May 2016 | 188pp
Paperback
9781783300693
Price: £59.95
CILIP members price: £47.95
eBook (PDF)
9781783301546
How to buy eBooks
This book shows you how to harness the power of linked data and web-scale discovery systems to manage and link widely varied content across your library collection.
Libraries are increasingly using web-scale discovery systems to help clients find a wide assortment of library materials, including books, journal articles, special collections, archival collections, videos, music and open access collections. Depending on the library material catalogued, the discovery system might need to negotiate different metadata standards, such as AACR, RDA, RAD, FOAF, VRA Core, METS, MODS, RDF and more.
In Managing Metadata in Web-scale Discovery Systems, editor Louise Spiteri and a range of international experts show you how to:
Readership: The book will be essential reading for cataloguers, technical services and systems librarians and library and information science students studying modules on metadata, cataloguing, systems design, data management, and digital libraries. The book will also be of interest to those managing metadata in archives, museums and other cultural heritage institutions.
1. Introduction: the landscape of web-scale discovery - Louise Spiteri
2. Sharing metadata across discovery systems - Marshall Breeding, Angela Kroeger and Heather Moulaison Sandy
3. Managing linked open data across discovery systems - Ali Shiri and Danoosh Davoodi
4. Redefining library resources in discovery systems - Christine DeZelar-Tiedman
5. Managing volume in discovery systems - Aaron Tay
6. Managing outsourced metadata in discovery systems - Laurel Tarulli
7. Managing user-generated metadata in discovery systems - Louise Spiteri
"This text provides a good, user-focused, introduction to web-scale discovery, not only for students, but also to practitioners aiming to understand metadata which underpins – and supports – effective discovery."
- Australian Academic and Research Libraries
"It was interesting to learn about the leading projects, primarily from national libraries, and see some real examples of linked open data sets. Big data, the Semantic Web and BIBFRAME are also covered but nothing gets too complicated, making it a great introduction to this area."
- Catalogue and Index
"I recommend Managing Metadata to catalogers and metadata specialists, systems librarians, and other staff who are moving to or are new possessors of web-scale discovery systems. When taken together with a deeper exploration of the resources named in the bibliographies, I feel this text also may offer food for thought to those librarians already well-ensconced in these systems."
- Technicalities
"The book has a nice balance of the practical, describing challenges of managing metadata in web-scale discovery systems, and the theoretical, encouraging libraries to explore those “what if” moments in discovery systems...As user experience and the search process becomes more and more relevant, the topics in Managing Metadata in Web-scale Discovery Systems become critical to librarians who manage large volumes of data in discovery systems."
- Brianne Hagen, Humboldt State University, Library Resources & Technical Services
'Managing Metadata contains a wealth of valuable information and tools for librarians on web-scale discovery systems and metadata. Touching on the varied forms of metadata creation, it explores how these new web-scale discovery systems will impacy the way libraries provide access to resources in the future. It is recommended reading for librarians in all types of library environments.'
- Margaret M. Kain, University of Alabama at Birmingham Libraries, Against the Grain
1. Introduction: the landscape of web-scale discovery – Louise Spiteri
2. Sharing metadata across discovery systems – Marshall Breeding, Angela Kroeger and Heather Moulaison Sandy
As we increasingly use web-scale discovery systems to help clients find a wide assortment of library materials, how do we manage the different metadata schemes used to describe these different materials? This involves the concept of mapping within and across collections, depending on the scope of the collection. How do we manage these mappings to provide seamless discovery? How do we create, maintain and share records that reflect the needs, languages and identities of culturally and ethnically varied communities?
3. Managing linked open data across discovery systems – Ali Shiri and Danoosh Davoodi
By converting our library catalogue records to linked open data, people can discover library resources across different discovery tools, within and external to the library, which take advantage of full text search and Semantic Web technology and standards (e.g., RDF). This involves going beyond integrated discovery systems, which bring together varied resources within libraries, to what can be called ‘pan discovery systems’, which allow us to link our metadata records across different discovery systems. In a library context, practical linked open data applications are as of yet few in number, of limited maturity, and relatively untested. There are different semantic options available for encoding catalogue records in RDF, and to date there is little consistency in metadata schemas selected (beyond the use of RDF itself). This semantic heterogeneity complicates interoperability.
4. Redefining library resources in discovery systems – Christine DeZelar-Tiedman
Given the increased scope of web-scale discovery systems, it is important to reconsider and redefine what we mean by library resources. Should the web-scale discovery systems link also to human resources in the library, such as expertise of staff, research projects conducted under the purview of the library, and related social media links (e.g., tags, hashtags and so on, related to relevant content)? Should we continue to rely on the library website to provide access to services, as distinct from the catalogue, which provides access to collections? If we want truly integrated discovery systems, should we consider making these connections seamless – services and collections accessed via the catalogue? What would this mean to managing metadata? How would we incorporate metadata about library services in the catalogue?
5. Managing volume in discovery systems – Aaron Tay
The well established measures of recall and precision are becoming increasingly relevant in web-scale discovery systems. Given the way that most people search, which is the simple keyword box that searches all text anywhere in the record, web-scale discovery systems will lead to increasingly large recall as we provide access to more linked items. Do we need to be careful about the sheer volume of items to which we can provide access via web-scale discovery systems? Do we want these systems to become another Google, where precision of results is not always as accurate as we would like? Are we too obsessed with the notion of providing access to everything at the expense of the quality of the results?
6. Managing outsourced metadata in discovery systems – Laurel Tarulli
The increasing reliance of vendors to provide metadata and indexing is something we need to examine. Vendors who provide both metadata and discovery layers might not share their data with another discovery vendor; so, for example, if EBSCO produces metadata for its records but your institution does not use the EBSCO web-scale discovery system, you may not receive any metadata records. How do we negotiate metadata outsourcing for web-scale discovery systems, and how do we ensure the provision of accurate and comprehensive metadata?
7. Managing user-generated metadata in discovery systems – Louise Spiteri
Web-scale discovery systems allow for the blending of metadata generated by actual library clients, and reviews or tags imported from outside sources such as Goodreads and LibraryThing. How are we mining this information? Are we simply uploading these data into our discovery systems and leaving them there purely for viewing purposes, or are we actually mining the data they contain to help us connect with our users, help build more user-centric vocabularies, create community-based reading suggestions and so forth? Our focus tends to be on managing library metadata that we create, but how are we managing user-contributed metadata, including any we import from services such as Goodreads and LibraryThing? Are we looking at trends revealed by this social data? Are we using these metadata to improve library-contributed metadata, connect with our clients, and create shared communities?