Terry’s Worklog

Yesterday, I posted pictures of my families first three jack-o-lanterns.  These were Kenny, Nathan and Alyce’s pumpkins – but I didn’t have one.  So, I went to the store and picked up a new pumpkin so I could carve my own jack-o-lantern.  I had an idea of what I wanted – over the past two years, I’ve been interested in doing a Simpson’s themed pumpkin – but I’ve always been busy cutting the boy’s pumpkins.  Well, this year, I finally got a chance to carve out my Devil Flanders pumpkin.  I think it turned out well – pictures below.

Devil Flanders in the light

Devil Flanders in the dark

–TR

This last weekend I had the opportunity to head out to DC for a couple of days and present on the topic of modifying vendor records using MarcEdit to the American Association of Law Libraries.  It was a quick trip.  I flew in on Saturday and was out by Monday, but one that I enjoyed for a number of reasons.

First, what did I do?   Well, I gave two talks, if you will.  The first was on using MarcEdit to deal with vendor records.  Given the length of time allotted (60 minutes) – I focused primarily on two main aspects of the program – the MarcEditor and the Delimited Text Translator.  The goal of the session really was to help attendees be able to leave the room with the knowledge that they would need to start editing records right away.  Hopefully, that was accomplished.  However, this talk also represented a first for me, in that this was the first time that I gave a presentation on MarcEdit while running MarcEdit natively on Linux.  This is something that I do at work because I can live with a few of the less polished aspects of the program – but over the past month or so, I’ve been doing work on MarcEdit to specifically address those areas in need of polish on non-Windows systems and this weekend was kindof the coming out party.  I know that this will make a number of people happy (a small vocal few that have been asking how to run MarcEdit on non-windows systems).  I know the first question I may get in regards to this development is, how can I run MarcEdit on my [insert non-windows] system?  And to those with that question, I’m going to ask for more patience.  There are 4 or 5 significant areas where I still want to correct before I officially start hosting and posting instructions on how to run MarcEdit on a non-windows platform.  Some of these things are simply UI things to update, others are related to ensuring that MarcEdit’s many ancillary tools can be initiated.  But I am working on it, and give my “test” run this weekend, I’m a lot more comfortable with how the program looks and runs than ever before. 

Anyway, the second talk that I give was really more of a question and answer period.  I hosted a round-table on MarcEdit, allowing people with specific questions or issues to come and ask their questions.  This was also a good time for me, because I get a chance to talk with folks using the program and get a feel for the types of problems that they may or may not be having with the application – as well as get some great ideas for where I might make improvements.

Oh, and while I was at AALL, I did take a chance to drop into a few of the sessions though I quickly realized that I was out of my element when the discussion turned to the bar, laws and codes in general. 

All and all, it was a nice trip.  I learned a few things, got some great feedback, and had an opportunity to spend a little time in our Nation’s capital (a place that never fails to leave me inspired). 

–TR

I posted an update to MarcEdit on Thursday.  The scope of the update is limited – a new function in the MarcEditor (copy field), enhancements to the validator, etc.  Nothing earth shaking.  I’m still working on a few larger initiatives – but wanted to get a few bug fixes/convenience functions out to people.

As always, you can pick it up from: MarcEdit_Setup.msi

–TR

I just picked up a new bike.  It’s a Felt Z70.  Love this bike.  Can’t wait to take it on my first big ride.  Here’s a picture.

