Recently, The City College of New York (CCNY) libraries engaged in a collaborative project to transfer the bibliographic holdings for textbook course reserves to a new module when their integrated library systems, the Ex Libris Aleph Integrated Library System, underwent a system upgrade. In this article, the Chief of Circulation and the Chief of…

This study is a part of the larger project that develops a sustainable digital repository of professional development resources on emerging data standards and technologies for data organization and management in libraries. Toward that end, the project team developed an automated workflow to crawl for, monitor, and classify relevant web objects…

Over the past ten years, various organizations, both public and private, have expressed interest in implementing the Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST) in their cataloging workflows. As interest in FAST has grown, so too has interest in knowing how FAST is being used and by whom. Since 2002 eighteen institutions in six countries…

Purpose: ABCD is a web-based open and free software suite for library management derived from the UNESCO CDS/ISIS software technology. The first version was launched officially in December 2009 with a MARC 21 bibliographic format database. This paper aims to detail the building of the UNIMARC bibliographic format database for ABCD.…

Whether you have an interest in starting an ebook collection for your school library program or are working on enhancing an ebook collection you've already established, this handbook is for you. The world of ebooks is both vast and intricate. Exploring the many articles concerning ebook publication, vendors, devices, and copyright laws can be…

Librarians are familiar with the single-line form, the consolidated index, which represents a very large portion of a library's print and online collection. Their end users are familiar with the idea of a single search across a comprehensive index that produces a large, relevancy-ranked results list. Even though most patrons would not recognize…

The technology of the 21st century has had no shortage of challenges for libraries, but it has also brought opportunities. Operating systems, databases, and application environments that can use cheap off-the-shelf hardware to scale and handle hundreds of millions of transactions were not developed for libraries. However, libraries have taken…

In this column, the author discusses how the management of e-books has introduced, at many libraries and in varying degrees, the challenges of maintaining effective technical services workflows. Four different e-book workflows are identified and explored, and the author takes a closer look at how particular variables for each are affected, such as…

Purpose: This paper aims to elaborate the library data migration process from LAMP (Library Automation Management Program) to the open source software Koha's (2.2.8 Windows based) Pakistani flavour PakLAG-Koha in six legislative assembly libraries of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: The paper explains different steps of the data migration…

The rumored death of librarianship caused by the advent of technology has not, and will not, come to pass. In this article, the author describes how technology has exponentially increased the librarian's ability to provide library service at the Calcasieu Parish Public Library, where she serves as head of Collection & Computing Services. The…

In the summer of 2004, Georgia Southern University began a library construction project that was to last 4 years. An important aspect was the installation of an Automated Retrieval System (ARC) to house a substantial portion of the library collections so that more space could be available for students, faculty, and the services to meet their…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to develop a system for automatic extraction of metadata from scientific papers in PDF format for the information system for monitoring the scientific research activity of the University of Novi Sad (CRIS UNS). Design/methodology/approach: The system is based on machine learning and performs automatic extraction…

When the electronic resource management system (ERM) at Kansas State University Libraries suffered a horrible data loss, the "contract db" presented a challenge for the librarians responsible for electronic resources. It was a decent data repository, but it had no ability to manage the tangled process of licensing, acquiring, activating,…

At the end of 2007, SirsiDynix introduced the first version of Symphony, its new flagship Integrated Library System (ILS). This article begins with a look at the evolution of Symphony, user reactions to Symphony, and Symphony's design and functionality. The authors, along with a team of librarians from various functional areas, have completed…

It seems, at times, that a frantic race persists to ensure that a child, in the crucial learning stages of early elementary education, acquires the appropriate reading level before he or she "gets behind." Though there are obvious issues with branding a book "Grade Level One" or "Reading Level 2.2," it is nevertheless…