libraries
Large Libraries Provide Reading Potential
Just a quick note – now that I have changed cities and jobs…
‘Tis so good to have access to such a large academic library collection – my reading is not met with any significant limits. Yes, I know, not every library has every book by every author. Not even Library of Congress has EVERY book (and they have the largest collection in the world).
I have found some obscure theological works, books on physics and time, international literature, as well as some of the best apologetic books in history. If by chance, something is not available in the collection, I make use of the fabulous ILL department (which, by the way, is one of the busiest in the United States).
I guess then I will keep reading.
Humble Github Profile (Python thus far)
I am learning more python these days – still pretty new – editing my programs at GitHub – viewable here.
Looking for ways to manipulate library data and metadata in new ways as needed.
Having some fun too.
CarpentryConnect UK (2019)
For those who may be new to ‘The Carpentries’ – let me introduce you. I first joined a Library of Congress sponsored Library Carpentry event designed to teach interested folks the intro to ways of manipulating data with Python and OpenRefine.
Library Carpentry is a subset of the larger educational entity, The Carpentries.
Well, it looks like an organization in the UK, the Sustainable Software Institute is organizing the ‘first European CarpentryConnect event in Manchester‘ in June (25-27 June 2019). This will be a networking as well as technical learning event it appears.
I wish I could go – but the American Library Association Annual conference is too close there – schedule-wise.
Maybe next time. Either way, this should be good. If you plan to be in Manchester in June this year (2019), and love the educational, open-educational model for learning to code, please consider attending or supporting in some way.
Cheers.
2018 Community Service Award (DCLA)
One a very positive note for this summer of 2018…
I was honoured with the 2018 Community Service Award by the District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA).
Thank you
(Now, I just need to get it on the wall in my office…) 🙂
Freedom and #Diversity in #Libraries
I read Marshall Breeding’s May 2017 “Library Systems Report 2017” way back when it was published in American Libraries magazine – but something struck me this morning while reading a completely unrelated article on politics/culture in the US…
(accessed from American Libraries magazine, 27 July 2017)
That if, as Breeding states, in the internet age, libraries are moving toward increasingly centralized, for-profit “solutions” for their tools and services – from technical services, authority syncing, reference chat tools and vendors for research materials of all formats (and I think he is correct), then libraries are moving away from their democratic ideals towards arrangements with a more fascist bent.
This trend in libraries of course simply reflects the state of culture at large that works by default with the internet.
But the end result, as I see it, is at least twofold:
- That the number of librarians and interested connected professionals are able to engage less and less in the design and implementation of those technologies across almost every front- This not only affects those people’s ability to engage in deep-dive lifelong learning, but it also means that “design local” as a guiding metaphor is being thrown out the window. Even as libraries’ staff talk about how much they like to serve their patrons/community/users (whatever each library wants to call its local constituents, it is actually less able over time to to design solutions built specifically for those very people.
- Â That one major result of the above trend as partially commented upon in bullet # 1 is a significant decline in diversity – this even as diversity & inclusion committees and working groups are being formed across libraryland in the United States. We talk about diversity and intellectual freedom in libraries. But we define those ideas in increasingly narrow terms if we do not take into consideration the elaborate tools that might be built if local libraries maintained their own servers, ILSs, and well defined privacy policies that could be much better managed if local libraries (of all types) maintained a higher level of control over their own systems.
The result of this trend migrates thinking & tinkering away from local decision making, policies, technological innovation towards a totalitarian model wherein diversity is discouraged and intellectual freedom is hindered across several important fronts – especially meaningful fronts in the information age.
A few thoughts…
Thank you for reading.
#Linked data, BibFrame and #libraries
I spent thursday and friday (04-05 may 2017) at the Library of Congress hearing about how the PCC committees are working with linked-data for libraries.
PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) is a Library of Congress hosted standards group made of mostly academic libraries in the areas of metadata, marc21 and cataloging in general. The general sub areas of PCC are BIBCO (for records standards), NACO (for name authority data), CONSER (for serials handling), and SACO (for subject creation & management). The library at which I am Head of Cataloging/Metadata is a PCC member – so this is important for my professional development etc.
I am not really here to extol the virtues of standards in marc-based cataloging – as that could take a while. I am a fan. I am actually here to talk a little about how PCC libraries are examining linked-data for cataloging and all the necessary tools required to work with data in this form.
One surprising fact that I had not considered during my ongoing learning about linked data is the lack of totality for bibframe to contain the necessary modules and preset connections to all levels of vocabularies and thesauri related to material forms, name authority files and the like. Within a Library of Congress context, their catalogers can link to the files they have already defined as most of the necessary authority work and terms are their standard files anyway. Not so with everyone else.
Differences of authority data** depend on the nature of the community being served by the library doing the work. What I mean is that there are lots of linked data files relative to names – each with their own rules and biases – from VIAF to ISNI. VIAF brings together several standard name authority services maintained globally while ISNI is a subset of name authority linked services. Whether one or the other is used depends on the context.
OCLC, which hosts VIAF, uses its traditions of global connections over the internet to aggregate name authority data into one place. One challenge to this approach is that it is not clear that every library is interested in just any name authority file. So if a library wants to use one authority file over another, they will need to link to that one specifically. The open-ness of linked-data creates new challenges in metadata sources that do not exist to such a degree in marc.
This challenge pertains to genre/form headings as much as to authority information. There are a range of terms a cataloger or metadata specialist can attach to descriptions for resources and objects in collections, but not all these come from Library of Congress. They do have their extensive genre/form vocabulary ($2 lcgft), but there is also Getty’s Art and Architecture Thesaurus. The correct list used will just depend on what the local library needs for its users and how it gains access to these files over the internet.
The current web environment opens the doors to entirely new connections of computers to computers – exposing files and data sets to each other across the network. Way different approach to the current model – which is built on a strict & contained record. The new challenges for libraries and linked-data (in bibframe) reveal that the configurations possible are myriad – which means that there are a number of real infrastructure changes required to use these metadata sources for locally maintained catalogs.
This observation was just one of the many learned notions at the PCC meetings.
Thank you for reading.
** here, authority data refers to a standard file form for a name of a person, corporate entity or family name that is used so that all materials or results of queries for searched names can return all (at least theoretically) such materials and resources that might be relevant – either in a local library search, or even more important, in an open-web environment.
DC/SLA Board of Directors 2017
For archival purposes mostly…
Link to newsletter here.
Yes, I am on the board for 2017-2020 on the chapter president track.
J.
