OCLC's Jay Jordan @ UConn

Yesterday, the University of Connecticut Libraries Forum Team sponsored a conversation with Jay Jordan, president and CEO of OCLC. He was dynamic, engaging, smart, and thoughtful.

Some data from Jordan on OCLC itself:
Over 60,000 libraries in 112 countries are using various OCLC services. 91 million records, 1.4 billion holdings, 72 million books and "a lot" of article-level metadata. They are adding Japanese e-book content and millions of non-US "files", from Sweden, Bavaria, and New Zealand, among others.

Some of the OCLC materials and programs discussed:

• Many interesting (and free!) OCLC Reports available, including 2007's Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World and 2005's Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources
  
• WorldCat.org -- search WorldCat holdings online for free. See some of the libraries that own items (primarily books) by typing in your zip code.
  
• Right now, you can only see holdings of libraries that pay to have their holdings displayed in "free" WorldCat; this financial arrangement is understandable from OCLC's perspective, but it is a shame that ALL library holdings don't display in WorldCat.org. I raised this point and was heartened to hear that Jordan understands it.
  
• They've recently added the option to create your own lists in WorldCat.org. See one of the lists I've created for newly-added books at UConn in Communication Sciences
• Jordan reported some interesting data on referrals from Google and other "partner sites" to WorldCat.org:
  
• 130 million referrals from "partner sites" to Open WorldCat
• 7.6 million click-throughs from OpenWorldCat to library services (i.e., individual libraries whose holdings are in "free" WorldCat)
  

• WorldCat Delivery Pilot: "OCLC is testing a new service that will facilitate requests for library materials across disparate library system platforms and will interact with different circulation systems. The service will also test the optional delivery of requested library items directly to users at their homes or offices."
• They are testing this with 12 libraries in Montana, and I love this quote from one of its users: "like netflix but for books."
  
  
• WorldCat Local Pilot: This is a way of using WorldCat as an individual library's OPAC. See it in action at the University of Washington. UW's holdings display first, then their consoritial library's holdings, then WorldCat / ILL holdings.

What is binocular vision for, anyway?

Great talk coming up at UConn, and I've marked this one in my calendar. Maybe see you there?

Speaker: Mark Changizi, Department of Cognitive Science, RPI

Title: What is binocular vision for, anyway?

Abstract: The study of binocular vision typically amounts to the study of the perception of depth it gives us (stereopsis). However, people who have lost an eye tend to have notoriously good vision, and attempts to empirically document real-life performance deficits have led to mixed results. I'll describe a function of the binocular region that has not been appreciated in the literature, the ability to "see through" stuff. If you're an animal in a habitat with lots of clutter, then you can see more of your world by having forward-facing eyes, for although you become blind to what's behind you, the extra amount you can see in front makes up for it. If, however, you're an animal in a non-cluttered habitat, then you can see the most by having your eyes face sideways, having panoramic vision of what's around you and only a tiny binocular region. Evidence across mammals supports this, suggesting that it is the x-ray power of the binocular region, not stereopsis, that is crucial for understanding why our binocular regions are so large.

If You Go
Date: Friday November 30
Time: 4 pm
Location: BOUS 160 [see interactive map of UConn & select BOUS as building name]

Events I Will Be Leading

I thought some of you might be interested in this Continuing Ed class I'm co-teaching with Terry Plum in November about open access journals: "Open Access and Free Scholarly Resources: What Are They and How Can You Find Them?"

Terry will answer these questions & more: What is Open Access? What does it mean for libraries, with respect to journals, databases, and other scholarly resources? What do publishers think of this model, and who pays for it? We will provide a brief overview of the Open Access movement and discuss future possibilities. We will also address related issues such as the Google Book Project, the Open Content Alliance, and journal embargoes.

I will talk about how we can find these Open Access journals. These are usually free, so it's a nice way of adding content for your users at no cost. Terry and I will review harvesting standards and protocols such as OpenURL. I will demonstrate some academic resources such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) as well as some free scholarly search engines such as the science search engine Scirus and Google Scholar. Finally, we will discuss how you can promote use of these resources to your patrons.

Date: Nov. 4, from 10-1:30.

