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News & Events
Check back frequently for the latest news from the Bibliographic & Technical
Services Unit.
Save the Date: Fall MINITEX/OCLC User Group Meetings
MINITEX/OCLC User Group meetings will be held in each of our 3 states this October.
For the primary content, we have asked R2 Consulting, LLC, a firm specializing in workflow analysis
and redesign for academic libraries, to present a workshop on Technical Services Workflow Analysis.
We will also have time for MINITEX and OCLC updates and demos. See below for dates and details.
We'll send out another message when we're open for registration.
Schedule
- Tuesday, Oct. 21, 8:30-4:00, Hennepin County Library-Brookdale, Brooklyn Center, MN
- Wednesday, Oct. 22, 8:30-4:00, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
- Thursday, Oct. 23, 8:30-4:00, Siouxland Libraries, Sioux Falls, SD
Description
Libraries face unprecedented demands to adapt to the digital environment. New and emerging tasks related to
institutional repositories, non-MARC metadata, networked resources and new generations of users place additional
pressure on staffs and workflows built to handle print materials. Yet print-related workloads are not diminishing as
fast as digital workloads are growing. Meanwhile, the growth of external competitors such as Google increases the need for
libraries to focus on user expectations and highlight their own unique attributes.
How can libraries turn these pressures into opportunities? How can librarians adapt workflows, priorities, and organizational
structures to provide those services most important to users? How can library leaders create the capacity to pursue critical
new initiatives—without increasing staff? Join R2 to hear advice, both strategic and practical, drawn from their experience
in workflow analysis and organizational redesign for academic libraries of all sizes and types.
Sessions will include:
- Why Workflow Redesign (An Environmental Scan) - We will review relevant trends in the information environment that are shaping
new demands on libraries; topics include Predictions, Changing Users, and Trends in Collection Development, Acquisitions, and
Cataloging/Discovery.
- Workflow Redesign: Principles and Practices - This section outlines R2's own approach to conducting workflow audits, and
the business principles that guide their recommendations.
- Creating Capacity in Collections, Acquisitions, Serials, E-Resources, Cataloging and Preservation - We will look at sample
recommendations and outcomes in specific areas. The goal is to model the kind of thinking and interaction that will be
needed by library managers to undertake a successful workflow analysis.
- MINITEX and OCLC Updates, demos, etc.
Registration
Fees: $200 for the first attendee from an institution, $50 for each additional attendee from that institution.
Lunch is included.
(Added: 07/14/2008)
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Searching the OCLC Authority File and Controlling Headings
Check out the upcoming webinars recently scheduled on searching and using the OCLC Authority File.
Searching the Authority File in Connexion Client
This ninety minute online training session presents the fundamentals of searching the OCLC Authority File using Connexion Client.
Topics covered include a brief review of the MARC format for authority records, a basic understanding of each index in the OCLC
Authority File, using both the search and browse functionality, and some searching tips.
Take-home exercises will give you hands-on experience and, it is hoped, reinforce what you learn in the Webinar.
Participants should be familiar with OCLC Connexion Client and have a basic understanding of authorities and authority work.
PLEASE NOTE: This session is the same as part 1 of Using the OCLC Authority File Webinar.
Who should attend?: Cataloging staff who want to increase their knowledge of and proficiency with the OCLC
Authority File.
When: Tuesday, June 3, 2008, 10:30 am to 12:00 noon (Central Time)
Cost: $25.00
Register for Searching the Authority File in Connexion Client
Controlling Headings in Connexion Client
This ninety minute online training session covers both the strengths and foibles of the control headings function
in OCLC Connexion. Topics include why and when you might control headings in a bibliographic record, how to use the Control
Headings window, and how the Control Headings command interacts with the OCLC Authority File.
Participants should be familiar with OCLC Connexion Client and have a basic understanding of authorities and authority work.
PLEASE NOTE: This session is the same as part 2 of Using the OCLC Authority File Webinar.
