NEWS FROM OCLC
Compiled for OLAC by Jay Weitz
For the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting
San Antonio, Texas
January 2006
General News
OCLC Releases International Library Research Report
OCLC has found that information consumers view libraries as places to borrow print books, but they are unaware of the rich electronic content they can access through libraries. The findings are part of Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, a report issued in December 2005 by OCLC. The new report, based on surveys of information users across six countries and administered by Harris Interactive on behalf of OCLC, is a follow-up to The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition, the award-winning report that describes issues and trends that are impacting and will impact OCLC and libraries. Among the findings of the report:
- Respondents use search engines to begin an information search (84%). Only 1% begin an information search on a library Website.
- Information consumers use the library; however, since they began using the Internet, they use the library less and read less.
- Borrowing print books is the library service used most; "Books" is the library brand.
- Quality and quantity of information are top determinants of a satisfactory electronic information search, not speed of results.
- Respondents do not trust purchased information more than free information.
- 90% of respondents are satisfied with their most recent search for information using a search engine.
- Information consumers like to serve themselves; they use personal knowledge and common sense to judge if electronic information is trustworthy, and cross-reference other sites to validate their findings.
- The survey results show that library and information preferences and use are consistent among respondents in the six countries surveyed.
Survey findings are generally consistent across geographic regions. Responses about awareness, familiarity and usage of electronic resources showed consistent views among respondents in the six countries surveyed. Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources is available for download free of charge at <http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm>. Print copies of the 286-page report are also available for purchase from the same site.
Collections and Technical Services
OCLC-MARC Update
Work is progressing on the OCLC-MARC Update that will cover the MARC 21 Bibliographic and Authority Format Updates 4 (October 2003) and 5 (October 2004), as well as several other elements that had been postponed while OCLC was migrating to its new technological platform. Among the changes:
- Implementation of Bibliographic Level (Leader/07) "i" for Integrating Resources.
- Invalidation of "ISSN" Fixed Field (Continuing Resources 008/20 & 006/03) in conjunction with corresponding changes to Bibliographic Field 022.
- Implementation of two new Bibliographic Fixed Field elements for Scores: "Musical Parts" (008/21 & 006/04) and "Transposition and Arrangement" (008/33 & 006/16).
- Implementation of new Authority Field 024, "Other Standard Identifier".
- Implementation of new Bibliographic and Authority Field 031, "Musical Incipits Information".
- Implementation of new Bibliographic Field 258, "Philatelic Issue Data.
- Implementation of a "privacy" indicator to Bibliographic Fields 541 ("Immediate Source of Acquisition Note"), 561 ("Ownership and Custodial History"), and 583 ("Action Note"), which will determine whether the field is retained in the master record.
- Implementation of new Bibliographic Ffield 648, "Subject Added Entry--Chronological Term".
- New and changed codes for Languages, Countries, Geographic Areas, Relators, Classification Sources, and other MARC Code Lists.
- Character Set changes and additions, including degree sign, phonogram copyright mark, copyright mark, musical sharp, inverted question mark, inverted exclamation point, eszett, Euro sign, left and right curly brackets, spacing circumflex, spacing underscore, spacing grave, and spacing tilde.
Details of the OCLC-MARC Update will be released in the upcoming Technical Bulletin 252, with full implementation expected by the end of June 2006.
Connexion Client 1.50 Now Available
Connexion Client version 1.50 is now available. Client 1.50 includes Unicode export, additional WorldCat searching customization, a simplified process for adding/deleting holdings, and more. OCLC discontinued Client 1.30 on January 1, 2006. As of this date, users were unable to log on with client 1.30. OCLC will discontinue Client 1.40 on March 1, 2006. As of this date, users cannot log on with Client 1.40. To verify the version number, go to the "Help menu" and select "About OCLC Connexion Client". The complete version number is 1.50.2146.28406. Client 1.50 enhancements include the ability to:
- Batch set or delete holdings without having to retrieve the records first.
- Apply constant data automatically to records downloaded via batch searching.
- Customize short index list in Search and Browse WorldCat dialogs.
- Limit WorldCat searches by Material Type using drop-down list of values.
- Look at WorldCat truncated lists to determine if the item is held by the user’s library.
- View drop-down lists for valid values for each Fixed Field element.
- Populate fields from other records.
- Customize the validation level used for setting holdings and for exporting records.
- Define an action to be completed each time the Client software is opened.
- Take advantage of Unicode export and import options.
- Assign user Tools 1-10 to characters, macros, or text strings.
- Use new Macro commands.
- Make use of improvements in non-Latin script cataloging.
- Employ new German and Korean interfaces.
Resolutions to several reported problems are listed in the Known Problems document at
<http://www.oclc.org/connexion/support/client_known_problems.htm>.
To read more about the changes and to download the software, visit <http://www.oclc.org/connexion/interface/client/enhancements/recent.htm>.
Connexion Changes, November 2005
OCLC installed the following changes to Connexion in November 2005:
- A problem in Client 1.40 that resulted in "an error has occurred" message has been resolved. This problem affected users who executed a search in the LC Names and Subject Authority File, then selected a single record, locked and replaced, and upon replacing the record, tried to navigate forwards or backwards through the set of records.
- With this installation, the ability to control headings in the Browser from the Dublin Core template has been disabled. In Dublin Core template, the following functionality is no longer present: the option to "Control heading" from the functions drop-down list in DC template view, the option to "Control all" from the actions menu in DC template view. However, the ability to uncontrol a heading in the Browser on the functions drop-down list in DC template view is a viable function. Also, all controlled headings will be presented to users in the Browser in DC template view, and users can continue to click on links to view the authority record.
- Stopwords have been added for the Authorities Online Constant Data and Online Save File databases in both the Browser and the Client, so that they are consistent with the Bibliographic Online Constant Data and Online Save File databases. The list of stopwords are: a, an, and, are, as, at, be, by, for, from, in, is,of, on, or, that, the, to with, http, www.
- With this installation, derived searches result sets from WorldCat will now sort correctly regardless of diacritics. This will affect both Client and Browser searching. This partially corrects a known problem. Keyword search results are still affected.
For more details, see the Connexion Client problems Website <http://www.oclc.org/connexion/support/client_known_problems.htm> or the Connexion Browser problems Website <http://www.oclc.org/connexion/support/browser_known_problems.htm>.
End of Connexion Browser Support for IE Versions 5.0 and 5.01
OCLC plans to end Connexion Browser support for Internet Explorer versions 5.0 and 5.01 on February 19, 2006. At that time, Connexion Browser users, including CatExpress and WebDewey users, will no longer be able to log on using IE 5.0 and IE 5.01. In preparation for this, beginning after the November 13, 2005 Connexion Browser enhancement installation, all users accessing OCLC Connexion Browser with IE 5.0 or IE 5.01 began receiving an alert message as part of the logon screen. For maximum functionality within OCLC Connexion Browser, users should upgrade to Internet Explorer 6.0, as soon as possible. After February 19, 2006, Connexion Browser will continue to support Internet Explorer 5.5 and above, as well as Netscape 7, Netscape 8, Firefox, and Mozilla.
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Last updated: April 4, 2006
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