Cataloging Futures

More on LC's Bibliographic Framework Initiative: Kevin Ford's presentation

Last week, Kevin Ford (who works in LC's Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO)) presented on LC's Bibliographic Framework Initiative at the Semantic Web in Libraries conference in Cologne, Germany.

Here's the abstract:

This presentation will provide a general update about the Library of Congress's Bibliographic Framework Initiative, including a short synopsis of its historical import, information about the attractiveness of Linked Data, and details about the work – models, tools, and findings - completed to date about transitioning from a MARC-based environment to a new bibliographic ecology. The general update about the Bibliographic Framework Initiative will include work and progress since the Library's update at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim in June. The first phase of the Initiative is complete. Among many objectives set for the initial phase, the most relevant outcome is the presentation of a draft model for community appraisal and on which to further build. Because an open process is desirable and expected, the community will already have seen the draft model, but this forum will provide an opportunity to go into greater detail, present the outcomes as a cohesive whole, and explore the ramifications and future directions stemming from the initial stage. Linked Data methods and strategies are proving to provide a very consistent yet flexible means to communicate data, which has always been one of the main aims of the MARC communication formats.

The presentation is available in two formats: video and slides [pdf].

I'd recommend the video if you really want to get a good understanding of the work of this important initiative for the future of cataloging and library metadata.

(Update: The video works fine with Chrome or Firefox, but not Internet Explorer.)

The Library 2.0 Gang on semantic web and linked data

Another excellent conversation from The Library 2.0 Gang. The topic is one that's important for the future of cataloging and metadata: the semantic web and linked data. Karen Coyle is the guest for this discussion.

BTW, I finally own a smartphone and am unfettered from my desktop computer. So, I hope to be able to listen to and recommend more podcasts in the future. Cataloging professional development on-the-go!

Cataloging for machines?

Web 2.0 was focused on the front-end, the domain of reference librarians. Web 3.0 is all about metadata, where catalogers rule. The "semantic web" and "linked data" are hot topics right now, but what does that mean for cataloging and metadata librarians? How will our work change?

In this post, Can Librarians Be Put Directly Onto the Semantic Web?, Eric Hellman suggests we'll be developing metadata for machines, not humans:

In many respects, the most important question for the library world in examining semantic web technologies is whether librarians can successfully transform their expertise in working with metadata into expertise in working with ontologies or models of knowledge. Whereas traditional library metadata has always been focused on helping humans find and make use of information, semantic web ontologies are focused on helping machines find and make use of information. Traditional library metadata is meant to be seen and acted on by humans, and as such has always been an uncomfortable match with relational database technology. Semantic web ontologies, in contrast, are meant to make metadata meaningful and actionable for machines. An ontology is thus a sort of computer program, and the effort of making an RDF schema is the first step of telling a computer how to process a type of information. Martha Yee's development of an RDF class to represent an Author is precisely analogous to a Java programmer's development of a Java class to do the same thing.

Allan Cho's new article on RDF, MARC, and the Semantic Web

Allan Cho, who blogs over at Allan's Library, has a new article out: How RDF Can Use MARC in the Semantic Web World: Using Existing Library Cataloguing Methods in Organizing the Web.

BTW, Allan also blogs at: The Postcolonial Librarian.

LCSH goes Web 3.0

I was having so much fun seeing "my old friends," the Library of Congress Subject Headings, in their new home: Library of Congress Authorities & Vocabularies that I almost forgot to get ready for work this morning!

LCSH as a linked data service, to quote Jonathan Rochkind, "is AWESOME."

Richard Wallis writes:

Overnight this uri ‘http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh85042531’ has now become the globally available, machine and human readable, reliable source for the description for the subject heading of ‘Elephants’ containing links to its related terms (in a way that both machines and humans can navigate). This means that system developers and integrators can rely upon that link to represent a concept, not necessarily the way they want to [locally] describe it.  This should facilitate the ability for disparate systems and services to simply share concepts and therefore understanding – one of the basic principles behind the Semantic Web.

Library of Congress MARC => RDF/RDA/FRBR

Rob Styles and Bill Denton have already pointed this out: Alistair Miles has converted Library of Congress MARC data to RDF using RDA/FRBR schemas. It's interesting to see RDA come alive, so to speak, in an actual RDF metadata structure.

Karen Coyle's RDA presentation at Code4Lib

Over on the LibLime Developers' Blog, Galen Charlton provides a nice overview of Karen Coyle's keynote presentation on RDA given at the recent Code4Lib conference. I particularly like this section of "Frequently Unanswered Questions":

Of course, a shift to RDF and a more formalized cataloging model would be a drastic change, and raises, as Karen Coyle calls them, some Frequently Unanswered Questions:

• Is FRBR the right conceptual model?
• Is RDF the right format?
• What happens to MARC?
• Who will be in charge?  How will things be decided?

There are other questions — how will library catalogs, data stores, and ILSs have to change if RDA over RDF transpires? How will the existing corpus of MARC data be migrated? How will the systems vendors, open source projects, and cataloging vendors adapt, to say nothing of catalogers, cataloging teachers, and library schools?