future of bibliographic systems: designing a roadmap to a new bibliographic information ecosystem
TRANSCRIPT
Whither Bibliographic Data?
Designing a roadmap
to a new bibliographic information
ecosystem
Todd A. Carpenter, Executive Director, NISO ALA Annual Meeting – AVIAC Session
July 1, 2013
Our Dear Old Friend, MARC
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81118s1989 nju 000 0 eng 9(DLC) 88029610 a7bcbccorignewd1eocipf19gy-gencatlg aCIP ver. pv04 12-06-95 a 88029610 a0887389538 aDLCcDLCdDLC an-us---00aZ674.8b.N44 198900a021.6/5/09732192 aNational Information Standards Organization
(U.S.)10aInformation retrieval service and protocol :bAmerican national standard for information retrieval service definition and protocol specification for library applications
/capproved January 15, 1988 by American National Standards Institute ; developed by the National Information Standards Organization. aNew Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A. :bTransaction
Publishers,cc1989. axii, 50 p. ;c26 cm. 0aNational information standards series,x1041-5653 a"ANSI/NISO Z39.50-1988." 0aLibrary information networksxStandardszUnited States.
0aComputer network protocolsxStandardszUnited States. 0aInformation storage and retrieval systemsxStandardszUnited States.2 aAmerican National Standards Institute. bc-
GenCollhZ674.8i.N44 1989tCopy 1wBOOKS
Our Dear Old Friend, MARC (formatted for your viewing
pleasure)
MARC ComponentsEncoding Structure
Z39.2ISO 2709:2008 -- Format for information exchange
Format structure
Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (2nd Edition) AACR2
Resource Description & Access
Exchange SystemZ39.50
SRU/SRW
Photo: Minneapolis Collegeof Art and Design Library
Why is MARC so efficient? It had to be.
$2,642,412
per MBin
1965Photo: Computer History Museum Data: Memory Prices (1957-2013)
How much computer technology pre-dates this?
Unfortunately, quite a bit...
Why?
We avoid improving infrastructure
Photo:from I Love Libraries
MARC’s Massive installed base
If you were building a network today
would you string copper everywhere?
If you building a metadata ecosystem,would you start here?
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81118s1989 nju 000 0 eng 9(DLC) 88029610 a7bcbccorignewd1eocipf19gy-gencatlg aCIP ver. pv04 12-06-95 a 88029610 a0887389538 aDLCcDLCdDLC an-us---00aZ674.8b.N44 198900a021.6/5/09732192 aNational Information Standards Organization
(U.S.)10aInformation retrieval service and protocol :bAmerican national standard for information retrieval service definition and protocol specification for library applications
/capproved January 15, 1988 by American National Standards Institute ; developed by the National Information Standards Organization. aNew Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A. :bTransaction
Publishers,cc1989. axii, 50 p. ;c26 cm. 0aNational information standards series,x1041-5653 a"ANSI/NISO Z39.50-1988." 0aLibrary information networksxStandardszUnited States.
0aComputer network protocolsxStandardszUnited States. 0aInformation storage and retrieval systemsxStandardszUnited States.2 aAmerican National Standards Institute. bc-
GenCollhZ674.8i.N44 1989tCopy 1wBOOKS
“MARC Must Die!”-Roy Tennant (2002)
Mmmmmm, Brains!
MARC is useful.It is efficient.
It is our lingua franca.
There are many reasons to retain it.
But wait.....
Movement toward linked data
datahub.io - 5107 data storesid.loc.gov
British National Bibliography (BNB)VIAF
OCLC WorldCat Linked Data Store Deutsche Nationalbibliografie (DNB) (Germany)
datos.bne.es (Spain)W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group
Many, many more...
But is it sufficient?
Organizations will not move away from a legacy system unless the new system:
a) Is demonstrably cheaperb) Is demonstrably more effective in producing results (discovery, use, etc.)c) Will make the organization demonstrably more efficient (staff, management, sales, etc.) ORd) The legacy system becomes entirely non-interoperable with other, more important systems ORe) The legacy system breaks and cannot be repaired
Can we say a new metadata management
system based on linked data will be/do one of those
things?
It is in…. Adoption
(or rather, in its absence)
The point at which most standards fail is not prior to consensus
“You would be a fool to design a
system based on an interchange
protocol.”
- Mark Bide, EDItEUR
Next generation library systems are
already in production
Just a few...
How can we assure that we are doing the
right things?For everyone?
That will save resources?That will improve services?
That will be adopted?
NISO’s Bibliographic
Roadmap Initiative
With gracious thanks toThe Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Initiative coordination
Gap identificationEconomic analysis
Engage diverse players
Open process
Some issues:Semantics
InteroperabilityEconomics
RulesProvenance/Authority
Staffing/TrainingUsers
What have we done?
In-person meeting on April 15-16in Baltimore
An unconference on bibliographic data exchange
45 in-personmore than 40 more online
more than 200 subsequent viewers
What we are trying to avoid
The world makes way for the man who knows where he is
going. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If you don't know where you're going, you might not get
there.”- Yogi Berra
Thank you!
Todd Carpenter, Executive [email protected]
National Information Standards Organization (NISO)3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 302
Baltimore, MD 21211 USA+1 (301) 654-2512
www.niso.org