----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Most everyone who asked for this also suggested that I post it to the list. So here it is! I'm still interested in this subject, so If anyone wants to add to or refine this a bit more, let me know, and I'll keep it up to date, and repost it with the changes at a later date. Sort of a mini-FAQ I guess. If anyone is maintaining a real FAQ for this list, please use any of these efforts as you like. ----------------- In early August, 1993, I asked the following question on the MAPS-L discussion list: Subject: Re: Cataloging digital data sets (how to?) "I have a lot of different digital data sets and pointers to data sets that I would like to put into an organized database of some sort. Since I'm not a librarian, I don't know the "rules" or conventions too well. I was hoping that someone here could give me a pointer or two about how I would go about learning how to do this?" First of all, thanks to all who sent responses! I really appreciate your help. Here's the "full" summary of the responses (it's a summary, so I've editied it a bit): ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1993 16:59:12 -0400 (EDT) From: [log in to unmask] (David Coleman) Various federal and provincial government departments across Canada (and the U.S. and Australia, among others) have examples of such "meta-data" systems in place or under development. I know that one of the Working Groups of the Canadian General Standards Board Committee on Geomatics has been working on a standard set of descriptors for digital data sets being held by different organizations across Canada. I'm not sure of the Working Group Chairperson's name, but you could contact the CGSB Geomatics Committee Chairman, Mark Doherty, for more information. He works at Intergraph Canada in Ottawa-Hull, and his number is (613) 772-2040, Fax (613) 722-0320. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1993 14:56:25 -0400 From: [log in to unmask] (Steve Frank) There are a few commercial cataloging programs on the market now. Two that I have heard a little about are "GeoIndex" from Hughes Technology and a system (I can't remember the name) from Terra-Mar in Mountain View, CA. These are more on the order of systems for cataloging maps and imagery, but might be suitable for your purpose. Others who have developed nice systems are Ric Vrana at Portland State University (Oregon) and Matt Hiland at Louisiana State. Both systems were developed for government applications and seem to be well received. The LSU system was written up in the San Jose GIS/LIS proceedings. ------------------------------ Date: 04 Aug 1993 14:03:42 -0500 (CDT) From: [log in to unmask] Although I have an MLS I am not a cataloguer. I am, however, slowly catalo- guiing a small judaica library. From what I have learned in trying to classify and catalogue this collection from a scheme I developed on my own, my advice is don't even bother. I would suggest that you try and find out if OCLC has catalogued these. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1993 18:19:00 -0400 (EDT) From: "Jim Minton (615) 974-4315, X3878" <[log in to unmask]> Saw your message on MAPS-L and thought I might suggest you contact: Victor Rosenberg Personal Bibliographic Software, Inc. Box 4250 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 (313) 996-1580 VOICE (313) 996-4672 FAX His company produces a program called ProCite for both PC & McIntosh. Easy to learn, easy to tailor to your various data, and has a good track record. I have just begun to use it to organize hundreds of personal files which include maps, books, thousands of pieces of paper, letters, data sets, etc. that I have accumulated over 20 years. It can accomodate almost any format. You can assign keywords, call numbers, etc. You don't have to be a rocket scientist NOR a librarian to learn and use. I haven't put too many records in my files yet but I am real happy with what I have done so far. Another program that might work is InMagic. I do not have any information on this one. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1993 13:41:34 -0400 (EDT) From: DEBBIE LORDS <[log in to unmask]> I'm not sure if you are asking for a specific database product. You will see reference to GEODEX on Maps-L. It was developed by Christopher Baruth. If you are looking for something to help you learn Marc record format, one possible resource, is MitiNet Marc. My contact person was in California: Jeff Epstein at 1-800-824-6272. Jeff sent me a perusal copy of the software and I was very impressed. I found that it had only one deficiency (but major for our purposes). It is intended to help library folk who needed to learn and use Marc. Most of those in its intended audience are non-MLS people, but I think MLS people who need to build Marc record skills would find it useful. MitiNet Marc leads you through a Marc record field by field using either the numbers (so loved by catalogers who speak Marc fluently) or by using Mnemonic labels. You can choose which of these you want and can flip back and forth if you want. It also allows the setting of an example of each field to let you know what sort of information goes there. This is a VERY cursory statement of its power. There are many things I found which make it easy to recommend. Jeff told me earlier this spring, in a follow-up call, that the deficiency -- not supporting the full ALA character set -- would be taken care of in the release scheduled for August 1993. The characters which might most concern you with this are the prime, and double prime which are the standards for map coordinates' minutes and seconds. I don't now recall if it supported the superscript 0 which is used for the degree symbol. (Our other need was for transliterated Middle Eastern languages which use several diacritic characters). Our primary interest was for our part-time students (i.e. NO MLS) to use for doing retrospective conversion of manual bibliographic records. We were also interested in it to help new paraprofessional staff learn the tagging and coding rules needed for our library's level of bibliographic record entry. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Aug 1993 15:04:23 -0700 (MST) From: Linda Zellmer <[log in to unmask]> Since you are at a CARL institution, you might want to take a look at the Internet Resources database on CARL (under information databases). You can see the bare (MARC-MAchine Readable Cataloging) record by bringing up a full record and entering the command //DS1, and then hitting R to repeat the display. It appears as though CARL has forced the database into a MARC format (505 is the notes field, 245 is the title field, etc.). You can reverse this command by entering //DS0 and then pressing R to repeat this display. (I suggest reversing the display if you do your search on a public terminal). It would be nice if there was a nice big database that we could contribute information to, with a field that we had to fill to supply information on the contributor. That way, we could contact someone who used the system with questions. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1993 15:16 MST From: DEBBIE LORDS <[log in to unmask]> ... Also regarding OCLC, if you don't already know Marc and library stuff, it would not be particularly helpful. OCLC is an international database of cataloging records for many things. I don't know how much digital data information would be on it, but I would guess not much. Also, many libraries do some fairly "unique" styles on it, so I don't know that I would say you could just accept what is there. If you want to look into OCLC, contact the BCR offices in Denver. Gretchen Redfield there is very good, as is Rosario Garza. It should be in the phone book under either BCR or Bibliographic Center for Research. I can't find the number right now or I would give that to you. But, from your statement of background, I don't see that OCLC would do you much good. It can also have a fairly high cost, all things considered. The BCR people might be able to help you a little more with some other kinds of resources, but I don't know if a fee is attached. - Bill Thoen [log in to unmask]