Metadata for Learning Resources

Metadata for Learning Resources: An Update on Standards Activity for 2008 by Sarah Currier appears in the latest issue of Ariadne.

The major areas of development covered in this article are:

1. LOM Next: plans for the next version of the IEEE LOM
2. The Joint DCMI/IEEE LTSC (Learning Technology Standards Committee) Taskforce: bringing together the two major metadata standards used for learning resources, and providing an RDF translation for the LOM
3. DC-Education Application Profile (DC-Ed AP): a modular application profile purely looking at educational aspects of resources, based on community requirements
4. The United Kingdom’s Joint Information Systems Committee Learning Materials Application Profile (JISC LMAP) scoping study: working alongside a number of similar projects looking at application profiles for repositories in other areas, e.g. images.
5. International Standards Organisation Metadata for Learning Resources (ISO MLR): based primarily in Canada, this international standards body is devising a new international standard for educational metadata, in response to perceived limitations of the IEEE LOM
6. The European Commission’s PROLEARN Harmonisation of Metadata project: a study into the issues and challenges of achieving harmonisation in metadata, given the heterogeneous landscape

Metadata Advocates

I had an Ah-Ha moment while listening to John Udell's show Interviews with Innovators. The episode was Working with Data Sources with Raymond Yee.

Raymond Yee is a lecturer at the UC Berkeley School of Information and the author of Pro Web 2.0 Mashups: Remixing Data and Web Services. In this conversation he talks about teaching students how to work with existing data sources, and speculates with Jon Udell on ways to expand the supply of available sources.

What struck me was that we should be advocates for metadata standards. If the local geneology society puts up a calendar on their website, help them get it into iCal or hCal format. Then we could drop their info into a pathfinder. Or geocoding the local bird-watchers sightings, or school district's lunch menu, or .... We could offer our understanding of the importance of standards and data reuse to our community. The library benefits by becoming the go-to-place for information management. The community benefits because they get the word out more effectively. It would be a very different job description for a cataloger to become the community data standard outreach person. But, not a bad place to be.

Resource Description and Access

Now available, Outcomes of the Meeting of the Joint Steering Committee Held in Chicago, USA, 13-22 April 2008.

Using Wikipedia

Two new reports from HP Labs show interesting uses of Wikipedia in information management.

Boosting Inductive Transfer for Text Classification using Wikipedia by Somnath Banerjee. HPL-2008-42

Inductive transfer is applying knowledge learned on one set of tasks to improve the performance of learning a new task. Inductive transfer is being applied in improving the generalization performance on a classification task using the models learned on some related tasks. In this paper, we show a method of making inductive transfer for text classification more effective using Wikipedia. We map the text documents of the different tasks to a feature space created using Wikipedia, thereby providing some background knowledge of the contents of the documents. It has been observed here that when the classifiers are built using the features generated from Wikipedia they become more effective in transferring knowledge. An evaluation on the daily classification task on the Reuters RCV1 corpus shows that our method can significantly improve the performance of inductive transfer. Our method was also able to successfully overcome a major obstacle observed in a recent work on a similar setting. Publication Info: Published and presented at ICMLA 2007, the Sixth International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA'07), 13-15 Dec. 2007 Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Clustering Short Texts using Wikipedia by Somnath Banerjee, Krishnan Ramanathan, and Ajay Gupta. HPL-2008-41

Subscribers to the popular news or blog feeds (RSS/Atom) often face the problem of information overload as these feed sources usually deliver large number of items periodically. One solution to this problem could be clustering similar items in the feed reader to make the information more manageable for a user. Clustering items at the feed reader end is a challenging task as usually only a small part of the actual article is received through the feed. In this paper, we propose a method of improving the accuracy of clustering short texts by enriching their representation with additional features from Wikipedia. Empirical results indicate that this enriched representation of text items can substantially improve the clustering accuracy when compared to the conventional bag of words representation. Publication Info: Published and presented at SIGIR 2007, the 30th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference, 23-27 July 2007, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Slick Deal

Here is a bargain offered by Amazon, OCLC - MARC Record. It has free shipping too! This was seen on Slick Deals.

Don't they know they can get all the free MARC records they want from their local library?

Thanks Walter.

myLOC

I may have missed this news, maybe while I was at TxLA, but I've not seen it elsewhere; the Library of Congress now has a "my" portal, myLOC.

Statement of International Cataloging Principles

The Statement of International Cataloging Principles is available for worldwide review.

As Chair of the IFLA Meeting of Experts on an International Cataloging Code (IME ICC) I am pleased to invite comments from the worldwide library community on the final draft of the Statement of International Cataloguing Principles and its accompanying Glossary.

