Articles on XML for library applications

[Chang, Sheau-Hwang]

Please excuse cross-postings.

Dear colleague,

The _OCLC Systems & Services_ journal recently published a special issue on
XML for library applications.

Cole, Timothy.  (2002)  "Qualified Dublin Core Metadata for Online Journal
Articles," OCLC Systems & Services, Vol. 18, No.3, pp: 79-87.

Timothy is the Mathematics Librarian and Associate Professor of Library
Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL.  He
describes his experience with encoding Qualified Dublin Core (DCQ) metadata
in RDF/XML and concludes that although there are still some issues that need
to be resolved, generally speaking expressing DCQ metadata in RDF/XML is
still worthwhile.  However, initial investment in some cases may not be
warranted.  The draft DCMI guidelines for expressing DCQ metadata in RDF/XML
are adequate for generating DCQ/RDF metadata instances.  The current need is
to develop applications that will use these metadata instances to enhance
resources management and discovery.

Lam, Ki-Tat.  (2002) "XML and Global Name Access Control," OCLC Systems &
Services, Vol. 18, No.3, pp: 88-95.

Ki-Tat is the Head of Systems, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Library, Hong Kong.  In his article, Ki-Tat discusses why MARC21 is ideal
for Anglo-American names, but not suitable for non-Latin names.  He provides
three suggestions: making 1XX field repeatable, improving linking capability
between related forms of a name by avoiding the subfield 6 in tag 880, and
adding a subfield to store language script used in each tag field.  Ki-Tat
also stresses that encoding MARC in XML provides possibility to expand
"authority control" to "access control".  Lastly, he illustrates a method of
using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) technology to provide name access
control globally.

Rhyno, Art.  "XML and Relational Databases: Uses and Opportunities for
Libraries,"  OCLC Systems & Services, Vol. 18, No.3, pp: 97-103.

Art is the Systems Librarian at the Leddy Library, University of Windsor,
Ontario, Canada.  His article describes how an XML encoded document can be
transported to a relational database management system (RDBMS).  Once
transported, SQL (Structured Query Language) can be used to retrieve the
desired information.  Choice of database type (relational or
object-oriented) may be different depending on whether the data is
data-centric or document-centric.  Many middleware are available for mapping
MARC to XML-based relational database.  Art continues on with the
applications of OpenURL.  Because the framework is encoded in XML, it can
take advantages of Xinclude, Xpath, and Xlink mechanisms.  He compares the
Web to a growing RDBMS, which contains rows of Web links.  When encoded with
the OpenURL framework, it is possible to provide extensive search and
retrieval functions in web-based library services.   

The editorial gives a general introduction to XML applications related to
the development of future library systems in the digital world.  It is
entitled "XML - The Foundation for the Next Generation Library Management
System."  pp: 64-66.

_OCLC Systems & Services_ is a refereed quarterly publication with an
international audience.  It is published by Emerald MCB University Press, a
London-based publisher.  Cataloging, Dublin Core, and XML development are
some of this jouranl's concentrations.  If you would like to share your
ideas and experiences, please do not hesitate to contact me at
<schang at bridgew.edu>.

Best regards,
Sheau-Hwang Chang
Editor of OSS

Librarian
Clement C. Maxwell Library
Rm. 240
Bridgewater State College
Bridgewater, MA 02325
TEL: 508-531-1766
Fax: 508-531-5766
E-mail: schang at bridgew.edu