OSMOSIS in a NUCshell

National Library staff, TMQ and seven pilot libraries around New Zealand are deep in the throes of a new project that aims to simplify the way libraries in New Zealand report changes in holdings to the National Union Catalogue (affectionately referred to as the NUC).

What’s the NUC?

The NUC is a shared catalogue of items held by all New Zealand libraries that are Te Puna Subscribers (the vast majority of libraries in New Zealand are subscribers). The NUC contains bibliographic records to which New Zealand libraries are expected to add their holdings information, and it facilitates resource sharing by providing information to the interlibrary loan service, known as Te Puna Interloan. The NUC represents the collections of over 280 libraries and contains more than 13 million holdings records.

What’s OSMOSIS?

OSMOSIS is a piece of software developed by US-based The Marc of Quality (TMQ) designed to detect changes among holdings in a library catalogue. The National Library has formed a pilot project to trial the new software in seven New Zealand libraries.

Building an environment around that software is where the real grunt work is being done. The goal of the project is to determine the feasibility of offering OSMOSIS a national service.

As the project’s manager, I can't say the road has always been a smooth one. Identifying and resolving issues that arise during the trial can be very challenging (and frustrating!), but it is deeply rewarding to work on a project that will add value to the services the National Library provides to libraries around New Zealand.

There are three stages in the OSMOSIS process.

Stage 1

Libraries are asked to complete profiles that will help in processing their library through the OSMOSIS software. Once these profiles are complete, the library extract a copy of their catalogue and send it to the National Library. TMQ then retrieve the file and verify that the file is readable.

Stage 2

The OSMOSIS software works its magic. The catalogue undergoes pre-OSMOSIS processing where coding errors in bibliographic records and duplicate records are identified. Once this is done, the OSMOSIS software compares subsequent snapshots of the catalogue and determines changes, additions and deletions of holdings. The results of this comparison are analysed by TMQ and the library is sent detailed reports of their findings.

Stage 3

Libraries are asked to analyse the reports for themselves to enable them to fix errors and make improvements in their local catalogue. If the library is satisfied with the results, the National Library upload changes in a library’s holdings to the NUC. These changes are then reported to OCLC where the currency of holdings is maintained on an international level.

Read more about the project and learn which libraries are involved.

The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

Integrating Journal Back Files into an Existing Electronic Environment

From the Ariadne website

Jason Cooper describes how Loughborough University Library integrated a number of collections of journal back files into their existing electronic environment.


Persistent Identifiers: Considering the Options

From the Ariadne website

Emma Tonkin looks at the current landscape of persistent identifiers, describes several current services, and examines the theoretical background behind their structure and use.


Digital Repository Audit and Certification Wiki

From the Digital Repository Audit and Certification Wiki

This Wiki contains information and documents generated by the working group which is attempting to produce an ISO standard on which a full audit and certification of digital repositories can be based. The aim will be to take this work into ISO in the same way as the OAIS Reference Model (ISO 14721), namely via ISO TC20/SC13, of which the working arm is CCSDS.


National Film Preservation Foundation: The Film Preservation Guide (Note: PDF)

From the National Film Preservation Foundation website

No doubt many organisations and institutions have a canister of 16MM film lying around someplace and some diligent member of their organisation might ask: "How can we preserve this item?" This helpful guide provides substantial guidance and assistance. The guide describes methods for handling, duplicating, making available, and storing film, which are practical for nonprofit and public organisations with limited resources.


No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century (Note: PDF)

From the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) website

This title is composed of a series of provocative essays, the proceedings of a lively and informed symposium in early 2008, and a set of recommendations extrapolated from both. While several of the subject headings are familiar - scholarly communication, peer review, preservation of data, and e-science - the conclusions and recommendations are not. The consensus derived from these efforts was unambiguous in calling for more aggressive intervention to better structure and manage the challenges we face. This report demands change. Common themes include collaboration between librarians, faculty, and information technology experts to articulate strategies and tactical approaches to a rapidly changing environment.


