Thursday, October 28, 2010

A STANDARD CLASSIFICATION SCHEME FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES

A couple of years ago, with the key support of the MLA, we developed a subset of the BIC Standard Subject Categories for the public library sector. You can see it at http://www.bic.org.uk/51/E4libraries-Subject-Category-Headings/.

It has stirred up a lot of interest in all parts of the library supply chain and is being implemented by a number of library authorities. It offers the opportunity to reduce cost and streamline workflows by automating the categorisation process, and to support further improvements in stock selection, management, discovery and display.

We are now moving ahead with a revised version of the scheme and targeting it very much as a new national standard. We shall be testing this proposition in two joint seminars with the National Acquisitions Group we are holding in York and London over the coming weeks. For details go to http://www.bic.org.uk/e4libraries/.

Friday, October 22, 2010

WELCOME TO THE BIC BLOG

Welcome to BIC's new blog. We hope to use it to alert members and other interested parties to the things we are doing in a more informal and immediate way than we have been able to do in the past, and to encourage comments and contributions.

We shall be posting at least once a week; so please come back soon and keep coming back!

OUR AUTUMN DIGITAL SEMINAR

Digital seminars are thicker than autumn leaves but always attract a good audience. We're particularly pleased with the line up of speakers we have for ours, which is on Tuesday 30 November at RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1. This is the fourth year in this current series, coinciding with the Online Show at Olympia, in which we attempt to tackle topical issues relating to digital publishing - not all technical or standards-related. This year Eddie Powell of lawyers Fladgate will be looking at key legal issues around the 'agency model' and territoriality, and Michael Bhaskar of Profile Books will be discussing how digital content will be discovered by readers of the future. We're particularly pleased to have a keynote presentation from George Walkley of Hachette UK and a member of our operational board on how he sees the digital landscape playing out in the months to come.

For the programme and to register, go to http://www.bic.org.uk/34/EVENTS-AND-PRESENTATIONS/.