In order to provide the appropriate review period and to schedule adequate time to cumulate, analyze, and incorporate comments before the General Meeting of IFLA in August, the Statement is being posted today on a public Wiki. The IFLA Headquarters Office is closed for holiday April 30-May 5th, but as soon as they return we will move the files there and redirect from the Wiki. In the meantime please link to: http://catprinciples.pbwiki.com/ and view and/or download the Statement for your review; and please use the accompanying voting document for your response.

MARC Records

Ed Summers has "created a bittorrent of the concatenated MARC files donated to the Internet Archive by Scriblio (7,030,372 records)":

http://inkdroid.org/torrents/lc-bib.torrent

Library of Congress Subject Heading Suggestion Blog-a-Thon

The results for the Library of Congress Subject Heading Suggestion Blog-a-Thon are in. The effort resulted in 24 subject headings, 6 cross-references, and 2 subdivisions suggestions.

Transparency

Get Satisfaction looks like a unique 2.0 tool to make the organization transparent.

Get Satisfaction is a direct connection between people and companies that fosters problem-solving, promotes sharing, and builds up relationships. Thousands of companies use this neutral space to support customers, exchange ideas, and get feedback about their products and services. Get Satisfaction is open, transparent, and free. You’re free to ask, free to answer, and free to start a new conversation. Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate: companies, employees, customers — anyone with an opinion, an answer, or something to say.

A few libraries are repersented. Michael Stephens needs to see this.

Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day is this weekend, May 3.

Additions to the MARC Code Lists for Relators, Sources, Description Conventions

The codes listed below have been recently approved for use in MARC 21 records. The codes will be added to the online MARC Code Lists for Relators, Sources, Description Conventions.

The codes should not be used in exchange records until after June 25, 2008. This 60-day waiting period is required to provide MARC 21 implementers time to include newly defined codes in any validation tables they may apply to the MARC fields where the codes are used.

Category Code Sources
The following codes are for use in subfield $2 in field 072 in Authority and Bibliographic records (Subject Category Code) and in subfield $z in field 073 (Subdivision Usage) in Authority records.

Additions:

bisacsh

BISAC Subject Headings
(http://www.bisg.org/standards/bisac_subject/index.html) [use only after June 25, 2008]

bisacmt

BISAC Merchandising Themes
(http://www.bisg.org/standards/merchandising.html) [use only after June 25, 2008]

bisacrt

BISAC Regional Themes
(http://www.bisg.org/standards/region_codes.html) [use only after June 25, 2008]

Classification Sources
The following code is for use in subfield $2 in field 084 in Bibliographic and Community Information records (Other Classification Number), in subfield $2 in field 084 in Classification records (Classification Scheme and Edition) and in subfield $2 in field 065 in Authority records (Other Classification Number).

Addition:

blissc

British Library Inside service subject classification. (London: British Library) [use only after June 25, 2008]

Term, Name, Title Sources
The following codes are for use in subfield $2 in fields 600-657 and 662 in Bibliographic and Community Information records, and in subfield $f in field 040 (Cataloging Source) in Authority records.

Additions:

bisacsh

BISAC Subject Headings
(http://www.bisg.org/standards/bisac_subject/index.html) [use only after June 25, 2008]

bisacmt

BISAC Merchandising Themes
(http://www.bisg.org/standards/merchandising.html) [use only after June 25, 2008]

bisacrt

BISAC Regional Themes
(http://www.bisg.org/standards/region_codes.html) [use only after June 25, 2008]

quiding

Quiding, Nils Herman. Svenskt allmant forfattningsregister for tiden fran ar 1522 till och med ar 1862. (Stockholm: Norstedt) [use only after June 25, 2008]

skon

tt indexera skonlitteratur: Amnesordslista, vuxenlitteratur.
(Stockholm: Svensk biblioteksfrening) [use only after June 25, 2008]

More Comments on TLA

The drive from Houston to Dallas was beautiful. The blue bonnets had past, except for a few scattered patches. However, the brown eyed susans, winecups, indian paintbrushes, and a white flower (cow's parsley?) were spectacular.

At the RDA preconference I had the pleasure of heading Carol Seiler, from AMIGOS, speak. Great presentor.

Watch New Records Enter WorldCat

Watch new records enter WorldCat.

DCMI Abstract Model

At the RDA preconference I noticed that RDA seems to have been based, at least in part, on the DCMI Abstract Model. I knew RDA had some basis in FRBR, but this was something new to me. Getting to know the DCMI Abstract Model before RDA hits has been added to my to-do list.

