Re: [CODE4LIB] Expressing negatives and similar in RDF
Hi Tom, I think it comes down to what you really mean by a book not having a title. A few options I can think of: 1) This book was published without a title (or whatever verb you want there if you want to cover unpublished material) 2) The author did not give this work a title 3) I've never heard of anyone calling this work by a formal title There are certainly lots more options for a definition of untitled. But if you're thinking along the lines of #3, I agree the open world assumption comes into play, and you just done have a triple with a title-like property, and if someone somewhere else has one, great. If #1 or #2 or anything similar in structure, how about declaring titleless-ness as a class that's a subclass of book? The semantics there would be books published without titles or books not given titles by their authors or whatever. You'd then just have a triple declaring this book part of that class. Or the titleless-ness class could be broader than just books, and a subclass of creative work (as defined in your vocabulary of choice). Jenn Jenn Riley Head, Carolina Digital Library and Archives The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://cdla.unc.edu/ http://www.lib.unc.edu/users/jlriley jennri...@unc.edu (919) 843-5910 On 9/13/13 7:32 AM, Meehan, Thomas t.mee...@ucl.ac.uk wrote: Hello, I'm not sure how sensible a question this is (it's certainly theoretical), but it cropped up in relation to a rare books cataloguing discussion. Is there a standard or accepted way to express negatives in RDF? This is best explained by examples, expressed in mock-turtle: If I want to say this book has the title Cats in RDA I would do something like: example:thisbook dc:title Cats in RDA . Normally, if a predicate like dc:title is not relevant to example:thisbook I believe I am right in thinking that it would simply be missing, i.e. it is not part of a record where a set number of fields need to be filled in, so no need to even make the statement. However, there are occasions where a positively negative statement might be useful. I understand OWL has a way of managing the statement This book does not have the title Cats in RDA [1]: [] rdf:type owl:NegativePropertyAssertion ; owl:sourceIndividual example:thisbook ; owl:assertionProperty dc:title ; owl:targetIndividual Cats in RDA . However, it would be more useful, and quite common at least in a bibliographic context, to say This book does not have a title. Ideally (?!) there would be an ontology of concepts like none, unknown, or even something, but unspecified: This book has no title: example:thisbook dc:title hasobject:false . It is unknown if this book has a title (sounds undesirable but I can think of instances where it might be handy[2]): example:thisbook dc:title hasobject:unknown . This book has a title but it has not been specified: example:thisbook dc:title hasobject:true . In terms of cataloguing, the answer is perhaps to refer to the rules (which would normally mandate supplied titles in square brackets and so forth) rather than use RDF to express this kind of thing, although the rules differ depending on the part of description and, in the case of the kind of thing that prompted the question- the presence of clasps on rare books- there are no rules. I wonder if anyone has any more wisdom on this. Many thanks, Tom [1] Adapted from http://www.w3.org/2007/OWL/wiki/Primer#Object_Properties [2] No many tbh, but e.g. title in an unknown script or indecipherable hand. --- Thomas Meehan Head of Current Cataloguing Library Services University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT t.mee...@ucl.ac.uk
Re: [CODE4LIB] text mining software
This is still command-line, but Mallet is heavily used in the DH community: http://mallet.cs.umass.edu/. I think MONK (http://monkproject.org/) has a UI, but I'm not overly familiar with its features. Jenn Jenn Riley Head, Carolina Digital Library and Archives The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://cdla.unc.edu/ http://www.lib.unc.edu/users/jlriley jennri...@unc.edu (919) 843-5910 On 8/27/13 11:24 AM, Eric Lease Morgan emor...@nd.edu wrote: What sorts of text mining software do y'all support / use in your libraries? We here in the Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame have all but opened a place called the Center For Digital Scholarship. We are / will be providing a number of different services to a number of different audiences. These services include but are not necessarily limited exactly to: * data management consultation * data analysis and visualization * geographic information systems support * text mining investigations * referrals to other centers across campus I am expected to support the text mining investigations. I have traditionally used open source tools do to my work. Many of these tools require some sort of programming in order to exploit. To some degree I am expected mount text mining software on our local Windows and Macintosh computers here in our Center. I am familiar with the lists of tools available at Bamboo as well as Hermeneuti.ca. [0, 1] TAPoRware is good too, but a bit long in the tooth. [2] Do you know of other sets of tools to choose from? Are you familiar with SAS® Text Analytics, STATISTICA Data Miner, or RapidMiner? [3, 4, 5] [0] Bamboo Dirt - http://dirt.projectbamboo.org [1] Hermeneuti.ca - http://hermeneuti.ca/voyeur/tools [2] TAPoRware - http://taporware.ualberta.ca [3] Text Analytics - http://www.sas.com/text-analytics/ [4] Data Miner - http://www.statsoft.com/Products/STATISTICA/Data-Miner/ [5] RapidMiner - http://rapid-i.com/content/view/181/190/ -- Eric Lease Morgan, Digital Initiatives Librarian Hesburgh Libraries University of Notre Dame 574/631-8604
Re: [CODE4LIB] Diversity of presenters (was bibliotechy's fat fingers)
I would be interested to see the gender breakdown in the CfP for comparable conferences (LITA National, Access) and if Code4lib's numbers are noticeably lower, meeting with those groups to determine why. -Ross. I put together a rough comparison of attendees (rather than presenters) at the DLF Forum 2012, which you can find at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e6oBo9K-g0QTuMSHkmKO1Ut4MmvRB2X25U5KSAj s8To/edit. Doing something similar for the presenters should be pretty easy. (If I have a minute I might add that to this doc.) The forum schedule is at http://www.diglib.org/forums/2012forum/2012-dlf-forum-schedule/ if someone else wants to run some quick figures as well. Jenn Jenn Riley Head, Carolina Digital Library and Archives The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://cdla.unc.edu/ http://www.lib.unc.edu/users/jlriley jennri...@unc.edu (919) 843-5910
