Category Archives: Authority Control

“Cataloging” music

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I’m collecting songs “about” cataloging, classification, naming, lexicography, language issues, and a small group of related topics not fully explicated (yet).

I may also start a list somewhere about music to “catalog” to, that is to listen to while doing metadata-type work, but that’s separate. I do have a mix that I’ve been listening to, and it’s really good because it has a lot of changes in tempo and beat which keeps the brain moving along. But back to the current issue…

One wouldn’t have to be a “cataloger”/metadater/etc. to suggest/make additions. Especially since I am using “cataloging music” to refer to a whole raft of word/concept/description issues.

It doesn’t have to be a complete song to have relevance. I doubt there are any real songs about cataloging. Actually, I know that there is a little ditty we lovingly call “The Dewey Decimal Song,” but I fear mentioning it. I know nothing else about it, except that I played it for 3 sections of Cheryl Tarsala’s LIS507 Cat & Class class. I guess that makes it a “real” enough song about cataloging. :) [OMG! A quick search shows that there is more than one Dewey Decimal Song, although I did not find the one Cheryl uses. I'll leave it to you to find them for yourselves.]

Back to the topic at hand, it might just be a line or two, if they are especially relevant. Thus, I guess it’s a lot like defining porn. We will each know it when we see it, and we’ll each draw the line in different places along a continuum, if not varying continua. Nonetheless, feel free to help me compile a list. If I get enough suggestions to make it worthwhile I’ll probably make a page for it on my website; which could honestly use a bit of content.

Here is the start of my list, along with some relevant (to me) lyrics, and where I might have cited it before:

Masterfade – Andrew Bird from Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs

well you sure didn’t look like you were having any fun
with that heavy-metal gaze they’ll have to measure in tons
and when you look up at the sky
all you see are zeros
and all you see are zeros and ones

…

…does it matter?
if we’re all matter
what’s the matter does it matter
if we’re all matter when we’re done?
when the sky is full of zeroes and ones

…

and if the green grass is 6 and the soybeans are 7
the junebugs are 8 the weeds and thistles are 11
if the 1s just hold their place the 0s make a smiley face
when they come floating down from the heavens

I first wrote about it here. At one point when I was first working on this idea—much later than my 1st use of this song—I had made a great connection between Masterfade and Karen Calhoun and her ilk. Unfortunately, I did not record that connection explicitly and it now escapes my capability to clearly recall it. It had to do with a clear over-reliance on the digital, though.

The Naming of Things – Andrew Bird from Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs

you weren’t there that day for the naming of things
the naming of things

Written about at same post as above. This one is pretty darn loose I know. But I like it and I’m letting it on my own personal list; it resonates with me.

Night Vision – Suzanne Vega from Solitude Standing

When the darkness takes you
With her hand across your face
Don’t give in too quickly
Find the thing she’s erased

Find the line, find the shape
Through the grain
Find the outline and things will
Tell you their name

Seems pretty self evident to me. Used here first.

Language – Suzanne Vega from Solitude Standing

These words are too solid
They don’t move fast enough
To catch the blur in the brain
That flies by and is gone

…

I won’t use words again
They don’t mean what I meant
They don’t say what I said
It’s just the crust of the meaning
With realms underneath
Never touched
Never stirred
Never even moved through

If language were liquid
It would be rushing in
Instead here we are
In a silence more eloquent
Than any word could ever be

And it’s gone…

Also used here. I sometimes find that when I am trying to determine the correct subject headings and call number for a work that the words on the page of the DDC manuals or ClassWeb or some other tool are too solid, but that the concept that I am really looking for is just a “blur in [my] brain, that flies by and is gone.”

Midsummer Night’s Dream – Noe Venable from the world is bound by secret knots

…when all of this is memories
what kind of creature shall i be?

>> How’d you get in here? — shh! it’s a secret >> tell me! — on flying heels and wagon wheels…

So I run out but not away
shooting off sparks into the dark out in the street
cause one day I am going to bloom
patient and proud with fish in my mouth and eyes in my wings
What kind of creature shall I be?