Location: GSLIS West Office, across from the campus of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass. Easy access for western Mass. & Connecticut residents, and lots of free parking.

Cost: $160 -- current GSLIS students & faculty can register for half price!

See Simmons Continuing Ed Workshops @ Mount Holyoke for more info or see our Facebook event.

Event I *Will* Attend

Next Generation Library Catalogs

Wednesday, November 7, 2007
1:00 - 4:00pm
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Campus Center Auditorium

As a library’s key database and the one system with which most users interact, the online library catalog has been evolving for over 30 years. Software upgrades, enhanced functions and performance improvements have brought us a long way. In the past two years, however, catalogs have begun to undergo a change that is more dramatic. Driven by evolving user expectations and the explosion of web 2.0 technologies, library databases are on the verge of a paradigm shift that warrants consideration as a whole new generation of discovery and delivery tool.

Come and hear more about this “next generation” of library catalogs from some folks on the front lines:

David Lindahl is Director of Digital Library Initiatives for the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester. He has extensive experience in library-related digital research and design projects and is currently co-principal investigator for the eXtensible Catalog Project.

Jennifer Ward is the Head of Web Services for the University of Washington Libraries and manages the Libraries' usability program. She is part of the University’s WorldCat Local implementation team.

Anne M. Prestamo is Associate Dean for Collection & Technology Services at Oklahoma State University Library. Dr. Prestamo's main area of interest is with technology for the delivery of library resources and she has been involved with Oklahoma State’s implementation of AquaBrowser.

This free program is sponsored by the Five College (MA) Library Directors (with support from Simmons College GSLIS West)
Advance registration required

For More Info
* Further program information and some interesting reading are available
* Oklahoma State University's AquaBrowser catalog
* University of Washington's WorldCat Local

Events I Wish I Could Attend

Coupla interesting events at UConn / Hampshire that I wish I could attend. Darn work, always getting in the way. Anyway, they're fun to think about, and maybe you can attend one or the other...

From the University of Connecticut, comes this announcement of their Cognitive Science fall colloquium schedule:
C.L. (Larry) Hardin, Syracuse University (Philosophy) Friday Oct 12, 4 pm BOUS 160 (the Alivin Liberman Room)
Title: TBA
Larry Hardin is the author of the groundbreaking book Color for Philosophers (librarian alert: subject heading = Color (Philosophy) heh heh) and numerous articles on color, perception, and the mind-body problem.
His talk will focus on color and is co-sponsored by the UConn Philosophy Department.

And from Hampshire College's Culture Brain & Development program,
Thursday, October 18 at 5:30 p.m. at Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
"Autism: What does it mean to be a spectrum disorder?"
Public Lecture by Roberto Tuchman, M.D.
Location: Franklin Patterson Hall Main Lecture Hall, Hampshire College

ABSTRACT
The labels of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) or Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) are commonly used to describe individuals who have varying deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication, social skills and a restricted repertoire of interests or repetitive behaviors. These labels are now used interchangeably with autism. The criteria for determining who is and is not affected by autism are based on arbitrary clinical behaviors. The characteristic clinical feature that set autism apart from other disorders of brain development associated with communication and behavioral problems are impairments in reciprocal social interaction. Is there more autism or are we just recognizing it more? How do we define social deficits? What are the causes of autism and what factors biologically and culturally impact the social phenotype? How do early deficits in social communication lead to the clinical phenotype of autism, and what are the cellular and neural mechanisms that define the social constructs that determine social cognition? These questions will be discussed from the perspective of child neurology. The focus of the discussion will be on the changing criteria of autism over time and how this has affected the concept of the "normal" social phenotype. Examples of etiologies of autism will be discussed. The early social constructs that determine an individual's distinctive social phenotype will be demonstrated. Our present understanding of the neuronal networks responsible for social behavior will be reviewed and discussed in terms of intervention strategies for social communication disorders.

About the speaker:
Roberto Tuchman, M.D., FAAN, FAAP, is the director of Autism and Related Disorder Programs at Miami Children's Hospital Dan Marino Center (note football connection) and director of Developmental and Behavioral Neurology at Miami Children's Hospital. Dr. Tuchman is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. See some of his publications in PubMed. He is a graduate of Hampshire College (73).Yay Hampshire grads!