The Future of Bibliographic Control: A Time of Transition

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The Future of Bibliographic Control A Time of
Transition
Perspectives from the Library and Publishing
Communities
The challenge of metadata distribution
Chuck Koscher Director of Technology CrossRef
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Shifting roles
January 9, 2008
The recommendations fall into five general
areas 1. Increase the efficiency of
bibliographic production for all libraries
through increased cooperation and increased
sharing of bibliographic records, and by
maximizing the use of data produced throughout
the entire supply chain for information
resources
The recommendations fall into five general
areas 1. Increase the efficiency of
bibliographic production for all libraries
through increased cooperation and increased
sharing of bibliographic records, and by
maximizing the use of data produced throughout
the entire supply chain for information
resources
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So, is this going to be hard?
Link Resolvers and the Serials Supply Chain
Final Project Report for UKSG
By James Culling
21 May 2007
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Supply chain?
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(No Transcript)
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Working the problem

• Develop and publish guidelines for best practice
  to effect smoother interaction between members of
  the knowledge base supply chain. Knowledge base
  providers and their customers (primarily academic
  libraries) will benefit from provision of higher
  quality data by content providers. Publishers
  will benefit from accurate linking to their
  content and subsequently the possibility of
  increased usage.
• Provide educational events that will address the
  roles of each (relevant) party in the supply
  chain, the functions each needs to carry out to
  improve supply of data to knowledge bases, and
  the value of doing so in each case. Content
  providers will benefit from a greater
  understanding of the needs and activities of
  those to whom they supply data knowledge base
  providers and libraries will again benefit from
  improvements that can be expected when content
  providers are better educated.
• Deliver a centralised information portal, to
  support educational activities and provide a
  comprehensive resource for further learning,

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Data produced in the supply chain
A few to consider

• Local Link Servers

Proprietary databases tailored to a specific
implementation and geared towards appropriate
copy navigation. Provider or consumer?

• A I

Commercial databases of exceedingly high quality
but not universal coverage. Much more than
bibliographic records but traditionally not a
metadata-only provider

• Content distribution channels

Content and metadata provided among a number of
sales/distribution channel participants.

• - Each has evolved to meet the needs of a
  specific domain
• Financial considerations will likely come into
  play
• Maintain competitive advantages (not just a
  concern of for profits)

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Good news there is a lot of data out there Bad
news there is a lot of data out there
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The shameless plug
is a metadata provider

• Bulk distribution of XML files (via FTP)
• Selective distribution via OAI-PMH
• OpenURL enhanced resolver allows metadata
  retrieval

At the moment distributed in a CrossRef format
(e.g. schema)
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Only the names have changed
Achieving acceptable levels of
data quality requires
constant effort

• Duplicate records
• (called a conflict, identical metadata for
  two DOIs)
• Incomplete records, inconsequential records
• (first generation deposit DTD did not
  mandate article title)
• Broken records
• (DOIs that no longer reach the intended
  target)
• Non existent records
• (No DOI created for much in-demand
  content)

In total these add up to approx. 1
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Working the problem
Achieving acceptable levels of
data quality requires constant
effort

• Quality committee which reports directly to the
  board
• (has the power to establish new mandates)
• Automated problem reporting
• (publishers may get lots of email,
  complaints from real people even!)
• Semi-public quality score board, who is having
  problems
• (wall of shame?)
• Tighten up quality thresholds
• (better deposit schema or enforce rules
  during ingestion)
• Investigate, investigate, investigate

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Finally, the perspective.
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The Future of Bibliographic Control A Time of
Transition
Thank you
Chuck Koscher Director of Technology CrossRef
ckoscher_at_crossref.org