In many ways, catalogers really are answering this question of the resources we describe, “What kind of creature shall I be?” This is particularly so in serials cataloging. Of course, there’s the literary connection, too.

Crosseyed and Painless – Talking Heads from Stop Making Sense

I’m ready to leave-I push the fact in front of me
Facts lost-Facts are never what they seem to be
Nothing there!-No information left of any kind
Lifting my head-Looking for danger signs

….

Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
Facts are nothing on the face of things
Facts don’t stain the furniture
Facts go out and slam the door
Facts are written all over your face
Facts continue to change their shape

Objectivity. Facts. Words. Are they really all they’re cracked up to be?

Across the Universe – The Beatles from Let It Be

Words are flowing out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe

…

Thoughts meander like a
restless wind inside a letter box
they tumble blindly as
they make their way across the universe

Also used at words. redux. post.

That’s all I have for now. Please feel free to help me flesh this list out some. You can either comment here or email me via the Contact form.

Ben? Kurt? Tracy? Jenny? Anyone else?

Another semester shaping up

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As we head into the second week of the semester, here is how things are looking:

LIS590OH: Ontologies in the Humanities with Allen Renear

First class consisted of introductions, discussing the proto-syllabus [first time offering], and where we might want to take the class. There are about 10 students almost evenly split between “old-timers,” like me, and some of the more interesting seeming newer students. I am very glad to see some 2nd semester Masters students in here and I look forward to learning from them, and from my “old-timey” friends, too, of course.

Coursework looks fairly easy but then, as this is an “intermediate research seminar” in Allen’s ontology of course types, the true work is in individual and group learning. We will also learn a bit about the ontology editor, Protégé, and have the opportunity to substitute a practical ontology project for one of our papers.

I’ve managed to get all of the discussion readings and background readings read for this week. While I may not always get the background readings done, especially when I have read them before as in this week, I was happy to revisit some of them. Actually, in truth, I skipped one discussion reading. Gasp! As good as it may be, how often can one re-read Barbara Tillett’s pamphlet, “What is FRBR?: A Conceptual Model for the Bibliographic Universe”? [pdf]

I did enjoy revisiting the 1st 3 chapters of the FRBR Final Report [pdf], Buckland’s “What is a Document?”, the 1st 2 chapters of Smiraglia’s The Nature of “a Work”, and Denton’s FRBR and Fundamental Cataloguing Rules. There were also 2 Renear co-authored papers, one on axiomatizing FRBR and one on refining the OHCO model of text.

The next couple of weeks will allow me to revisit chapter 3 of Svenonius’ The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization [set-theoretic view of bibliographic entities] and some classic articles by Frege and Popper.

I’m not sure where my interests will take me in this class, but I am excited nonetheless.

LIS590RO: Representation and Organization of Information Resources with Kathryn LaBarre

This will actually be week 1 as we did not have class last week with Kathryn at ALISE. This seminar also has about 10 students, although most are either “mid-career” or newer students. But again, it looks like a brilliant group and I look forward to much interesting learning as we all explore our own varied interests within the structure of the class. About half of us are together in Allen’s class above, too, which may provide its own interesting angles and benefits.

Our “textbook” is Morville’s Ambient Findability, which in my experience wasn’t all that findable. The other, optional, text is Svenonius. Thankfully! [see above for Svenonius link.]

I read Morville over break and while it eventually got (a bit) better than I expected, it is still tripe. I have refrained from slagging it here so far since I will have the privilege of critiquing it in class. If, like me, you prefer to buy books, do yourself a favor and get this one at the library or at least used. Of course, if like me, you have an overpowering urge to write “BS!” in the margin of the first few pages then maybe you should buy a used copy. This has got to be the 1st book that I have ever written a negative comment in the preface! Seriously, who writes something that can be argued with in the preface?

