More and more I come to the conclusion that in the linked data space the thing we seem to focus on today, descriptive cataloging, will be less useful than the entities that are represented by our authority data.

It also seems to me that we have everything to gain by beginning our work on a data format with no particular serialization in mind. We could go from RDA to RDA-as-data and then on to RDA-as-RDF. I see some dangers in skipping the middle step, mainly that we could end up making some decisions that fit RDA into RDF but that are problematic for other serializations.

Only a small subset of MARC 21 fields are used in WorldCat. Even when considering the MARC fields that are heavily used in non-book formats, there are
only 21 to 30 tags that occur in 10% or more records.

Michael Buckland's notes on Paul Otlet, with links to other Otlet resources.

"Paul Otlet (portrait) was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1868. His monumental book Traité de documentation. (Brussels, 1934) was both central and symbolic in the development of information science - then called 'Documentation' - in the first half of this century. In addition, it reminds us of something that has been too widely forgotten: That this field did have a lively existence in the early decades of this century and a sophistication concerning theory and information technology that now commonly surprises people."

The Chicago Underground Library is a new model for open, location-specific archiving of independent and small press media. We are always seeking books, magazines, zines, journals, broadsides, newspapers, and art books of all types, genres, and print runs from the Chicago area. (And maybe your city, too. Be patient, or ask us how to start your own.)

We accept everything from the area (ever), regardless of perceived quality or importance in order to create a detailed index from which connections among the publications will emerge.

Keeping records of everyone who contributed to a work, as well as keywording every subject, allows us to map the evolution (historically and contemporaneously) of Chicago’s communities and movements and encourage the production of new media by providing context, inspiration, and programming designed to support collaboration.

Browsable LOC classification.

Access to the most widely used cataloging documentation resources in an integrated, online system.

Submit an OCLC number to this service, and it returns a list of related OCLC numbers and selected metadata.

Browse and view authority headings for Subject, Name, Title and Name/Title combinations; and download authority records in MARC format.

LAF is an OAICat server containing LC and potentially other authority records.

I keep this book close to me at work and usually stick it in my laptop case when I leave for home...