TSRT

Presentation proposals are now being accepted for the 2012 NLA/NEMA/MPLA Tri-Conference, which will be held in LaVista on October 17-19. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2012. All proposals should be submitted electronically via the online submission form. All proposals must have a sponsoring group. If you are interested in having TSRT sponsor your proposal, please contact Angela Kroeger (akroeger@mail.unomaha.edu), TSRT Vice Chair.

More information about the Tri-Conference can be found on the conference web site.

Building the Digital Library
Bellevue University, Bellevue, Nebraska
April 13, 2012

Technical Services Round Table and Information Technology Round Table are seeking presentations for their 2012 spring meeting, which will be held on the Bellevue University campus on April 13, 2012. The theme is “Building the Digital Library,” and we invite you to submit your proposals for presentations, panel discussions, and posters focusing on the various aspects of creating, building, sharing, and collaborating on digital libraries and their collections. Desirable topics include metadata, digital archiving, management and storage, and digital curation of electronic formats from books and documents to journals and music. Presentation length of time desired: 50 minutes.

Please submit proposals to casey.kralik@bellevue.edu. The deadline for submissions has been extended to January 31, 2012. Include the following information in your proposal: Presenter name, session or poster title, session or poster description, technology needed, and your contact information.

Are you looking for a unique continuing education experience for 2012? Consider learning computer programing through Code Year, a learning experience offered by Code Academy. By completing one lesson a week, you will be introduced to the basics of programming over the course of the year.

If you complete the whole year, you can earn 15 C.E. credits through the Nebraska Library Commission. See this blog post for details.

If you are a cataloger, you can find support from a huge community of catalogers participating in Code Year. See this blog post for a list of participants, and join this wiki to keep in touch with the participating catalogers.

The first lesson was sent out this Monday, January 9, but if you join now, you should be able to catch up quickly.

As the end of the year approaches, now is the time to start thinking about renewing your NLA membership. NLA is encouraging online renewals this year (you don’t have to submit your payment online if you don’t want to; even filling out your form online and then sending a check will greatly help to streamline the renewal process). To renew online, go to the NLA website, select Member Resources from the menu across the top of the page, and then choose Member Renew.

While you are renewing, if you are not already a member of the Technical Services Round Table, please consider joining us. TSRT membership only costs $5.

Building the Digital Library
Bellevue University, Bellevue, Nebraska
April 13, 2012

Technical Services Round Table is seeking presentations for our 2012 spring meeting, which will be held on the Bellevue University campus on April 13, 2012. The theme is “Building the Digital Library,” and we invite you to submit your proposals for presentations, panel discussions, and posters focusing on the various aspects of creating, building, sharing, and collaborating on digital libraries and their collections. Desirable topics include metadata, digital archiving, management and storage, and digital curation of electronic formats from books and documents to journals and music. Presentation length of time desired: 50 minutes.


Please submit proposals to casey.kralik@bellevue.edu by January 16, 2012. Include the following information in your proposal: Presenter name, session or poster title, session or poster description, technology needed, and your contact information.

The Library of Congress has released the initial plan for its Bibliographic Framework Transition Initiative, the goal of which is to pursue “a replacement of the MARC format as the common exchange currency for bibliographic data.”

According to the plan released today, the requirements for a new bibliographic framework environment are:

• Broad accommodation of content rules and data models
• Provision for types of data that logically accompany or support bibliographic description
• Accommodation of textual data, linked data with URIs instead of text, and both
• Consideration of the relationships between and recommendations for communications format tagging, record input conventions, and system storage/manipulation
• Consideration of the needs of all sizes and types of libraries, from small public to large research
• Continuation of maintenance of MARC until no longer necessary
• Compatibility with MARC-based records
• Provision of transformation from MARC 21 to a new bibliographic environment

The plan also states that “the new bibliographic framework project will be focused on the Web environment, Linked Data principles and mechanisms, and the Resource Description Framework (RDF) as a basic data model.”

The plan is available on the Library of Congress website.

Photos from this year’s NLA/NEMA conference have been posted to the TSRT Photos page. Many thanks to Casey Kralik for providing the photos!

The final session sponsored by TSRT at this year’s NLA/NEMA Conference was an update on the Pioneer Consortium, presented by Steve Fosselman, Greg Mickells, and Pam Soreide. Here are the slides and handouts from their presentation:

Congratulations to Kari Bulgrin of Gretna Public Schools, who was the winner of the chocolate raffle at the TSRT booth at this year’s NLA/NEMA conference. Kari was the recipient of the chocolate flower box expertly crafted by Laura England-Biggs. Kari is pictured here with Casey Kralik, TSRT’s new Chair. Congratulations again to Kari, and thanks to everyone who stopped by the TSRT booth to enter the raffle!

Another TSRT presentation at this year’s NLA/NEMA conference was given by Sally Gibson of Creighton University. Titled “Letting the Patron Drive,” Sally’s presentation covered demand-driven acquisitions.