Despite Morville, I am really looking forward to this class. And I do know what my focus will be. Relationships. Hopefully I will be able to mostly focus on thesaural relationships, but I intend to dive head first down this particular rabbit hole.

One of our assignments is a book review and a presentation of it in class. The book I am “reviewing” or, in my case, living with, is Bean and Green’s Relationships in the Organization of Knowledge. I found this book while working on my thesaurus paper a few weeks ago. I was unable to use it at the time and am glad that I get to now. I ordered myself a copy through abebooks on Friday evening.

Side note: I understand supply and demand (somewhat), and I understand that most of these sorts of books go to libraries, but seriously folks, why does a remaindered copy of such a book go for almost $90? I know I would buy a lot more of these seriously nerdy books if they were affordable! Richard and I were discussing this after 590ON last week regarding Smiraglia [see above]. The cheapest copy is over $100 used. Seriously, WTF?

Back to 590RO. I’m not sure what form my final project will take, but it will almost certainly involve relationships.

LIS592: Independent Study with Kathryn LaBarre

With Kathryn away until Wednesday, I am still in the process of getting this set up, although we have been narrowing it down via email. Here is the current draft of my proposal:

This independent study will allow me to further my research into thesauri. To this point, I have taken Thesaurus Construction (590TC), and have written a selective literature review on the mapping of thesauri as an aid to assist interdisciplinary scientists for Information Transfer & Collaboration in Science (590TR). I also have a graduate assistantship at the Illinois Fire Service Institute Library where I am responsible for maintaining the FireTalk thesaurus. My previous coursework has really piqued my interests in thesauri–construction, maintenance, evaluation, use, and current and future trends. My work experience has only reinforced how vastly difficult it is to implement theory.

My coursework for this independent study will involve reading (or re-reading) the ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005 monolingual thesaurus, the ISO monolingual and multilingual thesaurus standards, Lancaster (1983), Aitchison, et. al. (2000), among other readings. It will also involve an in-depth look into both OCLC‘s and JISC‘s Terminology Services programs and research. I intend to visit OCLC Research over Spring Break for a first-hand look at their Terminology Services research.

I am particularly interested in current trends and future directions for embedding thesauri into various, diverse services (Terminology Services) and the extension of relationships in thesauri (see e.g., Green (1995), Tudhope, et. al. (2001).

I will meet with my instructor every other week to keep her abreast of my progress and for discussion of issues as needed.

The final product will take two forms: (1) A literature review of current projects and research into Terminology Services; and (2) a presentation on the reality and potential of Terminology Services. The presentation would be open to the school and any other interested parties.

Besides the extracurricular learning in linguistics and grammar that I need to do to provide myself a ladder back out of the rabbit hole of relationships, I think that is it. :) For now.

Best of luck and learning this semester to all the LIS students out there. May you find what you’re looking for. And don’t forget to dive head first down a rabbit hole once in a while.

Why, and when, did education become purely instrumental?

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These are, in fact, rhetorical questions. I do have a sketchy answer for them [sketchy in the outlined, sort of questionable sense, not in the highly questionable sense]. But if you want to take a stab at either, or both, feel free; comments are below. My questions are more of the why, as in ought it to be this way?

I have managed to get myself into my usual conundrum. I have found a “topic” that really appeals to me and about which I want to learn as much as I can. Of course, the amount that I want to learn easily eclipses the length of a semester and a seminar paper. My usual course of action is to finally carve out a small portion of my interest, write a paper that only addresses a small part of the subject (after seriously over-researching), and then move on [due to circumstance, not choice]. Well, it seems I am here again.

I was up in one of our departmental libraries getting a book I needed on “meaning in language” the other day when the librarian working (a former classmate) asked me what I needed that book for. When I told them that I was working on a paper that was just too big for a semester because I prefer getting an education versus doing just what’s required, I was told, “But it’s a new year, you could learn to do better.”

