The world beyond MARC: let’s focus on asking the right questionsTerry Reese, Head of Digital Initiatives, The Ohio State UniversityReese.2179@osu.edu

(C)2013 Watterson. Universal Uclick/GoComics

We are at the beginning of a very long race

Why are we doing this?

http://www.thinkgrowcreate.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/future-technology.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Nicklaus

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=grapes+of+wrath

There is a lot of promise around BibFrame. Unfortunately, the word BibFrame can come with a lot of baggage depending on the community

BibFrame as RDA 2.0

• RDA in the United States took 8 years, multiple revisions, and a near act of God to be implemented

• And what it got us was a handful of new MARC Fields

http://www.guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/startupshutdown/splash/winme.png

BibFrame as the magician

• We’ve heard that Linked Data and BibFrame will solve everything from discovery to world peace.

• We don’t know how it will do those things, but we just know that they will

http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/cwc/Group/magiicat/images/magiicat-logo.gif

I prefer a more practical outlook…

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Start by what can be achieve today

• Library metadata represents the communities single biggest strength and roadblock

• Libraries have over ½ a century of data locked into MARC-based systems• Libraries have over a ½ century of accumulated workflow processing,

system development, and investment in understanding MARC (both MARC as the carrier format, and MARC as defined as a cataloging format)

Start by what can be achieve today

• It’s time to start thinking about entification

• At ALA, a PCC task force, with members from the British Library, National Library of Germany, Koha, OCLC, Innovative, and various academic institutions will present a set of recommendations to allow libraries to begin entification of content

Linked Identifiers: Turning strings• =336 \\$atext$btxt$2rdacontent• =337 \\$aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia• =338 \\$avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier• =600 10$6880-06$aHu, Zongnan,$d1896-1962$vDiaries.• =650 \0$aGenerals$zChina$vBiography.• =650 \0$aGenerals$zTaiwan$vBiography.• =600 17$aHu, Zongnan,$d1896-1962.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst00131171• =650 \7$aGenerals.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst00939841• =651 \7$aChina.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01206073• =651 \7$aTaiwan.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01207854• =655 \7$aDiaries.$2lcgft• =655 \7$aAutobiographies.$2lcgft

Linked Identifiers: into strings+• =336 \\$atext$btxt$2rdacontent$0http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/contentTypes/txt• =337 \\$aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia$0http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/mediaTypes/n• =338 \\$avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier$0http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/carriers/nc• =600 10$6880-06$aHu, Zongnan,$d1896-1962$vDiaries.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84029846• =650 \0$aGenerals$zChina$vBiography.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008105087• =650 \0$aGenerals$zTaiwan$vBiography.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008105117• =600 17$aHu, Zongnan,$d1896-1962.$2fast$0http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00131171• =650 \7$aGenerals.$2fast$0http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00939841• =651 \7$aChina.$2fast$0http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01206073• =651 \7$aTaiwan.$2fast$0http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01207854• =655 \7$aDiaries.$2lcgft$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026085• =655 \7$aAutobiographies.$2lcgft$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026047

How does this happen

With lots of effort

OCLC is actively adding FAST Ids to records in WorldCat

German National Library is adding IDs to gnd

Linked Data 4 Libraries Project

https://www.ld4l.org/

Tools like MarcEdit

Entification is slowly starting to happen

How might this work in Real Life

• User searches for: Фолкнер, Уильям• This is William Faulker, because my library has this real world object

linked: http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr2003030050 • I can have my system us this identifier to find materials that are

sameas through an identifier switching service (in this case, OCLC’s persons Ids [in pilot]

How Might this work in Real life

Local Identifier Switching Service SameAs Linked

Identifier

User Search

Library Linked Data Services Today

Start building infrastructure

• Most identifier services use their own rules for data escaping – and they aren’t documented

• Many services are still not well suited for this work• Anything that doesn’t provide an option to do an exact lookup like ULAN, AAT, or VIAF –

all these require additional processing to ensure that results match the queried term.

• Many services are little “p” production in that lots of look-ups can (and do) cause problems.

Begin Experimenting

• The changes we are talking about are sea changes. To make this happen, we need:

• People to start showing the way• Demonstrating how these relationships build community and improve

discovery/access for users• Supporting those doing the work