The idea behind this session was to explore several different online tools for possible use as a shared catalog, where zine libraries of all types should upload records and holdings data, sort of, as we ended up calling it in the workshop, a "non-evil OCLC for zines." Whoever the official note taker was for the session will post to the (un)conference wiki.
Drupal, presented by Clinton Watson of the Salt Lake City Public Library Alternative Press Collection.
- Offers flexibility for future users.
Clint was very conscious of how we need to if not exactly plan ahead, leave ourselves room for whatever changes will take place over the next ten years or so. - As a CMS it also allows for non-catalog content. There was some focus on comparing CMSs to wikis.
- Display is customizable.
- Collaborative access, with editing permissions customizable.
- Revision history.
- Syntax is easy to master, with WYSISYG tags.
- Free (the software, that is, as in speech and as in beer, but not as in time and labor—my editorial opinion)
- Broad user base, meaning there is a strong Drupal development community, including in libraries
- User contributed tagging
- A little concern expressed from the audience about hosting issues. Some of the other tools demoed are hosted.
Biblios.net, presented by me: slides
I was talking, not taking notes!
ZineWiki, presented by Jerianne Thompson of Zine World and the Linebaugh Public Library Zine Collection.
- Currently has 2500 entries (not catalog records, but more like encyclopedia entries about zines and zinesters)
- Could be used as an authority source, if not as a catalog
- They need to set up templates for different types of entries
- Zine articles can be analyzed by issue
- She doesn't necessarily advocate it for a catalog, but could add holdings to entries
- Entries can be categorized (for collocation's sake)
- Largest online database of zines
Athaenium presented by Milo Miller of QZAP
- Tried Koha as a cataloging tool first, but was unhappy with it
MARC has too steep a learning curve
Wanted to do circulation, but couldn't make it work - Athenaeum based on FileMaker Pro
Proprietary, usable in Windows/Mac/Linux
Very easy to use. Five minutes to get up and running. Twenty minutes to train high school intern.
Works with barcode reader.
$45, $450 for professional version that does MARC
Intuitive interface
$500 for server version for 10 simultaneous users (of catalog, I think, not of back end)
LibraryThing, presented by Sonya Green of LibraryThing, also a Papercut Zine Library volunteer (i.e. not a shill)
- Online catalog
- Has social networking aspects, as well
- You can display your content in various ways
- The bad news is that records can't be duplicated without an ISBN, but they're working on it
- You can batch upload records
- It is a privately owned company
- There are limited free accounts for individuals and organizations
- Individuals can get a paid account for life for $25
- Organizations pay an annual fee, which depends on their profit status and size. It's $15/year for a nonprofit with less than 5,000 records.
- The book data is exportable
- Sonya can suggest workarounds for things like tracking whether or not an item is checked out
Discussion
- Could you use one or more of these tools in their library out of the box? Not so much.
- Biblios--most comprehensive and most frightening
It's possible that they could do non-MARC interface (sonya says) - Concern about things that take a lot of work, things that speak to lots of different types of libraries
- Tool should be compatible with MARC
- Authority control issues, subject headings, create a name authority using something like ZineWiki
- How difficult is it to create templates in MediaWiki? Not sure.
- biblios.net has an open source license for the data, as well as for the code
- Union catalog cuts down on duplication, but might require standardization of things
- Who is hosting it?
- biblios as data storage, Drupal, FileMaker, Koha as front end
- Drupal is a lot of work
- MARC should go away (from a serials cataloger)
- ZACO (as opposed to SACO—this is comedy, people!), ISZN (as opposed to ISBN)
- Consider that some of these tools' results will show up in a search engine, others won't
- Want this to be easy for new zine libraries to jump in and start cataloging
- Everyone can get along if we can import/export the records in a variety of formats
- We need a Dublin Core for zines
- Union catalog as a repository, historical, tutorials, shared knowledge, as well as catalog
- ZineWiki a good spot for until we develop something permanent
- ZineWiki, create a cut and paste model if a template is too much of a challenge
- ZineWiki --wish it had more metadata
- Foresight--tool that will last us for 10 years or more, crashproof data (mirrored, stored)
- Are there any OCLC scams or workarounds that could be employed?
- LibraryThing working with library catalogs, providing "crowdsourced" data
- Scale--MARC less necessary because we don't have as much data as the worlds' libraries