VALA

2008-02-07

2008-02-07

Stuart L. WeibelSenior Research ScientistOCLC Programs and Research

Scholar in Residence, University of Washington Libraries and the Information School

Making Identifiers Concrete

(so library places and spaces don’t have to be)

Making Identifiers Concrete

(so library places and spaces don’t have to be)

OverviewOverview

The Library brand and Web 2.0

Infusing bibliographic ideas into the Web (and vice versa?)

Identities on the Web

Gluing the pieces together with Identifiers

Design criteria for identifiers

WorldCat Identifiers – good enough?

A Glimir of the future

Where is the Library as a Brand?Where is the Library as a Brand?

Perceptions of Libraries and

Information Resources A Report to the OCLC Membership

3300 Respondents to questions on:• Library use

• Awareness and use of library electronic resources

• The Internet search engine, the library and the librarian

• Free vs. for-fee information • The "Library" brand

The over-all picture:The over-all picture:

Libraries are trusted sources of information

But search engines are trusted about the same

People care about the quantity and quality of information they find… speed is less important (!?surprise?!)

They do not view paid information as more accurate than free information

The overwhelming branding image of libraries is…

BOOKSPatrons do not think of the library as an important source

of electronic information !

Library Brand Equity: we need a strong, visible brand on the Web Library Brand Equity: we need a strong, visible brand on the Web

Building out the library brandBuilding out the library brand

Build on the trust of our patrons

Build on our business model: Making information look free to end-users

Build on the scale that libraries represent

• Presence in every community

• Global scope and reach

Improve awareness of library resources

Make libraries a part of the new electronic environments that dominate social, educational, and work environments

Social Networking SoftwareSocial Networking Software

It isn’t new… only the technical manifestation is

Deliver library services into the emerging social networks

Motivate people to participate

• Tagging

• Book Reviews

• Emergent relationships that are evident from data about what people buy and borrow, like and dislike (so called business intelligence)

Link to the people as well

Social consumer environmentsSocial consumer environments

Social Networking is not just for games• Facebook• Myspace• Second Life• Twitter

All are flawed as service delivery models

• Business models are closed (or obscure) (Closed Gardens)

• Features are rudimentary (or overbearing)

But… they foretell a digital future in both their virtues and faults

Libraries must compare favorably with experiences that our patrons expect:

Libraries must compare favorably with experiences that our patrons expect:

Discovery and recommender services

Web 2.0 social network capabilities

Experiences of comparable commercial service providers

Last-mile delivery capability

Bookstore social experiences

•Coffee-shop salons

•People to help us navigate complicated knowledge space

We are offering an experience as well as a service

Can Libraries ‘compete’ in the social networking space? Should they?Can Libraries ‘compete’ in the social networking space? Should they?

The social software movement is fueled by (dollar denominated) entrepreneurial fervor

Rate of innovation (and failure) is rapid

Distinguish between trends and the trendy

Are we babes on the beach?

The future of Library catalogs? The future of Library catalogs?

Evolving towards the network level

Collections linked to people, organizations, global locations, concepts, context, metadata, and social networking benefits

Fit into the workflow and social lives of patrons

Help create a scaffolding for past knowledge and future productivity

Web or Scaffolding?http://www.smart-kit.com/s291/what-spider-webs-can-teach-us-about-caffeines-effect-on-the-brain/

Web or Scaffolding?http://www.smart-kit.com/s291/what-spider-webs-can-teach-us-about-caffeines-effect-on-the-brain/

Web is a wonderful metaphor, but perhaps something a bit more durable?

Web is a wonderful metaphor, but perhaps something a bit more durable?

We want more

•Coherence and context

•Durable environments that help us preserve and fix resources in the context of culture

•Librarianship embedded in the emerging technologies of a social Web

FRBR Entities – Librarianship’s contribution to a richer resource model on the Web

FRBR Entities – Librarianship’s contribution to a richer resource model on the Web

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3

Work Person Concept

Expression Corporate body

Object

Manifestation Event

Item Place

And don’t forget Social Bibliography:User-Generated Content And don’t forget Social Bibliography:User-Generated Content

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3

Work Person Concept

Expression Corporate body

Object

Manifestation Event

Item Place• Book Reviews• Lists• Services• Commentary• Other?

All these entities should be First Class ObjectsAll these entities should be First Class Objects

An information entity that has:•Persistent Identity on the Web

•Accessible by anyone or any application

•Stand alone• Attribution (authorship)

• Clear Intellectual property rights

•Curated (don’t leave it lying around untended)

Allow the user to enter and traverse the catalog from any point

What about the people in social networking?What about the people in social networking?

Libraries have large investments in Name authority

How can this be leveraged to support emerging identity needs?

What is the relation toauthentication and authorization?

WorldCat Identities – another piece of the puzzle?WorldCat Identities – another piece of the puzzle?

A complicated puzzle: where ya’ gonna turn?A complicated puzzle: where ya’ gonna turn?

People

Information

resources

Places

Terminologies

User Generated Content

FRBR (explain it to your patrons)

Hook everything together with the right sort of identifiersHook everything together with the right sort of identifiers

A coherent identifier infrastructure is essential to establishing a rich and dynamic scaffolding of interconnected information resources to support “users and uses of bibliographic data” in a climate of changing technology and user expectations.