[CODE4LIB] Job opening: Head of Library Systems, University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Come work in an environment with a fantastic staff and lots of really interesting challenges as we continue the evolution of library technology at UNC. Full position posting with application instructions is at: http://www.lib.unc.edu/jobs/epa/head_library_systems.html Position: Head of Library Systems Available: March 1, 2012 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seeks an innovative, collaborative, and service-oriented individual for the position of Head of Library Systems. The individual in this position provides leadership in the Library Systems Department and the University Library, and helps to define and articulate the vision, strategic directions, and priorities for information technology in a dynamic environment that values creativity, teamwork, and innovation. The Head of Library Systems is responsible for the management of the Library Systems Department, which includes planning, budgeting, and setting policy for information resources in the University Library and for some operations of the Health Sciences Library. The Head of Library Systems directly supervises unit managers responsible for desktop support, application development, and infrastructure architecture and administration and supports staff in the performance of their duties. The individual in this position leads a service-oriented program that researches, develops, and supports advanced information systems for the Library, and ensures excellent operational management of information systems and support of end users. The Head of Library Systems provides leadership in coordinating and defining system requirements and tasks for library-wide projects and initiatives. The Head of Library Systems seeks professional engagement and collaboration; works in active partnership with other Library departments, particularly the Carolina Digital Library and Archives and the Health Sciences Library; and leads collaborations with the University's Information Technology Services (ITS) Department (http://its.unc.edu/ITS/index.htm), other technology units on campus, and the Triangle Research Libraries Network (http://www.trln.org http://www.trln.org/). Additionally, the individual in this position maintains an awareness of developments in the library and information technology fields and demonstrates a successful record of professional activity. The Library Systems Department has 24 fulltime staff and additional undergraduate and graduate student support. The Department manages the Library's Millennium ILS with an Endeca-based discovery interface integrating services well beyond the scope of traditional library catalogs. The Library Systems Department also manages a virtualized server farm, a large (400TB) and growing storage network, over 1,200 desktop devices for staff and patron use, and deployment of third-party applications (e.g. CONTENTdm, ILLiad, and Docutek). The Department's programming staff support application development for library business functions, public access and discovery systems, the Carolina Digital Repository (https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/), and collaborative projects with University faculty. The University Library is a national leader in developing digital collections and services. The Library Systems Department is focused on open development platforms and is committed to scalable architectures for digital object preservation and delivery. It supports strong programs in the design and implementation of innovative discovery services, mass digitization, and digital preservation. Members of the Library Systems Department actively engage with faculty, peer institutions, and vendors in the research and development of interoperable services and storage. Qualifications Required: ALA accredited master's degree in library or information science, or an advanced degree in a related field. Minimum of five years of progressively responsible management and supervisory experience in a technical setting, including planning and allocating of resources to support information technology. Work experience in higher education. Professional experience in a technical environment focused on system administration and management or application development. Evidence of effective interpersonal competence and excellent oral and written communication skills. Collaborative work ethic and the ability to build effective partnerships, articulate goals, and negotiate priorities. Demonstrated knowledge of current information technology developments in libraries and higher education. Preferred: Experience developing and managing budgets. Experience in an academic research library. Active professional involvement in the library or information technology fields. Jenn Riley Head, Carolina Digital Library and Archives The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://cdla.unc.edu/ http://www.lib.unc.edu/users/jlriley jennri...@unc.edu (919) 843-5910
[CODE4LIB] CURATEcamp: Catalogers and Coders, November 2, 2011, Baltimore, MD
(Please forward and cross-promote as you see fit!) Moving to the next generation of library metadata will take intense discussion and planning from both the cataloging and library technology communities. The one-day CURATEcamp: Catalogers and Coders event, held on Wednesday November 2, 2011, as a post-conference to the Digital Library Federation Forum in Baltimore, MD, is an opportunity for metadata specialists and technologists to engage in interactive problem solving and exploration of topics of joint interest, especially in the area of Linked Data. A primary goal is clear articulation of problems related to metadata within the library community, and the beginning of plans that can be taken back to home institutions to address them. This event is being held under the CURATEcamp http://www.curatecamp.orghttp://www.curatecamp.org/, and as such will be structured as an unconference with the agenda for the day being set by participants at the event. The morning will be spent articulating common problems and setting the scope for future work. The afternoon will be spent in groups tackling individual problem statements, and taking the first steps towards planning for solutions. A fuller description of the event is on the CURATEcamp wiki at http://curatecamp.org/content/curatecamp-catalogers-coders-dlf-weds-112, or on the DLF Forum site at http://www.diglib.org/forums/2011forum/schedule/curatecamp-catalogers-coders/. Participants can post ideas for discussion prior to the event at http://wiki.curatecamp.org/index.php/CURATEcamp_DLF_Ideas. Registration for the event, either alone or together with DLF Forum registration, can be found on the Digital Library Federation site at http://www.diglib.org/forums/2011forum/registration/. Jenn Jenn Riley Head, Carolina Digital Library and Archives The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://cdla.unc.edu/ http://www.lib.unc.edu/users/jlriley jennri...@unc.edu (919) 843-5910
Re: [CODE4LIB] Representing copyright holder in MODS
I'd probably do: name type=personal namePartTaylor, Mike/namePart role roleTerm type=code authority=marcrelatorcph/roleTerm roleTerm type=text authority=marcrelatorCopyright holder/roleTerm /role /name That could be used either in the main record, or inside relatedItem as Ray suggested if you're just referring to the abstract. Jenn (Chair, MODS Editorial Committee) Jenn Riley Head, Carolina Digital Library and Archives The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://cdla.unc.edu/ http://www.lib.unc.edu/users/jlriley jennri...@unc.edu (919) 843-5910 On 6/13/11 11:46 AM, Mike Taylor m...@indexdata.com wrote: So far as I can make out from the element descriptions at http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/userguide/origininfo.html and related pages, there seems to be no way to express in MODS who the copyright holder of a work is -- which seems strange, as you CAN state the copyright date. Am I missing something? (The publisher element is not the answer here, as it's not at all unusual for the copyright to be held by someone other than the publisher -- the author, for example.)
Re: [CODE4LIB] If you were starting over, what would you learn and how would you do it?
