crisis or opportunity? cataloging, catalogers, rda, and change

Crisis or Opportunity?Cataloging, Catalogers, RDA, and Change

Five Colleges Seminar 2

It’s All About Perspective …

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” – Rahm Emanuel

The crisis can be personal, professional, national (or all of the above), but the strategy for moving forward is similar

5/1/09


Part 1: Whither Cataloging?

Libraries are no longer the first place people come for information The Internet has changed the way people

(including us) behave when seeking information Our former “granularity consensus” is coming

apart

To compete effectively for user attention, we must: Join the larger world of information, where our

users are Learn how the competition attracts users, draws

them in, and takes good advantage of their interest in participating

Find a better balance between protecting privacy and capturing usage behavior

5/1/09


And Why Must We Do This?

The comfortable certainties we know are coming undone, whether we’re ready or not

We have much experience and insight to offer the larger information world (but not everything we’ve learned is relevant)

We are collectively about the size of the Queen Mary, unable to turn on a dime—this change will take time, and each of us has a role to play

Resistance is futile—we are not in charge of this new world, and our options are two: adapt or retire

5/1/09


The Map of ChangeCharting Our Course

5/1/09


What We Must Leave Behind

A view of metadata based on catalog cards

Library software that can’t sort search results better than “random” or “alphabetic”

Search interfaces even Librarians hate (and we know the data)

Clunky static HTML pages that don’t attract our user’s interest, or guide them well

One silo for books, others for journal articles, images, digitized books, etc. (explain that to a user!)

5/1/09


Starting to Move Forward

A Starting Point: The Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control (Library of Congress) “On the Record”—final report, January 2008

http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/ A good, comprehensive overview of our new

world and what we need to do Recommendations for LC, OCLC, ALA, library

educators and all of us Extensively discussed at the Library of Congress

and within the profession at large

5/1/09

http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/


“The Web is our platform”

1.2.4.2 All: Explore tools and techniques for sharing bibliographic data at the network level using both centralized and non-centralized techniques (e.g., OAI-PMH).

3.1.2.1 All: Express library standards in machine-readable and machine-actionable formats, in particular those developed for use on the Web.

3.1.2.2 All: Provide access to standards through registries or Web sites so that the standards can be used by any and all Web applications.

5/1/09

A New Look at Library Systems

4.1.1.1 All: Encourage and support development of systems capable of relating evaluative data, such as reviews and ratings, to bibliographic records.

4.1.1.2 All: Encourage the enhancement of library systems to provide the capability to link to appropriate user-added data available via the Internet (e.g., Amazon.com, LibraryThing, Wikipedia). At the same time, explore opportunities for developing mutually beneficial partnerships with commercial entities that would stand to benefit from these arrangements. 5/1/09 9Five Colleges Seminar

Enriching Library Data4.1.2.1 All: Develop library systems that

can accept user input and other non-library data without interfering with the integrity of library-created data.

4.1.2.2 All: Investigate methods of categorizing creators of added data in order to enable informed use of user-contributed data without violating the privacy obligations of libraries.

4.1.2.3 All: Develop methods to guide user tagging through techniques that suggest entry vocabulary (e.g., term completion, tag clouds).

5/1/09 10Five Colleges Seminar


Exploring Our New World

Avoiding the Traps of Wrongovia

5/1/09


Taking a Look AroundWhat’s this Semantic Web thingy all about, and

why do we care?

Is RDA really going to happen? Is it that different from AACR2? Why can’t we use RDA with MARC?

How will RDA implementation affect cataloging?

How can we best prepare for all this?

5/1/09


Standards Upgrade!Type of Standard

Old Standard New Standard(s)?

