ALA Anaheim

After not having gone to ALA for 2 years, I wasn't sure how I would feel going back. But it was great! The meeting highlights for me were: Cataloging Norms, CONSER at large, Top technology trends and the Continuing Resources Cataloging Update.

At Cataloging Norms John Reimer (UCLA) and Linda Barnhart (UCSD)gave a joint presentation about WorldCatlocal. These are 2 of the brightest and best in the UC system and this is what they see for cataloging: a single data store of mixed (MARC and nonMARC) metadata; cataloging as a single enterprise; cataloging skills still needed in the future; local cataloging practices will be set aside; work on bib records will be done once, not passed from hand to hand; a wiki-type approach to cataloging (each adding on); will not work on each record individually; the most important user metadata in an analog record is the table of contents, list of contents, summary and cover art.

CONSER at large discussed: ISSN-L (linking issn); use of 007 for computer file in print serial record(CONSER does not use this); 1 year review of CSR and MARBI proposals for using 588 for DOB and LIC notes, death of 440, repeatable 260, using $i in 780 and 785, and using 710 $3 and $c instead of 550.CONSER will not use 007 for any accompanying materials in print serial records. But the best part of the meeting was a presentation about the UC CONSER funnel from Adolfo, Valerie, Melissa and me. I gave the serials cataloger's reaction to the funnel and really took it from Chi and Dave's experiences with it. The presentation went over well and several other groups have approached CONSER to see about creating a funnel.

Top technology trends had 8 live and 2 virtual speakers who each mentioned 2 or 3 trends. The chat room was going on at the same time and was projected on a screen. ILibrarian has blogged about some of these at: http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2008/top-technology-trends/ For me, I heard a lot of Open source and social software mentioned plus being able to walk through the library with your hand held and have all the information you need from it.

The Continuing Resources Update is every serialist's favorite and our own Adolfo presented his idea of how to FRBRize serials using a new "Serials Authority Record". Facinating....we can look at his model sometime and see what we think.