Dear Ceci, From what you've said here (already done some OAI-PMH harvesting and implementing a personal project as JSP), it sounds to me as if you're light years ahead of most people in your situation. So my first bit of advice to you is not to sell yourself short. In addition to all of the excellent ideas raised here, I'll suggest some additional strategies for implementing those on-your-own projects that you use to build skills and concrete outputs to show off. You might consider picking some existing OS software to implement, and then learning it, well and deeply. Then add features or otherwise customize it. For example, get Omeka (or some tool written in a language you have basic familiarity with or want to learn) up and running. Examine the code to figure out how it's put together - what's easily customizable and what's deeply baked into the current implementation, where does it rely on existing libraries and where does it start on its own. Add in a Google Map and/or a Simile timeline (if it doesn't do those things already - sorry I haven't been following that closely). Write some code to parse and load data from various sources (Amazon API, Freebase, any of the music services, MARC via library catalog, DC or other XML format via OAI-PMH) into the system. Revisit it again a year later to see how your implementation decisions have held up in light of changes in underlying technologies. Etc. There's a goal to these sorts of activities that goes beyond the obvious learn about the mechanics of this programming language. They give you experience with implementing various tasks, not so that you can do exactly that again, but so that you can do it better the next time. You'll learn from these experiments strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to solving particular technical problems, and the ability to evaluate different ways in which you might solve a problem in order to pick the one that best fits your situation. With some practice doing this evaluation in relation to the code and requirements at hand, over time you can extend this analysis to wider technical and organizational infrastructures, and make good decisions about technical implementations given surrounding organizational realities. Doing some work inside a pre-existing software application I believe will help you work on these sorts of larger issues in addition to the mechanics of writing the code. Now I'm all inspired to drop what I need to be working on today and play with Omeka. I'm not a coder, myself, so I'm sorry to say my advice here does not come from personal experience taking this approach. It does come from spending lots and lots of time working with developers and driving digital library initiatives, and seeing where development initiatives go well and where they don't. The best developers I work with are the ones that know it's not just about the specific technical task at hand, but rather can talk intelligently (and not just to other developers) about the implementation decisions they've made and evaluate their effectiveness. Best of luck. It sounds to me like you're ready to take the next opportunity by storm. Jenn Jenn Riley Head, Carolina Digital Library and Archives The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://cdla.unc.edu/ http://www.lib.unc.edu/users/jlriley jennri...@unc.edu (919) 843-5910 On 5/6/11 4:06 PM, Ceci Land cl...@library.msstate.edu wrote: I like this. Maybe it's because it's what I was already thinking about doing. I have 3 project ideas twirling around in my head at the moment. I can't do them at work, but perhaps the systems department could give me a dataset to play around with in my spare time. I already have a good dataset for one of the projects that I harvested via OAI-PMH. Do these spare-time projects get any respect from the real world when it comes time to apply for a job? particularly if you focus on really making it as polished as possible (within the limitations of a non-work environment)? I remember building my own darkroom as a teenager and doing BW and color slide and print processing. (yes, I still love the smell of D76 and stop bath. I can bring up the smell purely from memory :) ). I did manage to work for a while in photography because of my original personal investment of time and energy into it as a hobby. I'm just concerned that the things may not work that way any more. Life was not only slower paced back then, but having an exact skill match wasn't required to get a foot in the door. Plus, I'm no Mozart so it's not likely that I'll come up with something uber creative or so nifty that it's used by a community at large. But I do good technical work. I tinker...I make things go. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to start playing with the projects I have in mind. One is already done as a JSP, but I think I'll convert it to something else and clean up the compromises I had to make to get it done in a
[CODE4LIB] Updated XML Schemas for FRBR data (version 1.1) released
The Variations/FRBR Project at Indiana University (http://vfrbr.info) has released version 1.1 of a set of XML Schemas designed for the representation of FRBR (http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/functional-requirements-for-bibliographic-records) data in XML. The 1.1 Schema release represents some significant improvements over our earlier 1.0 release, particularly in the handling of FRBR relationships. As before, the Variations/FRBR XML Schemas are defined at three levels: frbr, which embodies faithfully only those features defined by the FRBR and FRAD reports; efrbr, which adds additional features we hope will make the data format more useful; and vfrbr, which both contracts and extends the FRBR and FRAD models to create a data representation optimized for the description of musical materials and we hope provides a model for other domain-specific applications of FRBR. A User Guide with details on the structure of the Schemas and how they relate to one another may be found at http://vfrbr.info/schemas/1.1/UserGuide.pdf, and links to all Schemas and documentation may be found at http://vfrbr.info/schemas/1.1. We hope this updated Schema release will lead to further discussion of FRBR implementation issues within the community. Comments and questions on the Variations/FRBR Schema release may be sent to vf...@dlib.indiana.edu. Thanks to all the project team members who made this happen. Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
[CODE4LIB] FRBRized cataloging tool designs and explanatory screencasts released
One of the greatest challenges to implementing the FRBR conceptual model http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/functional-requirements-for-bibliographic-records might be creating a cataloging interface that provides for efficient and effective data entry. The V/FRBR project at Indiana University http://vfrbr.info has released a set of design wireframes for a FRBRized cataloging interface for musical materials, and screencasts explaining these designs. These may be found online at http://vfrbr.info/projectDoc/metadata/catalogingTool. Comments and/or questions may be directed to vf...@dlib.indiana.edu. If you're interested in FRBR, also check out our FRBRized discovery interface and downloadable data, also from the V/FRBR site. Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
[CODE4LIB] FW: Reminder: August 23 2010 deadline for DLF Fall Forum Call for Proposals
