Pat Riva, Chair of the Consolidation Editorial Group that wrote the definition of the IFLA LRM model: IFLA Library Reference Model :  a conceptual model for bibliographic information.  , was invited to deliver the Lectio magistralis in Library Science at the University of Florence on March 6th, 2018.

Pat spoke about the IFLA Library Reference Model. The IFLA Library Reference Model : lectio magistralis in library science = Il modello concettuale IFLA Library Reference Model : lectio magistralis in biblioteconomia. The text of the lecture is available in English and in Italian.

The fifth and latest edition of the ISBN standard has been published by ISO (International Organization for Standardization). The new standard has been developed by an international working group of 41 experts from 14 countries who were involved with the project for three years, providing advice, feedback and discussion points as the work progressed. There are significant changes in the standard. Notably, metadata specifications have been revised to be in line with ONIX 3.0., and the scope for eligible products has been clarified. The Users’ Manual and FAQs have been revised as well and are available in English.

A working group that includes some members of the PREMIS Editorial Committee plus external Linked Data experts and preservation practitioners, is working on the preparation of a new OWL ontology. This ontology is not just an update of the previous version but rather a re-imagining of how to express preservation metadata as Linked Data. This is a work in progress, and a draft will be released soon for a period of public review and feedback.

Articles written by experts in cataloguing and bibliographic standardisation explain how French libraries introduce new cataloguing rules and practices.

[En français]

A meeting about Impact of the IFLA Library Reference Model on ISBD, RDA and other bibliographic standards was held at Wrocław University Library on 25 August 2017, following the IFLA World Library and Information Congress. The meeting and its outcomes continue the on-going effort to harmonize the treatment of serials in RDA, ISBD, and the ISSN Manual, further to the discussion hosted by the RSC at its meeting in Frankfurt in November 2016.

During the RSC meeting at the Biblioteca Nacional de España, there was a community outreach event entitled Preparing for the New Toolkit. This event was recorded and can be viewed on the BNE website. On the agenda was a presentation by Gordon Dunsire about serials, aggregates and changes over time.

Short presentations from representatives of relevant standards bodies were followed by intense and fruitful discussions on the modelling of serials, manifestations, and items in the Library Reference Model. Gordon Dunsire’s presentation on RDA and the LRM is available.

The RDA (Resource Description and Access) Toolkit Restructure and Redesign (3R) Project is a year-long effort to improve the RDA Toolkit in several different ways. Restructuring includes generalizing existing instructions, and incorporating new elements from the IFLA Library Reference Model. Redesign includes greater flexibility in the display of instructions, improved user interaction with the Toolkit, and better tracking of revision history. The 3R project will extend into Summer of 2018 with an initial rollout of the new Toolkit on June 13, 2018, and an additional rollout in late August/early September.

The principal mission of JATS4R (JATS for Reuse) is to optimize the reusability of scholarly content tagged in JATS XML, by developing XML tagging best practices. JATS4R is an actively growing international and inclusive working group comprising publishers, archivists, persistent-identifier people, and other stakeholders.

The September NASIG newsletter reported on the best sessions held in Indianapolis, IN, USA in June 2017. Notably, Andrew Senior, coordinator for e-resources and serials at McGill University, presented Bringing It All Together: Mapping Continuing Resources Vocabularies for Linked Data Discovery. He spoke about the continuing resources vocabularies that are emerging as primary possibilities for linked data, and some of the challenges the serials community should be aware of regarding the extent to which these vocabularies work together in a linked data environment. He discussed BIBFRAME 2.0, PRESSoo, RDA, and Schema.org.

ICEDIS held a meeting just ahead of the Frankfurt Book Fair on 9 October. The central focus was set on ONIX-PC, covering both its active and increasing use in the supply chain and several enhancements proposed.

ICEDIS members will then meet again at the Charleston Conference on 7 November. This session will update participants on ICEDIS news and also wider developments in a number of areas covered by EDItEUR, notably ONIX for Books, Thema and others. Graham Bell will also speak on behalf of EDItEUR: Are we done solving metadata problems?

The International Agency has registered a further increase in membership over recent months, with three new Registration Agencies being established by Casalini Libri, IDA (the Identification Agency, in Russia) and PCC (the Program for Cooperative Cataloging), whilst Brill Publishers has joined ISNI-IA as a regular Member.

Equally exciting has been continued interest in the possibilities of using ISNI to uniquely identify and disambiguate musical artists and performers and to offer similar facilities to actors, directors and producers in the film industry. As shown by the numerous active enquiries in these areas, the workflow challenges and requirements for unique, machine-usable and interoperable party identification are quite generic and are shared across domains far beyond those originally served by the ISNI standard.