Professional Reading Shelf
OCLC
Worldcat
Source: OCLC
OCLC’s Worldcat Now Offers User-Contributed Content
It will be interesting to see if spammers get wind of this and find new places to put spam content. We hope not. Also, if someone writes a review for a book that has multiple editions and/or publishers (Tom Sawyer for example) will the reviews and user notes carry over from one edition to another? From the news release, “Users of OCLC’s WorldCat database may now add reviews, notes and tables of contents to WorldCat records through a new option that facilitates sharing among library users worldwide. The user contribution option in the WorldCat and WorldCat-related databases on the OCLC FirstSearch service extends a pilot begun in late 2005 to enable contribution of content to WorldCat records in the Find in a Library interface of the Open WorldCat program…Guidelines for content contributions are provided, and OCLC monitors all submissions. User-contributed content is associated with a WorldCat record, but is maintained separately and does not become part of the record’s authoritative bibliographic information….A new tab labeled “Add/View Comments” in the full record display contains notes, reviews and tables of content that have been contributed by WorldCat users. Upon release of this new option within the FirstSearch service, all content contributed through the Find in a Library interface will be visible. Content added through both Find in a Library and FirstSearch will be visible in all public views of the WorldCat database.”
UPDATE: Thanks to OCLC for an answer to our question about reviews about an item being visible across multiple editions of the item.
From an email: “Currently, user-contributed content does not flow among records for different manifestations of a work in the WorldCat database. We hope to be able to add this functionality in the future as we move to FRBRization of the database.”
See Also: New OCLC Research prototype assesses likely audience for resources in WorldCat
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Librarians–Interviews
Source: OCLC Systems & Services, Vol. 22(1) (via E-LIS)
On the Road Again: A Conversation with Jill Emery
From the abstract, “This article features an interview with Jill Emery, Director of the Electronic Resources Program at the University of Houston. Ms. Emery discusses her career, the potential impact of the open access movement, and the nuances of licensing electronic resources.”
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Books
Multimedia Presentations
Source: Center for the Book/Library of Congress
Webcast: Every Book its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word
“Popular journalist and book world chronicler Nicholas Basbanes discussed his new book, “Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World,” in a program cosponsored by the District of Columbia Library Association and the Center for the Book. “Every Book Its Reader” highlights interviews with a wide range of omnivorous readers. It’s a sequel to “A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books” (1995) and “Patience & Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture” (2001), two volumes featured in previous Books & Beyond talks.”
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Web Browsers
Source: Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
Lessons from the Browser Wars
“The first-mover advantage is well chronicled, but it didn’t help Netscape when Microsoft launched Internet Explorer. What drives technology adoption, and do browser upstarts such as Firefox stand a chance? A Q&A with professor Pai-Ling Yin.”
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Libraries–Standards
Source: NISO
SUSHI and Libraries?
No, we’re not talking fish and rice. Learn about NISO’s Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI).
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Acccess to Information–United States
Source: NARA
Archivist of the United States’ Statement on Declassification of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Between the National Archives and Records Administration and the United States Air Force
See Also: Full Text of Memorandum (4 pages; PDF)

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