Dear Code4Libbers- A reminder about the upcoming deadline for DLF Forum proposals. This really will be a different type of forum, one that I think this community could both heavily contribute to and get substantive things out of. Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.eduhttp://www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.comhttp://www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com From: Rachel Frick [mailto:rfr...@clir.org] Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 11:05 AM To: dlf-annou...@lists.clir.org Subject: Reminder: August 23 2010 deadline for DLF Fall Forum Call for Proposals Reminder: Digital Library Federation Fall Forum call for proposal deadline is August 23, 2010. The 2010 Digital Library Federation (DLF) Fall Forum is seeking ideas and proposals for presentations, panel sessions, workshops, reading discussions, and hands-on problem solving. The Forums have traditionally been working meetings where DLF members come together to share, strategically plan, and commit to future activities. Although the focus remains the same, starting with the 2010 Fall Forum, participation is open beyond the Federation to all those interested in contributing to and playing an active part in the successful future of digital libraries, museums and archives services, and collections. For the 2010 Fall Forum, the Program Planning Committee is requesting ideas and proposals focused within the broad framework of digital collections and their effect on libraries, museums and archives services, infrastructure, resources, and organizational priorities. We welcome proposals from both current community members and non-members who are interested in joining the DLF. Managing digital content from cradle to grave is a complex challenge for library, museum, and archives operations. It requires creative and collaborative approaches. In that spirit, and to maximize the Forum’s benefit and better facilitate the community’s work, the Forum’s schedule will provide many opportunities to actively engage and network. The 2010 Fall Forum will have a strong participatory feel, with opportunities for community discussions, creative problem solving, and hands-on workshops. Ideas and activities generated at the Fall Forum will inform future DLF work and shape the program for the future DLF Community Forums. Session genres include: Presentations and Panels: Traditional lecture format with question-and-answer sessions. Workshops: In-depth, hands-on training about a tool, technique, workflow, etc. You can recommend a topic or trainer, or you can volunteer to share your own expertise. Reading Discussions: Group discussion of a particular blog post, article, video, report, or book. Suggest a reading and a discussion facilitator, or volunteer to facilitate the discussion of a particular reading yourself. Working Sessions: Creative problem solvers, including project managers, developers, and/or administrators, gather to address a specific problem. This does not have to be a computational problem. The approach can be applied to workflow issues, metadata transformations, or other complex problems that would benefit from a collective, dynamic solution approach. Tools Showcase: Variation on a poster session or lightning talks. Presenters will demonstrate tools they have developed or are using in their digital library environment. Proposal Submission Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures Ideas or complete proposals should be submitted as an attached document to d...@clir.org. Proposals must include a title, session leader, session genre, and a proposal description (maximum 500 words). If you are submitting an idea and not a full-fledged proposal, please suggest someone to lead the session, and indicate whether or not you have contacted this individual regarding this possibility. Proposals must be submitted by August 23, 2010. Those submitting complete proposals will be notified of their status by September 10, 2010. Ideas for sessions and workshops will be posted on the DLF Community Discussion Forum for feedback by September 10, 2010. Presenters will be guaranteed a registration place. The 2010 Fall Forum will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto November 1-3, 2010. More information about the 2010 Fall Forum can be found at http://www.clir.org/dlf/dlfforum.html Rachel L. Frick, MSLS Director, Digital Library Federation Program Council on Library and Information Resources 1752 N Street NW Suite 800 Washington, D.C. 20036-2909 p: 202.939.4758
[CODE4LIB] FW: 2010 Fall Forum Call For Proposals
Hadn't seen this show up here yet. Please note the variation on a hackfest idea called working sessions which could bring together developers, metadata people, content specialists, project managers, etc., to work on a specific problem using the hackfest style as an inspiration. Might be of interest to folks in this community! Jenn -Original Message- From: Kathlin Smith [mailto:ksm...@clir.org] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 8:51 AM To: dlf-annou...@lists.clir.org Subject: 2010 Fall Forum Call For Proposals The 2010 Digital Library Federation (DLF) Fall Forum is seeking ideas and proposals for presentations, panel sessions, workshops, reading discussions, and hands-on problem solving. The Forums have traditionally been working meetings where DLF members come together to share, strategically plan, and commit to future activities. Although the focus remains the same, starting with the 2010 Fall Forum, participation is open beyond the Federation to all those interested in contributing to and playing an active part in the successful future of digital libraries, museums and archives services, and collections. For the 2010 Fall Forum, the Program Planning Committee is requesting ideas and proposals focused within the broad framework of digital collections and their effect on libraries, museums and archives services, infrastructure, resources, and organizational priorities. We welcome proposals from both current community members and non- members who are interested in joining the DLF. Managing digital content from cradle to grave is a complex challenge for library, museum, and archives operations. It requires creative and collaborative approaches. In that spirit, and to maximize the Forum’s benefit and better facilitate the community’s work, the Forum’s schedule will provide many opportunities to actively engage and network. The 2010 Fall Forum will have a strong participatory feel, with opportunities for community discussions, creative problem solving, and hands-on workshops. Ideas and activities generated at the Fall Forum will inform future DLF work and shape the program for the future DLF Community Forums. Session genres include: Presentations and Panels: Traditional lecture format with question-and- answer sessions. Workshops: In-depth, hands-on training about a tool, technique, workflow, etc. You can recommend a topic or trainer, or you can volunteer to share your own expertise. Reading Discussions: Group discussion of a particular blog post, article, video, report, or book. Suggest a reading and a discussion facilitator, or volunteer to facilitate the discussion of a particular reading yourself. Working Sessions: Creative problem solvers, including project managers, developers, and/or administrators, gather to address a specific problem. This does not have to be a computational problem. The approach can be applied to workflow issues, metadata transformations, or other complex problems that would benefit from a collective, dynamic solution approach. Tools Showcase: Variation on a poster session or lightning talks. Presenters will demonstrate tools they have developed or are using in their digital library environment. Proposal Submission Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures Ideas or complete proposals should be submitted as an attached document to d...@clir.org. Proposals must include a title, session leader, session genre, and a proposal description (maximum 500 words). If you are submitting an idea and not a full-fledged proposal, please suggest someone to lead the session, and indicate whether or not you have contacted this individual regarding this possibility. Proposals must be submitted by August 23, 2010. Those submitting complete proposals will be notified of their status by September 10, 2010. Ideas for sessions and workshops will be posted on a DLF Community Discussion Forum for feedback by September 10, 2010 (this forum is not yet active). If you would like to be invited to participate in the discussion forum, please send your name and email address to d...@clir.org with a comment that you want to be included. Presenters will be guaranteed a registration place. The 2010 Fall Forum will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto November 1-3, 2010. More information about the 2010 Fall Forum can be found at http://www.clir.org/dlf/dlfforum.html