Social Software in Libraries: SPEC Kit 304 (Note: PDF)

From the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) website

Social software is a well-established phenomenon that has continued to grow and develop since the inception of the Internet. While Facebook and MySpace are relatively new types of communication venues, computer users have been chatting in online forums and communing in virtual worlds and using wikis since the 1980s. Social software has, however, become much more accessible to the casual computer user since the development of the World Wide Web in 1994.
Related to social software is the idea of “Library 2.0,” or enhancing library resources and services using social software, to reach users outside the walls of the traditional library. While many libraries had been experimenting with social software prior to 2005, this philosophy of extending services and communication beyond traditional models became very prominent in the literature and practice after this date.


The Social Report 2008 (Note: PDF)

From the NZ Ministry of Social Development website

The social report uses a set of statistical indicators to monitor trends across 10 “domains”, or areas of people’s lives. Together these domains provide a picture of wellbeing and quality of life in New Zealand. The social report has four key aims:
* to provide and monitor over time measures of wellbeing and quality of life that complement existing economic and environmental indicators
* to compare New Zealand with other countries on measures of wellbeing
* to provide greater transparency in government and to contribute to better informed public debate
* to help identify key issues and areas where we need to take action, which can in turn help with planning and decision making.


Making Web 2.0 Accessibility Mainstream (Note: PDF)

From the E-prints in Library and Information Science website

Research into ‘Web 2.0 accessibility’ for people with disabilities has recently gained momentum in library and information science studies due to the unique problems disabled individuals face because they must rely on digitized formats. People with disabilities who use assistive technologies are often restricted by incompatibility issues involving software and hardware when retrieving Web content since many resources have been constructed without consideration for disabled users. The result has been a new dilemma emerging for many information centers and libraries regarding how to provide access to Web 2.0 technologies which are not designed for persons with disabilities and are incompatible with many assistive technologies. Careful consideration must be given in the development stage of web design to the layout, navigation and compatibility of different assistive technologies used to view the site.


WebWise 2.0: The Power of Community: Selected papers from the Ninth Annual WebWise Conference on Libraries and Museums

From the First Monday website

This Conference explored how the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies can extend institutions’ capacities to make their collections and programmes accessible to all types of users.
Articles include:

* Creating Scholarly Tools and Resources for the Digital Ecosystem: Building Connections in the Zotero Project

* Second Life: A Virtual World. Why Are Librarians There?

* Ashes2Art: Collaboration and Community in the Humanities

The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

Our Rights Our Information: Empowering people to demand rights through knowledge (Note: PDF)

From the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) website

The right to information has long been recognised as a ‘Fundamental Right’ of a free citizenry. It is from this right that other basic human rights can flow. No society can claim to be truly free unless it has both the instruments and the practice of providing its people with access to information. No government that claims to be democratic can deny its people the ability to participate in governance or itself refuse to be transparent to its people. Whether called the ‘freedom of information’ as it is in most countries or the ‘right to information’ as more recent access laws are referred to, it is the duty of governments to guarantee this right by implementing access to information laws.


NSF (National Science Foundation) and the Birth of the Internet (Macromedia Flash Player)

From the National Science Foundation website

The birth of the Internet is the subject of this engaging and well-thought out special report created by the National Science Foundation. After a brief introduction, visitors can browse through a multimedia site that includes video clips of early pioneers talking about their work on this endeavor, along with maps of Internet growth from the 1960s to the 1990s and documents such as the Lax Report. Interestingly enough the Lax Report, issued in 1982, was influential in the creation of the National Science Foundation's supercomputing centers. The materials are divided up by decade (1960s through the 2000s) and visitors can click on each section to learn about the advances and challenges faced by persons working in this field. Along the way, a small section in the bottom right-hand corner of the site keeps a running total of the baud rate and the Internet users in each decade. Of course, visitors will not want to miss the section dedicated to Mosaic, which was the browser developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in the early 1990s.


