NASIG Newsletter

[Ed. note: Excerpted from the January committee report to the Executive Board] 

CONTINUING EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Paoshan Yue and Betty Landesman, Co-Chairs

In early November, the CEC forwarded to the NASIG Program Planning Committee (PPC) an idea for a pre-conference on the “Metadata Standards and Applications” course. The PPC liked it and asked for a formal proposal.  A small group of CEC members (Betty Landesman, Valerie Bross, Kay Johnson, and Paoshan Yue) worked together on this project.  Consulting with Steve Shadle from the University of Washington and the course developer, Diane Hillmann from Cornell University, this group put together a formal proposal and submitted it to the PPC on December 7, 2006. 

The proposal has been officially accepted by the PPC, and the pre-conference is scheduled for Wednesday May 30th, 8 AM – 4:30 PM and Thursday May 31st, 8 AM – 3PM in Louisville, Kentucky. 

This workshop was developed by ALCTS/LC as part of the Cataloging for the 21st Century series.  It provides an overview of basic concepts for 21^st century bibliographic control of digital libraries, focusing on non-MARC metadata standards.  The workshop examines different types of metadata standards and applications, comparing and contrasting them to the traditional cataloging environment.  The goal of the workshop is to help prepare catalogers and other information professionals to work within the emerging digital information environment so that they can relate their existing knowledge to the new digital environment.  

We are very excited that Diane Hillmann, the course developer, will be the lead instructor of this pre-conference workshop.  From our discussion with Diane, it has become clear to us that the serials community needs to connect itself to the metadata world.  In the ever-more-digital environment, the distinction between monographs and serials is becoming more and more blurred.  We believe that the sooner we, the serialists, start connecting the two communities, the better we will position ourselves for the future.  The CEC wishes to thank the PPC and the Board for the support of this program.