SILAS joins NACO
SILAS member libraries will start seeing some of their local name headings turn into Library of Congress Name Authorities (LCNA)over the coming months, as SILAS submits new headings, not yet covered by LCNA,as NACO authority records. NACO stands for Name Authority Cooperative Project,and is part of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging(PCC), organised by the Library of Congress. SILAS already submits new subject headings for adoption as new LCSH under the SACO part of the Program.
Most SILAS libraries need to enter some name headings in their catalogue records that are not covered by the LCNA database, particularly for local authors and organisations. It will benefit everyone in the international cataloguing community if these local headings are converted into authority records that can become part of LCNA. This is what the NACO Project is about - assisting the Library of Congress, the British Library, and the other major libraries in compiling as comprehensive an authority file as possible.
As a new member of NACO, a group of cataloguers received a five-day training course held at SILAS in March. The course was conducted by Ms Joanna Dyla, from Stanford University Libraries, a very experienced NACO Trainer. The cataloguers learnt how to create and edit personal, corporate and geographic name authorities according to the strict standards set out by the Library of Congress and NACO. As well as SILAS staff, cataloguers from Library Support Services/NLB, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic also attended.
SILAS will be using the OCLC CORC platform for its NACO work, with Ms Saralee Turner(SILAS Review/Authority Control) coordinating efforts. During the initial phrase of submissions, our authorities will be reviewed by the Library of Congress and another NACO Reviewer (from Cleveland Public Library).
There are presently over 150 libraries and consortia contributing to NACO, but SILAS is the first from the ASEAN region. We hope that as such we can make a particularly useful contribution - for SILAS members and for other libraries around the world.
NACO Course at tea break: (L-R) Henry Lam (VAL), Philip Hider (SILAS), Jenny Tay (SILAS), Koo Lik Yuen (Temasek Poly Library), Joanna Dyla (Trainer, Stanford University Libraries), Clara Yap (Temasek Poly Library), Low Wai Keng (Library Support Services, NLB), Jennifer Yong-Chor (SILAS), Lim Li Hoon (Ngee Ann Poly Library)
The Library of the Goethe-Institute in Singapore has well over 5,000 titles catalogued in the Allegro format and using the German RAK cataloguing rules. During the past year, the catalogue records have been converted into MARC 21 and will now start to be input into SILAS and the National Union Catalogue. The SILAS code (to be found in the 040 and 984 fields) for Goethe-Institute records is: GI.
The library of the Goethe-Institute Inter Nationes Singapore serves as a resource and information centre for those interested in contemporary Germany, and for those teaching and studying German as a foreign language. It handles requests for information within its area of specialisation (Germany-related topics). Queries can be made by phone, fax or e-mail. Requests that cannot be handled directly will be competently referred to other information specialists in Germany. All information provided is free of charge
The stock includes 7,000 printed and audio-visual media, including:
- books about Germany in English
- reference works
- German literature in English translation
- coursebooks and materials for teaching German
- German daily and weekly newspapers
- German periodicals and professional journals
- CD-ROM databases
- CDs and audio cassettes
- videos
The library's stock is continuously updated. The main subject areas of the collection are German contemporary art, photography, film, theatre and German language and literature. PC programs for self-study are available for those who wish to improve their German language skills.
The library is open to the public. Reference use is free of charge. In order to borrow books, videos and other audiovisual materials, membership is required, the fee being $40 per year for adults and $20 per year for students.
Address, Opening Hours and Contacts
Address
163 Penang Road #05-01
Winsland House II
Singapore 238463
Telephone: (065) 735 4555
Fax: (065) 735 4666
E-Mail: goethe@pacific.net.sg
URL: www.goethe.de/so/sin
Opening hours
Tuesday to Friday: 3.00 p.m. - 7.00 p.m.
Saturday: 1.00 p.m. - 6.00 p.m.