This document specifies an abstract model for Dublin Core metadata. The primary purpose of this document is to specify the components and constructs used in Dublin Core metadata. It defines the nature of the components used and describes how those components are combined to create information structures. It provides an information model which is independent of any particular encoding syntax. Such an information model allows us to gain a better understanding of the kinds of descriptions that we are encoding and facilitates the development of better mappings and cross-syntax translations.

What is a Work?

Good news from Martha Yee.

...all of my "What is a Work?" articles published in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly in 1994-1995 are now available at the UC eScholarship repository, as follows:

"What is a Work? Part 1, The User and the Objects of the Catalog." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 1994; 19:1:9-28.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/2709

"What is a Work? Part 2, The Anglo-American Cataloging Codes." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 1994; 19:2:5-22.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/2710

"What is a Work? Part 3, The Anglo-American Cataloging Codes, Continued." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 1995; 20:1:25-45.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/2755

"What is a Work? Part 4, Cataloging Theorists and a Definition." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 1995; 20:2:3-23.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/2711

Another relevant article that I wrote about FRBR-izing OCLC is available as well:

"Musical Works on OCLC, or, What if OCLC Were Actually to Become a Catalog?" Music Reference Services Quarterly 2002: 8:1:1-26.

http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/2713

In addition, my recent article analyzing the differences among cataloging, metadata, descriptive bibliography, and abstracting and indexing services is now available:

"Cataloging Compared to Descriptive Bibliography, Abstracting and Indexing Services, and Metadata." Invited for Ruth Carter festschrift, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 2007; 44:3/4:307-328.

http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/2721

LCSH Suggestion Blog-a-Thon

The Radical Reference folks are having a Library of Congress Subject Heading Suggestion Blog-a-Thon.

Do subject headings still matter? We say they do.

Does the Library of Congress always identify accessible and appropriately named headings and implement them in a timely manner? We say not always. All you have to do is spend one day behind a reference desk to see examples of biased, non-inclusive, and counterintuitive classifications that slow down, misdirect, or even obscure information from library users. As librarians and library workers, providing access to information is important-and classifying it in ways that are inclusive and intuitive strengthens our egalitarian mission.

Between now and Sunday, April 27, Radical Reference invites you to suggest subject headings and/or cross-references which will then be compiled and sent to the Library of Congress. You can either choose one previously suggested by Sandy Berman (pdf or spreadsheet) or propose your own.

This is a chance to positively impact the catalog of the de facto national library of the United States, which also impacts cataloging all over the world!

Recommender System for the DSpace

A Recommender System for the DSpace Open Repository Platform by Desmond Elliott, James Rutherford, and John Erickson. HPL-2008-21.

We present Quambo, a recommender system add-on for the DSpace open source repository platform. We explain how Quambo generates content recommendations based upon a user selected set of examples, our approach to presenting content recommendations to the user, and our experiences applying the system to a repository of technical reports. We consider how Quambo could be combined with the peer-federated DSpace add-on to extend the item-space from which recommendations can be generated; a larger item-space could improve the diversity of the set from which to make recommendations. We also consider how Quambo could be extended to add collaboration opportunities to DSpace. Publication Info: Submitted to Open Repositories 2008, Southampton, UK, April 1-4, 2008

TLA Recap

TLA is over for the year. Always an excellent conference. Here are a few observations. The RDA preconference had 135 registered. Some had to be turned away, the most the room would hold was 135. There is definitely an interest in this.

Walt Crawford shows that common sense is not so common but in the right forum always interesting.

No graphic novel/comic vendors. No Marvel, DC, Antarctic Press, Strangers in Paradise. Missed them. Rod Espinosa did a presentation and autograph session. And the author of American Born Chinese did a presentation. Have to check out his stuff, very well-spoken.

The keynote panel was fun. Roy Tennet was a very good moderator.

OPALS looks like an open-source ILS worth investigating.

Post any failures at the Library Success wiki. Examples of things that did not work and even better info on why are important and useful to others.

The KIC copier looks interesting. Too expensive for us right now, $20,000 or so. But a flat scanner that produces a PDF or TIFF and then can email or move the file to a thumb drive looks like the future.

The Nasher Sculpture Center is a beautiful setting. The Willows, Irises and water at the end of the row Oaks was stunning.

The District Caucuses were the same time as the alumni dinners. I went for the dinner. Nice view from the 69th floor.

TLA 2009

It looks like the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) Education Dept. will be having a preconference at TLA 2009. Explore! Fun with Science. Never too early to get this penciled in your daytimer.