Bibliographic Model

None FRBR, FRBRoo

Metadata Content AACR2 RDA

Metadata Structure

MARC21 Bibliographic

RDVocab

Name Authority MARC21 Authority FRAD

Subject Authority MARC21 Authority FRASAR, SKOS

Encoding MARC21 XML, XML/RDF

5/1/09


Acronymia, We Are HereRDA: Resource Description and Access

RDF: Resource Description Framework (a W3C standard)

FRBR: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records FRBRoo: Object Oriented FRBR (harmonized with

CIDOC CRM)

FRAD: Functional Requirements for Authority Data

FRASAR: Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records

SKOS: Simple Knowledge Organisation System (a W3C standard)

5/1/09


The RDA You’ve Heard About …

4th quarter calendar 2008 – Full draft of RDA available for constituency review (ending in early February 2009) http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rdafulldraft.html

2nd quarter calendar 2009 – RDA content is finalized

3rd quarter calendar 2009 – RDA is released

3rd and 4th quarters calendar 2009, possibly into 1st quarter calendar 2010 – Testing by national libraries

1st and 2nd quarters calendar 2010 – Analysis and evaluation of testing by national libraries

3rd-4th quarters calendar 2010 – RDA implementation ?5/1/09

We are here

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rdafulldraft.html


What You Might Not Have Heard

JSC has gradually backed away from their original stance that RDA could be expressed easily in MARC21 Full integration of FRBR entities into RDA has

made that problematic

RDA has been developed explicitly to take advantage of the Semantic Web (although there are still residues of past practice)

Well supported rumors indicate that LC is considering discontinuing update of MARC21 sometime in 2010

5/1/09


Under the RDA HoodRDA is a FRBR-based approach to structuring

bibliographic data

It’s contains more explicitly machine-friendly linkages (preferably with URIs)

There’s more emphasis on relationships and roles …

… and less emphasis on cataloger-created notes and text strings (particularly for identification)

Also, there’s less transcription (important in an increasingly digital world) 5/1/09


JSC ScenariosScenario 1: separate records for all FRBR

entities with linked identifiers

Scenario 2: composite bibliographic records (with authority records representing each entity)

Scenario 3: one flat record, with all Group 1 entities on a single record This is the only scenario that MARC can handle Not really a viable option, and as far as I know, no

one is explicitly planning for it

5/1/09


The Rest of the Story RDA elements, roles and vocabularies have been

provisionally registered The vocabularies and the text will be tied together in the

RDA online tool (and in freely available RDA XML schemas)

Some efforts have begun to consider how MARC21 data can be parsed into FRBR entities and RDA eXtensible Catalog Project moving strongly in this direction Unfortunately, we don’t know what OCLC is planning

Discussions about long term maintenance of both RDA and the vocabularies have yet to occur

The push is already on for a multi-language RDA Vocabulary

5/1/09


RDA & FRBR: Registered!RDA Elements:

http://metadataregistry.org/schema/show/id/1.html

RDA Roles: http://metadataregistry.org/schema/show/id/4.html

RDA Vocabulary: Base Material http://metadataregistry.org/vocabulary/show/id/35.

html

FRBR Relationships (Sandbox version) http://sandbox.metadataregistry.org/vocabulary/sho

w/id/90.html

5/1/09



http://metadataregistry.org/vocabulary/show/id/35.html

http://metadataregistry.org/vocabulary/show/id/35.html

http://sandbox.metadataregistry.org/vocabulary/show/id/90.html

http://sandbox.metadataregistry.org/vocabulary/show/id/90.html

New Jersey Library Association 214/29/09

RDA Elements Listing

334!


RDA Elements Listing

334!

Base material


Detail: Base Material


Detail: Base Material

URI


RDA Roles Listing


RDA Roles Listing

Author


Detail: RDA Role Author


RDA WEMI Relationships


Detail: RDA WEMI Relationship


RDA Base Material Vocabulary


RDA Base Material Vocabulary

Skin


RDA Base Material: Skin

No definition?


Who’s Doing This?DCMI/RDA Task Group

See: http://dublincore.org/dcmirdataskgroup/ Set up during the April 2007 London meeting

between JSC and DCMI Gordon Dunsire and Diane Hillmann, co-chairs Karen Coyle & Alistair Miles, consultants

IFLA Classification and Indexing Section Gordon Dunsire, Centre for Digital Library

Research, University of Strathclyde, will be registering FRBR entities and relationships

Possible inclusion of ISBDs, FRAD, etc., in future

5/1/09

http://dublincore.org/dcmirdataskgroup/


How Soon Will All This Happen?