Do better? What the heck does that mean? I should change my belief in the value of an education—for its own sake—just to write papers that show I learned … something? Not happening! Do not be mistaken; although I have found myself in this situation, repeatedly, over the last 8+ years, I still manage to get almost all As on my papers. So I seem to be accomplishing the “evaluative” portion of higher ed just fine.

But is higher education, or any education for that matter, only or mostly about the evaluation? Most certainly not! I do agree that evaluation is a necessary evil, in many cases. But evaluation, especially formal, is not the purpose of education.

And for those friends of mine and others who routinely give me crap about getting a PhD, is this just another one of those indicators that you use to tell me that I should be in a PhD program? Of course it is. It’s not like I don’t recognize the things you use about me to make your claims. But before you begin, just stop. PhD students still have to write papers, including one generally very big one. And the PhD is about jumping through even more, often specious hoops, than even a Masters. My problem might not be worse in a PhD program, but it certainly wouldn’t get any better either. I care about learning and using my learning, and not about “proving” it. I will not sacrifice the quality of my education just to learn to write papers for someone else.

This time I may not “just move on,” though. First, I need to get this paper finished for Dr. Palmer—whatever the grade may be. But Wednesday I spoke with my advisor about continuing this work in an independent study this Spring. By doing so, I will certainly not learn everything about this topic; actually several highly complex and interrelated topics. But I hope to learn enough—breadth and depth—to satisfy my “habitually probing generalist” tendencies. Maybe by taking a “big(ger) picture” approach I may even be able to say something useful by bringing together sources and communities that are yet to have the many conversations they need to. [Walt, I swear I am working on my hpg t-shirt design but I need to learn something about text graphics first, and perhaps even find a new program to use. Re: C&I 7 (1), p. 11]

As soon as I get this paper finished (sigh), I will start fleshing out my proposal for my independent study. I have a great start on a reading list, and have already read many of the items at least once. I also have a (for me) fairly detailed vision of what I want to cover.

I have already promised several of you a copy of my paper for Carole and I will (probably) make it available here in full. But let me get it written first. Maybe I’ll only be happy enough with it to give it to those already promised a copy.

What you should really be interested in (if at all), though, is the one I want to write. I hope to get the chance.

Because. I, too, want “lexicographic privileges” (Johnson, 143 and 150). Just kidding. Sort of.

Besides, I already have lexicographic privileges. Directly so at IFSI, and less directly in other areas.

Seriously, what I want is to understand thesauri (and other controlled vocabularies, a bit) both historically and currently, theoretically, experimentally, practically and pragmatically. I want to see a world with embedded controlled vocabularies, most of which would be freely available, and easily accessible via the Web and even when off-line [See Johnson on this. Or JISC Terminology Services. Or OCLC Terminology Services.].

I want to curl up with ANSI/NISO Z39.50-19 2005 Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies. Again. I want to read the multilingual thesaurus standard, along with the British/ISO monolingual and multilingual thesauri standards. I want to read (all of) Lancaster and Aitchison, et. al. I want to put what I’ve seen so far into some sort of coherent whole.

I have no doubt this little offshoot of my interests began long ago and in many ways, but it mainly started in LIS590TC Thesaurus Construction this past summer. My work for our group presentation on interoperability and merging of thesauri really sent me off in this direction. But then I left it (or so I thought) as another semester began. Many of these ideas came up again—directly or indirectly—in LIS590CS Seminar in Classification Systems, and I am now incorporating some of them into my paper for LIS590TR Information Transfer and Collaboration in Science.

Overall, I am highly interested in “classificatory structures,” be they controlled vocabularies, authority control, classification systems, and so on. I am particularly interested in the structures we will use to organize, implement and use these various classificatory structures [See for example: ADL Thesaurus Protocol].