–TR

What started out as an idea to help out some colleagues stranded in state by travel restrictions will become a reality.  Kyle Banerjee and I hatched our plan in late March – since really no-one from the west coast was able to attend code4lib in providence (and won’t next year as well) – we figured we would bring it to the PNW.  And thanks to Oregon State University, the University of Oregon (who is providing facilities in Portland) and the Orbis Cascade Alliance – it’s on.  At present, there are just over 50 people registered (it’s capped at 60 due to the location) and I think we have a pretty good schedule of speakers.  We’ll have lighting talks, 9, 20 minute presentations, and a raffle (with secret prizes) that would make the formal Code4Lib conference drool with envy (thank you Karyle and OSU).  Whether or not we can record the sessions (we might) is still up in the air – but the closer we get, the more I’m looking forward to it.  Hopefully, this will be the first of many meetings in the PNW, with an eye towards maybe trying to bring the main conference back to its unofficial home, Oregon , in 2 or 3 years.  I’ll post more after the conference wraps up next Thursday.

–TR

What a fantastic movie.  I love Pixar movies because I know that I can take the kids and they will enjoy it and there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll like it too.  However, after last year’s Wall-E (which I loved), I had pretty high expectations going into the theatre this afternoon when my wife and I took the kids and I wasn’t to be disappointed.

Up! is exactly what you’ve come to expect from Pixar (but in Digital 3-d).  First, the story.  Up is a sweet story about an old man keeping a promise to his wife – and along the way, he meets a number of new friends.  Now my wife, she will tell you it’s a tear jerker (she shed many a tear) – as for my boys and they will tell you that it was hilarious.  With my boys, I can always gauge how good a movie is for them by how involved they are.  For this movie, they were laughing, hollering at the screen and having a good time.  I’m not sure my oldest every really sat in his seat (he gets fidgety when he’s engrossed) and my youngest was telling me all the time how bad the villain in the story was.  By the end, they were walking out the movie telling me how much they would like to get it when it comes out on DVD. 

Anyway, I won’t talk at all about the plot, etc. – but if you have kids – especially young kids (mine are 4 and 7) – they will like this movie.  And as a bonus, you will too. 

–TR

So over the last weekend (Sat – Mon., May 16-18), I was at Timberline Lodge near Portland, Oregon for the annual Timberline Acquisitions Conference (9th annual anyway).  The conference is one that I would generally not attend (what do I know about acquisitions other than you buy things) – but this year I had been approached with giving the Keynote.  The group was looking for someone to give a talk on Open Source/Open Data – and that I can talk about.    Overall, I think that the talk was successful.  I’ve posted the slides from my talk into the OSU IR and will update the URL as soon as it gets it’s way through the submission process, though honestly, my slides are generally desolate of information – I like to use them primarily as a place holder. 

From the conference, there were a few gems that I came away with.  One came from a presentation by the folks at BYU discussing the VLC media player/server for setting up your own home grown video streaming service.  It was an interesting talk – primarily because I’d primarily associated VLC media player use with folks that tend to utilize unofficial copies of media.  Its very popular with that crowd due to its ability to pretty much read any media format (including some fairly rare codex).  And while the folks from BYU did comment that by requiring the student body to utilize the VLC media player has resulted in an increase in what you might call, questionable media use by their students, it also provided an infrastructure for setting up high-quality streaming video. 

For me, much of the remainder of the conference was getting to meet new people, talk to folks about issues related to the licensing of academic content and spending time with my family on the mountain.  Unlike many other conferences that I attend, since this one was in Oregon, my wife and kids accompanied me to Timberline.  For the boys, the trip was one that they had been looking forward to for months.  They were really excited about the possibility of getting to play in the snow.  And I think that Alyce was looking forward to getting to have a bit of a miniature vacation (especially since I was travelling to Columbus right after my time at Timberline). 

So a couple of things about Timberline.  Most people, whether they realize it or not, have likely seen the lodge.  The Timberline lodge stood in as the hotel for The Shining (at least, for the outside shots of the lodge in the movie).  I’ll admit, when I found out, I was wishing I would have brought the movie, and was, somewhat disappointed that I didn’t see the river of blood getting off the elevators.  Oh, well.  Timberline is also the only place in Oregon where you can ski year round.  The lodge is located at the base of one of the many glaciers that reside on the mountain year round.  Though, at this point of the year, there is still probably 120 inches of snow on the mountain around the lodge.

