Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)
12 May 2006
Is Internet evolving into a Digital Library?
Terry Kuny and Gary Cleveland in their article “The Digital Library: Myths and Challenges" IFLA journal 1998 24 (2)7347 had rejected Internet as Digital Library. They regarded it a myth to consider it as a digital library. As a bookstore cannot be called a Library in the same manner Internet providing access to huge information resources cannot considered as a Library. “Finding information is difficult, the quality of the information is quite variable, and reliable, professional assistance for the confused and lost is lacking”.
I have been keenly observing in past few years the emergence of a trend to organize the Internet (WEB) resources so that these are useful to the potential users. Yahoo was probably the first popular tool to hand pick and organize information resources into categories. Then came the voluntary efforts to create an Open Directory (Open Directory Project).
Yet another landmark I consider is the emergence of social tagging platforms like Del.icio.us for bookmaking and Flickr to share Photos. Interestingly Nature Publishing Group produced Open Source Software – Connotea and a free site to “help researchers and clinicians manage and share information”. It handles academic references far better than Del.icio.us. Now only days back Goggle launched Google Co-op. Here you can categorize the URLs in way you know better and people can subscribe to your categorization. This means that now you as a librarian can categorize and organization the web resources in a manner that could be useful for your patrons!! Well it is expected that they subscribe to your categories while searching. And this has started happening - Just noted that [US] National Library of Medicine is a major contributor.
So Is Internet evolving into a Digital Library?
I have been keenly observing in past few years the emergence of a trend to organize the Internet (WEB) resources so that these are useful to the potential users. Yahoo was probably the first popular tool to hand pick and organize information resources into categories. Then came the voluntary efforts to create an Open Directory (Open Directory Project).
Yet another landmark I consider is the emergence of social tagging platforms like Del.icio.us for bookmaking and Flickr to share Photos. Interestingly Nature Publishing Group produced Open Source Software – Connotea and a free site to “help researchers and clinicians manage and share information”. It handles academic references far better than Del.icio.us. Now only days back Goggle launched Google Co-op. Here you can categorize the URLs in way you know better and people can subscribe to your categorization. This means that now you as a librarian can categorize and organization the web resources in a manner that could be useful for your patrons!! Well it is expected that they subscribe to your categories while searching. And this has started happening - Just noted that [US] National Library of Medicine is a major contributor.
So Is Internet evolving into a Digital Library?
Libraries in Social Networking Software
Information Wants To Be Free Blog has a comprehensive post on using ( or not using) Social Networking Software like MySpace and Facebook in Libraries.
11 May 2006
Google Related Links
"Google Related Links use the power of Google to automatically bring fresh, dynamic and interesting content links to any website". - Google Related Links
Going Strong the Search Way
According to Official Google Blog Four products are being launched by Google.
- Google Co-op - You can help Google Improve search results in the topics you know best.
- Google Desktop 4 - Next version of Desktop Search Tool that can "Quickly search your computer"
- Google Notebook ( To be launched ). Can't say exactly but can guess - could be similar to http://clipmarks.com
- Google Trends
10 May 2006
Flirting with OPML
Top RSS Feeds in Medicine inspired me to create a OPML File. The idea was to share a single URL instead of list for collection of useful feeds. So I opened my feed aggregator - BlogBridge and created a new "Guide". After this was done I started adding the suggested feeds one by one. It was not simple - and I was struck on the first feed - PubMed itself. It is a huge database - the problem was what to select? I queried for India and set the Limits for "Added in Last 30 Days" and "Links to Free Fulltext". It was now a short list. I was ready to same it as RSS Feel. Next came the Journal Sites. The publishers are offering multiple feeds packaged by Current Issue or Most Read Articles. I picked only a few from them. Once I completed my "Guide" in BlogBride I was ready to export it as OPML file. I exported it to my desktop.
Now question came - How do I share it? I first tried "Share Your OPML". I was little disappointed that I could not find any way to share my OPML as a URL. Then I searched for some other service. Soon found out OPMLworkstation.com where I could upload my OPML. Hopefully my OPML should be visible to people from this link.
Now question came - How do I share it? I first tried "Share Your OPML". I was little disappointed that I could not find any way to share my OPML as a URL. Then I searched for some other service. Soon found out OPMLworkstation.com where I could upload my OPML. Hopefully my OPML should be visible to people from this link.
9 May 2006
NLM released a new version of the Gateway
NLM Technical Bulletin, May–Jun 2006, Technical Notes
NLM released a new version of the Gateway that includes access to two additional NLM resources. Users are now able to search the Household Products Database and the Bookshelf, a growing collection of full text biomedical books.
Is everybody a Content Creators?
Pew Internet & American Life Project Report: Teen Content Creators and Consumers
Teen Content Creators and Consumers: More than half of online teens have created content for the internet
Digital Library?
Key concepts for the Digital Library? - -=( In Between )=-
"The digital library should strive towards an openly accessible, modifiable knowledge base where each object is identified, where changes to objects are rigidly described, and upon which an extensible set of similarity operators can be defined."Does this means that a Digital Library needs to follow Open Access?
Skill Set for Modern Medical Librarian
The traditional concept of a library is being redefined from a place to access paper records or books to one that also houses the most advanced media, including CD-ROM, the Internet, virtual libraries, and remote access to a wide range of resources. Consequently, Librarians or information professionals, increasingly are combining traditional duties with tasks involving quickly changing technology. Soon Librarians' Duties would include BLOGS, WIKIs, WEBCASTS / PODCASTS, IM, RSS and WEB. A master’s degree in library science and information is desireable professional qualification along with masters in biological sciences. In addition awareness of Concepts like Library 2.0, WEB 2.0 and Knowledge Management would also be required.
However the problem with Medical Libraries in India is that their Salary Structure can afford only a clerk not a professional. Even a Degree College offering B.A degrees has a better Pay Structure than a Medical Library, Well almost!!.
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