In Spring, I will be taking LIS590ON Ontologies in the Humanities and LIS590RO Representing and Organizing information Resources, along with whatever independent study I work out. Ontologies will give me a foot in the door with other controlled vocabularies, and may go a long way to addressing what I see as the main (theoretical) limitation of thesauri. Representing and Organizing will allow me to continue my work in most any way I desire. Seeing as my advisor is the professor for RO, and that she is big on students being able to integrate coursework into other studies in the same semester or on a continuing basis, and that she seems excited about my desire to do this, I imagine I might well be focusing some of my RO efforts on this topic also.

Will this turn into my CAS project? I don’t know. At the moment, I kind of hope not. As I have said before, and as vastly intriguing as this topic is to me, I am pretty sure this is a lot like looking over the cliff with one leg dangling in space. But if I were to change my mind, I would certainly be well on my way to doing something “useful” and interesting for my project.

Johnson, Eric H., “Distributed Thesaurus Web Services.” In The Thesaurus: Review, Renaissance, and Revision. Sandra K. Roe and Alan R. Thomas, eds. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Information Press, 2004, pp. 121-153. Or: Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 37 (3/4), 2004, pp. 121-153.

Off to take a nap; then more productivity

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I gave a presentation on “authority control” in an international environment to Terry Weech’s LIS590IL Global Perspectives in LIS class this morning. Kathryn LaBarre had been invited as a guest speaker in Dr. Weech’s class and she asked me if I’d “freshen up” some of the international bits from my “Free the Authorities!” presentation.

It allowed me to spend a few hours looking a bit further into some things I find interesting and exciting. I mostly talked about various recent and ongoing projects, many of which are European-based. I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening on it, and got up at 5:30 this AM to put some finishing touches on it. I hope someone found part of it interesting, at least.

Then I went and visited the lawyer again about my stupid deposit check. I’m at the decision point as soon as they return a phone call to him. I may just take what they offer as I don’t think suing them is worth my time for the amount they are “stealing” from me. *sigh*

Now I’m off to take a nap. I got up early and didn’t sleep so well knowing I had a presentation to proof/finish.

Then I hope to get productive and maybe do a little cleaning around here. Maybe it’ll cloud up while I nap and then the sun will come out when it’s time to be productive. For some reason, I feel much better about cleaning when it is nice and sunny and bright naturally in the apartment.

After that it is on to more prepping for leading my 590TR class discussion on Thursday on Boundary Work and Collaboration. That’s the next “big” thing on my schedule. Need to relook the three articles we’ll discuss this week. There are a couple more that we won’t get to until our next class (16 Nov) because we are trying to finish some from last week too. So, I’ll relook the ones for this week and check the notes I already took. Maybe add a little more structure and connections/differences of the articles to my notes.

Continuing education: classroom vs. experience

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When I applied for my 2nd LIS degree program—CAS—one the things I had in mind was the opportunity to gain more and differing experiences. It was not simply a ploy to get more classroom time.

There are multiple ways to become educated and I wanted more of several, but especially the “big two.” Somehow since then, I keep seeming to temporarily forget the experiental part of my education.

It seems I have inadvertently taken care of that for myself. I have a 25% GA-ship as the Serials Cataloging GA, which I sincerely adore so far. I definitely hope to keep this job for the remainder of my time here; unless they want to employ me doing something even more exciting.

I’ve taken on some extra hourly work helping with the new Tech Services web pages. These pages are badly needed and is only a couple hours/wk for a limited time period. Just need to get busy on it.

I’m down to broadcasting one LEEP class a week now. That leaves 7.5 hours/wk more that I “could” make up in ITD. Matt says there is some Webby stuff that could be done, from home even. That might be nice seeing how with the way the semester started I never did get used to coming in any more than the minimum hours required for my broadcasts.

I have just joined an LSTA grant-funded project at the IFSI: “In Memory of Our Heroes: Developing a Digital Image Collection of Illinois Firefighter Line of Duty Deaths (IFLODD)” [scroll down]. For now, I will be working a few hours/wk, primarily on their thesaurus, FireTalk. It needs some basic clean-up work, along with some serious expansion to handle the line of duty deaths topic. After I get trained I’ll be able to do much of it from “home,” also.

