Filipino Librarian: Technical Services

Showing posts with label Technical Services. Show all posts

National Book Awards 2008

Are you thinking of giving books as Christmas gifts? Or maybe you're a librarian who's been assigned to an unfamiliar subject area and you need to know what are considered the newest and best books in that discipline? Well, the list of this year's National Book Award winners and finalists can be very helpful in choosing gift books or learning more about the best books in a subject area. If you're interested in previous winners, take a look at the National Book Development Board's searchable list of award-winning books published from 1980 to 2008. You can also check out the Manila Critics Circle website, which lists winners by category and in chronological order until 2005.

The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American
and Philippine-American Wars

Labels: Technical Services

The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars is a new 3-volume set published by ABC-CLIO early this month. I haven't examined it thoroughly, and it's possible that it doesn't reflect the Filipino point of view, but I think the fact that its third volume is devoted to reproducing the texts of more than 150 primary-source documents will make it very useful. Some libraries probably have the earlier one-volume edition published in 2001, but it looks like this one is very different, starting with its editor.

Note: I learned about the set only because I'm at SLA 2009, where I've posted more in the last two days on the SLA Blog than I've done on my own blog in the past two weeks =)

Libraries and "The Great Book Blockade of 2009"

Labels: Technical Services

A column by Manolo Quezon (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 4 May 2009) on "The Great Book Blockade of 2009" brought a topic that had yet to make it into the news to the attention of a wider audience. Quezon's column is also reproduced on his blog, which has allowed readers to respond. He also posted additional material and updates before and after his column was published.

The basis for what Quezon wrote was an article by Robin Hemley, also entitled "The Great Book Blockade of 2009," in a foreign publication. Bloggers have reacted in various ways, but I think the most informed analysis is at Bibliophile Stalker, where the following may be found:

Clarifying The Great Book Blockade of 2009
More The Great Philippine Book Blockade of 2009 Fallacies
Robin Hemley Responds

There will probably be more, so add the blog to your RSS reader or bookmark it.

At this point, all I can say is that librarians should be even more concerned about delays or taxes on the importation of books than the average book lover. Why? Unlike individuals, librarians don't buy one, two or even ten books at a time, they order hundreds. Then there's the reality that most library collections in the Philippines, like bookstores, are made up of imported books. (Even if libraries had the budget to buy all the latest Filipiniana available, the truth is that there aren't enough new titles published locally every year to justify the effort of hunting them all down. But that's another problem altogether.) Hence, new titles are primarily imported ones. Librarians don't usually order directly from publishers or online bookstores, they place their orders through book dealers. The "blockade," if nothing is done, will strain already tight budgets even more and delay deliveries of new books even further.

I am not, however, a practicing librarian. So I invite my colleagues who read my blog—especially the acquisitions librarians—to comment and/or correct my simple (and perhaps simplistic?) understanding of how this problem affects libraries.

SLA 2008: LCSH for Free

Labels: Conferences, Technical Services

The print version of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH; five thick red volumes) is what many catalogers have used for a long time. Some catalogers have begun using "Library of Congress Authorities," which is freely searchable online.

But just today, a participant at a session I attended shared that the entire LCSH has recently been uploaded at lcsh.info, which is an experimental service that aims to "encourage experimentation and use of LCSH on the web."

It's far from being an ebook that non-techies like me can use easily, but if you understand what Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) is all about, you might be able to make it work for you and develop new ways of using LCSH online in non-traditional ways, aside from not having to buy a new set every few years.

See some of the possibilities at "Semantic Search the US Library of Congress." If you know what an API is, you should check out the summary.

Library Student Journal 2:1 (2007)

Labels: Technical Services

The latest issue of Library Student Journal is out. The article on "The underrepresented Native American student" was very interesting considering that I just wrote about diversity in OLA recently.

The contents of this issue include the following in both html and pdf versions:

Articles

Collaborative tagging, folksonomies, distributed classification or ethnoclassification: a literature review
Edith Speller

Essays

Carlyle, Panizzi, and the Public Library Ideal
A.S. Popowich

The Dede Korkut digital library: a student project faces the real world
Ozlem Bayram

The underrepresented Native American student: Diversity in Library Science
Monique Lloyd

Editorials

A new context for knowledge creation: letter from the editor, February, 2007
Eli Guinnee

Accepting Knowledge Management into the LIS fold: an interdisciplinary approach
Michael JD Sutton

Reviews

Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide, 4th ed.
Laura M. Reed

Getting Graphic
Beth Steinbruckner

Legal Solutions in Electronic Reserves and the Electronic Delivery of Interlibrary Loan
David McCaslin

Tips and Other Bright Ideas for Secondary School Libraries: Volume Three
Logan Rath

Disclosure: I'm a member of the Editorial Board.

Integrated Library Software

Labels: Technical Services

The table above shows that Follett is much more popular than Athena. At least in the United States, according to "Reshuffling the Deck" by Marshall Breeding (Library Journal, 1 April 2006). But since Follett just bought Sagebrush, the maker of Athena, those who are currently choosing between Follett and Athena should probably go with the former.

If your library has the necessary resources and has no need for "Free Library Software," you may want to check out the following before making any decisions regarding acquiring or replacing software:

Automating Libraries and Virtual Reference - ALA's annotated bibliography of useful books, articles and websites
Library Technology Guides - Archive of articles on automation by Marshall Breeding, plus information on which libraries are using what software, and news and company databases
Company Profiles - Annotated list of companies included in the article mentioned at the start of this post

Finally, it's interesting that EISI, the local distributor of Follett, now has a blog as its website: EISI News. Go bloggers!

Category: Technical Services

Free Library Software

Labels: Technical Services

The software listed below are more commonly known among librarians as integrated library software (ILS). There are, of course, commercial software available, but since many libraries in the Philippines have limited budgets, only free software have been included in the list.

"Free," however, is relative. Most can be downloaded for free, but those without websites will require that you go to them personally and bring a CD on which to copy the software. They can also provide the CD and mail it to you... for a small fee.

Training and support are the do-it-yourself kind, unless you would like to pay others to do it for you... for a larger fee. Not as large as the commercial vendors' fees, of course, but it wouldn't be free.

Please leave comments below if you have installed and/or used any of the software for the benefit of others who may wish to download them. I have not installed any of them myself, so please don't ask me for help =)

CDS/ISIS

Institution: UNESCO
Contact: Institute of Library and Information Science (ILIS)
Tel. No.: +632-9818500 loc 2869

Individuals/institutions must register to download the software. Or contact ILIS, the local distributor, which will be holding a WinISIS Workshop on 16-18 October 2006.

Note: CDS/ISIS is not, strictly speaking, ILS. But it's still being used and people are still asking about it, so...

Infolib

Institution: Rizal Library, Ateneo de Manila University
Contact: Gerry Laroza
Email: glaroza-at-ateneo-dot-edu
Tel. No.: +632-4266001 loc 5800

Koha | Download

Support: Free | Paid

OpenBiblio | Download

This one looks like it's truly open source software with no "owner." You'll just have to start with the forums and figure it out yourself =)

PhpMyLibrary | Download

Contact: Polerio Babao III
Tel. No.: +632-8300639

Rizal

Institution: Environmental Studies Institute Library, Miriam College
Contact: Romy Sebastian
Email: rej2k2-at-gmail-dot-com
Tel. No.: +632-4359240 loc 266

Copies of the software will be distributed at a one-day training session to be held on 28 August 2006.

SciNET-Phil Library Management System | Download