OCLC's automated processing of personal name headings in WorldCat

I received a message from Glenn Patton about the automated processing identify, modify, and control specific types of personal name headings in OCLC WorldCat bibliographic records. This processing, based on data used to build WorldCat Identities (http://orlabs.oclc.org/Identities/) and developed by Thom Hickey, Chief Scientist in the OCLC Office of Programs and Research, is projected to control more than 26,000,000 headings over the next few weeks.

Dr. Hickey has posted a description of the project on his blog, Outgoing, at
http://outgoing.typepad.com/outgoing/2008/04/controlling-nam.html

Algerian national librarian visited National Library of China

Dr. Amin Zaoui, General Director of National Library of Algeria (Bibliothèque Nationale d'Algérie), visited National Library of China today. Dr. ZHAN Furui, Director of National Library of China, and some colleagues met the Algerian guests.

Dr. Zaoui is a fiction writer and Mrs. Zaoui is a poetess. During the lunch time, Dr. Zhan chanted a poem of the Tang dynasty, and Mrs. Zaoui replied with an Arabic poem by herself.

ISSN meetings held in Paris

Meetings of the Governing Board and the General Assembly of the ISSN International Centre were held in Paris during April 23-25, 2008. The 52nd GB meeting was held in the IC office on April 23, the 17th GA meeting was held in UNESCO House during April 24-25, and the 53rd meeting of the GB meeting was held in UNESCO House on April 25.

The meetings discussed financial statements, budget proposals and recent activities of the ISSN centres. A new Governing Board was elected, with China reelected and Vietnam and Tunisia newly elected. Ms. Susann Solberg from the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (National Library of Germany) was elected as the new chair, and Tuula Haapamaki from Kansalliskirjasto (National Library of Finland) was elected as the new vice-chair.

The 2009 Directors meeting will be held in National Library of China, Beijing, China, in September, 2009.

My visit to Bibliothèque nationale de France

I visited Paris during April 22-25. This is my first to Paris, even to Western Europe.

I visited Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France), and had a short meeting with some of my IFLA colleagues (Françoise Leresche and Nadine Boddaert) and discussed some issues concerning the Anonymous classics: Chinese literature. The project should be completed before the IFLA general conference in Québec.

BnF is made of steel, glass and wood. I am very impressed by the buildings, the collections and the services of the library. Several hours of visit is not enough to see them all.

Mr. Cheng Pei was on his holiday. One of his colleagues, Mrs. Jie Formoso, discussed with me about the cataloging of Chinese monographs and showed me around the library.

Chinese translations of the Statement and the Glossary completed

Today, I completed the Chinese translation of the cover page of the worldwide review of Statement of International Cataloguing Principles and its accompanying Glossary, and Mr. WANG Shaoping of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Libraries, sent me the translations of the latest version of the Statement and the Glossary. I sent all the three documents to Barbara Tillett immediately. They will be posted on IFLANET late this month for worldwide review until June 30.

As a participant and a member of the Planning Committee of IME ICC4 (Seoul, Korea, 2006), I am glad to see the final results will appear soon.

Reference:
Statement of International Cataloguing Principles to be available for worldwide review soon

Leaving for Paris

I am going to Paris next week for the GB and GA meetings of the ISSN International Centre. Before the meeting, I planned to visit BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France, or the National Library of France), having a look at the building and discussing some issues for a project of the IFLA Cataloguing Section.

This will be my first time to Paris, even first time to Western Europe. Before then, I visited Denmark, Poland and Norway within the territory of Europe.

Statement of International Cataloguing Principles to be available for worldwide review soon

Yesterday, I received a message from Barbara Tillett and the attached documents from the series of IME ICC meetings. The final drafts of the Statement of International Cataloguing Principles and its attached Glossary are to be translated into working languages of the IME ICC meetings, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Spanish and Arabic, and will be posted on the IFLANET for worldwide review until June 30, 2008. I will do the translation of the cover page of the worldwide review, and I have asked Mr. WANG Shaoping, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Libraries, and his colleagues to do the translation of the Statement and the Glossary.

After the worldwide review, these documents will be submitted to the standing committees of the Cataloguing Section and the Bibliography Section of IFLA Division IV for approval, and will be then published by IFLA.