Beginning next semester, it will morph into a 25% GA-ship (most likely) and will include a few other duties as the project moves into its 2nd phase. My job will still supposedly consist mostly of cataloging and thesaurus work. I hope so, as the other, while “good for me,” is not stuff I care much to do.

I now seem to have the experiential locked up for the rest of my time here. This doesn’t mean that the right small opportunity can’t be embraced, but that basically I’ve got the main roads mapped out.

I managed to catch up with my advisor to let her know about the newest job update. She agrees that it is a good move for me. Instead of just doing more theoretical thesaurus work, I’ll be able to work on a production thesaurus and also learn how it is then linked with the catalog and this digital library project. More “bridge” preparation for me. She is definitely seeing me as a “bridge worker,” too.

She also asked me to help with a presentation she was asked to give in a few weeks to Dr. Weech’s Global Perspectives in LIS class. She wants me to pull a few of my slides on internationalization from my “Free the Authorities!” presentation I gave last week. I believe it’ll be on the morning of Halloween.

Kathryn and I joked that I wouldn’t really have to do anything extra but pull those few slides and talk about them. But we really both know better. I could do that, possibly. But that was a small part of my presentation and was only addressed at a fairly superficial level. Also, there were good deep questions that I was unable to answer. So am I going to do a bit more before speaking to a class on international librarianship?

These are the sorts of things I need to be doing, as stressful as they may be. It’s only a matter of time before I’m down to two jobs that are exactly the sorts of experiential learning that I was hoping for when I decided to stay for this degree. And the fact that there are so many linkings between these experiences and my intellectual interests is so sweet!

For some higher level discussion of LIS education, see this and the things Jennifer Macaulay, of Life As I Know It, points to. I have seen these pieces, and others in the past, that I would love to engage with. I somehow don’t seem to have anything to add. But I know that cannot be right. I mean, in essence, I’m getting 2 MSLIS in a row. I should have much to contribute to a conversation on LIS education. I think my conundrum is that I don’t have much to add in this medium. A nice long conversation, some essay length “discussions” back and forth, and so on. The best I could say in a reasonable length blog post is that it is a very complicated issue. *Sigh* Oh well, I generally agree with these folks. The practical is, well, practical. And where the hell is my theory (and history) and intellectual rigor?

Shutting down conversations … and starting them

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So much for my pleasure with myself over how I wanted to use the Calhoun Report to focus on what our “response” might be. I really wanted to discuss What can we accept from it? What needs a different scope, modal verb, etc. for acceptance? What can be added? And, the big one, how we’ll pay for it?

It didn’t turn out that way. Too many others are still at earlier stages of engagment with the report. And I honestly cannot, and do not want to try to, answer “So what did she mean by getting rid of LCSH? What exactly…?” [The best I could say to that was that they could listen to her on just that question in her own words since all of us present have access to the interview with her in Steve Oberg's Tech Services class on 2 Aug.] Oh well. I can’t really be upset; I have spent far more time with this report and various responses to it than many, many others. It took me a long time to get to the point where I wanted to use it as a catalyst to a discussion of what we need to be doing; thus, I am not faulting my fellow students. Maybe in another venue….

Truthfully, I am tired of talking about “Calhoun, the Report.” It is seriously flawed at both micro- and macro-levels. It has seriously questionable unstated assumptions. It doesn’t begin to cite where it should…. Stop! See. It’s easy to beat up on it. I hereby resolve to do my best not to beat up on it anymore. I will (try to) speak negatively of it only when I need to critique a specific flaw in a related context.

I think “we” will be living with “Calhoun, the Report” for a long time. I hope that this, “the best of all possible worlds,” turns out such that this report is known historically as a defining moment in the world of classification—that this was what “woke us from our dogmatic slumbers.”