Re: [CODE4LIB] Visualization of the Metadata Universe
A quick followup to those who took a look at this since I sent the initial announcement out last night. The eagle-eyed Tim Spalding pointed out the data in the Libraries slice was incorrect (what do you mean MARC doesn't end up in the strong category for libraries?!?) - we'd inadvertently used the wrong data for this sliver. This has now been corrected in the online version. My apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone. Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com -Original Message- From: Riley, Jenn Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 7:27 PM To: 'A listserv for Metadata Librarians'; 'auto...@listserv.syr.edu'; 'Code for Libraries'; 'dc-gene...@jiscmail.ac.uk'; 'dig...@infoserv.inist.fr'; 'ead-w...@indiana.edu'; 'Encoded Archival Description List'; 'f...@infoserv.inist.fr'; 'lit...@ala.org'; MLA- l...@listserv.indiana.edu; 'Metadata Object Description Schema List'; m...@listserv.loc.gov; 'Next generation catalogs for libraries'; OLAC- l...@oclc.org; 'metadata-discus...@indiana.edu'; vr...@listserv.uark.edu; xml4...@webjunction.org; 'sli...@listserv.indiana.edu' Cc: 'Devin Becker' Subject: Visualization of the Metadata Universe (This message is being sent to multiple lists; please excuse duplication.) The sheer number of metadata standards in the cultural heritage sector is overwhelming, and their inter-relationships further complicate the situation. A new resource, Seeing Standards: A Visualization of the Metadata Universe, http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/, is intended to assist planners with the selection and implementation of metadata standards. Seeing Standards is in two parts: (1) a poster-sized visualization plotting standards based on their applicability in a variety of contexts, and (2) a glossary of metadata standards in either poster or pamphlet form. Each of the 105 standards listed is evaluated on its strength of application to defined categories in each of four axes: community, domain, function, and purpose. Standards more strongly allied with a category are displayed towards the center of each hemisphere, and those still applicable but less strongly allied are displayed along the edges. The strength of a standard in a given category is determined by a mixture of its adoption in that category, its design intent, and its overall appropriateness for use in that category. The standards represented are among those most heavily used or publicized in the cultural heritage community, though certainly not all standards that might be relevant are included. A small set of the metadata standards plotted on the main visualization also appear as highlights above the graphic. These represent the most commonly known or discussed standards for cultural heritage metadata. Work preparing Seeing Standards was supported by a professional development grant from the Indiana University Libraries. Content was developed by Jenn Riley, Metadata Librarian in the Indiana University Digital Library Program. Design work was performed by Devin Becker of the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science, and soon to be Digital Initiatives Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Idaho. I hope this resource proves to be helpful to those working with metadata standards in libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] MODS and DCTERMS
Hi MJ, - for that matter, is there a good example of how to properly serialize DCTERMS for eg. a converted MARC/MODS record in XML (or RDF/XML)? I see, eg. http://dublincore.org/documents/dcq-rdf-xml/ which has been replaced by http://dublincore.org/documents/dc-rdf/ but I'm not sure if the latter obviates the former entirely? Also, the examples at the bottom of the latter don't show, eg. repeated elements or DCMES elements. Do we abandon http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/ entirely? This has always been ridiculously confusing! Here's my understanding (though anyone else, please chime in and correct me if I've misunderstood): - With the maturation of the DCMI Abstract Model http://dublincore.org/documents/abstract-model/, new bindings were needed to express features of the model not obvious in the old RDF, XML, and XHTML bindings. - For RDF, http://dublincore.org/documents/dc-rdf/ is stable and fully intended to replace http://dublincore.org/documents/dcq-rdf-xml/. - For XML (the non-RDF sort), the most current document is http://dublincore.org/documents/dc-ds-xml/, though note its status is still (after 18 months) only a proposed recommendation. This document itself replaces a transition document http://dublincore.org/documents/2006/05/29/dc-xml/ from 2006 that never got beyond Working Draft status. To get a stable XML binding, you have to go all the way back to 2003 http://dublincore.org/documents/dc-xml-guidelines/index.shtml, a binding which predates much of the current DCMI Abstract Model. - Many found the 2003 XML binding unsatisfactory in that it prescribed the format for individual dc and dcterms properties, but not a full XML format - that is, there was no DC-sanctioned XML root element for a qualified DC record. (This gets at the very heart of the difference in perspective between RDF and XML, properties and elements, etc., I think, but I digress...) The folks I'm aware of that developed workarounds for this were those sharing QDC over OAI-PMH. I find the UIUC OAI registry http://oai.grainger.uiuc.edu/registry/ helpful for investigations of this sort. A quick glance at their report on Distinct Metadata Schemas used in OAI-PMH data providers http://oai.grainger.uiuc.edu/registry/ListSchemas.asp seems to suggest that CONTENTdm uses this schema for QDC http://epubs.cclrc.ac.uk/xsd/qdc.xsd and DSpace uses this one http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/qdc/2006/01/06/dcterms.xsd. The latter doesn't actually define a root element either, but since here a! t least the QDC is inside the wrappers the OAI-PMH response requires it's well-formed. What someone does with that once they get it and unpack it, I don't know, since without a container it won't be well-formed XML. The former goes through several levels of importing other things and eventually ends up importing from an .xsd on the Dublin Core site, but they define a root element themselves along the way. (I think.) - So what does one do? I guess it depends on who your target consumers of this data are. If you're looking to work with more traditional library environments, perhaps those that are using CONTENTdm, etc. the legacy hack-ish format might be the best. (I'm part of an initiative to revitalize the Sheet Music Consortium http://digital.library.ucla.edu/sheetmusic/ and lots of our potential contributors are CONTENTdm users, so I think this is the direction I'm going to take that project.) But if you're wanting to talk to DCMI-style folks, the dc-ds-xml, or more likely the dc-rdf option seems more attractive. I'm afraid I'm not much help with the implementation details of dc-rdf, though. One of the DC mailing list would be, though, I suspect. There are a lot of active members there. Ick, huh? :-) Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
[CODE4LIB] What do you want out of a frbrized data web service?