Who should attend?: Cataloging staff who want to increase their knowledge of and proficiency with the OCLC
Authority File.
When: June 10, 2008, 10:30 am to 12:00 noon (Central Time)
Cost: $25.00
Register for Controlling Headings in Connexion Client
(Added: 05/23/2008)
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OCLC Cataloging and Resource Sharing Renewals
Watch the mail for your OCLC Cataloging and WorldCat Resource Sharing subscription renewal quotes. We will be sending
these out around the first of May. We will send both quotes, in one envelop, to the main OCLC contact for each library. If you
receive these and someone else at your institution really needs to see them, please forward them on, as appropriate. Both the
Cataloging and WC Resource Sharing subscription amounts are increasing by 4% for fiscal year 2009. There is no increase in the Access
amount. Your subscriptions will renew automatically on July 1, 2008.
If you have questions or concerns about your renewals, please contact the BATS unit by June 1.
(Added: 05/09/2008)
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New Series of Webinars on Digitization
MINITEX and WiLS (Wisconsin Library Services) are sponsoring a set of four two-hour webinars focused on
digitization information and skill development. The first session will be held on May 21, 10 a.m.-noon, and the rest will be
announced as registration becomes available. The sessions will be taught by Linda Stewart from OCLC Western, who is based in
California. The sessions require broadband Internet access and a phone line to listen to the audio via a toll free 800-number.
Details about the first course and how to register are below.
Developing, Funding, and Managing Digital Projects
This webinar covers basic project planning, materials selection, and workflow for digital collections. The focus is
to prepare participants for conducting a project and sustaining it into the future. The session will include discussion of
issues related to workflow, metadata, scanning, quality control, funding, maintenance, and sustainability of digital resources.
You will learn how to make informed diigital project decisions including:
- Planning and sustaining a project;
- Creating appropriate funding sources;
- Selecting and preparing material for scanning;
- Choosing appropriate materials and collections.
Cost: $30 per person.
NOTE: After registering for the session, please contact Kay Kirscht
at MINITEX concerning payment. Specify your billing preference by sending an email to kirsc037@umn.edu.
Accepted payment options are: MINITEX deposit account, invoice your institution, check, or credit card.
Register for the webinar
Developing, Funding, and Managing Digital Projects
(Added: 05/08/2008)
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Reports from your OCLC Members Council Representatives
Through the years many MINITEX delegates to OCLC Members Council have expressed that their service on the
Council has been one of the most interesting professional development opportunities they have experienced.
To try to share some of that experience with other MINITEX/OCLC members and to supplement the official OCLC
summary of the recent Members Council meeting, held February 10-12, 2008, we asked the MINITEX representatives who
attended to provide us with their thoughts on, and reactions to, the various topics under discussion.
Bruce Willms, Director of Technical Services, Metropolitan State University (St. Paul, MN)
MINITEX Delegate (2005-2008)
Excerpt: "I gave a presentation on Automated Cataloging, which involves using ONIX data from publishers in combination
with a crosswalk to MARC to automatically generate bibliographic records far upstream in the supply chain, and make
them available via WorldCat."
Wilbur Stolt, Director of Libraries, University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, ND)
MINITEX Delegate (2007-2010)
Excerpt: "There appears to be some tension between the need for OCLC to look and act like a global corporation
and the desire to retain the collaborative foundation and philosophy on which OCLC was founded. There is an effort to
facilitate the business needs while retaining collaborative."
Ethelle Bean, Director/Associate Vice President, Dakota State University (Madison, SD)
MINITEX Alternate (2007-2008)
Excerpt: "I wanted to serve on Members Council because I wanted to learn more about the direction OCLC is planning for
its future, in particular WorldCat Local. SDLN is engaged in strategic planning and it seems very sensible to learn as much
as possible about open source, various new or future OCLC services, become more informed by the research done by them, and
by getting a peek at the envisioning...that is currently in process at OCLC."
(Added: 03/25/2008)
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