The bad news: This isn’t like 1981, when there was a “start date” and we knew exactly when to change gears

More bad news: This transition is likely to be a pretty messy one, and last longer than we would like

One unknown is OCLC’s role—at present they seem to be focused on consolidating control over library data and promoting WorldCat Local

The good news: library vendors are starting to wake up and smell the coffee!

5/1/09


What Are the Challenges?

Coordination with JSC (or it’s successor, given the need to move beyond “Anglo-American”) on long-term maintenance planning Need for lightweight process, where change is

not a multi-year marathon

Continuing development towards a more Semantic web-friendly RDA (less reliance on transcription, for instance)

Tool development (at all levels, including ILS vendors)

5/1/09


Yet More ChallengesApplication profiles that express more than one

notion of “Work” and more than one community point of view JSC still seeing the process through the lens of a text

cataloger Their “core elements” make most sense for traditional

books, serials, and other text-based objects

Moving the MARC legacy data into RDA OCLC’s silence is worrisome, makes planning difficult

Multi-lingual and specialized extensions Non-Anglo-American communities eager to participate

5/1/09


Multi-lingual Dublin CoreThe DCMI Registry approach:

Translations of labels, definitions and comments within separate versions of the entire vocabulary

URIs stay the same, as do relationships Responsibility for updating translations rests with

translation “owner”

Disadvantages Translations tend to become outdated over time

without sophisticated notification services to flag new areas needing attention

Communication with translation “owners” is managed loosely by a committee—support needs still unknown

5/1/09


Multi-lingual RDAThe NSDL Registry approach:

Translations of labels, definitions and comments reside within the save vocabulary, with separate language attributes

URIs stay the same, as do relationships Responsibility for updating translations rests with

translation “owner”—who is enabled as a maintainer in the main vocabulary

Disadvantages Unsure how extensively this strategy will “scale” Requires a “web of trust” and organizational

commitment5/1/09


Part 2: Whither Catalogers

What Happens When The Revolution Comes?

5/1/09


Focus on CatalogersWhat do we anticipate will be different about

our changed working environment?

How will workflow change?

How will the data look?

What will the library vendor systems do with it?

How will we integrate user data? What kinds of user data?

What do we need to know to operate in this new environment?

5/1/09


Approaching ChangeCatalogers will need to separate what they

know about information based on their current systems from what is more general in nature Much of the knowledge is portable, but needs

updating The new environment is not as well organized

(yet), so much learning will need to be self-directed

Catalogers’ role may become closer to that of Metadata Librarian Managing data at a more abstract level (not as

creators) Understanding the goals of changes anticipated

and new requirements will be essential5/1/09


Walking through a concrete example …

From the Cataloger Scenarios

5/1/09

4/29/09 43New Jersey Library Association

A Cataloger Scenario

Jane Cataloger is assigned to work on a gift collection. Her first selection is a Latvian translation of Kurt Vonnegut's "Bluebeard: a novel." She searches the library database for the original work, and finds:

*Author: Kurt Vonnegut *Title of the work: Bluebeard: a novel *Form of work: Novel *Original language of the work: English


<frbrWork ID="rda.basic/01”>

<rdarole:author>Kurt Vonnegut</rdarole:author><titleOfTheWork>Bluebeard: a novel</titleOfTheWork><formOfWork>Novel</formOfWork>

<originalLanguageOfTheWork>English<originalLanguageOfTheWork></frbrWork>

Translated to RDA/XML:

Upgraded to RDA/XML with Links:<frbrWork ID="rda.basic/01”>

<rdarole:author>http://lcnaf.info/79062641</rdarole:author><titleOfTheWork>Bluebeard: a novel</titleOfTheWork><formOfWork>http://RDVocab.info/genre/1008</formOfWork>

<originalLanguageOfTheWork>http://marclang.info/eng </></frbrWork>

http://RDVocab.info/genre/1008

New Jersey Library Association 4/29/09 45

with links to the following expression information:

*Language of expression: English *Content type: Text

and one manifestation:

*Statement designating edition: 1st trade edition *Place of publication: New York *Publisher’s name: Delacorte Press *Date of publication: 1987 *Extent of text: 300 pages *Identifier for the manifestation: [ISBN]0385295901


<frbrExpression ID="rda.basic/07”>

<contentType>Text</contentType><languageOfExpression>English<languageOfExpression></frbrExpression>


Upgraded to RDA/XML with Links:


<formOfWork>http://RDVocab.info/termList/RDAContentType/1020</><languageOfExpression>http://marclang.info/eng </>

</frbrExpression>


<frbrManifestation ID="rda.basic/09”>

<statementDesignatingEdition>1st Trade Edition</><placeOfPublication>New York<placeOfPublication>

<publishersName>Delacorte Press</publishersName><dateOfPublication>1987</dateOfPublication><extentOfText>300 pages</extentOfText><identifierForTheManifestation>[ISBN]0385295901</>

</frbrManifestation>

Translated to RDA/XML (with links below):

<frbrManifestatiion ID="rda.basic/09”>

<statementDesignatingEdition>1st Trade Edition</><placeOfPublication>http://www.getty.edu/tgn/7007567</>

<publishersName>http://onixpub.info/2039987</><dateOfPublication>1987</dateOfPublication><extentOfText>300 pages</extentOfText><identifierForTheManifestation>urn:ISBN:0385295901</>


http://onixpub.info/2039987


Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

FRBR Group 1

New Jersey Library Association 4/29/09 49

Jane begins her description by linking to the existing Work entity. She then creates an expression description:

*Content type: text*Language of expression: Latvian*Translator: Grigulis, Arvīds

She creates an authority record for the translator since none yet existed. She continues by creating a fuller description for the new manifestation, linking to the authority record for the Latvian publisher (what luck, it already existed!).

*Title: [in Latvian]*Place of publication: Riga*Publisher’s name: Liesma*Date of publication: 1997*Extent of Text: 315 pages



<contentType>text</contentType><languageOfExpression>Latvian<languageOfExpression>

<rdarole:translator>Grigulis, Arvīds</rdarole:translator></frbrExpression>


Upgraded to RDA/XML with Links:<frbrExpression ID="rda.basic/11”>

<formOfWork>http://RDVocab.info/termList/RDAContentType/1020</><languageOfExpression>http://marclang.info/lav </><rdarole:translator>http://lcnaf.info/83219993

</frbrExpression>


<frbrManifestation ID="rda.basic/09”>

<title>[in Latvian]</><placeOfPublication>Riga<placeOfPublication><publishersName>Liesma</publishersName><dateOfPublication>1997</dateOfPublication><extentOfText>315 pages</extentOfText>


Translated to RDA/XML (with links below):

<frbrManifestatiion ID="rda.basic/09”>

<placeOfPublication>http://www.getty.edu/tgn/7006484</><publishersName>http://onixpub.info/6770094</><dateOfPublication>1997</dateOfPublication><extentOfText>315 pages</extentOfText>


http://onixpub.info/6770094


Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

Exp: lav

Man: lav

FRBR Group 1


Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

Exp: lav

Man: lav

Author

Publisher

Translator

FRBR Group 1 FRBR Group 2


Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

Exp: lav

Man: lav

Author

Publisher

Translator


FRBR Group 3

Subjects

ConceptsObjectsEventsPlaces


Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

Exp: lav

Man: lav

Author

Publisher

Translator


FRBR Group 3

Subjects


Content Vocabularies

Media Vocabularies

Other InformationIn the “Cloud”

RelationshipVocabularie

s


Examining the GeneticsRDA’s model is primarily FRBR and FRAD, but

also takes some of its DNA from Dublin Core

DC’s Abstract Model de-composes traditional metadata “records” and re-composes them with additional levels above and below what we’ve traditionally thought of as our “atomic level”

The DCAM also talks about “statements” in ways that help connect RDA to the Semantic Web

