Podcast Discussing RDFa

The Nodalities folk at Talis have an interesting podcast on RDFa.

In my latest podcast I talk with Mark Birbeck. We discuss the role of RDFa in bringing structure and semantics to HTML web pages, and look at effective examples from the UK Government’s Central Office of Information.

During the conversation, we refer to the following resources;

• Creative Commons
• Drupal
• Dublin Core
• FOAF
• GRDDL
• HTML
• Linked Data
• Microformats
• N3
• ODF
• RDF
• RDFa
• RDF/XML
• Rule Interchange Format
• SPARQL
• W3C
• XForms
• XHTML 2.0
• XML
• Yahoo! SearchMonkey

This conversation was recorded on Thursday 9 July, 2009.

For other Talis podcasts in this Nodalities series, see here. To subscribe to updates from all of Talis’ podcast series, see here.

BTW Nodalities is on Twitter. I'm following them as LPI_Library.

METS Tool

OpenMIC is good news for the METS community.

The Rutgers University Libraries are pleased to announce the availability of OpenMIC, a METS-based bibliographic utility for describing and managing resources. OpenMIC is the open source release of the Rutgers University Libraries’ RUCore repository bibliographic utility and will be maintained on the RUcore annual release schedule. Releases will include fixes for known problems and recommendations for enhancements received from internal projects and the user community at large. OpenMIC can be used as a stand alone metadata creation tool or with its companion object and workflow handling utility, OpenWMS, which will be released in fall 2009 and can interact with any repository software for a complete digital object management solution.

OpenMIC includes a complete METS metadata implementation with structure map, descriptive metadata, source metadata, technical metadata and rights metadata documents. OpenMIC incorporates MODS, Dublin Core, MIX (NISO technical metadata for images) AES (technical metadata for sound recordings) and PREMIS.

OpenMIC can be fully customized and managed for use at a single or at multiple institutions in a consortial environment. OpenMIC is currently in use for RUcore, the Rutgers Community Repository, the New Jersey Digital Highway, the statewide cultural heritage portal, and NJVid, the statewide digital video portal.

Features of OpenMIC include:

• An event-based data model that enables libraries and archives to document significant events in the lifecycle of the resource, including full event description, agents and their roles and associated documentation, in any METS metadata category. For example, a library may create a rights event for a non-exclusive license, with the heir of the resource creator documented as donor and a PDF of the signed license linked as a related object. Events have been used to document exhibits and their curators, preservation activities and condition inventories.
• The ability to create multiple METS documents and to link METS documents together (e.g., the source document for the analog source used to create a digital preservation copy documented in a technical metadata document)
• An authentication and authorization module that enables administrators to set permissions at the organization, collection or project level.
• The ability to determine required data elements and establish templates, based on organization, collection or project.
• The ability to add taxonomies to any vocabulary-based data element
• Management options based on single or multiple-organization use
• Rich metadata for describing analog source objects, digital masters and associated rights.
• An intuitive user interface that can be customized for simple or complex levels of description depending on the needs of the resource or collection or the expertise of the cataloger.
• Complete documentation, including a metadata data dictionary.

Save Icon

Just noticed that the Save icon is a floppy. Neither of my kids have ever used a floppy, but I know they have seen an old box of them at some point. I'm not sure they would connect the icon with the item. I know when they think of saving they are not thinking of floppies. Yet the icon persists. It has a life of its own beyond the representation of the long past item.

OAI2LOD Server

The OAI2LOD Server seems like a useful tool if you are running an OAI repository.

The OAI2LOD Server exposes any OAI-PMH compliant metadata repository according to the Linked Data guidelines. This makes things and media objects accessible via HTTP URIs and query able via the SPARQL protocol. Parts of the OAI2LOD architecture, especially the front-end, are based on the D2R Server implementation.

Further, it provides a configurable linking mechanism based on string similarity metrics. This allows the automatic linking of OAI-PMH data with other open data sets such as DBPedia or any other OAI-PMH repository exposed via the OAI2LOD Server.

MARC in Germany

Powerpoint slides and videos for "Umstieg auf MARC 21" Symposium MARC-ing a new landscape in data exchange are now available.

In June 2009, the project "Internationalisierung der deutschen Standards: Umstieg auf MARC 21" completed the groundwork for the full implementation of the data exchange format MARC 21 in Germany and Austria.

To mark the successful conclusion of this migration project, the German National Library hold a symposium on June 2, 2009 in Frankfurt am Main. The objective of this meeting was to exchange expertise and ideas with the aim of promoting the use of MARC 21 as a foundation of international interoperability in the library world.

• We are in the game - German and Austrian libraries in the international MARC community / Reinhold Heuvelmann
• MAB, UNIMARC und MARC 21 - use of three standards in BSZ / Cornelia Katz
• The challenge of cataloguing in a MARC-based system / Gabriele Meßmer
• After thoughts / Sally McCallum
• MARC 21, RDA, and the FRBR and FRAD models ... making the connections / Tom Delsey
• Mapping RDA to MARC 21 / Margaret Stewart
• Expectations / Sally McCallum

The talks are in English. How many conferences in the USA could be held in another language? It always impresses me that others are so competent.

Stimulus Funding

The American Library Association's website Know Your Stimulus includes new information on Broadband Funding. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has begun to populate its website with details regarding broadband stimulus programs. Moments ago, the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) was posted.

• You may download an application for review, beginning July 7.
• RUS and NTIA encourage electronic filing, beginning July 31.
  • Applicants requesting more than $1 million in assistance must file electronically.
  • Applicants whose authorized representatives are individuals with disabilities may submit a paper application irrespective of the funding size of their request.
  • Applicants who are requesting less than $1 million in assistance may forego electronic filing if this would impose a hardship.
• Electronic applications must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. ET on August 14, 2009.
• Paper submissions must be postmarked no later than August 14, 2009, or hand-delivered no later than 5:00 p.m. ET on August 14, 2009.

The ALA Washington Office will conduct a webinar Wednesday, July 8th to help you navigate the application process. More details will be made available on the ALA Know Your Stimulus website.