Thank you for your message. I will be out of the office October 3-14, returning to work on October 17. During this time, I will have limited access to email. I will respond to your message as soon as I return.
Best,
Jessica
Hi Everyone,
We have recently partnered with Lexile.com and Renaissance Learning to offer both Lexile and Accelerated Reader enrichment to our clients. You can read more about these options (now part of the online AC profile Step 2.10) here:
http://ac.bslw.com/community/wiki/index.php/Step_2.10
Because Lexile is a subscription-based option, there would be a fee associated with running against this database. However, we do price this either by records enriched or records processed-whichever price is lower for our clients, and this depends on the match-rates we find while processing, we offer that price to you.
On the other hand, Accelerated Reader enrichment is offered at no extra cost as long as you receive it in conjunction with your existing Current Cataloging service.
If either of these options is something you would be interested in receiving either for your ongoing bib processing or exploring a retrospective service, please feel free to let us know.
Thanks,
Nate
Nate Cothran, PMP | Vice President, Automation Services
Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
801.342.5697 | nate(a)bslw.com<mailto:nate@bslw.com?subject=Automated%20Services> | ac.bslw.com/mars<http://ac.bslw.com/mars> | How am I doing?<http://ac.bslw.com/customer_satisfaction/review.php?token=15>
Hi Everyone,
With ALA right around the corner in Orlando, FL next week, we thought it would be a good idea to reach out to our contact at Library of Congress who is directly involved with the Phase 3B cleanup.
Our contact let us know that there has been very little progress on the Phase 3B cleanup and testing. Alas, the update is that there is still no update, but we wanted to pass it on in any case. Perhaps there will be more information conveyed by the JSC during the Authority Control Interest Group on Sunday at 1:30 ET.
Also: if you're attending ALA next week, please feel free to stop by our booth (#2069) and say hello!
Thanks,
Nate
Nate Cothran, PMP | Vice President, Automation Services
Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
801.342.5697 | nate(a)bslw.com<mailto:nate@bslw.com?subject=Automated%20Services> | ac.bslw.com/mars<http://ac.bslw.com/mars> | How am I doing?<http://ac.bslw.com/customer_satisfaction/review.php?token=15>
Hi Everyone,
During the LC JSC update in the Authority Control Interest Group's session at ALA in Boston, Janis Young informed us that the NAF Phase 3B cleanup has been postponed until further notice.
Originally, the plan was aiming for April 2015 (link<http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/rda/RDA%20Task%20Groups.html>) to at least initiate the 3B cleanup. However, it appears that the committee has run into some issues to resolve in connection with the updates planned. One major component of this was to insert ISNI identifiers in 024 fields.
As we have warned in previous listserv posts, completing the 3B cleanup would entail redistributing 99% of our client's authorities to them to essentially overlay/replace at their end. Our understanding is that LC still plans on giving the community 4-6 weeks' notice before committing to a date. We do not currently know how long this postponement will last.
Please let us know any questions you may have about this information.
Thanks,
Nate
Nate Cothran, PMP | Vice President, Automation Services
Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
801.342.5697 | nate(a)bslw.com<mailto:nate@bslw.com?subject=Automated%20Services> | ac.bslw.com/mars<http://ac.bslw.com/mars> | How am I doing?<http://ac.bslw.com/customer_satisfaction/review.php?token=15>
Hi Everyone,
We have downloaded the latest version of the MeSH authority file as of late last week. As mentioned in the December 3, 2015 post, we do have the deconstruction solution in place on our side now (for your bibliographic records).
The price to retrospectively transform your bib records with MeSH headings over to the new faceted standard that NLM is following is $0.01 per record processed.
We have removed all of the MeSH authority files from each of our clients subscribing to those records. Starting Monday, January 25, we will also be applying the bibliographic transformation tool on all MeSH headings for your ongoing records, unless you instruct us to the contrary.
We are only defaulting to deconstructing 6xx MeSH headings in bibs for clients who do MeSH matching. Clients who have asked that we ignore MeSH headings will not have this transformation turned on.
For those of you that would like to transform your set of MeSH bib records to the new NLM standard, please note that you should also remove your existing MeSH authority records from your system. Once we have completed the transformation on our side, we will also deliver to you the new matching NLM authorities.
We cannot be sure that NLM is making no changes to authorities where no extra subdivisions existed in the first place. Our recommendation is to send in all bib records that have MeSH headings. Of course, please feel free to send in whatever makes sense to you in this regard.
As always, please let us know any questions or concerns you may have about this information.
Thanks,
Nate
Nate Cothran, PMP | Vice President, Automation Services
Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
801.342.5697 | nate(a)bslw.com<mailto:nate@bslw.com?subject=Automated%20Services> | ac.bslw.com/mars<http://ac.bslw.com/mars> | How am I doing?<http://ac.bslw.com/customer_satisfaction/review.php?token=15>
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/cataloging/unstringmesh.html
After consulting with NLM, who has been very open with us about their processes and plans, we have been given permission to direct you to the site listed above. Please note that this site has been put up very recently, so chances are NLM will update it with points of clarification and changes. For example, the version I'm looking at lists Folklore as a deconstructed geographic subject heading (651) rather than as an expected topical subject heading (650).
NLM is planning to deconstruct their MeSH subject headings and redistribute their authorities on January 6, 2016. According to the information in the link above, the logic behind how they plan to do this is actually more straightforward than we initially thought.
Suffice to say, we at Backstage feel confident that we can implement NLM's deconstruction processes on our side in order to transform your records with MeSH headings.
There would be some work involved on our side, though. So we would anticipate charging $0.01 per record processed for this service. Please note that this charge only applies if you do a retrospective transformation of your affected bib records with MeSH headings.