Hi all, At Indiana University we're working on a project that will help us see concretely what FRBRized [1] library data and discovery systems might look like. [2] One of our project goals is to share the raw FRBRized data widely so that others can look at it to see how it's structured, reuse it, improve on it, comment on the FRBRization effectiveness, etc. We're planning on allowing remote/Web Services/API/SRU/some machine-to-machine method like that access to the data. As we're starting to think about how we should set that up, we thought it would be useful to gather some use cases from the code4lib community, as it's the folks here that are experimenting with services like this. So if there were FRBRized data available to you (at least for FRBR group 1 and group 2 entities; *maybe* group 3 as well), what would you do with it? What kinds of questions would your service (discovery system, whatever) ask a service that made this data available? What kinds of information would you want in a response? Would you have uses that called for downloading of all data at once or would you instead be better off with real-time queries to a web service? It's questions like that we're interested in brainstorming with this group about. Basically, what type of access to the data we're generating is most important, since we have finite resources to expend on this right now. Thanks, all! Jenn [1] http://www.loc.gov/cds/downloads/FRBR.PDF [2] http://vfrbr.info Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Variations/FRBR project relases FRBR XML Schemas
(Sorry for the late weigh-in...) From Ross Singer: I totally agree we're past the point of hand waviness and just need to model this stuff /pragmatically/ (i.e. in a manner we think we could actually use), at scale, and have something to point to. And then release whatever comes out of it so other can do the same thing. Honestly, I believe we're at a stage of librarian-exhaustion over RDA and FRBR that the first decent working example of this, however removed from the actual specs, will become the defacto standard. A concrete FBR implementation at not truly but something starting to look a bit like scale (80K sound recordings, 105K scores) is one of the most important goals of the Variations/FRBR project at Indiana. Stay tuned - we should have a first beta search system for folks to look at really soon now! I couldn't agree more the only way we're going to move forward at this point is to really put this thing into practice. Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Variations/FRBR project relases FRBR XML Schemas
What the RDA folks (that is, the folks who have created RDA, the JSC members) said (some of them off-list to me), is that if your manifestation is an aggregate, then your Expression must be an equal aggregate. So the Expression is pretty much one-to-one with the Manifestation. (And I think we were all seeing a many-to-many.) I see this conclusion as RDA's, but not FRBR's. The FRBR report explicitly says there can be a many-to-one relationship between Expressions and a Manifestation (that is, a Manifestation can embody several Expressions), and the V/FRBR project takes that at face value and does not impose the additional restriction that a Manifestation contains an equal aggregate. RDA may impose that restriction, but that's their implementation of FRBR, and the V/FRBR project as *not* an RDA implementation doesn't feel bound by that decision. Obviously I think that RDA has made a mistake in adding in a requirement that if your manifestation is an aggregate, then your Expression must be an equal aggregate. But that's their business, I guess. Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Variations/FRBR project relases FRBR XML Schemas
Hi everyone, Posting quickly since I'm scrambling to get out of town tomorrow - I'll do my best to follow along over the next few days but please be patient if I'm slow in responding... I did see the RDA-L discussion, but caught up on it too late to weigh in usefully. I've always found the notion of an aggregate work in FRBR to be minimally useful. The music community in general has absolutely no problem with two Expressed Works appearing together on a single Manifestation, without having to call those two an aggregate Work because they happen to appear together. I've heard (even as far back as that OCLC FRBR Workshop a number of years ago) people argue that contributions to the Manifestation in the sense of deciding which Works go on it are somehow less important than if we called that pulling together a Work, but I don't really buy that. Just because you contribute to a different entity doesn't mean your contribution is less meaningful in my opinion. I think the music community is comfortable with the one-many relationship between Expressions and Manifestations (remember, this one/many setup is *explicitly* part of the core FRBR model, right in that first Group 1 entity diagram!), and doesn't feel the need to call Works that appear together to be aggregations for a pretty simple reason: sound recordings in particular so often have more than one Work on them. Calling something an aggregate seems to me to be a workaround to cope with uncomfortableness with that one/many relationship, but I don't find myself uncomfortable with that at all. I know the FRBR report says you can model things as aggregates, but as with a lot in the FRBR report it's only helpful to use it if it gets you functionality you need, and for the materials I work with there's not really a benefit in treating three symphonies on a single CD (by different composers!) an aggregate Work. If you need to call all Works that appeared together an aggregate Work,! then there would be no need for the one/many relationship between Expressions and Manifestations. With that thinking an anthology of poems is just lots of Expressed Works, no aggregation needed. I'd be inclined (personally) to only say something is an aggregate work if the creator of the original work had a hand in bringing them together, but even then I might be hesitant. If I recall correctly, the RDA-L discussion focused more on less important (ok, that's probably unfair) content like forwards, is that correct? I see that as fundamentally different than the capital-W Works like symphonies that appear together, but even here I'm inclined to either call those their own Expressed Works that happen to appear on the Manifestation, or just pretend they don't exist because it's not worth our time to model them that fully, rather than calling the whole thing an aggregate Work. And I think the RDA-L discussion got complicated because RDA itself muddles FRBR a bit in this area (I forget the specifics but Karen I know you pointed out one case where they seemed to contradict each other), so I figured it was best to just stay out of it. :-) This is all just my opinion mostly, but in general in the music community FRBR discussions the notion of an aggregate doesn't come up all that much. The Music Library Association had a 2008 task force on Work records for music, which explicitly considered aggregates to be out of scope http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/BCC/BCC-Historical/BCC2008/BCC2008WGWRM1.pdf. I wasn't on that group, but I suspect one reason for that was internal disagreement on whether aggregates were useful at all in this context. Andrew has done some thinking in this area as well, I know! Jenn -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Karen Coyle Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 8:39 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Variations/FRBR project relases FRBR XML Schemas Quoting Andrew Hankinson andrew.hankin...@gmail.com: An album with Beethoven's 7, 8 9th Symphonies performed by the London Philharmonic would be a manifestation containing three independent expressions of these works, but the album wouldn't be a work by itself. You can have dependent forward relationships, i.e. Work is an Expression contained in a Manifestation but, as far as I know, there's no way to specify that a manifestation containing independent works as a separate work unto itself, and still stay within the FRBR model. (please, correct me if I'm wrong...) As I said, the discussion on the RDA-L list came to a different conclusion, with folks involved directly in RDA and FRBR coming down (one rather harshly to me offline) that a compilation is an expression in itself. We didn't get so far as a compilation expression being one to one with a work, but I would like to move this discussion to that list, since the RDA experts are probably not following this list.
