Some good news to pass along in the runup to ALA later this week:
1.) The OCLC report to the Committee on Cataloging: Asian and African Materials includes a note reiterating a statement given at ALC in Madison back in April:
“OCLC is making plans to add additional scripts during fiscal year 2013, including support for some African scripts.”
This is good news! It will allow us to provide more accuracy in the bibliographic data we produce, linking more easily to fully digitized text, and improve access for users, through the use of Extended Latin and Ethiopic.
2.) In the first set of five campaigns launched by Unglue.it (an initiative led by Eric Hellman, formerly of OCLC), at the top of the list for republication is Ruth Finnegan’s 1970 classic “Oral Literature in Africa”, which is so far drawing in 89 91 101 (!) % of the pledges it will need for its goal to be met. The campaign closes in three days; if successful, it would mean free distribution of electronic copies of Finnegan’s work (558 p.), along with associated audio. Please consider joining the effort to ‘unglue‘ it with your support!
Cataloging Africana 