Sally H. McCallum

An introduction to the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS)

This paper provides an introduction to the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), a MARC21 compatible XML schema for descriptive metadata. It explains the requirements that the schema targets and the special features that differentiate it from MARC, such as user‐oriented tags, regrouped data elements, linking, recursion, and accommodations for electronic resources.

Directions in Library Networking.

Bibliographic control before and after MARC is reviewed. The capability of keying into online systems has brought an interdependence among libraries, the service centers that mediate between them, and the large utilities that process and distribute data. From this has developed the basic network structure among libraries in the United States. The independent development of major networks has brought problems in standardization and coordination. The authors point out that while technology has led toward centralization of automated library services, new developments are now pushing toward decentralization. Coordination is a requirement to avoid fragmentation in this new environment.

Connectivity for Libraries and Information Services- Introduction

In New Delhi, the Standing Committee on Information Technology decided to focus its Barcelona Open Session on Connectivity. This was both consistent with the theme &dquo;Libraries as Centres for the Global Availability of Information&dquo; and especially timely because of the exploding telecommunications opportunities. Connectivity options seemingly increase daily as computing technology and interest moves into this area. In the 1970s the industry refined mainframes and the 1980s saw the attention turned to microcomputers. As computers multiplied, connectivity became the obvious next frontier. Two major developments set the stage for the communications activities and challenges of the 1990s. First, the network of networks that became known as the Internet was established, and second, the standards for computer-to-computer communications, called Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocols,