OCLC CJK Users Group 2003 Annual Meeting
Friday, March 28, 2003
Flushing Library
Queens Borough Public Library
41-17 Main Street
Flushing, New York 11355

(Continental Breakfast provided)

Agenda

11:00-11:10 a.m. Break

11:10-12:00 p.m. OCLC Reports

12:00-12:30 p.m. Open Discussion Session


Minutes

    Wen-ling Liu, Chair, convened the meeting at 8:30 a.m. She welcomed all the participants and thanked OCLC for hosting the meeting.

    Convener:   Wen-ling Liu, Indiana University
    Recorder:   Toshie Marra, University of California, Los Angeles (Session 1)
                          Kenneth Klein, University of Southern California (Session 2)
    Photographer:    Abraham Yu

     

    Session 1

    Chair's Report -Wen-ling Liu (Click here for the PowerPoint presentation)

    Ms. Wen-ling Liu, Chair, convened the meeting at 9:45 a.m.  She welcomed all the participants, and thanked OCLC and the staff of Flushing Library for hosting the meeting.  She, in particular, thanked the following colleagues: Maria Kaczmar, Flushing Library Program Manager; Alan Wagner, Manager of the International Resource Center of the Queens Borough Public Library; and Gary Strong, Director, Queens Borough Public Library.  

    Ms. Liu introduced the current officers, appointed officers, and task force members:

    Current officers (2001-2003):

    ·        Chair: Wen-ling Liu, Indiana University

    ·        Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, 2001-2002: Philip Melzer, Library of Congress

    ·        Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, 2002-2003: Kenneth Klein, University of

    Southern California

    ·        Chinese Officer: Meng-fen Su, University of Texas at Austin

    ·        Japanese Officer: Toshie Marra, University of California, Los Angeles

    ·        Korean Officer: Mikyung Kang, University of California, Los Angeles

    ·        Member-at-Large: Vickie Fu Doll, University of Kansas

     

    Appointed Officers (2001-2003):

    ·        Webmaster: Abraham Yu, University of California, Irvine

    ·        Pinyin Conversion Task Force, 1999-2002:

    Chair: Hsi-chu Bolick, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

     Members: Sarah Elman, University of California, Los Angeles (presently at  

     Yale), Wen-ling Liu, Meng-fen Su, and Daphne Wang, University of Oregon

     

    Ms. Liu then announced the election results, and introduced the new officers who will serve from 2003-2005:

    ·        Chair: Kenneth Klein, University of Southern California

    ·        Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Hsi-chu Bolick, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

    ·        Chinese Officer: Xiaoli Li, University of Washington

    ·        Japanese Officer: Hitoshi Kamada, University of Arizona

    ·        Korean Officer: Sun-Yoon Lee, University of Southern California

    ·        Member-at-Large: Ai-lin Yang, University of California, Berkeley

     

    Ms. Liu summarized the major activities of the past year:

    ·        Continuous membership recruitment all year long-238 voting members from 77 institutions as of March 14, 2003 (104 more members, 5 fewer institutions)

    ·        Bylaws amendment of Article VIII-voted and passed (September 2002)

    ·        Establishment of the Task Force on Metadata and Electronic Resources

    Chair: Hideyuki Morimoto, Columbia University

    Members:        Mikyung Kang, Toshie Marra, Zhijia Shen, University of Pittsburgh

    ·        Second Local Pinyin Conversion Survey

    ·        Questionnaire on preparation of metadata for remotely accessible East Asian vernacular electronic resources

    ·        Program Committee's coordination and planning for the 2003 annual meeting program

    ·        Continuing communication with OCLC about the Group's needs and plans

    Ms. Liu thanked Ms. Hisako Kotaka, OCLC, for her prompt responses to the questions from the Users Group members. 

    Program Committee Meeting:

    Mr. Kenneth Klein, Chair of the Program Committee, welcomed the audience and began the session.

    Flushing Library's Services to East Asians-Alan Wagner, Manager, International Resource Center, Queens Borough Public Library (Click here for the prepared text)

    Mr. Alan Wagner introduced the Queens Borough Public Library, which, in addition to serving a very diverse community, is one of the public libraries that circulates the most books. The Flushing Library houses the Adult Learning Center, the Flushing Branch, and the International Resource Center. He briefly introduced the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language collections, InfoLinQ, the system-wide online catalog, WorldLinQ, a multi-lingual Web-based information system, and the services and special programs offered at the Flushing/Queens Library.

    CJK Cataloging Process-Ju-Hwa Lin, Senior Cataloger, Technical Services Department, Flushing Library (Click here for the prepared text)

    Ms. Ju-Hwa Lin introduced the cataloging procedure for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language materials at the Queens Borough Public Library.  She reported on the workflow of searching with vernacular scripts on the library's OPAC, InfoLinQ. Because of the requirement for transliteration of the CJK languages, Global IME's design of inputting vernacular scripts is difficult for many library users.  The library is currently experimenting with a handwriting recognition device called "Xiao Mengtian" (小蒙恬).  Ms. Lin asked the audience for any input regarding Xiao Mengtian and/or any other handwriting or speech recognition devices.

    Pinyin Conversion Survey Report-Meng-fen Su (Click here for the PowerPoint presentation)

    Ms. Meng-fen Su reported on the findings from the OCLC CJK Users Group Local Pinyin Conversion Survey, which was sent out by email on February 5, 2003.  The survey received 33 returns by March 4, 2003.  Among the 22 institutions which used or planned to use the OCLC Pinyin Conversion Services, 2 have completed all the works, 13 have been reviewing converted records, 2 have not begun reviewing the converted records, 1 is in queue, and 4 have not yet sent records for conversion.

