EDITORIAL By Ruth C. Carter and Roger Brisson
NEWS FROM THE FIELD By Gerry McKiernan, Editor
One Record or Two? The Online Discussion and the CONSER Interim Approach.
By Jean L. Hirons
ABSTRACT. The proliferation of online versions of printed
publications during the spring of 1996 led a number of catalogers to question the
necessity for creating separate cataloging records. Many catalogers, frustrated with
the lack of a multiple versions solution, favored finding a way to use the existing print
records to notify patrons of the online version. CONSER catalogers, while
recognizing their commitment to the national database, were equally interested in finding
alternatives, and others expressed an interest in knowing what CONSER would do. In
order to gather feedback for policy-setting, Hirons posted inquiries to various online
discussion lists and a thoughtful and lively debate ensued. Hirons discusses the issues
leading up to the discussion, factors of importance for CONSER, the interim guidelines
that have been developed, and possible next steps.
Reflections on Summarizing and Abstracting: Implications for Internet Web
Documents, and Standardized Library Cataloging Databases. By Laurel
Jizba
ABSTRACT. Abstracts or summary notes and automated summarization
techniques would be highly useful if routinely applied to cataloging or metadata for
Internet documents and documents in other databases. Information seekers need
external summary information to assess content and value of retrieved documents.
Traditional models for writers, in library audiovisual cataloging, journal databases and
archival work are examined, along with innovative new model databases featuring robust
cataloging summaries. Recent developments in automated techniques, computational
research, and machine summarization of digital images are noted. Recommendations
are made for future designers of cataloging and metadata standards.
TRSkit: A Simple Digital Library Toolkit. By Michael L
Nelson and Sandra L. Esler
ABSTRACT. This paper introduces TRSkit, a simple and effective
toolkit for building digital libraries on the World Wide Web. The toolkit was
developed for the creation of the Langley Technical Report Server and the NASA Technical
Report Server, but it is applicable to most simple distribution paradigms. TRSkit
contains a handful of freely available software components designed to be run under the
UNIX operating system and served via the World Wide Web. The intended customer is
the person that must continuously and synchronously distribute anywhere from 100-100,000s
of information units and does not have extensive resources to devote to the problem.
An Inside Approach to Networked Document Cataloging. By
Patrice A. Clemson
ABSTRACT. Information professions identified the need for a set of
standard metadata almost as soon as the World Wide Web became a reality. Several
initiatives have already identified the types of bibliographic information that would be
necessary to describe and locate an electronic publication. The descriptors
identified in the OCLC/NCSA Dublin Core are combined with those assembled by the Coalition
of Networked Information and the Internet Engineering Task Force to produce a list of
electronic citation elements. This article advocates embedding these citation
elements within electronic documents through the use of HTML <META> tags and other
markup techniques. There is also a call to cataloging librarians to contribute their
expertise in information resources management to documents being prepared for the World
Wide Web in order to influence the quality of electronic publication from the inside.