FROM THE PRESIDENT
Steven Miller
Most regrettably, I had to miss the OLAC Biennial Conference in Mesa, Arizona because of a conflicting workshop in San José, California. By all reports it was an excellent Conference for those who were able to attend. The Conference’s focus on RDA, the combination of well-grounded cataloging principles and practices with new methods for dealing with the changing characteristics of digital media, and the inclusion of non-MARC metadata schemes all reflect the continuing strength of OLAC as an organization. They also point the way to the kinds of contributions its members have made, and will continue to make, to the ever-widening world of information organization and retrieval.
Along these lines, I have been reflecting during the past few months about OLAC, its name, its mission, and its role in this changing landscape. Although "OLAC" of course stands for "Online Audiovisual Catalogers", it seems to me that our tagline, "The Internet and AV Media Catalogers Network" reflects even better the nature of this organization and its continued relevance to the wider cataloging and metadata communities. With that in mind, I have been thinking especially that OLAC members have important roles to play in:
- reviewing and commenting on the usefulness of RDA for digital and media cataloging;
- contributing insights into the application of FRBR to digital audio and video resources: both direct access digital media such as DVDs and remote access files;
- re-assessing and recommending changes in MARC coding for Internet and media resources;
- bringing expertise in digital and media resource description and access to new digital library; projects: both those digitizing existing audio, still image, moving image, and cartographic content, as well as those creating born-digital streaming audio and video files, among other things;
- applying this knowledge and experience to the application of various, still-developing metadata schemes for digital and media content.
With these thoughts, I will bring this column to a close. I hope to see many of you in Seattle next month!
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Last updated: December 21, 2006
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