gmane.culture.libraries.ngc4lib

Re: NGC4LIB Digest - 22 Aug 2008 to 23 Aug 2008 (#2008-39)

Jason Etheridge — 2008-09-07T05:18:01

On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 3:48 PM, Jesse Ephraim ci.southlake.tx.us> wrote: Or they don't know about the commercial companies that do support the open source systems, or think them too young.

Commercial Vendors and Open Source Software

David Dorman — 2008-09-06T20:17:09

Jesse, Please don't tar "commercial vendors" as being against open source: some of us develop, distribute and support open source software for libraries. And please don't perpetuate the myth that commercial support is not available for open source software. David David Dorman US Marketing Manager, Index Data 52 Whitman Ave. West Hartford, Connecticut 06107 dorman< at >indexdata.com 860-389-1568 or toll free 866-489-1568 fax: 860-561-5613 INDEX DATA Means Business for Open Source and Open Standards - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.indexdata.com

Re: NGC4LIB Digest - 22 Aug 2008 to 23 Aug 2008 (#2008-39)

Jesse Ephraim — 2008-09-06T19:48:32

... Complexity is a relative thing. From a programmatic standpoint, ILSes are not very complex - certainly nowhere near the level of most business systems and games. Some of them - Horizon, for example - would barely pass muster as shareware, at least from a reliability and design standpoint. I helped build much, much more complex business and entertainment applications during my decade as a professional programmer. Even at that, there is a lot of unnecessary complexity in many ILSes, often stemming from the use of archaic data handling methods and proprietary, closed systems. There are a lot of parts to ILSes, and it would take a little time to build a complete system from scratch, but they are ultimately just specialized forms of a certain type of common business software. Patrons are "customers," books and such are our "products," and circulation is just a type of "order fulfillment." Rules and exceptions that may apply to certain individuals, items, branches ("distribution centers"),

Job Posting: Web Services Librarian, East Carolina University

Gueguen, Gretchen — 2008-09-04T19:53:19

Apologies for cross-postings... J.Y. Joyner Library, Academic Library Services, East Carolina University seeks an enthusiastic, energetic and flexible colleague to lead the development and management of the Library's web presence. Responsibilities: Reporting to the Assistant Director for User Services, the Web Services Librarian will: * Provide vision and leadership in designing, developing and supporting the Library's virtual presence, including an increasing number of web-based services * Lead, supervise, and direct the Web Development Team * Collaborate effectively with librarians and staff to design and offer innovative digital library services to our community * Coordinate the creation of web resources through effective interface design, sound information architecture, usability and accessibility assessment techniques, and implementation of best practices and standards * Investigate, incorporate and deploy innovative technologies in library services such as wikis, podcasting, RSS feeds, social netw

Re: Swedish union catalogue available as Linked Data

Ed Summers — 2008-09-04T19:24:14

Well it's in the rdf too. But I imagine you were an early adopter who pulled down the data soon after it went live? About a month after the initial release of lcsh.info I changed up the identifiers to be hash URIs, since it simplified the delivery application quite a bit. If you are curious I switched from 303 URIs forwarding to Different Documents [1] to a Hash URI pattern described in the 4th paragraph of 4.4 [2]. I don't think this change was profoundly important, but it'll definitely be interesting to see how the evolution of URI namespaces plays out in the linked-data world. //Ed [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/#r303uri [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/#choosing

Attempt to "explain" DCAM

Karen Coyle — 2008-09-04T17:49:06

I've had a lot of discussions with a lot of people about the Dublin Core Abstract Model. I've made a very limited attempt to give my own understanding of the DCAM (along with a rant about terminology): http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2008/09/semantic-dementia.html I'd love to have a deep discussion about whether this model is useful for us or not, and if not, what it is we really need. Feel free to comment, here, there, or anywhere. kc

Re: Swedish union catalogue available as Linked Data

Martin Malmsten — 2008-09-04T07:37:40

That's great! Well, as long as we keep putting more stuff up as Linked Data, I'm sure someone will write the "killer app". Ooops, unescaped quotes. Ooops again, the #concept was added to the HTML-page, not the RDF. Right. I have talked to the experts and they have authorized me to use skos:exactMatch. From what I understand this is almost always correct. /martin

Job Opening: Federated Search Developer at University of Michigan Library

Ken Varnum — 2008-09-03T20:11:14

The University of Michigan¹s Library Web Systems department has received funding for a one-year term position to build a new, improved, federated search tool for the University Library. Library Web Systems manages the U-M Library web site [ http://www.lib.umich.edu ], federated search [ http://searchtools.lib.umich.edu ], the library's social bookmarking tool [ http://www.lib.umich.edu/mtagger/ ], develops other innovative and experimental tools through MLibrary Labs [ http://www.lib.umich.edu/labs ], and is implementing Drupal as our content management system. The Federated Search Developer will create new tools to better match licensed databases with patron needs. The new system will lead our users to A) the right database [relevant to search query] at the B) right level [appropriate to the academic level of the specific question] of subject-specific resources and C) ask the database the right question [using vocabulary appropriate to the search target]. The successful candidate will demonstrate experi

