Resource Description and Access: It’s Really Not So Bad

Abstract

This article provides a background for Comics Librarianship and the sources which can be, and are, used. The author describes the application of FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) for serials to the cataloging of the comic book format and ways to adapt these methods to flat MARC records, to aid in retrieval of items. Sample records are included for illustration of methods.     

Resource Description and Access: 2014 Update

This article summarizes a presentation given March 14, 2014, at the 23rd Annual North Carolina Serials Conference by Kurt C. Blythe and Christee Pascale. The presenters reviewed the most important developments in RDA from 2013/2014 from a serialist point of view. Additionally, the lessons learned from training for and implementing RDA at North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Libraries were described by Pascale and Blythe respectively.     

Implementation of a Federated Search System: Resource Accessibility Issues

Abstract

During 2009, the Hilton M. Briggs Library, South Dakota State University, went live with MetaLib, a federated search engine from Ex Libris. This paper presents the implementation process, addresses resource accessibility issues, and suggests a number of resources that can be consulted about these issues. Readers can apply similar strategies to projects involving federated search systems, as many implementation projects involve the same basic considerations presented here. The author did not find any studies specifically focused on configurations of MetaLib resources, so this content should be singularly useful.     

Decomposition of Seasonality and Long‐term Trend in Seismological Data: A Bayesian Modelling of Earthquake Detection Capability

This study demonstrates the decomposition of seasonality and long‐term trend in seismological data observed at irregular time intervals. The decomposition was applied to the estimation of earthquake detection capability using cubic B‐splines and a Bayesian approach, which is similar to the seasonal adjustment model frequently used to analyse economic time‐series data. We employed numerical simulation to verify the method and then applied it to real earthquake datasets obtained in and around the northern Honshu island, Japan. With this approach, we obtained the seasonality of the detection capability related to the annual variation of wind speed and the long‐term trend corresponding to the recent improvement of the seismic network in the studied region.