ISSN ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 65 | October 2003
Kinetica Chinese Japanese Korean (CJK) Service Update for 2003
This year Kinetica’s Chinese Japanese Korean (CJK) Service implemented a mixture of systems and software enhancements, data loading, and quality improvement activities on the CJK database.
In May 2003 the CJK database was set up as a target on the Kinetica Document Delivery (KDD) system, enabling CJK libraries to use the KDD software to request and supply items. This was a significant and much sought after enhancement to the service, having been high on the CJK Service wish list since its inception in 1996. To ensure that location information was current over 14 000 out-of-date holdings were deleted from the CJK database prior to implementation. Subsequently approximately 50 requests per month have been made on KDD as the result of bibliographic searching against the CJK database.
The first major contribution of public library records to the CJK database was also completed with over 12 000 City of Sydney Library’s Romanised records successfully added to the CJK database. Over 10 000 of these records are unique to the CJK database, having City of Sydney as the sole location. Close to 4000 records matched existing and better quality CJK records, with over 80 per cent of these records inheriting Chinese script in the process. Another upload of 3000 records with Chinese script coded in Unicode is pending with the next upgrade to City of Sydney’s library system. The upgrade will include improved Unicode to EACC (East Asian Character Code Set) character conversion tables, making it possible to load these records to the CJK database.
A major hardware upgrade was undertaken primarily to ensure the continuity and reliability of the services provided to CJK libraries. The former hardware and operating system was over six years old and could not be efficiently maintained. In June the National Library successfully migrated the CJK software to a new Solaris 8 server and in doing so upgraded to current technology, which will support the CJK database until it can be migrated to a single Kinetica platform.
Coverage of the database increased steadily throughout the year culminating in 1.4 million bibliographic records and 449 000 location records by July. To keep pace with coverage considerable effort was also invested in maintaining the quality of the database. Almost 56 000 duplicate records were removed—many of these were brief records without CJK script. Romanised data in over 90 000 records was upgraded to be consistent with the Pinyin Romanisation standards issued by the Library of Congress.
Other improvements to the service included:
The Annual Kinetica CJK Users Meeting was a lively forum of debate and discussion. Held in Glenelg, South Australia to coincide with this year’s Kinetica Annual Users’ Meeting in August, 17 representatives from 11 member libraries convened to discuss numerous issues including the future of the CJK Service, the establishment of a holdings only database, authority record guidelines, and the transition from EACC to Unicode. Unlike previous years only four resolutions were brought forward from this year’s meeting. Members resolved that Kinetica formalise draft guidelines for CJK authority records, establish a CJK holdings database to assist with resource sharing, continue to monitor Unicode support for CJK data, and investigate the feasibility of setting up OCLC as a Z39.50 target.
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For further details on this year’s
activities or to read the minutes of the Annual Users’ Meeting visit the
Kinetica CJK website at: <www.nla.gov.au/kinetica/cjk/events/agenda2003.html>.
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| Contents list for this issue of Gateways |
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: mbrooks@nla.gov.au