5/1/09

Five Colleges Seminar 5/1/09 57

A Dublin Core View of the World

DCMI Abstract Model: http://dublincore.org/documents/abstract-model/

http://dublincore.org/documents/abstract-model/


A Dublin Core View of the World

DCMI Abstract Model: http://dublincore.org/documents/abstract-model/

http://dublincore.org/documents/abstract-model/


Anatomy of a Statement

Place of Production: New York

Property Value

ValueString

http://www.getty.edu/tgn/7007567


Anatomy of a Statement

Place of Production: http://www.getty.edu/tgn/7007567

Property Value

RelatedDescription

http://www.getty.edu/tgn/7007567


A Related Description

5/1/09


Description Sets a Key Concept!

Five Colleges Seminar

Description Set=“A set of one or more descriptions, each of which describes a single

resource.”*

63

*DCAM Definition

5/1/09


Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

Exp: lav

Man: lav

Author

Publisher

Translator


FRBR Group 3

Subjects


Content Vocabularies

Media Vocabularies

Other InformationIn the “Cloud”

RelationshipVocabularie

s


New Tools, New Knowledge

Getting There From Here

5/1/09

Five Colleges Seminar 665/1/09


What’s This Semantic Web?

RDF: Resource Description Framework Statements about Web resources in the form of subject-

predicate-object expressions, called triples E.g. “This presentation” –“has creator” –“Diane Hillmann”

RDF Schema Vocabulary description language of RDF

SKOS: Simple Knowledge Organisation System Expresses the basic structure and content of concept

schemes such as thesauri and other types of controlled vocabularies

An RDF application OWL (Web Ontology Language)

Explicitly represents the meaning of terms in vocabularies and the relationships between them

5/1/09


Semantic Web Building Blocks

Each component of an RDF statement (triple) is a “resource”

RDF is about making machine-processable statements, requiring A machine-processable language for representing

RDF statementsExtensible Markup Language (XML)

A system of machine-processable identifiers for resources (subjects, predicates, objects)Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) For full machine-processing potential, an RDF

statement is a set of three URIs5/1/09


Things Requiring Identification

Object “This presentation” e.g. its electronic location (URL)

Predicate “has creator” e.g. http://purl.org/dc/terms/creator

Object “Diane Hillmann” e.g. URI of entry in Library of Congress Name

Authority File (real soon now?) NAF: nr2001015786

Declaring vocabularies/values in SKOS and OWL provides URIs—essential for the Semantic Web

5/1/09

http://purl.org/dc/terms/creator

http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?AuthRecID=5363382&v1=1&HC=1&SEQ=20081015154135&PID=-idX6Hi4FFC9LseDAL-BEZHpzGJ


What Happened to XML?Nothing: XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is

most likely how library systems will evolve after MARC It makes sense to use XML to exchange data

between libraries, and some external services But RDF is gaining ground, and libraries will need

to be able to accommodate it, and understand it

An XML record is essentially an aggregation of property = value statements about the same resource RDF triples can also be aggregated using XML,

but this isn’t necessarily the best way to realize the potential of RDF 5/1/09


User ParticipationBringing Users (and Usage) Into the Circle

5/1/09


User Data “R” UsSources of ‘active’ user data

Tagging, etc. Review and rating systems Courseware systems

Sources of ‘passive’ user data Logs of user activity Circulation or download data

“Making data work harder …” –Lorcan Dempsey Collaborative filtering Data mining

5/1/09


Active User DataUser tagging and description

Ex.: The LC Flickr Project Ex.: LibraryThing

Review and rating systems Ex.: Penn Tags Ex.: Amazon

Courseware Systems Making connections so that courseware can reuse

catalog information; catalogs can know what has been used in courses, when, and who assigned it

5/1/09

LC-Flickr ProjectLibrary of Congress and Flickr--“In a very elegant

way, Flickr solves the authority conundrum of exposing collections content to social process. No need to worry if some comments or tags are misleading, arbitrary or incorrect - it’s not happening on your site, but in a space where people know and expect a wide variety of contributions. On the other hand, LC selectively reaps the benefit of these contributions.”

