how to make your books findable on the web
TRANSCRIPT
¿Cómo hacer que sus libros sean
encontrados en la web? Thad McIlroy
TheFutureofPublishing.com San Francisco & Vancouver
Laboratorio digital
Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia April 29, 2015
My Background
Book publisher, author, technologist
30+ years studying the impact of thedigital trends on publishing
Editorial Board for Learned Publishing and Geist
220 articles and 15 books on digitalpublishing
TheFutureofPublishing.com
My New 2015 Books
Outline
National libraries are unique The state of public libraries Bibliographic data standards Problems with today’s standards Findability vs. Discoverability Extending metadata to the web Futures
National Libraries are libraries National Libraries are unique
1. Deep and diversified collections Maps, experimental film & video Tesoros de la Biblioteca
2. A responsibility to researchers 3. A responsibility to the public
To serve as the continuing memory of the Colombian people
Accessible to all
Public libraries in America & Public libraries in Colombia
America In the U.S. 5 states reported library
branch closures in 2014. Funding is flat or down slightly1
Colombia
In Colombia 104 public libraries were built between 2010 and 2014... 44 just in 2014, pushing the total number to 1,404 public libraries in 32 systems2
Santos: “We hope to build a similar number in the second period.”
(For comparison: Canada has 595 library systems and 2996 branches3)
The Delicate Balance Of print and digital
Library customers remain primarily print-oriented
Although a shift in demand is clear Much of the opportunity & the growth is
in digital What is the role of mobile?
Bibliographic Data Standards
Standards, broadly
“The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.”
— Andrew Tanenbaum, 1981
xkcd.com
My Favorite Library Standard
The Dewey Decimal System First published in the United States by
Melvil Dewey in 1876; still in wide use His birth name was Melville Dewey, but
he removed the final “le” to set an example of efficient cataloguing
Shifting Standards: Print
Shifting Standards: Digital
A Universe of Metadata
Problems with Today’s Standards
The aging of existing standards (MARC, AACR2)
Standards move too quickly (RDA, FRBR) Usage drops (ISBN) Projects are abandoned (Europeana’s
REPOX for metadata) Interoperability is lacking
Findability vs. Discoverability
This is an excellent interface to find a book
Findability vs. Discoverability
This is the best interface to discover a book
Extending Metadata to the Web
Schema.org
Encode metadata within a web page to improve the display of search results
A standard created by Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex
“There (is) momentum toward the use of schema.org for encoding documents to enhance discoverability.”4
A Simple Metadata Structure
Schema.org instance <div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Book"> <h1 itemprop="name">Avatar (Mysteries of Septagram, #2)</h1> <div itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype=
"http://schema.org.Person"> Author: <span itemprop="name">Paul Bryers</span> (born <span itemprop="birthDate">1945</span>) </div> <span itemprop="genre">Science fiction</span> <img src="http://coverart.oclc.org/ImageWebSvc/oclc/
+-+703315758_140.jpg" itemprop="image"> </div>
Search “Gabriel Garcia Marquez”
“Gabriel Garcia Marquez” snippets
Add “books”
Schema.org Interoperability
JSON-LD provides a shared vocabulary with Schema.org
“Create rich snippets for your website, using a combination of Schema.org and either Microdata or the recently endorsed JSON-LD”6
Endorsing schema.org
Schema.org has become a bit of a success story for structured data on the web... I would have no hesitation in recommending it as a starting point for anyone, in any sector, wanting to share structured data on the web.
— Richard Wallis, OCLC, 12/20/12
A Brief Case Study
Bookbinding Metadata
Search Google
Google links to Internet Archive
Part of the MOMA collection...
But with no link to the source...
Does the value of serendipitous discovery balance against the missing attribution?
Futures
Which metadata will make these books discoverable?
Managing Digital Disruption
Digital is not an event. It’s an ongoing process
Don’t manage technology; manage desired outcomes
How can technology help you reach an outcome?
The Future Library User
Mobile As a Moving Force
The Disruptive Power of Mobile
Cell phones in Africa allowed Africans to skip the landline stage of development and jump right to the digital age5
Will literacy in Colombia be paper-based?
Notes and Credits 1. The State of America’s Libraries 2015, ALA 2. El Tiempo, December 9, 2014 3. Leah Jones, January, 2012 4. The Future of Library Resource Discovery, NISO, February
2015 5. Cell Phones in Africa: Communication Lifeline, Pew
Research Center, April 2015 6. http://builtvisible.com/micro-data-schema-org-guide-
generating-rich-snippets/ 7. Cartoon © xkcd.com 8. Bookbinding illustration © frogmoremill.com