Broad dissemination of canonical, globally-scoped public identifiers serves the library

collaborative and is the single most compelling means of making library assets persistent and visible on the Web

Some Design Parameters for Identifiers in the Global Library Community

Some Design Parameters for Identifiers in the Global Library Community

Persistence

Universal accessibility

Global scoping

Search Engine Optimization

Canonical identification

Branding

Usability

Granularity and the FRBR model

PersistencePersistence

•Not technological, but rather, a function of the commitment of organizations

•Libraries and other cultural memory organizations do this well

•Harder to do in the digital era, but the community is up to the task

Universal access and global scopingUniversal access and global scoping

•Open to all: public identifiers in a public Web

•Should work in Myanmar, Melbourne, and Minneapolis alike

•WorldCat is the first globally-scoped identifier architecture for library assets in which the global surrogate is mapped to locality

•But we’re not quite done

Search Engine Optimization and Canonical IdentifiersSearch Engine Optimization and Canonical Identifiers

•Visibility of assets in the global library is diluted by the multiplicity of identifiers

• Many competing identifier schemes

• Localized versions of identifiers

•Agreement on a canonical identifier • Raises search engine ranking

• Concentrates aggregation of social content

• Simplifies supply-chain processing (the Amazoogles are interested

• Supports user needs in answering the question:

• Is Item X the same as…related to… relevant to… Item Y

Branding is an important component of URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers)

Branding is an important component of URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers)

•Every URI is a micro-billboard branding library content in a crowded and largely commercial Web landscape

•Library branding reminds users that libraries are in the business of providing sustainable access to cultural, educational, scientific, and technical information products

•Citations with persistent identifiers help to anchor the content in the collective web-based memory

Usability of URIsUsability of URIs

URIs should be designed for people as well as machines

URIs should be ‘speakable’

URIs should be a short as can be managed

URIs should have a predictable pattern that makes them ‘hackable’ and ‘truncatable’

Granularity of bibliography on the Web:FRBR again….

Granularity of bibliography on the Web:FRBR again….

FRBR is a major contribution to resource organization on the Web, but it is a challenge to explain it to users

And along comes WorldCatAnd along comes WorldCat

WorldCat: Mid 2006

• WorldCat identifiers approximate, for the first time, a globally scoped, persistent public identifier for library manifestations

Globally unique (the easy part)

Freely available to everyone

Citable and resolvable, independent of location (for WorldCat participants)

Linked to descriptive surrogates and to the content itself (for WorldCat members)

Canonical – almost, but not quite

WorldCat IDs: a global manifestation identifier? But, but, but…WorldCat IDs: a global manifestation identifier? But, but, but…

Approximates: Close, but not quite

How does a WC Identifier fall short?

Duplicates• mistaken duplicates (even as the poor, always with

us….)• functional duplicates (duplicates we want for one

reason or another)

Citable (Yes)

Resolvable to content (Yes, but)

Canonical (well, sort of)

DuplicatesDuplicates

• Errors are costly to find and fix• Duplicate detection algorithms • What about encouraging the participation of

librarians or even patrons?

• Institutional records have been loaded into WorldCat – useful, but dilutes canonical character of WC IDs

• Non-US records

• Is the UK or Australian or New Zealand English language record somehow less canonical than the American English language record?

• Is the (German/Italian/Japanese…) record somehow less canonical than the English language record?

GLIMIR: Global Library Manifestation Identifier

GLIMIR: Global Library Manifestation Identifier

The library community needs a global manifestation identifier which is:

• Global in scope

• Canonical

• Business neutral

• Provides the “URL Equity” necessary to support the library brand

• Fits comfortably within the FRBR model

What About Other Identifier SchemesWhat About Other Identifier Schemes

Can a global community agree and adopt a canonical identifier in an already identifier-rich marketplace?

• National Bibliographic Numbers – NBNs (largely European)

• ISSNs and ISBNs (format-limited, but established and valuable)

• DOIs (purpose-built to support IPR management)

• Handles (based on a belief in the failure of DNS)

• Local and regional identifiers

Cautious ExplorationCautious Exploration

• OCLC is launching a pilot to identify the functional requirements and practicalities for a community-based manifestation identifier

• We have solicited review from a collection of technical specialists in several countries and sectors

• Moving forward will require a careful balance of use cases, business issues, and community advice as to how we can best meet the community need in a neutral manner

What if you’re not an OCLC member?What if you’re not an OCLC member?

• Can the global library community coalesce around a naming architecture derived from WorldCat identifiers, even if they are not WorldCat participants?

• How will OCLC build and support a naming architecture that does not require membership?

• How will non-OCLC members request a Glimir?

• How much metadata will be necessary to disambiguate near matches? Who will manage it?

In summaryIn summary

Identifiers are key:

• To fulfilling the mission of libraries in a digital future

• To competing on the open Web for recognition of our community’s brand equity

• To integrating our traditional bibliographic values with social networking content

• To providing services and access to the ‘digital tribe’ – our future constituency

Many thanks!Many thanks!

http://weibel-lines.typepad.comhttp://flickr.com/photos/weibel-lineshttp://twitter.com/stuartweibel(yeah…Facebook, too)