Library tours by appointment
Contact
Christina Paulini
SILAS welcomes on board the British
Council Information Centre, whose entire catalogue of records are now being
entered into its new dataset on the SILAS database and National Union Catalogue.
The British Council Information Centre facilitates access to the UK's information network.
It provides a convenient 'Gateway to the UK' and the activities of the British Council.
For more information on its facilities and collection, BCIC invites you to visit : www.britishcouncil.org.sg/infoexch/index.htm.
We are about to send out 2.8 million
records, including the entire National Union Catalogue, for machine review
at OCLC, using the OCLC MARS service (as outlined at the users'
meeting). We expect OCLC to process the records and create fresh
authority files in the subsequent six weeks, which means we should
receive the files for re-loading by the end of December.
The process of overlaying the new,
revised records and authorities will take some time , due to the sheer
numbers involved. The authority files will be overlaid first, then
the revised bibliographic records, except for those that we will identify
as having been changed during the six-week period by members. These
will then be reviewed separately.
Although ideally it's best if no
cataloguing is undertaken during an authority control review, of course
we recognise that we cannot expect members to desist from their
cataloguing activities for six weeks. However, SILAS requests that,
if at all possible, members keep their bibliographic changes to a
minimum, and that if they have any special project involving the revision
of their catalogue records, they start this after the review
period. You should NOT lose any changes you make to records, but in
these cases, you may not enjoy the full benefits of the machine review,
or at least not in the initial re-load. So please carry on with
your normal cataloguing work, but if you can avoid making large numbers
of amendments to records, this would be helpful.
Thank you for your continued
participation in SILAS.
While the VAL project team continues
to work on improving the features and reliability of the system, and will
be rolling out a new edition shortly, I take the view that SILAS is more
than just a system—it is, or should be, a service. As well as improving its
software, SILAS must continue to work on other aspects of the service.
To help us in these tasks, I have
contracted the services of Mr Philip Hider as Bibliographic Manager of
SILAS. Philip will be working part-time on various projects that we hope
will help raise bibliographic standards and provide you with a better
service.
Philip lectures in Cataloguing at
Temasek Polytechnic, and has conducted several cat & class courses
organised for SILAS members by NLBI. He's been at TP since 1997; before
that he worked in the Cataloguing Section of the British Library. While
at the BL, Philip sat on the UK DDC Committee, was involved in the
US-CAN-UKMARC harmonisation project, and coordinated English-language
cataloguing of the Oriental and India Office Collections. He's an
Associate of the UK Library Association, a member of LAS, and a regular
reviewer of cataloguing books for Library Management journal.
SILAS Users' Meeting
Due to staff movements, SILAS has been
unable to organise a users' meeting yet this year, and for this we must
apologise. However, we are pleased to announce that the next regular
meeting will be held at 2.30pm on Wednesday 4th October, at Bukit Merah
Community Library.
In the meantime, we are taking steps
to clean up the authority files and are beginning training sessions on
the new version of ITS, which includes full authority control functions.
If you need help…please do continue to
contact the VAL Helpdesk with any system problems you encounter. The
telephone number is 846 6899, while the email is valhelp@nlb.gov.sg.
For any professional matters regarding
SILAS, please email SILAS@nlb.gov.sg or write us at: No. 7, Kaki Bukit Crescent,
Kaki Bukit Tech Park I, #03-01, Singapore 416239.
We plan to develop further the SILAS
Help Desk's role as an online advisory service for your cataloguing
queries; we are also looking at establishing a listserv as a platform for
the discussion of bibliographic standards and policies.
We look forward to seeing everyone at
the meeting in October.
Yours sincerely,
BEH Chew Leng
CIO, SILAS
Using of Template in creating record:
- When you use templates to create bibliographic records, please DO NOT FORGET TO DELETE 001 TAGs with "Books"...etc., before Saving/Verify records to SILAS. Otherwise the system will not assign "sls" RIDS to the records.
MARC Technical Notice:
- Please click on http://lcweb.loc.gov
to review changes for the MARC Language and Country Code lists.
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