REMINDER: Code4Lib Journal call for proposals, December issue, due 9/12

Emily Lynema — 2008-09-02T18:10:49

Just a reminder...proposals for the December 2008 issue of the Code4Lib Journal are due September 12, one week from this Friday. A first full draft of the article itself will not be due until October 17, so you still have some time to work. Consider yourself encouraged to submit a proposal! -emily lynema coordinating editor, issue 5 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Code4Lib Journal call for proposals, December issue Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:35:01 -0400 From: Emily Lynema ncsu.edu> To: Code for Libraries LISTSERV.ND.EDU> Call for Submissions: The Code4Lib Journal (C4LJ) exists to foster community and share information among those interested in the intersection of libraries, technology, and the future. The Code4Lib Journal is now accepting proposals for publication in its 5th issue. Don't miss out on this opportunity to share your ideas and experiences in an issue that marks the first full year of publication for this new journal. To be included in the 5th issue, sc

LAC: A Core Partner of the Open Library Environment (OLE) Project

Dinberg Donna — 2008-09-02T11:10:10

** This message has been cross-posted to several lists ** Library and Archives Canada: A Core Partner of the Open Library Environment (OLE) Project Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce that it is participating in the Open Library Environment (OLE) Project joining other core partners, with Duke University as the project lead. With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the OLE Project will develop a design document for a next-generation open-source library automation system that fits modern expectations for library workflows and is built on a modern service-oriented architecture. This library system will be able to meet the changing and complex needs of modern libraries and library users. The small group of core partners will be highly involved in all phases of the project, by participating in all the activities, by engaging other members of the library community in planning activities and by writing the final project design document. LACs contribution will be significant a

Re: Mapping records to classification data (was: Re: [NGC4LIB] Swedish union catalogue available as Linked Data)

Oliver Flimm — 2008-09-02T06:41:16

Hi, On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 02:59:45PM +0200, Martin Malmsten wrote: hmm, almost everything. Except getting all titles in your local catalogue that correspond to a specific subject heading, when this subject heading doesn't get catalogued. Its all about enrichment of your local data with external metadata and thus in the end its all about metadata sharing. This - in my mind - essential part cannot be done with Linked Data - you have to use external metadata and find a source that provides it ;-) I don't think that it's possible to implement an efficient service that returns eg. all ISBN's for a given subject heading in LoC, so you can filter your local titles by them. It can be done easiest by providing the mapping I suggested, so you can download the flat file, enrich you local data with the additional subject headings and *then* use Linked Data. Regards, Oliver

Re: Mapping records to classification data (was: Re: [NGC4LIB] Swedish union catalogue available as Linked Data)

Ed Summers — 2008-09-01T19:12:08

Yes, these are definitely interesting. At a meeting at Open Library earlier this year I listened in on a conversation between some folks including Karen Coyle and Rob Styles (Talis) about this subject. It definitely seems like there are lots of ways of doing the matching [1]. At the end of the day, after you've done the painful part of figuring out the linkages, you need a way of expressing them. URLs for the resources being described, linked together w/ owl:sameAs or what have you seems like a good, explicit way to start. And there's a growing community of people doing the same thing in other pockets of the web. [2] Sure, this is a service-oriented approach--personally I am more interested in resource-oriented approaches. It's early days still, but imagine if bibliographic resources were identified with URLs, and could be resolved, and human/machine readable representations be retrieved? This is basically the vision of linked-data. Apart from the lcsh.info experiment, the LCCN service [3] is a step in

LCSH database now links to lcsh.info

Bernhard Eversberg — 2008-08-27T14:47:01

Our LCSH database (6.5m records) http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/db/lcsh/ now includes the complete file of 266.857 terms that was made available by the lcsh.info project. That means you find links from our database to the record in lcsh.info to view their innovative display. The notes contained in the lcsh.info records have been included too. LC classes are indexed as well and can be browsed, to find LCSH terms B.Eversberg

Re: Search/retrieve access is to library data what Gopher was to the web?

Bernhard Eversberg — 2008-08-26T13:07:17

Sounds good, but quite abstract. One would have to see a working model that would show a few useful characteristics for our kind of stuff, clearly displaying superiority over MARC/AACR technology. Mind that we don't have to confront readers with MARC, we can give them data in ReferenceManager format or the likes of that. No, but I'm wondering if with XML we'll not end up with even more riffraff than before, considering all those standards and tools that are needed in addition. That looks really good. But to put it to use, you have to master XSLT, and there it starts with the new riffraff... But nothing convinces better than success, so I'm waiting for something that works and works not just marginally better than what we have but can also replace it. If it takes XML and XSLT but proves easier to use than what we have, you win me over. All fine and well, but are they using XML? And what for? If not, might they be doing even better with it? B.Eversberg

Re: Mapping records to classification data (was: Re: [NGC4LIB] Swedish union catalogue available as Linked Data)