(http://hangingtogether.org/?p=401)

5/1/09Five Colleges Seminar 74

http://hangingtogether.org/?=401


Link to NYTimes article


“This is a book that deserves to be compared with Milton's Areopagatica. Like Milton 350 years earlier, Lessig makes an emotional and passionate, yet calm and well reasoned argument against the system that aims to limit creative freedom. A very important read.”

nuwanda | Sep 10, 2008 |


LibraryThing Most Reviewed Books


What is PennTags?

“PennTags is a social bookmarking tool for locating, organizing, and sharing your favorite online resources. Members of the Penn Community can collect and maintain URLs, links to journal articles, and records in Franklin, our online catalog and VCat, our online video catalog. Once these resources are compiled, you can organize them by assigning tags (free-text keywords) and/or by grouping them into projects, according to your specific preferences. PennTags can also be used collaboratively, because it acts as a repository of the varied interests and academic pursuits of the Penn community, and can help you find topics and users related to your own favorite online resources.

PennTags was developed by librarians at the University of Pennsylvania. “


Passive User DataLogs of user activity

Usually locally maintained and analyzed Services like Google Analytics can provide

important aggregate information

Circulation or download data Tricky in library settings, where user privacy an

important value Anonymized data can be stored and used for

relevance ranking

5/1/09


Hard Working DataCollaborative filtering

Wikipedia: “ … the process of filtering for information or patterns using techniques involving collaboration among multiple agents, viewpoints, data sources, etc.”

Ex.: Amazon (people who bought “X” also bought “Y”)

Data mining Wikipedia: “ … statistical and logical analysis of

large sets of transaction data, looking for patterns that can aid decision making.”

Ex.: LibraryThing Zeitgeist5/1/09


User Data IssuesPrivacy

Being able to use information about a contributing user without violating personal privacy

Complicated by differences in generational ideas about what privacy is

Authority (who said?) Librarians have traditionally valued “objectivity,”

but there’s no evidence that users see this as a value

Management Keeping spammers out Filtering language and malicious intent

5/1/09


Sharing User Contributions

Note how LibraryThing pulls Amazon descriptions Amazon has an API that allows other services to

use its data Positioning Amazon data in other sites drives

users back to Amazon

As libraries move more of their unique data to the Web, they need to be aware of the marketing value of sharing data and allowing other services to combine it in new ways

To do this, libraries will need to be able to package the data in ways hat others can capture it Ex.: XC Project is planning to share Courseware

information

5/1/09


Preparing OurselvesFiguring Out What We Need To Know

5/1/09


Learning Strategies Group Learning

Seminars (like this one!) Conference presentations Local study groups

Self-directed learning Tutorials Blogs

Keeping up with the discussion--You need a plan!

5/1/09


Self-directed LearningWeb tutorials:

http://www.w3schools.com/

Blogs Get a Bloglines account (free) Start with a few, and expand:

Lorcan Dempsey (http://orweblog.oclc.org/) Karen Coyle (http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/) The FRBR Blog (http://www.frbr.org/) Catalogablog (http://catalogablog.blogspot.com/) Cataloging Futures (

http://www.catalogingfutures.com/) Metadata Matters (http://managemetadata.org/blog/)

5/1/09

http://www.w3schools.com/

http://orweblog.oclc.org/

http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/

http://www.frbr.org/

http://catalogablog.blogspot.com/

http://www.catalogingfutures.com/

http://managemetadata.org/blog/


Mailing listsEvaluate your current reading habits

Are you spending too much time on lists that focus on MARC and AACR2 problem solving?

Do you hear too much whining about change?

Migrate to some of the lists discussing newer ideas

[email protected]@lists.monarchos.com [email protected]@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

Ask questions! Network!5/1/09

mailto:[email protected]





Thanks & Acknowledgements

Thanks for your attention!

Slides and ideas from Karen Coyle, Gordon Dunsire, and too many others to count!

Contact for Diane: Email: [email protected] Website: http://managemetadata.com/

5/1/09


http://managemetadata.com/

crisis or opportunity? cataloging, catalogers, rda, and change

Technology

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enriching library data

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