New Project Managers Sought for OSC

Due to an increase in work commitments for both Laena and David new leaders are sought for the OSC project. Below is a status report of the project. Interested leaders should contact Tim at tim@librarything.com

OSC status report June 2009:

One year into the project, here is what we have accomplished so far:
-Many wide-ranging discussions were held in the LibraryThing Build
the Open Shelves Classification group and the OSC
blog.

-Optional facets were agreed upon initially as the way to handle
audience, format, and language.

-An initial list of top level categories was compiled by the end of
2008 and put out for review.

-In January 2009, LibraryThing members tested these categories by
applying them to works in LibraryThing using the ClassifyThis feature.

-In January, a brainstorming meeting was held at the ALA midwinter
meeting and was attended by librarians and non-librarians.

-In February, the feedback from the testing was used to further
refine the top level categories.

-Starting in February and running through May, small groups began to
construct the secondary levels for certain categories.

-Throughout the spring, Laena and David did outreach for the project,
writing pieces for the PLA blog and the IFLA newsletter, and reached
out to libraries in an unsuccessful search for public library data.

-In May, the current list of categories of the OSC was added to
sandbox of the National Science Digital Library Metadata Registry.

Categories with second levels in development:
-Art
-Biography & Autobiography
-Design
-Fiction
-History
-Performing Arts
-Religion
-Science

After working on the project for a year, we have the following recommendations:
-The project needs a steering committee structure for leadership. The
project is too large in scope for one or two librarians to manage without other leadership.

-More involvement and leadership from public librarians! They know
the intended audience of the OSC best.