"Be wise, standardise"

. . . is the motto of IGBIS, the Interest Group for Bibliographic Standards of the Library & Information Association of South Africa (LIASA).  The presentations from Knowledge Transfer for the Future, a one-day seminar sponsored by IGBIS and held in Durban on 24 August 2007, are available on the IGBIS web site. Speakers from South Africa, Switzerland, and the U.S. addressed standards, international cooperation, and emerging issues in description and access, name and subject authorities, the Dewey Decimal Classification, metadata, and digital imaging.

Resource Description and Access: A Cataloging Code for the Future (and related IFLA initiatives: FRBR, FRAD, IME ICC)  Dr. Barbara Tillett (Library of Congress)

South Africa Needs You: Why Your Library Should Become a NACO Member  Dr. Hester Marais (Unisa)

Viewpoint, Locality, and Universality in the DDC  Joan S. Mitchell (OCLC)

The Re-use of Subject Headings in Interoperability Projects: How to Add Value to Subject Headings  Patrice Landry (Swiss National Library)

Recent Developments in the DDC Joan S. Mitchell (OCLC)

SACO (Subject Authority Cooperative Program): What about a Follow Up of the “Kwaito” Success Story?  Welna van Eeden (Unisa)

Metadata . . . Where Are We Going?  Pat Liebetrau (Digital Imaging South Africa)

A side note: I made a last-minute addition to my first talk in response to something Justice Albie Sachs (Constitutional Court of South Africa) said earlier that week in his opening session address at the World Library and Information Congress (see here for a report on that conference). He talked about problems in finding materials on customary law, including the lack of a methodology to record customary law and the absence of forms of classification for customary law. I started thinking about how we treat the customary (traditional) law of South Africa in the DDC. We have a general number for comprehensive works on the traditional law of South Africa 340.5268 (340.52 from 340.524-340.529 Law of traditional societies in the modern world + T2—68 Republic of South Africa). Traditional law on a specific subject, e.g., inheritance and succession, is classed in the same number as the general law of South Africa on inheritance and succession, 346.68052 (built with 346 Private law + T2—68 Republic of South Africa + 052 from 346.052 Inheritance and succession, following the instructions under 342-347 Branches of law)—there is no way to show the “traditional law” aspect. I asked South African librarians to advise us on ways we might improve access to specific topics in traditional law in South Africa and elsewhere.

Comments

[Ben Gu]

Thank you for posting the useful information.