Please pardon any duplication
Cataloger’s Desktop 3.0 is now available. It is a major modernization
of the popular web-based subscription service. Desktop is the Library of
Congress’s integrated, online documentation service with the most
important cataloging and metadata resources. The re-systemization of the
service features a significantly enhanced bibliographic web-based
toolbox.
Desktop 3.0 now operates with FAST Search & Transfer’s ESP platform,
greatly expanding the search and information discovery techniques
available. InfoSolutions, the Crestview Hills, Kentucky web product
developer that has supported Cataloger’s Desktop for the past 6 years,
worked with LC staff on the re-systemization.
Updated quarterly by the Policy and Standards Division and available to
users 24-7 through the Cataloging Distribution Service, Desktop provides
access to more than 280 electronic manuals, cataloging and
classification standards, procedures, and metadata resources. Desktop
3.0 now adds more new operational enhancements to the service than ever
before.
Major Enhancements
Desktop 3.0 incorporates the most up-to-date searching and navigation,
including: fuzzy matching, finding/excluding similar resources, dynamic
drill-downs, contextual analysis, search relevancy, remembering search
histories, query federation, facetted search drill-downs, and a search
engine that adapts to a user’s search behavior. “Desktop 3.0 takes
advantage of state-of-the-art search and navigation techniques which
help users find exactly what they need faster and easier than ever
before,” said Bruce Johnson, Cataloger’s Desktop product manager.
New work environment and interface enhancements include a
subscriber-customizable interface, intuitive resource organization,
visual clues and icons to help users conceptualize the nature of a
resource and see how it interrelates with other resources, RSS feeds
from the Library of Congress and other sources, drag-and-drop shortcuts,
pages built on-the-fly based on result sets, and automatic alerts to
changes in Desktop’s resources.
“Cataloger’s Desktop 3.0,” said Beecher Wiggins, director of the
Library of Congress’s Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access
Directorate, “is a good example of the Library’s continuing
commitment to catalogers everywhere.” To that end, catalogers will
soon have ample opportunity to see Desktop 3.0 for themselves.
“Cataloger’s Desktop 3.0 will be demonstrated continually in the
Library of Congress exhibit booth at the ALA midwinter meeting in Boston
in January 2010,” announced Dr. Barbara Tillett, chief of the Library
of Congress’s Policy and Standards Division. “To help users make the
most of the new product enhancements,” she added, “Library of
Congress staff have been busy creating an array of helpful
documentation.”
To help users optimize their use of Cataloger’s Desktop 3.0, a
battery of learning aids and practical tips are now being developed and
will be accessible online shortly. These include a series in webinars in
both English and Spanish, free online training files, PowerPoint
presentations, and “at-a-glance” how-to handouts.
For more technical details visit www.loc.gov/cds/notices/desktop09.pdf
.
Visit the Cataloger’s Desktop website at www.loc.gov/cds/desktop .
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