Future-Proof Your Library

From the Library Journal website

Library Journal's movers & shakers strategise about how to secure a vital future.


The bipolar Pacific (Note: PDF)

From the The Centre for Independent Studies website

The Pacific is bipolar; on almost every available indicator, the Pacific’s development path is split in two. One group of Pacific islands, including Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia, the Cook Islands, and French Polynesia, is growing at a speed similar to the economies in East Asia. These countries have good education systems and useful healthcare facilities, and consequently provide better social and economic outcomes for their people. A second group of islands, including Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Kiribati, are stagnant and some are even becoming poorer. Their governments fail to provide electricity, running water, sanitation, and healthcare.
The Pacific’s two groups of islands display different demographic characteristics, and different outcomes in employment, education, and other social indicators. Whereas one group of islands has moderate population growth and good education systems, the other experiences widespread illiteracy and some of the highest population growth rates in the world.


Social Media Tools Report and Tool Kit

SAMPLE of the report: (Note: PDF)
Purchase price ranges from £39.00 to £215.00, depending on license chosen.

From the FreePint website

To blog or not to blog… that’s the question that many organisations have asked themselves. They recognise that it’s time to embrace social media tools (SMTs) such as wikis, shared bookmarks, blogs-with-comments and peer-to-peer communication. At the same time, they may feel unsure about choosing which SMT best fits their situation, how to launch a successful project, or how to measure the success of their efforts. This report provides businesses with a framework for understanding the value of SMTs to their objectives, case studies of organisations that have achieved success, and a series of practical, hands-on worksheets to put project teams on the path towards success.
The report covers the following:
* How are enterprises using social media tools today?
* Assessing enterprise need
* Building the business case
* Choosing the right application
* The project team
* Vision and action statements
* Social media policies
* Encouraging adoption
* Monitoring use

The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

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Mix it up: Libraries mash up data, services and ideas

From the NextSpace: The OCLC Newsletter website

One of the fastest growing trends today is combining data and functionality from several sources to create new services that provide a unique user experience. They’re called mash ups. Think Google Maps. Yahoo Pipes. Facebook Plug-Ins. Libraries are doing Web mash ups as well: Meebo Instant Messaging. Library Lookup. Bookburro. And, in a way, they’ve been doing all kinds of mash ups for years. Think story hour, open-shelf access, cafes, book lockers.


Power to the People. Social Media Tracker: Wave 3 (Note: PDF)

From Stephen Abram's blog

According to latest findings, half of U.S. adults use social media. In this particular study "social media" includes text messaging, blogging and social networking. These three technologies combined are used by 50% of U.S. adults for communication purposes.
* 1 out of 10 U.S. adults now publish blogs (up from 5% last year)
* 1 out of 5 18-34-year olds publish blogs (up from 10% last year)
* 22% of U.S. adults use IM (up from 9% last year)
* 21% 18-34-year olds use IM (up from 14% last year)
* 57% have joined a Social Network, now the primary mode of creating and sharing content
* 23% of social network users have installed an application
* Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration
* 73% have read a blog
* 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog


12 Tools That Will Soon Go the Way of Fax and CDs

From Stephen Abram's blog

A list devised while discussing how the "information behaviours" of Generation Millennium differs from those of previous generations, and what that means for the tools they (and the rest of us -- they outnumber even the boomers) will and won't be using in the future. Out of the research on this has come a list of tools, technologies and other artifacts that will probably disappear within the next generation, just as Fax essentially disappeared less than 20 years after it first became popular, and just as CDs, which are disappearing even faster.
1. Hard Drives
2. "Wall of Text" Reports & Documents
3. "Best Practices"
4. Email and Groupware
5. Corporate Websites
6. Corporate Intranets
7. Corporate Libraries and Purchased Content
8. Cell Phones
9. Classrooms
10. Meetings
11. Job Titles
12. Offices

The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation (note: PDF)

From the QUT ePrints website

In a world of ephemeral digital objects, libraries need to be aware of the issues surrounding digital preservation. The Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) created a report with its counterparts from other countries to review the current state of copyright laws and make recommendations for legislative reform. The section that covers US copyright law is very complete, covering all appropriate laws for digitization and digital preservation activities. Joint recommendations include establishing laws that would apply equally to all categories of copyrighted materials in all media and formats. Without more even laws and policies, we risk losing print and digital materials every day.


