[CODE4LIB] question on harvesting RDF

[English, Eben]

Hello all,

A little context: the MODS and RDF Descriptive Metadata Subgroup 
(https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/hydra/MODS+and+RDF+Descriptive+Metadata+Subgroup)
 
is a group of cultural institutions working together to model MODS XML 
as RDF.

Our project diverges from previous efforts in this domain in that we're 
trying to come up with a model that takes more advantage of widely-used 
vocabularies and namespaces, avoiding blank nodes at all costs.

As we work through the list of MODS elements, we've been stumbling on a 
few thorny issues, and with our goal of making our data as shareable as 
possible, we agreed that it would be helpful to try and get the input of 
folks who have more experience in harvesting and parsing RDF from the 
proliferation of data providers existing in the real world (see 
https://datahub.io/dataset for a great list).

Specifically, when consuming RDF from a new data source, how big of a 
problem are the following issues:


#1. Triples where the object may be a string literal or a URI

For example, the predicate 'dc:subject' from the Dublin Core Elements 
vocabulary has no defined range, which means it can be used with both 
literal and non-literal values 
(http://wiki.dublincore.org/index.php/User_Guide/Publishing_Metadata#dc:subject).

So one could have both in a data store:

ex:myObject1  dc:subject  "aircraft" .
ex:myObject2  dc:subject 
 .


... versus ...


#2. Using multiple predicates with similar/overlapping definitions, 
depending on the value of the object

For example, when expressing the subject of a work, using different 
predicates depending on whether there is an existing URI for a topic or not:

ex:myObject1  dc:subject  "aircraft" .
ex:myObject2  dcterms:subject 
 .


We're wondering which approach is less problematic from a Linked 
Data-harvesting standpoint. Issue #1 requires that the parser be 
prepared to handle different types of values from the same predicate, 
but issue #2 involves parsing an additional namespace and predicate, etc.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Eben

-- 
Eben English | Boston Public Library
Web Services Developer
617-859-2238 |eengl...@bpl.org

Re: [CODE4LIB] Do you use alt tags in your images for digital collections

[English, Eben]

For Digital Commonwealth (https://digitalcommonwealth.org/), we just use 
the title as the alt tag on both the search results and item detail page.

Search results: 
https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?f[collection_name_ssim][]=Boston+Brewery+Posters[institution_name_ssim][]=Boston+Public+Library

Item detail: 
https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:t435gm075

I'm curious to hear whether others feel like redundancy of title or 
description metadata in image alt tags is a problem. What other 
information are people including in the alt tag?

Thanks,
Eben

Eben English | Boston Public Library
Web Services Developer
617-859-2238 | eengl...@bpl.org

Re: [CODE4LIB] Ebook reader app

[English, Eben]

Lauren,

There actually is a group working toward exactly this type of goal. It's a IMLS 
grant-funded initiative being organized by NYPL called Library Simplified:

http://www.librarysimplified.org/

You can find out more at the above link, but the basic goal of the project is 
to create an app for iOS and Android that allows libraries to integrate content 
from different ebook vendors into a seamless discovery and reading interface. I 
know that so far they've been working with 3M, Overdrive, and Baker  Taylor to 
allow content from these vendors to work within the app.

Currently the app is still in development, but I believe the target date for 
the initial roll-out is late April or early May.

Thanks,

Eben English
Web Services Developer
Boston Public Library
700 Boylston St.
Boston, MA 02116
617.859.2238
eengl...@bpl.org

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 7:39 PM, Lauren Magnuson 
lauren.lpmagnu...@gmail.com wrote:

 I'm curious to know if anyone has explored creating a mobile app for their
 library that would facilitate downloading /reading library ebooks from
 multiple library ebook vendors.  I'm envisioning an app that would allow
 the user to browse ebooks from multiple platforms (e.g., ebrary, EBSCO) and
 enable downloading and DRM management stuff right in the app.

 I can think of a million roadblocks to creating something like this
 (publishers, vendors, Adobe, etc.)  But I can also think of a lot of good
 reasons why this would be very useful (the process to download an ebook
 from an academic library is, for the most part, ludicrous).

 I know there's Overdrive - and ebrary has it's own app, or whatever, and
 there are apps like Bluefire that can be used with library ebooks - but
 something non-platform specific that could conceivably work for multiple
 library ebook platforms (and be customized by a library to allow the reader
 to browse collections) is what I have in mind.  I also really dig this
 Reader's First (http://readersfirst.org/) initiative, which it looks like
 is wrangling with a lot of the policy /vendor side of things.

 Feel free to contact me off list with any information / ideas / advice.
 This feels like a kind of enormous problem, and a lot of libraries could
 benefit from a group working toward a technical solution - but perhaps such
 a group / initiative already exists?

 Thanks in advance,

 Lauren Magnuson
 Systems  Emerging Technologies Librarian, CSU Northridge
 Development Coordinator, PALNI

[CODE4LIB] NE Regional Hydra Meeting: Thursday May 7, Brown University

[English, Eben]

Calling all Northeast Hydranauts! Come join your colleagues from Amherst, 
Boston Public Library, Brown, DPLA, Northeastern, WGBH, Yale, and other 
institutions as we gather for a one-day meeting to discuss all things Hydra on 
May 7th at Brown University in Providence, RI.

Registration (free) is now open: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zVmSGv9SOYELHqprzN8IHI_fq7fJR-QMM0w04R_VQag

Please let us know by April 15 if you are planning to attend. 

For more information about the agenda, take a look at the Meeting page on the 
Hydra Project Wiki (https://wiki.duraspace.org/x/yAUCB). We're currently 
brainstorming about session topics and the meeting structure, and welcome 
suggestions for potential topics of discussion, problems to hack on, 
demonstrations of current projects, etc. 

Some possibilities suggested so far:

* Migration to Fedora 4
* Spotlight
* Content modelling in Hydra
* Preservation  auditing
* APIs for integrating Hydra-managed content with Wordpress and/or Drupal
* UX for Hydra and Blacklight

We welcome your feedback on what type of meeting you think would be most 
useful. You can also suggest topics via the registration form.

Thanks,

The NE Hydra Meeting Planning Committee 
(Andrew Ashton, Karen Cariani, Eben English, Michael Friscia, Alicia Morris, 
Patrick Yott)

Re: [CODE4LIB] iiif compatible servers

[English, Eben]

Eric,

You also might want to look at freelib-djatoka:

http://projects.freelibrary.info/freelib-djatoka/

-- 
Eben English
Web Services Developer
Boston Public Library
700 Boylston St.
Boston, MA 02116
617.859.2238
eengl...@bpl.org

[CODE4LIB] convert MODS XML into CSV or tab-delimted text

[English, Eben]

Hello,

Does anyone out there have an XSL stylesheet to transform MODS XML into 
a CSV or tab-delimited text file?

Even if it's highly localized to your own institution/project, it would 
probably still be useful.

Thanks in advance,

Eben English
Web Services Developer
Boston Public Library
700 Boylston St.
Boston, MA 02116
617.859.2238
eengl...@bpl.org