    Task Force on Metadata and Electronic Resources Report-Toshie Marra (Click here for the PowerPoint presentation)

    Ms. Toshie Marra reported on the activities of the Task Force on Metadata and Electronic Resources and, in particular, on the findings from the survey which was sent out by email in February 2003 to identify current practices and training needs of East Asian librarians in preparing metadata for remotely accessed East Asian vernacular electronic resources.  The survey received 13 individual responses from 12 institutions.

    (break)

    Session 2

    OCLC Reports

    Marty Withrow, Director, Product Development Division (Click here for the PowerPoint presentation)

    Reason for the choice of Flushing Library as the site for the meeting was that the cost of a hotel room rental was very extravagant.  The meeting was held on Friday instead of Saturday in order to accommodate those who cannot stay longer than Friday.  On the other hand, this caused a conflict for those who wished to attend both the OCLC and the RLIN meetings.

    Certificates of appreciation were presented to the outgoing Users Group officers and the members of the Pinyin Conversion Task Force.

    Product Development Update

    1. Connexion-Metadata Road Map
    2. WorldCat Migration to Oracle
    3. Connexion Client
    4. CJK Implementation
    5. Additional information

    www.oclc.org/connexion/

    www.oclc.org/connexion/migrate

    www.oclc.org/connexion/migrate/tips.shtm

    www.oclc.org/prod/cataloging/features.xls

     

    Questions and Answers

    Q1.  With OCLC NACO, will we be able to add vernacular text?

    A1.  OCLC cannot commit to that yet, as it depends on initiative from the     National Office in the Library of Congress.

     

    Q2.  On the matter of field 505 content, will there be field size limitations in the new system?

    A2.  No.  Currently, there is a 4K limitation, but that will go away.

     

    Q3.  Will the language coding for CJK scripts be converted to UNICODE for the entire record?

    A3.  Yes, this is being looked at now.

     

    Q4.  For the migration to Connexion, will there be a user survey to ask for desired features?

    A4.  We will consider that.

     

    Q5.  Will diacritics be accommodated?

    A5.  This capability was added in February for CJK.  The new diacritic capability for Connexion applies to the system as a whole.

     

    Q6.  When will the old OCLC system be phased out?

    A6.  The phase will be fairly short, since it is expensive to maintain two systems, but we cannot say exactly when at present.  There will be plenty of notice beforehand.

     

    Q7.  Has OCLC complete pinyin conversion for WorldCat?

    A7.  This is a question for Chris Mottayaw.

    Hisako Kotaka  (Click here for the PowerPoint presentation)

    OCLC CJK Update

    1. CJK Cataloging Users
    2. OCLC CJK Database
    3. CJK FirstSearch
    4. CJK Technical Update

    Questions and Answers

    Q1 Is it not true that catalog records for serials, as well as for books, are exchanged between OCLC and RLIN?

    A1.  Those are CONSER records, contributed to both databases.

     

    Q2.  Pinyin conversion records in OCLC tend to done locally rather than on master records because of fee charges.  Is there any motivation for editing the master records?

    A2.  Members will be credited for updating master records.

     

    Q3.  How long do we need to keep adding the 987 field, relative to pinyin conversion?

    A3.  For as long as the pinyin conversion process is ongoing overall.

     

    Q4.  Will there be a second pinyin conversion to bring records up to standard?

    A4.  There are no plans as of now.

     

    Chris Mottayaw (Click here for the PowerPoint presentation)

    OCLC Custom Services

    1. OCLC Retrocon
    2. OCLC TechPro
    3. OCLC Language Sets
    4. OCLC MARS - Pinyin Conversion

    Question and Answers

    Q1.  For TechPro, do libraries send the books/materials or title pages?

    A1.  Both approaches are used.

     

    Q2.  Are there plans to include Hebrew and Yiddish in the languages sets?

    A2.  Not yet.

     

    Q3.  For outsourcing, how many languages does OCLC handle?

    A3.  OCLC will try any language.

     

    Q4.  Why is there incompatibility between IME and OCLC CJK?

    Q5.  OCLC was developed first and it is difficult to adapt to all other versions.  Best approach is to select English as the default language and then to select other languages as needed.  When using OCLC CJK, should be on English IME.

     

    Q6.  When LC updates OCLC records, it overlays the member's record and can wipe out vernacular 505 records or other CJK data.  How can members' work be preserved?

    A6.  This is because LC records outrank those of other OCLC users.  We will check with the batchload people to see if there is a way to protect CJK data.  The Oracle platform should allow for more flexibility in this regard, so that such data may be retained in your local database, even though it has been overlaid in the overall OCLC database.

    When later (6/4/03) requested for clarification on this answer, Mr. Mottayaw responded:

      "The problem in this situation is that the LC records always overlay an existing record in WorldCat from a member library, regardless of the length or completeness of either record. We are hoping that this can be remedied with the Oracle platform, but until that time, we are unable to change the loading requirements since we do want LC records to overlay less complete records in most other cases....We aren't absolutely sure that Oracle will eliminate the problem. But it is being investigated!"

     

    Q7.  Japanese records have a lower percentage of records without vernacular script.  Can OCLC help with this?

    A7.  OCLC cannot add CJK script without access to original sources.  There is, though, motivation for enhancing records.

     

    Wei-ling Liu

    For Authority records, the Library of Congress has two projects planned.

    1. Adding vernacular scripts in 400 fields.
    2. Links from 700 fields to original language titles, for those titles translated from other languages to CJK languages.