As Edward Swanson points put in his “book review,” the Calhoun Report effectively “damaged the prospects for discussions to be conducted amicably in the near future” (LRTS, 50(4):295-6). I haven’t been the best of help in bringing this back to a good discussion either (not that I could have half the impact of Karen Calhoun). But I’m finally ready to move on. Maybe I’ve grown up some, maybe I’ve spent enough time and had enough small discussions of it and some more education on related topics and I’m now ready to have an ethical response to it, maybe I’m just getting old, maybe I’ve realized that the message I want the decision makers to hear isn’t telling itself, maybe …. Probably some of all of this.

I think “Calhoun, the Report” calls for a response. Part of that response will be “conversation,” again at least in “the best of all possible worlds.” Discussion, advocacy, education, training,…. Actual dialogue about these and other important topics. While talking is a form of doing, more active doing is also required. Test projects, standardization work, advocacy, education and training,…. I hope to be involved in this response in multiple ways.

I want to be involved in the dialogue. It is beginning to show up in some places. It needs to show up in more. Maybe some people will only hear the message by overhearing it, by catching it obliquely. “Whatever,” I say. As long as they are hearing “the message.”

Let me just state for the record, I despise the marketing of almost any message. I called marketers (the “industry [includes education thereof]“) the Anti…, repeatedly, before ever leveling that name at Karen Calhoun. But I am enough of a realist (or simply old enough) to have some idea of how the world works. In fact, by despising “them” I am actually giving them credit for the impact marketing has.

Many of the important ideas have been around for a very long time. They are all critical today. They are being used; by people who can afford to pay. We finally have the computational ability (affordability, primarily) to do things thought of at least as far back as 1867. Cutter and multiple class numbers, anyone? Many other wonderful ideas arose in the intervening decades. But for a long time, computing “power” was non-existent and expensive. Now that we can finally do many of the things dreamed of for 130 years, some of “our leaders” want to dismantle the whole structure. [Why do I pick so many darn underdogs? Something about being a small kid....]

So what is this “message” of mine that is going to cause me to switch to the dark side and being “marketing”? I can’t exactly say yet. I can give you some “bones” for now and maybe by Halloween I’ll have a little “flesh” to put on them. It will be fluid for awhile.

Disclaimer: I am not asking anyone to join me, there is no bandwagon, the only catchy slogan I have so far is “Free the Authorities!,” which is definitely not exactly a buzzword. And it could get old at some point. I swear there’ll be no beta, and certainly no 2.0.

Semantics will, though, be important. Nuances of meaning will be brought out when required. What I would love is some dialogue. Contribute whatever you can when you can with whatever strength or weaknesses you bring to the discussion. Question and push me.

I am unsure what form this “dialogue” might take and where I might contribute. But feel free to remind me of something I might do, such as there’s this wiki over here that needs something about “authority control,” or…. I hope to get back to the library (or more so anyway) in my “new” home here at Off the Mark.

Pauline’s classification seminar was great! The format has some issues but you’d be [choose your own nasty adjective] to not take a class with Pauline Cochrane. It has left me invigorated mentally and helped me regain a sense of hope, even if it is a small hope. Even though my Calhoun discussion went where I didn’t want it to, but knew it would, go I am looking to this report and its ilk to motivate me into a positive response. There are some stories that need to be told in our and allied fields. There are some things that need to be demonstrated. Some of this is happening in diverse places. Maybe I’ll pass some of that on here.

So here is what I’m excited about at the moment — interoperability, internationalization, actually using classification systems to their fullest, freeing authorities, new data structures, vocabulary control, thesauri, classification systems, faceted classification, classification for the Web, exchanging this kind of data, making it play well together, making good use of the installed base of LCC and DDC, faceting LCSH, …. Oh, and the questions in the first paragraph.

I don’t really know what is going to change around here. But when I get as excited as I did yesterday by the 025.431: The Dewy blog — EPC day 2: Highlights post so that I post the following to our class bulletin board after the final class of the semester, then something is up.