Back to the fun.  I was able to do a few things with Alyce and the boys.   We played in the pool (yes, there was snow around it), had snow ball fights and just played.  I’ve attached a few pictures below for anyone that is interested.

–TR

Playing in the pool – yes, that is snow in the background

 
From above the lodge on the mountain

From the top of what is known as the Miracle Mile – around 7500 ft.

Snowball fighting

 
Burying Kenny in the snow

So, I’ve been a little neglectful keeping up with the blogging due to a number of other outside activities.  Over the past couple of months, I’ve done a good deal of writing and publishing.  In order, I’ve had the following articles published:

LRTS:
Reese, T. (2009, April). Automated Metadata Harvesting: Low-Barrier MARC Record Generation from OAI-PMH Repository Stores Using MarcEdit. Library Resources & Technical Services, 53(2), 121-134. Retrieved May 26, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

ReadEx Newsletter
Reese, T.  (2009, April).  How Libraries Can Win in Today’s Web 2.0  Environment.  Readex eNewsletter, 4(2).  Retrieved May 26, 2009, from http://www.newsbank.com/readex/newsletter.cfm?newsletter=237

OLA
Reese, T.  (2009, Spring).   LibraryFind™:  The Development of a Shared  Library Platform at  Oregon State University Libraries.  OLA Quarterly, 15(1), 17-19.  Retrieved May 26, 2009, from http://data.memberclicks.com/site/ola/olaq_15no1.pdf

Coming: Article in the OSU Messenger

I’ve also been doing a bit of grant writing, helping the OSU libraries sheppard two grants (one an LSTA grant and one a joint NSF grant with MIT, Georgia Tech and Rice University) through the writing and submission process and a little outside consulting, including putting on a handful of MarcEdit workshops this spring/summer.

And finally, I’d mentioned this on facebook, but this month I was notified this month that I have successfully navigated the promotion and tenure process here at OSU, meaning that in July, I’ve joined the ranks of the tenured academic community.  It represents a lot of work by many – especially my wife who sacrificed much in terms of time and patience.  

–TR

Just posted a small update to MarcEdit 5.1.  The biggest change is in the Z39.50 client – adding Unicode retrival to the Z39.50 batch tool.  However, I’ve also included changes to the Validator, expanded the delete field function, etc.

You can find it at: MarcEdit_Setup.msi

–TR

I wrote this up some time ago, but I still occasionally get questions about it (in fact, I got one today, hence this note).  The Project Gutenberg (PG) provides its metadata for download in RDF format on it’s website at: http://www.gutenberg.org/feeds/catalog.rdf.zip.  I wrote an XSLT transformation for this data (fairly basic) when I was visiting the Internet Archive last year, and posted it here: http://oregonstate.edu/~reeset/marcedit/html/downloads.html (or directly, at: Project Gutenberg RDF = MARC).  

Running the RDF records through MarcEdit using this stylesheet produce the following MARC21 recordset: http://oregonstate.edu/~reeset/marcedit/anonymous/catalog.zip.  The process is really a straightforward one.  You download the above XSLT stylesheet, register it with MarcEdit and then you can be off on your merry way translating data to your heart’s content.  Of course, occasionally, folks ask about translating into other metadata formats, and that’s cool too.  If you can work with the API, you can do this in one step.  However, if you plan on using the MarcEdit UI, you need to do it in two. 

1. Setup a PG => MARCXML translation (the xslt stylesheet above will do that)
2. Create or use one of MarcEdit’s provided MARCXML => [format] stylesheets to complete the translation.

So, it’s really a two step process.  While many of the YouTube videos that I’ve uploaded in the past few days cover parts of this process, I decided to upload on final video on the topic that demonstrates this process (processing the PG data into both MARC and MODS3) as a reference case for future users looking to do something similar.  Hopefully this will help.  You can find the video here:

Cheers,

–TR