Developing new protocols to support and connect digital libraries. Interview with Herbert Van de Sopel  12:45:19 PM   [Feedback ]  

ISBN : ISBN. Changes in the size of the ISBN are coming.

The Book Industry Study Group last Thursday unanimously approved a policy statement that calls for the 13-digit Bookland EAN bar code to be the sole bar code for books and book-related products, effective January 1, 2005. At the same time, the group endorsed the expansion of ISBNs from 10 digits to 13, effective January 1, 2007.

More info at BISG. [Catalogablog]  12:38:45 PM   [Feedback ]  

Metadata : OAI : OAI. The Open Archives Initiative has released a white paper on rights management.

The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) has become an important foundation for interoperability among networked information systems. It is widely used in a variety of domains including libraries, museums, government, and research.

Like any vehicle for exchanging information, the OAI-PMH exists in a context where information holders have concerns about rights to the use of their information. Although the OAI-PMH is nominally about the exchange of metadata, this does not lessen the complexities of rights-related issues.

[Catalogablog]  12:38:22 PM   [Feedback ]  

Online Content : Electronic Databases and Google How do we promote quality. Anonymous Patron writes "With libraries paying more and more each year in subscription fees for on-line databases, what are librarians doing to drive traffic to these resources rather than to Google and the web? Even more pressing, what are you doing to accomplish this when at least one of the major database vendors (Gale) is now including a direct link to Google in its major periodical databases? (No link, but go check out the search results of any Infotrac database.)" [LISNews.com]  12:37:49 PM   [Feedback ]  

Metadata : OAI : OAI-rights. From the OAI-general listserv:

"The Open Archives Initiative and Project RoMEO announce the formation of OAI-rights. The goal of this effort is to investigate and develop means of expressing rights about metadata and resources in the OAI framework. The result will be an addition to the OAI implementation guidelines that specifies mechanisms for rights expressions within the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH).

The area of rights expressions is wide-open with many organizations proposing languages and mechanisms. Therefore, the OAI-rights effort will aim to be extensible, providing a general framework for expressing rights statements within OAI-PMH. These statements will target both the metadata itself and the resources described by that metadata. In the context of this broader framework, OAI-rights will use Creative Commons licenses as a motivating and deployable example.

A white paper describing the scope and issues in OAI-rights is available at http://www.openarchives.org/documents/OAIRightsWhitePaper.html."

[inSilico - A Princeton University Library metadata and digital library blog]  12:36:41 PM   [Feedback ]  

Portals : MIT Launches Free Online Access to Class Materials [ResourceShelf]  7:55:53 AM   [Feedback ]  

Internet : Time Wild West Web was tamed. John Duncan writes spotted A Toronto Star Column that says it's time for the Wild West we once proudly called the Internet to grow up. I can't quite figure out his point, but he says the pursuit of order and safety on the Internet is why Canada is considering anti-spam legislation and why California just introduced one of the toughest can-spam laws in the world. It's why dozens of privacy commissioners from around the world met in Sydney, Australia, earlier this month and unanimously condemned the use of spyware. [LISNews.com]  7:53:57 AM   [Feedback ]