See this blog report about day 2 of the EPC meeting. Stuff on UDC harmonization of Religion in DDC, Dewey training,

“update on the status of our new editorial support system. We are working out the details of data conversion from the current ESS proprietary format to an enhanced version of the MARC 21 Format for Classification Data (and to an enhanced version of the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data for the Relative Index). The format conversion will facilitate improved data representation within the system, and easy distribution of data in XML and other formats.”

And “Dewey numbers in authority files.”

Maybe something of interest to you…

I’ll definitely be looking at the “enhanced MARC 21 formats.” Thanks all for a great class! :)

See the upcoming post for more on these and related matters.

Just remember, nothing to join and since I can’t carry a tune there’s no reason for a wagon for this band of one [Walt, thank you for making my day! You often do.]

Updates coming…

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I am trying to be busier and productive now that I’m a little rested from last week. I am trying to prioritize, and trying not to feel guilty about “owing” various folks here something or other.

I’ve been busy and want to mention some of these things here in more detail:

The Wailin’ Jennys on Wed.

Siva on Thursday

Friday the 13th (I love them!)

Chicago

Ani DiFranco

Ace

Two days of “rest”

Refocused busy time, again

I’ve already started on Ani post. I have some notes from Siva’s talk for a post. I have photos on flickr; not of Siva or Ani though….

But I also have other things to do and other priorities. I end one class on Tuesday afternoon. And as much as I love it and would like to continue it in other directions, I need a freakin’ break and I need to start attending my other class.

For Pauline’s last class, I need to finish my Common Ex. C write-up and turn it in. I also need to prep for leading discussion on the Calhoun Report. That is the easy one of the two, even if the common exercise is technically further along. It has been a few weeks since I looked at the exercise. As for Calhoun, I have written and spoke about this at least 3 times each now and have read lots of commentary covering the spectrum on it. My views have, in fact, moderated much since I first read and wrote about it. I still think that despite the good that is in it, it is an abomination and went a long way to effectively shutting down productive discussion on its and related topics of concern in the cataloging and classification worlds of libraries. [Steve, our discussion from summer LEEP oncampus would be vastly different now. I see some good now, a lot even. But....]

The Wailin’ Jennys were excellent. I got no good photos though. I did get all 3 to sign the liner notes of my 40 days cd.

Siva was good, but I was exhausted [there will be more on Siva]. Besides the exhaustion building up to Thursday, I also woke up at 4 AM Thurs. morning. Yippee! I followed Siva with 2 classes. I gave my “Free the Authorities!” presentation in the last of the two. It started out quite well despite the situation. I did start flagging after a bit, particularly after a few questions and discussions. But I held up reasonably OK. I was proud of it (my performance?) at the beginning….

After class Pauline said something very positive to me. Daunting in a way, but very nice. On Tuesday she had asked me if I was applying for a possible job, because she said if I wasn’t then she was going to twist my arm until I did (paraphrased). I sure wish I could believe in myself like she does.

I’m not sure how driving to Chicago and back in a day and a half is “rest.” But I had a good time and it was as relaxing as it could be. So I am somewhat refreshed.

3rd load of clothes is in the dryer. I may have to go in to GSLIS to look at my thesaurus for Common Ex C. I found all my stuff, but printouts do not a thesaurus make.

OK. Off to do other things. I’ll be working on more details as I can.

Oh, BTW. I’m going to a meeting about that job tomorrow. More in the future, but it is one I hope to do beginning next semester, while hopefully staying in serials cataloging also. So, I’m also studying a 32-page LSTA grant application and finding myself wishing I had the figures and the attachments. I’m asking for a complete copy tomorrow at our meeting.

Where do you go little bird
When it snows, when it snows
When the world turns to sleep
Do you know, do you know
Is there something in the wind
Breathes a chill in your heart and life in your wings
Does it whisper ‘start again’
Start again

The Wailin’ Jennys. “Arlington.” 40 Days.

Peace.