a basic set of commands for the interactive search of retrieval systems data and the types of response expected from the processing System. lt is intended for use by designers and users of information retrieval Systems, including computer-based library catalogues and computer-based database access and search facilities.” Cindy reminds us that our vote options are: Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm. ALA is not voting on the standard itself but rather is providing feedback to NISO as to whether to approve or disapprove the standard. ALA members interested in reviewing the standard should apply directly to Cindy at HSLcindy@buffalo.edu (please confirm to her that you’re an ALA member, and copy me on the request, please: metadata.maven@gmail.com). Deadline for…
Conversion and Migration of Digital Records–New ISO Work Item
NISO has received a ballot for a new ISO TC46 work item/project, and Cindy Hepfer, ALA Voting representative to NISO, would like some feedback from ALA members. The project in question is ISO TC46/SC11 New work item proposal: Digital records conversion and migration process. This is an excellent opportunity for LITA members to have an impact at the early stages of standards development. The summary from the announcement states: “This proposed standard will outline the program components, planning issues, recordkeeping requirements, and procedures for the conversion and migration of digital records so as to preserve the integrity of such records as evidence of business transactions. This standard is intended only for use in the conversion and migration of data that is to be preserved as digital records. This document does not address procedures for the digitization of records held in paper form.” The purpose and justification provided in the work…
Information System for Electronic Records Preservation—Another new ISO work item
Note that this item has a very short time window for comments–Sept. 24, 2008. Cindy Hepfer, ALA Voting representative to NISO, reports to us on a proposed new work item for a standard on Electronic archiving — Specifications concerning the design and the operation of an information system for electronic records preservation. The proposal includes a matrix placing this proposed standard in context with other existing standards and projects, including the TC46 project: ISO/PDTR 26102, Records management — Requirements for long term preservation of electronic records. Cindy says, “Recommending a “Yes” vote indicates you are in favor of the project. A “No” vote means you think the project should not be pursued. Comments are required for a No vote. While we are not required to nominate an expert for this working group (if the project is approved), we have the option of doing so. If anyone wants to work on…
Library Binding Standards review
One of the challenges of our current environment is that there are still activities (and standards) associated with our traditional role in managing physical resources, in addition to those associated with our newer, sexier digital activities. The standard addressed in this post, ISO 11800, Book binding materials and methods, up for systematic review, is one of those that hark back to simpler times, but still retains importance to us as librarians. According to the announcement Cindy forwarded, “This International Standard addresses publishers and book manufacturers. It also addresses acquisition librarians and archivists with a view to informing library and archival staff about the good physical properties they should expect in the books they acquire for public use.” As is generally the case with ISO reviews, ALA members willing to review this document should apply to Cindy directly at HSLcindy@buffalo.edu for an electronic copy of the standard (I’d appreciate it if…
ISO 11799:2003, Document storage requirements for archive and library materials
My previous Standards Watch posting was for a standard of somewhat limited interest, but this next one is far more generally applicable to our work. It would be great to see some review of this standard by ALA members (particularly LITA members) with some interest in this area. As usual, this call was forwarded to us by Cindy Hepfer, who is the ALA Voting representative to NISO. Cindy notes in her message that this is looking like a particularly active period of time for NISO, and as a member of NISO’s Content and Collection Management Topic Committee, I can confirm that this is indeed the case and we’ll be seeing lots more review requests in the coming months. This call is for ISO 11799:2003, Document storage requirements for archive and library materials, undergoing a systematic review. Our vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from…
Arabic language experts please note!
Cindy Hepfer, ALA Voting representative to NISO has notified us that there is a systematic review ballot of ISO 233-2:1993, Arabic simplified transliteration, going on at this time. The formal name of the published standard is ISO 233-2:1993, Information and documentation – Transliteration of Arabic characters into Latin characters – Part 2: Arabic language – Simplified transliteration. According to the Scope statement in the standard: “This part of IS0 233 establishes a simplified system for the transliteration of Arabic characters into Latin characters. This simplification of the stringent rules established by IS0 233:1984 is especially intended to facilitate the processing of bibliographic information (e.g. catalogues, indices, citations, etc.).” As is usually the case with these ballots, ALA is not voting on the standard itself but rather is providing feedback to NISO as to whether to approve or disapprove the standard. Our vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the…
hi-fi sci-fi library at the LITA National Forum
Michael Porter has posted the music video and story “behind the music” of Hi-Fi Sci-Fi Library on his blog, Libraryman. Porter will be presenting his keynote session of the same name at the 2008 LITA National Forum in Cincinnati, October 16-19. There is still time to register for the Forum; don’t miss out on Michael Porter’s session or the other keynotes, concurrent sessions, poster sessions, and networking opportunities planned. Be sure to check out the Forum Wiki to network with attendees and get local information on Cincinnati.
Heads of LibraryTechnology (HoLT) Interest Group- June 29th, 2008
The Heads of Technology Interest Group began with introductions. Each participant told about a major project or issue that they were currently dealing with at their institutions. Most were from academic institutions. Projects and or issues ranged from how to write a RFP to Technology Planning. The Transformational change program was briefly discussed. An update on Core Competencies and the book that some members were working on was discussed. Also ideas for future programs and publication were explored with members.