Mark your calendars for DC-2004

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) will hold its annual conference October 11-14 at the Shanghai Library, the largest public library in China and a pioneer in advancing the development and use of metadata. The 2004 meeting will focus on metadata research and applications. DCMI promotes the widespread adoption of interoperable metadata standards and develops specialized metadata vocabularies for describing resources that enable more intelligent information discovery systems.

54 millionth record enters WorldCat

Contributed by the Columbus Metropolitan Library on January 9, the record was for The End of All Things to Come, a 2003 publication of 12 musical scores for guitar and voice that contains the rock songs from the musical group Mudvayne’s second album.

Research Grant recipients named

OCLC Research and the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) have awarded research grants for 2004 to Corinne Jorgensen, Florida State University, Feili Tu and Nancy Zimmerman, University of South Carolina and Elizabeth Yakel, University of Michigan.

• Corinne Jorgensen is Associate Professor at Florida State’s School of Information Studies. Her project title is “Developing A Thesaurus For Indexing Images Across Diverse Domains.”
• Feili Tu is Assistant Professor and Nancy Zimmerman is Associate Professor at the School of Library and Information Science at South Carolina. Their project is “Consumer Health Information Services in American Public Libraries: An Assessment of Current Status and Educational Needs.”
• Elizabeth Yakel, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, will study “Academic Reference Librarians and Extending Access to Primary Sources.”

OCLC now offering services for groups

The new services allow consortia to build group online union catalogs and provide resource sharing and reference services under one locally customized interface. OCLC group catalogs are based on library holdings set in WorldCat. OCLC creates a catalog from WorldCat holdings contributed by group members so that library users can find what they need close to home. If users are unable to find what they need in their local area, they can expand their search to a larger region within the group, or to the entire WorldCat database for what they need.

Statsbiblioteket enters 132 millionth ILL request

Created on January 5, the 132 millionth request was for a book on tape, Queen’s Play. Statsbiblioteket (State and University Library), Århus, Denmark, is a public library for research and study and serves as the main library for the University of Aarhus and the University Hospital of Århus. The OCLC cooperative is celebrating 25 years of interlibrary loan in 2004. More than 7,000 libraries use the OCLC Interlibrary Loan service, which arranged 9.3 million loans in fiscal year 2002-2003.

Need info on virtual reference? Look at these papers

Two papers, seven handouts and 34 presentations from the Virtual Reference Desk conference last year are now available for download. The conference was held November 17-18. Among the presentations and papers:

“Dynamic Marketing to Targeted Markets,” by Marianne Bracke, Science-Engineering Librarian, University of Arizona
“Digital Reference Services, Not Just Q and A: An Inclusive Examination of Digital Reference Services,” by Henry Bankhead, Graduate Student, San Jose State University

Other papers not appearing in the online proceedings will be published in a print publication entitled Rounding Out the Reference Experience: Integrating Theory and Practice by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. in 2004.

JISC study suggests that library portals boost database usage

Want a way to help steer users away from Google and to the quality resources on your site? Build a portal-a central access point to databases-says a preliminary study commissioned by the U.K.’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). After launching a new library portal that provided simultaneous database searching, de-duping of results and links to full text, the Loughborough University Library saw a dramatic increase in database usage—609%. Some databases saw increases of more than 1,000%.

Demonstrate your library’s impact

Learn how to speak to your community about your library’s value. The community section at the WebJunction Web site offers a lot of information on how libraries-with a little strategy, presentation and determination for innovation-can demonstrate the impact they have in their communities. Among the resources:

• “Roadmap to Demonstrating Impact,” with step-by-step solutions from the simple to the sophisticated;
• A link to the IMLS National Leadership Grant Tutorial, a resource that provides the skills, knowledge, and tools to develop a good project plan; and
• A collection of 13 journal articles on demonstrating impact.

netLibrary 2004 debuts

Based on extensive usability testing and customer feedback, netLibrary has reengineered its site to ensure the highest levels of performance and reliability. Faster page loads, five language choices and improved access for users with disabilities are among the new capabilities, as well as a streamlined interface that provides more intuitive navigation and enhanced search capabilities.

How might these trends affect your library?

A new year brings with it new predictions. Here are a few trends forecast for 2004 by the Mercury News and Red Herring that might find their way into your library.

• The laptop replaces the desktop. Will you need more outlets for laptops and fewer personal computers? In 2003, U.S. computer buyers started spending more money buying laptops than desktop computers.
• Bluetooth wireless technology starts shipping in PCs. Do you have a wireless network? Bluetooth, the wireless technology that replaces the cables on electronics, is projected to have a big year in 2004.
• VideoBlogs start replacing WebBlogs. Self publishing begins moving away from text and onto video. Can your library PCs handle the new content?
• Digital Immediate Gratification accelerates. DIG continues to change the way people live and think. In the culture of the online world, impatience is escalating. Think of the implications for a library.

OCLC Founder celebrates 90 years | Members Council holds February meeting