ONIX to MARC and back again: OCLC's Metadata Services for Publishers

Interesting metadata news! OCLC is now offering a program to enrich publishers' ONIX metadata, an XML metadata standard used by publishers.

OCLC now offers Metadata Services for Publishers, a new service that takes publishers' ONIX title metadata, enriches it using WorldCat mining and mapping techniques, and delivers the enhanced ONIX metadata back to the publishers for use in their systems. The publishers' enhanced metadata is then made available early in the data creation process to libraries for use in selection, acquisition and technical services workflows. Information seekers also benefit from Web discovery of this metadata via WorldCat.org, the Web destination for discovery of library resources.

OCLC also offers Contract Cataloging for Publishers.

OCLC Contract Cataloging for Publishers is another service that creates MARC records using publishers' electronic title data as a starting point. OCLC offers cataloging solutions for publishers and vendors that need to provide MARC records to libraries. More information about OCLC services for publishers can be found on the Web site.

If you want to learn more about this, check out the ALA Midwinter 2009 program, From ONIX to MARC and Back Again: New Frontiers in Metadata Creation at OCLC. It's a very informative presentation by Renee Register of OCLC. Her description of the crosswalking of ONIX to MARC and MARC to ONIX illustrates exciting possibilities for ehanced, enriched metadata creation if libraries and publishers work together. Renee respectfully emphasizes the intellectual contribution of both publisher and library metadata creators.

Comments

[Bryan]

I'd be interested to see some sets of records beyond what appeared in the presentation. I also wonder if they have any plans to automatically derive analytical records for proceedings, anthologies, etc. (aka aggregates in FRBR terms) from what the publishers give them. Of course, automation reduces many of the traditionally perceived barriers to creating analytical records for these categories of materials, and WorldCat.org already shows us that records for these materials can peacefully co-exist in one display. Perhaps we now have the opportunity to dramatically increase granularity especially for stuff that routinely escapes the notice of catalogers and the major indexes.

[Christine Schwartz]

Hi Bryan,

I agree with you that including analytical records from publishers' metadata would be a great boon for libraries. It will be interesting to see how this new OCLC service develops.

I think that analytics is where we need to go with library metadata. You're correct that now it might actually be doable. Where in the past it was too labor intensive.