On the Move with the Mobile Web: Libraries and Mobile Technologies

From Current Cites, July 2008, (c)Copyright 2008 by Roy Tennant.
Contributed to Current Cites by Roy Tennant

Full text of the article available in: Library Technology Reports, July 2008, Vol. 44, Issue 5

The fifth issue of Library Technology Reports this year looks to the very near future — and for some libraries "on the move with the mobile Web," it highlights libraries' mobile activities already developed for the present. More and more library users are using their cellphones or other mobile devices (e.g., PDAs, smartphones, etc.) for much more than talking and texting. Many are searching and browsing the web, reading magazines and books, and generally doing things that until recently required a computer to do. In this issue of Library Technology Reports, author and library-technology blogger Ellyssa Kroski does an excellent job of surveying the present usage of mobile devices, providing an overview of devices, providers, and features, describing the various activities these devices support, highlighting how libraries are responding with services tailored for these devices, and providing good advice and assistance for any libraries wanting to go further. It is well-researched, nicely illustrated, and chock-full of good advice and assistance with getting started. Highly recommended for any library wanting to better understand mobile users and/or tailoring services for them.


Skills for Life: Progress in Improving Adult Literacy and Numeracy (Note: PDF)

From the National Audit Office website

This report examines the progress made by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, and the Learning and Skills Council in improving adult literacy, numeracy and English language skills since January 2006. The report assesses progress against the following criteria:
* the Skills for Life Public Service Agreement target (and in particular progress against the 2007 interim target)
* increasing programme participation and achievement, and in particular participation of hard-to-reach learners and learners engaged through their employers
* increasing the diversity of learning providers
* improving the quality of provision, including the skills levels of the teaching workforce, and the diversity of providers
* how the organisations involved are preparing to meet the challenges set out by the Department’s new 2020 targets announced in


read:write. Digital Possibilities for Literature (Note: PDF)

From the if:book - the Future of the Book website

This is an overview of how companies, organisations and individuals in the commercial and funded sectors are using Web 2.0 to market fiction, poetry and live literature; spot writing talent; guide readers and potential readers; create, share and review writing. In particular we were asked to look at:
* what opportunities digitisation offers to writers, publishers and other literature organisations
* how funded organisations can achieve greater sustainability/self-sufficiency or lower costs by making use of technology
* how organisations can develop audiences and increase participation through use of digital media
The report begins by looking at the rapid changes that have taken place since literature organisations first set up websites.


What the Web Looks Like to the Colour Blind

From the Colourlovers blog

Here is a website that shows you what various web pages look like to people who have different types of colour blindness. The Colour Blind Web Page Filter shows how any site appears to people with different types of the condition.


Digital futures report: the internet in Australia (Note: PDF)

From the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) website

This report presents findings from the first survey undertaken by the Australian component of the World Internet Project. Analysis already conducted shows that broadband does make a substantial difference to peoples’ use of the internet. The internet is more highly valued by those with broadband connections and they use the internet for longer and for a greater variety of purposes. Younger people have been quick to integrate the internet into their lives, they use the internet more and particularly for entertainment.


The Internet in New Zealand 2007: Final Report (Note: PDF)

From the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) website

This survey provides an overview of New Zealanders’ usage of and attitudes towards the Internet in 2007. It contains analysis of top level data from the first WIPNZ survey, conducted in September/October 2007. A national probability sample of 1529 New Zealanders were questioned about their involvement with the Internet. The first part of this report graphs highlights of the survey findings, alongside commentary on their significance. The second part displays cross-tabulations which show how gender, age, ethnicity, area and income affect New Zealanders’ interactions with the Internet.