[CODE4LIB] Variations/FRBR project relases FRBR XML Schemas
The Variations/FRBR project at Indiana University (http://vfrbr.info) is pleased to announce the release of an initial set of XML Schemas for the encoding of FRBRized bibliographic data. The Variations/FRBR project aims to provide a concrete testbed for the FRBR conceptual model, and these XML Schemas represent one step towards that goal by prescribing a concrete data format that instantiates the conceptual model. Our project has been watching recent work to represent the FRBR-based Resource Description and Access (RDA) element vocabulary in RDF; however, due to the fact that this work represents RDA data rather than FRBR data directly, and that much metadata work in libraries currently (though perhaps not permanently) operates in an XML rather than an RDF environment, we concluded an XML-based format for FRBR data directly was needed at this time. We view XML conforming to these Schemas to be one possible external representation of FRBRized data, and will be exploring other! representations (including RDF) in the future. We define implementing FRBR, as the conceptual models described in the companion FRBR and FRAD reports; at this time we are not actively working on the model defined in the draft FRSAD report. Perhaps the most notable feature of the Variations/FRBR XML Schemas is their existence at three levels: frbr, which embodies faithfully only those features defined by the FRBR and FRAD reports; efrbr, which adds additional features we hope will make the data format more useful; and vfrbr, which both contracts and extends the FRBR and FRAD models to create a data representation optimized for the description of musical materials and we hope provides a model for other domain-specific applications of FRBR. A User Guide with details on the structure of the Schemas and how they relate to one another may be found at http://vfrbr.info/schemas/1.0/UserGuide.pdf, and links to all Schemas and documentation may be found at http://vfrbr.info/schemas/1.0. We hope this Schema release will lead to further discussion of FRBR implementation issues within the community. Comments and questions on the Variations/FRBR Schema release may be sent to vf...@dlib.indiana.edu. Variations/FRBR is generously funded through a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services http://www.imls.gov. (And a big kudos goes to the V/FRBR project team: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/vfrbr/people/index.shtml. Thanks to all of you, and especially to Paul, Mark, and Ilias.) Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Who is working on METS Viewer applications
Dear Repke and all, Several years ago Indiana University released a METS Viewer called METS Navigator: http://metsnavigator.sourceforge.net/. We've since done a *ton* of work on it but haven't gotten around to doing another release. Here's something like version 1.1 in action: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/metsnav2/imh/navigate.do?oid=VAA4025-097-1cid=VAA4025-097-1-a01. We're wrapping up what we're calling version 2.0 in the next few weeks. That version is really a complete overhaul. The two biggest new bits of functionality are a whole/part capability (think journal with issues all displayed together in one tree) and a pluggable design where you can stick parts of the display (like just the tree view, or the tree view plus the page images and navigation) into other systems. At the moment we don't have anything stable to point to you that shows this off, but ask again in a week or two and we should! I'm sorry we don't have a schedule yet for a new os release of the METS Navigator package - as you all know the extra time to do this is significant, and we're pretty buried in too many other competing priorities right now. :-( Jenn -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Repke de Vries Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 4:06 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Who is working on METS Viewer applications Dear Code4Lib Community read the METS based OpenMIC - OpenWMS announcement (July 9th) with great interest. It points at a need beyond METS creation and that is METS Viewers for end users: who in the CODE4LIB community is working on METS Viewer applications ? Here is an example of what we mean by that - the DFGViewer: http://dfg-viewer.de/en/regarding-the-project/ Anyone else ? Background: the International Institute for Social History [ http:// www.iisg.nl ] has such collections that we are involved with both the archiving and library communities. Metadata issues therefore are a mixed bag. Added to that are Permanent Access issues. We are looking at METS to tie it all together and at METS Viewers for our users to easily navigate and negotiate what 's pulled together in these METS containers. Thanks, Repke de Vries
[CODE4LIB] DLF Aquifer Metadata Working Group Lessons Learned report available
The DLF Aquifer Metadata Working Group is proud to release a brief report summarizing our Working Group's activities through the life of the DLF Aquifer initiative, reflecting on the impact and effectiveness of these activities, and suggesting some directions future similar initiatives might explore. Advancing the State of the Art in Distributed Digital Libraries: Accomplishments of and Lessons Learned from the Digital Library Federation Aquifer Metadata Working Group can be found online at http://tinyurl.com/dlfaquifermwg. The Aquifer Metadata Working Group would like to thank all who have been involved with the initiative, including current and past Working Group members; the Aquifer American Social History Online project team; participants in ground-breaking precursor activities such as the DLF/NSDL OAI-PMH Best Practices; individuals and institutions who tested, implemented, and provided feedback on the Metadata Working Group's MODS Guidelines and other work products; and of course DLF for its ongoing support. It's been a wild, educational, and wholly enjoyable ride! Jenn Riley On behalf of the DLF Aquifer Metadata Working Group Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] One Data Format Identifier (and Registry) to Rule Them All
One thing I note in the current SRU list is that versioning might be an issue. MODS 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 all have different identifiers (naturally) but the same short name. I've run into this issue with OAI-PMH, where there isn't a formal registry of metadata formats but general conventions that most folks follow. The issue there is that from the OAI-PMH metadataPrefix (which I think is corollary to the SRU short name) you don't know which version of the format is being used. For minor release versions in practice this is more of an annoyance than a big problem, but I suspect for major release versions it could be a bigger issue. In the OpenURL list, mods is limited to *only* MODS 3.2. So when harmonizing these it might be useful to have a convention for dealing with version numbers within a format. Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Ross Singer Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 9:17 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] One Data Format Identifier (and Registry) to Rule Them All I agree that most software probably won't do it. But the data will be there and free and relatively easy to integrate if one wanted to. In a lot ways, Jonathan, it's got Umlaut written all over it. Now to get to Jonathan's point -- yes, I think the primary goal still needs to be working towards bringing use of identifiers for a given thing to a single variant. However, we would obviously have to know what the options are in order to figure out what that one is -- while we're doing that, why not enter the different options into the registry and document them in some way (such as, who uses this variant?). Voila, we have a crosswalk. Of course, the downside is that we technically also have a new URI for this resource (since the skos:Concept would need to have a URI), but we could probably hand wave that away as the id for the registry concept, not the data format. So -- we seem to have some agreement here? -Ross. On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 5:53 PM, Jonathan Rochkind rochk...