OLAC is a great place to be for all kinds of media cataloging. There are, unfortunately, many reasons why it's hard to find videos, including foreign films, in library catalogs. Some of it is the book/text-centric focus of library cataloging and some of it is the dysfunctionality of MARC and of catalog interfaces. Another challenge is that the Library of Congress only does archival moving image cataloging. This is appropriate for their collection, but leaves the rest of the library world without their leadership. For book cataloging, most libraries get a lot of records that originated with LC and usually find it practical to follow LC's example. This leads to a certain degree of standardization that is lacking in video records.
OLAC has some best practices for genre-form terms (http://www.olacinc.org/drupal/capc_files/LCGFTbestpractices.pdf or http://tinyurl.com/k7wl4ma) that do make recommendations on how to bring out the country of production and original language in genre-form headings, which I'm guessing is part of what you're concerned about. There are also fields in MARC for the country of production (257) and original language (041$h), but catalog interfaces generally don't take good advantage of them. OLAC has been working on a project to use the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model to improve access to videos in libraries. One of our hoped-for outcomes is to build a moving image-centric discovery interface that would make it easy to search for these kinds of characteristics--a sort of WorldCat focused on film and video. We are currently working on teaching a computer to parse the credits that appear in video records so that we can get that information in a form that a computer can better manipulate. This should help us create better displays, support more sophisticated searching and faceting and more accurately match library records with external sources of information. If you'd like to help out, go to http://olac-annotator.org/#/about (http://tinyurl.com/lgvhr4w). We are especially looking for people to help translate non-English credits. If you would be willing to translate ten credits per week, please email me at kell...@uoregon.edu and I will send you specific links. This should only take about ten minutes and would be a great help to us. We also have a list to discuss problems with interpreting credits at https://lists.uoregon.edu/mailman/listinfo/olac-credits (http://tinyurl.com/qa89cpq) For example, what does "scenario" mean to you in an English-language credit? Here are some samples links if you're interested in giving it a shot (more languages available from Albanian to Yiddish): ENGLISH http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228334077e9c2cbf002ef0e/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228330677e9c2cbf002ac9f/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228333477e9c2cbf002e0f9/annotate MUSIC & DANCE CATEGORY http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522832d177e9c2cbf0026ddb/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522832d277e9c2cbf0026faa/annotate ARABIC http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228325c77e9c2cbf001e57f/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228325777e9c2cbf001e04e/annotate CHINESE http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522830ee77e9c2cbf00055c7/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522830f177e9c2cbf0005912/annotate FARSI http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522830a077e9c2cbf0000066/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522830a077e9c2cbf0000065/annotate FRENCH http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228326977e9c2cbf001f674/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228328077e9c2cbf0020fb1/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228327377e9c2cbf00200cd/annotate GERMAN http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228317677e9c2cbf000e536/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228317077e9c2cbf000df47/annotate HEBREW http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228315877e9c2cbf000c311/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228315877e9c2cbf000c33d/annotate ITALIAN http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522830bb77e9c2cbf0001c84/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522830b177e9c2cbf0001260/annotate JAPANESE http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228312f77e9c2cbf0009907/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228312c77e9c2cbf00095c0/annotate KOREAN http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522831b077e9c2cbf0012482/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522831a877e9c2cbf0011cb4/annotate PORTUGUESE http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228316177e9c2cbf000cdc1/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228316177e9c2cbf000cdf8/annotate RUSSIAN http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228318b77e9c2cbf000fdc1/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228318377e9c2cbf000f421/annotate SPANISH http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228324777e9c2cbf001cccd/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228322f77e9c2cbf001b1dc/annotate SWEDISH http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228316477e9c2cbf000d11f/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228316777e9c2cbf000d3e3/annotate TURKISH http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522832e477e9c2cbf002847f/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522832e577e9c2cbf00285d1/annotate URDU http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522830ac77e9c2cbf0000c0e/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/522830a677e9c2cbf0000635/annotate VIETNAMESE http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228315c77e9c2cbf000c785/annotate http://olac-annotator.org/#/note/5228315b77e9c2cbf000c61c/annotate Kelley McGrath Metadata Management Librarian University of Oregon Libraries kell...@uoregon.edu ________________________________ From: videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu [videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu] on behalf of Chris Lewis [cle...@american.edu] Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2014 6:38 AM To: Videolib Subject: Re: [Videolib] Is there a listserv or good online forum where video catalogers congregate? Many thanks to all for the helpful replies. OLAC seems to be the place to be. On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 12:16 PM, Chris Lewis <cle...@american.edu<mailto:cle...@american.edu>> wrote: I'm forever frustrated by the varying use of subject headings employed in cataloging videos especially for foreign language films and hope to turn our catalogers on to to some expert opinions. -- Chris Lewis American University Library 202.885.3257<tel:202.885.3257> -- Chris Lewis American University Library 202.885.3257 For latest Media Services News: Blog: http://aulibmedia.blogspot.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AULibMedia Twitter: http://twitter.com/aulibmedia Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/aulibmedia/
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