Our plan is to wipe out each client's current MeSH authority file, regardless of whether you plan to have Backstage handle the actual deconstruction of your existing set of MeSH records.
For our ongoing clients whose profile asks us to match their MeSH headings against the NLM authority file, we will automatically apply the deconstruction service to their affected records. There will be no extra cost to do this for the ongoing records we process.
Even if you hold off (indefinitely) on doing the retrospective deconstruction, we will still apply the deconstruction to your ongoing records. Of course, if you would prefer we hold off even on that, please let your project manager know: either Stephanie Hansen<mailto:stephanie@bslw.com?subject=MeSH%20Deconstruction%20-%20Hold%20on%20Ongoing%20Records> or Lee Ann Lavender<mailto:leeann@bslw.com?subject=MeSH%20Deconstruction%20-%20Hold%20on%20Ongoing%20Records>.
This is our proposal for handling NLM's planned deconstruction of its MeSH authorities:
1. Wipe out MeSH authority file from all existing clients.
2. Apply deconstruction service to ongoing clients who have selected to match against MeSH in their online profile (link<http://ac.bslw.com/community/wiki/index.php/Step_3.8>).
3. If you elect to do the retrospective deconstruction:
a. Send us all bib records with MeSH headings; or, send us all records and we can separate these out for you.
b. Backstage applies deconstruction service to your affected MeSH records.
c. Deliver to you: updated bibs and new matching NLM authorities.
d. You would then need to overlay those bibs and replace your existing MeSH authority file with what we deliver back to you.
We anticipate we can have a solution, as described above, in place by December 14.
Please let us know any questions or concerns you may have about this information.
Thanks,
Nate
Nate Cothran | Vice President, Automation Services
Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
801.342.5697 | nate(a)bslw.com<mailto:nate@bslw.com?subject=Automated%20Services> | ac.bslw.com/mars<http://ac.bslw.com/mars> | How am I doing?<http://ac.bslw.com/customer_satisfaction/review.php?token=15>
One of our esteemed clients pointed us to this announcement from NLM:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/so15/so15_cataloging_unstringing_subj…
In essence, NLM is proposing to change the way their MeSH authorities are constructed, which has far-reaching repercussions for our Backstage clients that currently receive MeSH authorities. This change is set to take place in January 2016.
NLM is re-formatting their headings in a faceted approach, very similar to how OCLC's FAST authority database treats its own headings (which are based on LC subject headings).
For instance, this single MeSH authority would transform from:
150 22 $a Cross Cultural Comparison $z Africa $v Congresses
To these separate MeSH authorities:
150 22 $a Cross Cultural Comparison
151 #2 $a Africa $x ethnology
155 #2 $a Congresses
The consequence of this change means that Backstage will no longer be able to match your headings against a MeSH authority database in the manner you have been doing up to this point. If we attempt to match headings which resemble the first example above, we would only hit on the first "Cross Cultural Comparison" MeSH authority as a partial match; essentially considering the rest of the subdivisions to be free-floating (and un-match-able at that point).
This also means that your existing MeSH authorities with the full strings in our copy of your authmaster will update from the full authority to just one of the faceted headings. Clearly this is not the desired result, so we are working on methods to ensure that your data is transformed to fall in line with the changes being made at the National Library of Medicine.
At Backstage, we could propose to try to convert your existing MeSH headings over to the new faceted format ahead of the change in January 2016. There would likely be some cost associated with this service and we would prefer to start exploring this as soon as possible in light of the approaching deadline.
The challenge we face is determining how MeSH authorities will be faceted. The information we have from NLM right now is that headings may convert from full strings to 1 or 2 subfield headings. We are working on a way to facet bibliographic headings to match the faceting scheme being used by NLM, though we do not yet have a solution in place.
To tackle the complexities that our Authority Notification process (which houses your MeSH authorities and periodically checks for updates) introduces, we are leaning towards purging the MeSH authorities from your master authority file (at your request, of course). Then, we would take all of your records which have MeSH headings, perform the conversion (when available), and add those corresponding authorities from NLM into your master file.
Then, with the Current Cataloging service (which processes your new/acquired bibs since the last time we did your processing), we would propose to apply the conversion to all MeSH headings such that we remain consistent in how those are treated going forward.
We welcome your feedback as you consider this information.
Nate Cothran | Vice President, Automation Services
Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
801.342.5697 | nate(a)bslw.com<mailto:nate@bslw.com?subject=Automated%20Services> | ac.bslw.com/mars<http://ac.bslw.com/mars> | How am I doing?<http://ac.bslw.com/customer_satisfaction/review.php?token=15>
Hi Everyone,
Last month, I sent out a post regarding the expected timing of the Phase 3B NAF cleanup. In that message, our sources were aiming for a mid-November timeframe.
However, it is looking increasingly likely that LC plans to perform the Phase 3B cleanup in early 2016. It appears that LC would prefer to run some more tests in November, wade through the holiday season, then pick things back up again in January for the actual production run.
One other item of note is the addition of ISNI fields in the authority records, as part of the Phase 3B cleanup. Perhaps we all have seen some conversation back and forth on the listservs regarding ISNIs in 024 fields.
The British Library has recommended catalogers to not manually add ISNIs to authorities. Phase 3B will likely remove existing ISNIs and add appropriately validated ISNIs as part of its own process.
Nate Cothran | Vice President, Automation Services
Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
801.342.5697 | nate(a)bslw.com<mailto:nate@bslw.com?subject=Automated%20Services> | ac.bslw.com/mars<http://ac.bslw.com/mars> | How am I doing?<http://ac.bslw.com/customer_satisfaction/review.php?token=15>