@jhu.edu wrote: From my perspective, all we're talking about is using the same URI to refer to the same format(s) accross the library community standards this community generally can control. That will make things much easier for developers, especially but not only when building software that interacts with more than one of these standards (as client or server). Now, once you've done that, you've ALSO set the stage for that kind of RDF scenario, among other RDF scenarios. I agree with Mike that that particular scenario is unlikely, but once you set the stage for RDF experimentation like that, if folks are interested in experimenting (and many in our community are), maybe something more attractively useful will come out of it. Or maybe not. Either way, you've made things easier and more inter- operable just by using the same set of URIs across multiple standards to refer to the same thing. So, yeah, I'd still focus on that, rather than any kind of 'cross walk', RDF or not. It's the actual use case in front of us, in which the benefit will definitely be worth the effort (if the effort is kept manageable by avoiding trying to solve the entire universe of problems at once). Jonathan Mike Taylor wrote: So what are we talking about here? A situation where an SRU server receives a request for response records to be delivered in a particular format, it doesn't recognise the format URI, so it goes and looks it up in an RDF database and discovers that it's equivalent to a URI that it does know? Hmm ... it's crazy, but it might just work. I bet no-one does it, though. _/|_ ___ /o ) \/ Mike Taylor m...@indexdata.com http://www.miketaylor.org.uk )_v__/\ Someday, I'll show you around monster-free Tokyo -- dialogue from Gamera: Guardian of the Universe Peter Noerr writes: I agree with Ross wholeheartedly. Particularly in the use of an RDF based mechanism to describe, and then have systems act on, the semantics of these uniquely identified objects. Semantics (as in Web) has been exercising my thoughts recently and the problems we have here are writ large over all the SW people are trying to achieve. Perhaps we can help... Peter -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Ross Singer Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 13:40 To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] One Data Format Identifier (and Registry) to Rule
Re: [CODE4LIB] marc21 and usmarc
I am less optimistic about MODS than Kyle. Having watched it be made, I think it's more than just a bit of a kludge, and carries forward a lot of the problems of MARC21. I also don't think that it has a strong model or philosophy behind it. I think we can do much, much better. I agree with Karen's characterization of how MODS has developed since its inception. The good news is that will hopefully change soon. The newly formed MODS/MADS Editorial Committee is developing a design principles document that will help guide future versions of MODS and MADS. We'd gratefully welcome feedback on what those principles should be. The MODS list [1] is probably the best place for that discussion to take place, but some of the Committee members are on this list too, so ideas brought up here won't be lost on that group. I suspect we'll have a draft document to share on the MODS list in the next month or so, but ideas for what should be on it before then are even more valuable. :-) [1] http://listserv.loc.gov/listarch/mods.html Jenn (Chair, MODS/MADS Editorial Committee) Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
Re: [CODE4LIB] Good advanced search screens
This seems obvious, but I'm surprised how infrequently it's actually used: I think the key to designing good advanced search screens is not to be tied literally to the underlying data structure. The boxes/options you show on an advanced search screen don't have to be a 1:1 correspondence with fields or elements in the data. Certainly you don't have to use actual field/element names as labels in the interface - show user-friendly ones. But more importantly you can group elements together. Have a defined use case for every field you put on that screen, and have it search one or more data elements that meet that need. It's perfectly OK to have a box on that screen search more than one field on the back end. In the case of MODS, that's been cited in one email in this thread, combining the different date elements within originInfo into a single index likely makes sense. You might also make them searchable individually, but only if the target users are likely to need that (very gr! anular) distinction. You could also build a combined index on all names, or in addition provide indexes for names only recorded as having a certain role. And don't be afraid to leave fields out either - only put fields on the advanced search screen that make sense, that have a reasonable (but imaginative!) reason for being there. Using MODS again, langugageOfCataloging would likely be something you'd leave out of all but the most exceptional advanced search screens. But there are probably many more borderline cases that deserve careful consideration. It's hard to find a good balance between throwing in the kitchen sink and meeting advanced users' needs. One other piece of advice: use lists of defined values whenever possible, but be careful about only making some things (language for example) available as search limits rather than as searches in their own right - why not allow someone see every resource in a certain language? If they get more hits than they're comfortable with, they'll just use your (well-designed, of course) feature to revise their original search. Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Jordan Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 5:01 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Good advanced search screens Hi David, You might want to consider an advanced search interface that offers a varying number of options. We've done this to a certain extent in the PKP Metadata Harvester for schemas more complex than Dublin Core. An example of a harvester that has some MODS in it is at http://harvesters.sfu.ca/chodarr/index.php/search, if you want to see how we implemented this (click on the More fields button). We're currently rewriting the Harvester so I'd be interested in hearing what you settle on. That particular application suffers from the same problem you're describing with WorldCat -- a very rich metadata set to search against, plus in the Harvester's case, new schemas can be added fairly easily, and we don't want admins to have to rewrite the search form when they add a new schema. Mark Mark Jordan Head of Library Systems W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada Voice: 778.782.5753 / Fax: 778.782.3023 [EMAIL PROTECTED] - David Walker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm working on an advanced search screen as part of our WorldCat API project. WorldCat has dozens of indexes and a ton of limiters. So many, in fact, that it's rather daunting trying to design it all in a way that isn't just a big dump of fields and check boxes that only a cataloger could decipher. So I'm looking for examples of good advanced search screens (for bibliographic databases or otherwise) to gain some inspiration. Thanks! --Dave == David Walker Library Web Services Manager California State University http://xerxes.calstate.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] LOC Authority Data
Ah, yes, that's much clearer, thanks! Jenn -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Roy Tennant Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 10:33 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LOC Authority Data On 10/2/08 10/2/08 € 2:39 PM, Jenn Riley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks for the link, Roy. I hadn't taken the time to look this far into the Grid Services terms of use. One thing stuck out to me, though. What does Library members that do ***all*** their cataloging with an OCLC subscription mean? The all part is what doesn't make sense to me on first read. Jenn, Thanks for asking. We agreed that the wording is perhaps not the best, so we changed it to Library members that contribute all current cataloging and holdings to WorldCat which we think gets more at what we mean. That is, the important thing is that you contribute information about what you have to the common pool. Thanks for spurring us to make this change and we hope that clarifies our intent. Thanks, Roy
Re: [CODE4LIB] xml java package
-Original Message- I now need to read XML. Unlike indexing and doing OAI-PMH, there are a myriad of tools for reading and writing XML. I've done SAX before. I think I've done a bit of DOM. If I wanted a straight-forward and well-supported Java package that supported these APIs, then what package might I use? If the data you're manipulating is partially or fully described by a Schema or DTD, consider using a package such as Castor (castor.org) I think I recall hearing in the past that Castor had trouble with XML files that used mixed content models (a set into which TEI and EAD both fall) - can anyone confirm if that's currently the case (or that it never was and I'm completely misremembering)? Jenn Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian Digital Library Program Indiana University - Bloomington Wells Library W501 (812) 856-5759 www.dlib.indiana.edu Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
