Demise of the Local Catalog or The OPAC Reborn?

Demise of the Local Catalog, by Roy Tenant***

The OPAC Reborn.(Online Public Access Catalog at libraries)

The Future of Cataloging, by Peachy

Thought for the day - Now if we had the semantic web or enough catalogers

***My 2 cent:
This article is an excellent eye opener, and makes a good feed-forward. Thanks to John Jaeger for sharing this info.

I agree with Roy that libraries must pack off their catalogs (I packed it too, and seen so many). But moving with a Google model (a free search-ware mindset) is probably not going to make the library catalog that useful and value-added, on the face of umpteen competitors; and a searchology (as Google calls it) that comes with a package minus the controlled vocabulary (with whatever name one likes it, LC, Meta tags, etc.).

I think there must be an effort to upgrade our mindset of catalogoing / cataloguing and fine tune it with our own foundations of librarianship and user-friendly ventures.

I have been working on the idea of visual catalogs, that started with the idea of an indepth, as well as, localized cataloging spirit of my professional inspirer: Sanford Berman.

FYI. I have compiled a webliography on this theme. Would appreciate your comments on this dimension. The link to my webliography is:

What do you do when the internet is down?

Annecdote posted by Ivy Lee @ Asian Libraries:

An elderly man queried me why he couldn't access hotmail yesterday. I explained to him that it's a nationwide situation.

Old man: "Oh dear, then what should I do now that I can't access hotmail?"
Me: "How about going back to the days before internet was invented? Like maybe....use the snail mail?"

Dear old uncle has a good sense of humour too and we burst into laughter.

If an old uncle is so reliant on hotmail and has almost forgotten the art of mailing a letter using stamps, well, this just shows how the world has grown "connected" over the years.

It was a test on us librarians' skills to answer quick reference questions without the internet. For example, someone asked what is the national flower of Myanmar. We tried all the encyclopedias, almanacks and factbooks but were unable to find. This morning, I was happy to see my best friend Mr Google greet me on my PC. The first thing I did was look for the national flower. Within seconds, Mr Google tells me that Myanmar's national flower is "The Paduak (Pterocarpus Indicus) blossoms in tiny fragrant yellow-gold flowers" with a colour picture to match. Source: http://www.aseansec.org/18203.htm
God, I admire librarians in the old days before internet. I wonder if there is a documentary somewhere that shows us how librarians handle enquiries before the computer or the internet was invented, and how accurate were their responses compared to us today. It would be interesting to learn, methink.
See also

Go to the library - ways to survive life without the Internet

The Ubiquitous Reference Service & Return On Investment

Case Studies from India: Evidence-based Librarianship

Actual Telephone Conversations Heard in Actual Libraries #83 @ Tales from the "Liberry"

Indian police seize pirated Potter books

BANGALORE, India (Reuters) - Indian police have seized hundreds of pirated copies of the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, a police official said on Monday. continue reading

see also:

Harry Potter book pages found online

British School Justified In Reprimanding Teacher Who Told Children Harry Potter Author Was A Witch -- Faithwise Review of the Week

Launch of BookCross@SG: Books need to be freed!

Sighted @ Rambling Librarian :: Incidental Thoughts of a Singapore Liblogarian

Same shelf and aisle:.
>>Go Hunting Country List > Canada > Ontario > Toronto

Similar shelf:
>>Donate to the "Why Indie Bookstores Matter" Tour!
>> really modern library

See also:

Nigeria's Library System - is It Collapsing Or Transforming?

Bookstores everywhere are going broke

History of the book: Writing on the Stone Slab

Thought for the day - Now if we had the semantic web or enough catalogers

Source: Limits of FT Search Bring Fun Item @ Alaskan Librarian
Now if we had the semantic web or enough catalogers to catalog web resources, I could specify that I only wanted pages, blog posts etc that are actually related to the virtual world of Second Life. And that's what I'd get. Just like if I'd like the new Haines Borough Public Library Catalog to only notify me when they got new books on Second Life.
see also:

The Emerging-Semantics Web (”The Semantic Web is Dead”)

WEB IS A FOREST ... SEMANTIC WEB A JAPANESE GARDEN ?