Martin Malmsten — 2008-08-26T12:59:45

This is actually how it is done in LIBRIS. If you crawl the Swedish subject heading for "Mothers" you get both the link to http:// lcsh.info/... and links to bibliographic records using this subject heading. Same thing with authors, crawl August Strindberg (http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/94541 ) and you will learn that he is the (dc:)subject of 1147 bibliographic resources, and (dc:)creator of 3025. ISBN:s are exposed as URIs like this one URN:ISBN:0575047623. Well, yes. But everything is already there in Linked Data. In my opinion VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) should ju be one big downloadable(!) file describing relation between authority resources. /martin

Mapping records to classification data (was: Re: [NGC4LIB] Swedish union catalogue available as Linked Data)

Oliver Flimm — 2008-08-26T10:52:28

Hi, On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 04:32:23AM -0400, Ed Summers wrote: another step in linking library records would be to supply a mapping between individual records and the corresponding subject or classification scheme, e.g. with ISBN or something like Bibkey (http://www.gbv.de/wikis/cls/Bibliographic_Hash_Key). There are quite a lot of schemes out there and not every scheme is used in a particular library catalogue, e.g. we don't use LCSH. On the other hand offering a user to browse local records with one or more (external) schemes like LCSH would be desirable. One possible solution would be to implement corresponding WebServices that get a ISBN or Bibkey and then deliver the appropriate LCSH or any other kind of related meta data. In my opinion a much better solution would be to offer the mapping data as a feed of flat files like LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/feeds/), e.g. ... 123 aaa bbb 456 678

Re: Swedish union catalogue available as Linked Data

Ed Summers — 2008-08-26T08:32:23

Sure, that makes sense. Roy Tennant over in irc://freenode.net/code4lib was (as usual) prodding me into to demonstrating something useful about linked-data, and I suggested perhaps I could write a simple crawler to walk your data set. He didn't seem to impressed but I continued anyway :-) 30 mins later I had a simplistic 42 line harvester [1]. I let it run over the weekend (waiting 3 seconds before requests) and it pulled back 919,190 triples :-) I'm not mentioning this here because it is some sort of technical feat--quite the opposite. The openness of the web, rdf's use of URIs, and your data service embracing web architecture made it possible. My suggestion to Roy was to imagine a world where library data sets were linked together, like what you are doing with linking your authority data with LCSH. A simple crawler could then walk out across the web, and build a union catalog views automatically using the collaborative links between systems. Perhaps this isn't the "killer app" but it feels like it's ge

Re: Search/retrieve access is to library data what Gopher was to the web?

Martin Malmsten — 2008-08-25T21:49:10

It does not have to be one big solution. Just because you have MARC in your catalogue does not mean that you have to inflict it on others. As long as you can express what you want within your domain and expose some of it outside it, that is probably good enough. Though there is a tendency in the library community to want to control how data and services are used. Perhaps it has to do with the idea that users need to *learn* how to use them. That idea has to go. Anyone attending IFLA 2006 in Seoul might remember the theme song performed at the opening[1]: "Who can lead the way to the light Guiding the world to a brighter day Who can show the way to our dreams Helping to explore the meaning of life You are a shining light, beaming brightly on our path [...]" Inflated self-image anyone? Perhaps we need to be "just" data providers for a while and not the ones who also control what services gets built. We do not need One Solution to Rule Them All, we need many solutions. And we need *open

Re: Swedish union catalogue available as Linked Data

Martin Malmsten — 2008-08-25T20:30:12

Hi Ed, thanks! And thank you for publishing the LCSH as Linked Data! I think it will be much easier to convince (some) people that Linked Data is actually picking up steam now. I have loaded your dataset into the triple-store which makes matching our terms so much easier. Every Swedish subject heading should have a link to http://lcsh.info soon. I'll make an announcement on linking-open-data-list as well, but I want more links to external datasets before I do. Let's discuss it on this list for now at least. /Martin On 22 aug 2008, at 17.15, Ed Summers wrote:

Re: Search/retrieve access is to library data what Gopher was to the web?

Kyle Banerjee — 2008-08-25T18:57:03

Back then, most librarians weren't online yet. You should'a distributed the message by fax... ;) kyle

Re: Search/retrieve access is to library data what Gopher was to the web?

Alexander Johannesen — 2008-08-25T18:50:53

I'm glad of this development, albeit about 10 years later than the rest of the world. *giggle* I know I shouldn't giggle, though, but SemWeb and Topic Mappers and anyone who knows anything about digital identity control knows that global identificators are a must for a *first* step into the world of serious collaboration, and have said so far too often. I think the library world was for too long hanging on to the LC / OCLC record numbers, and the authority records (which really ticked me off as it led to the wrong focus alltogether). Yes, indeed. In fact, this is a golden opportunity for the (F)OSS movement to lead ahead and possibly save the day. (Evergreen, Koha, are you listening?!). OSS would have no trouble with integrating with already existing OSS SemWeb technologies, and I know Talis certainly work in this field a lot lately. The W3C push of SemWeb, flawed as I think it is in turns of their own agenda, is an excellent and open set of standards for doing these things. Certainly, and it makes us a