No LR van Fri 5/1 and more...

The Lakes Region (LR) ILL van delivery is cancelled for Friday, May 1. Affected libraries are as follows:

NH State Prison, Concord
Hill
Bristol
Meredith
Center Harbor
Moultonborough
Wolfeboro
Alton
Gilford
Laconia
Sanbornton

Thank you,
Jennifer M. Finch (she/her)
Reference Librarian and State Data Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library 

   

This is the first in a series of seven weekly blog posts written by Zahra Gordon which will explain “Linked Data,” an emerging topic in the library field, and how it relates to “Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs),” which are appearing in the subfields of MARC records with increasing frequency.

 There’s been a lot of talk in the library community (especially the library cataloging community) lately about “linked data.” Linked data is “a set of best practices for publishing structured data on the Web” (https://www.w3.org/wiki/LinkedData). Simply put, linked data uses links to structure information in a way that makes it more readable by computers.

Why is this important to libraries? The idea is that using links to make library data more readable by computers will make it findable by automated tools outside of the library catalog and connect it to other sources of information outside of the catalog. So, people searching outside of the catalog can find our resources more easily, and we can more easily find further information about our resources that’s located elsewhere.

In catalog records, these links take the form of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), defined as “unique sequences of characters that identify abstract or physical resources” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier). The Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) that we’ve added to our records for years (often in subfield $u of MARC field 856) are a type of URI.

URIs are increasingly being added to fields and subfields in MARC records and are just a preliminary step in turning library data into linked data. Eventually, the idea is that MARC will be replaced by tools and models such as BIBFRAME that allow library data to be entirely created and edited according to linked data principles.

Zahra Gordon is the Cataloger at the New Hampshire State Library. Before coming to the State Library, she worked as a cataloger for a contract cataloging agency serving government libraries in the Washington Metropolitan Area and then for YBP Library Services (now GOBI Library Solutions) in Contoocook, New Hampshire.

   

As of 11:30am today [Wednesday, Apr. 29], approximately 75% of NH public libraries have submitted their annual reports. Well done! However, I’m still expecting surveys from a little over 50 libraries. Let’s go, folks!

I’ve sent emails to the directors of those 50+ libraries requesting a status update. If someone other than the director in your ‘brary does the survey, forward this message to them and ask them to contact me, pretty please with data on top.

The end (of the survey) is nigh!

Thanks all,
Jennifer M. Finch (she/her)
Reference Librarian and State Data Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library
N.H. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources
20 Park St.
Concord, NH 03301
Office: 603-271-2060
Ref Desk: 603-271-2144
Jennifer.M.Finch@dncr.nh.gov

   

Due to illness, today’s North Country (NC) ILL van route cancelled [Wednesday, Apr. 28]. The affected libraries are:

Twin Mountain
Plymouth
Rumney
Wentworth
Warren
Lyme
Orford
Piermont
Haverhill
North Haverhill
Monroe
Woodsville
Bath
Lisbon
Littleton
Bethlehem

Thank you,
Jennifer M. Finch (she/her)
Reference Librarian and State Data Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library
 

   

There will be no SW-A ILL van deliveries on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. The affected libraries are:

Dartmouth College
Hanover - Howe
Lebanon
Meriden
River Valley CC - Claremont
Claremont
Walpole
Keene
Peterborough
Wilton

Thank you,
Jennifer M. Finch (she/her)
Reference Librarian and State Data Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library