Seamless Structured Semantic Web -Will Tags, Clouds, Ontologies, Taxonomies, and Facet Analysis help?

Semantic Web and Facet Analysis

Nigeria's Library System - is It Collapsing Or Transforming?

3 July 2007, Uthman Abubakar, Kaduna, All Africa.com

Jemimah Markus Adams, a 200 level student, does not have to bother combing all the relevant book shelves in the Ahmadu Bello University main library, Kashim Ibrahim Library (KIL) or any other library, frantically or in the guard-of-honour-inspection fashion, to fish out a text book or journal to do some researches or assignments, or make some references on any of the course units she offers.

Whenever necessary, she goes to the library shelves. If she finds the material - textbook or journal - she needs, good! If she does not, she will not develop a headache, despair or worry at the thought of having to do the research, assignment or reference by some other devices, and face the lecturer with her failure to source the material she is referred to. After all, most of the relevant materials for her course of discipline now have either gradually vanished from most library shelves, or have been outdated by monumental quantities of new discoveries and wider frontiers of knowledge and information in the field of discipline globally. Virtually, hard copies of updated materials are no more acquired for the libraries. So, she seeks solace in the internet, where she sources most of her materials.
continue reading

Daily Trust (Abuja)

Info courtesy: David Dillard

Good old Indian folk tales need a magic genie

New Delhi: Once upon a time, traditional folk tales from the Panchatantra or, say, stories of Akbar and Birbal used to be hugely popular with Indian children. But ask a kid today about her favourite book, and chances are she will name an Enid Blyton, a Nancy Drew, a Hardy Boy and - even more likely - a Harry Potter.

To give an example, the pre-bookings for the seventh edition of the Harry Potter series to be released July 21, is escalating at a rapid rate. The sixth in the series sold a smashing 160,000 copies in India last year.

The story is entirely different for Indian folk tales and other children's books. A predictable storyline, monotonous illustrations, lots of moral baggage and more importantly sloppy marketing have led to their taking a beating. continue

Mahatma Gandhi praised Urdu in last letter

News update: Heritage saved! Auction of Gandhi letter stopped CNN-IBN, July 02, 2007
The executors of Albin Schram have agreed to withdraw the Gandhi manuscript from Tuesday's auction in order that it may be acquired by the Indian Government.


Bapu's letter may be stolen: Grandson, CNN-IBN, June 27, 2007 at 22:16
New Delhi: The scheduled auction of a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi, possibly his last before his assassination, has sent the Indian government in a tizzy.
The letter, written on January 19, 1948, is part of a collection of manuscripts put up for auction at the famous auction house Christie's in London. Meanwhile, a harried Indian Government has started the process of bidding for it. Sources in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs have said that they are assessing the cost to bid for Gandhi’s letter, which is expected to fetch £ 12,000 or Rs 10 lakh.

Press Trust Of India, London, June 29, 2007,
In the letter, a rare manuscript that will go under hammer at Christie's in London on July 3, Gandhi said opposing Urdu will "put a wanton affront" on the Muslims, who "in the eyes of Hindus have become aliens in their own land".

Writing in his journal 'Harijan' on January 11, 1948, Gandhi, who appeared disturbed with the dwindling circulation of its Urdu edition, said in the letter that it is likely to be stopped.

Praising Urdu, which he said "is set free from bondage of orthodoxy", he asserted that those who learn it will "lose nothing but gain". At the same time he urged Muslims to learn Devanagari to "enrich their intellectual" capital and subscribe to his journal.continue

See also:

Mahatma in market

Mahatma manuscript up for sale, govt wakes up

India to participate in auction of Gandhi letter

Gandhians demonstrate against auction of letter

Rare letter from Mahatma surfaces