OSI and Bibliographic Access: opening a conversation Caroline Arms Kevin Novak Michelle Rago

OSI: A quick perspective from the trenches Where we fit in OSI organization What guides what projects and tasks OSI staff work on Selected activities that may be relevant to your Reflections from outside the OSI Web Services group Some questions (from my perspective) And on to the main event

OSI Organization Where the three of us fit in

What/who guides what we do LC Digital Strategic Plan (March 2003) Priorities established by and requests from –Digital Executive Oversight Group (DEOG) –Heads of service units –Librarian Infrastructure activities identified by OSI as supporting several priority projects or planning for projects relating to managing and sustaining digital content Digital Strategy and Initiatives Web site –

The Digital Life Cycle Framework National & International Policies, Legal Mandates, Standards & Best Practices LC Policies, Legal Mandates, Standards & Best Practices LIFE CYCLE PROCESSES PLAN Get Make Available Sustain ProduceSelect Prepare/ Assemble Describe

Other selected activities related to bibliographic access Liaison for Digital Conversion Group to Bibliographic Access Mapping American Memory non-MARC records to MODS OAI (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) –Records for items in selected American Memory and PPOC collections harvestable -- steadily adding more –As low-cost way of sharing records and allowing incorporation of content in other services (e.g. RLG’s Cultural Materials) –New DLF activity on best practices for OAI New, coordinated look at collecting and providing access to serials

Questions to reflect on (from my perspective) Which to focus on first? –Better experience for users who come to LC’s Web site, making it easier to find relevant content and services –Better interface to LC’s catalog Powerful possibilities not implemented in Voyager but potentially supported by relationships in records –Unified search, for users in reading rooms, to LC’s catalog and bibliographic resources to which LC subscribes likely to sacrifice the power of current OPAC search

More questions By exploiting catalog records, could new channels bring new users to LC –Already happening Open WorldCat (Google, Yahoo, OCLC) RedLightGreen Yahoo harvesting OAI records –What else is worth pursuing P&P and G&M content accessible through Google images?? Can less costly cataloging practices be used for some content without sacrificing service to users –Less time on aspects that don’t benefit users –Getting and transforming records from other sources –MODS for lightweight description

And a couple more To what extent would enhancement of records enhance service as perceived by users? What is cost-effective? –Upgrading old records –Adding to records to enhance service for certain audiences –Adjusting practices to make records more useful in other contexts What new services can LC build based on authority records (an unexploited treasure) –For LC users –To support metadata generation outside library community Including by communities from whom we might want to get metadata –As part of the semantic web.

One last reminder and on to the main event If the Reflections exercise leads to any projects that become priorities for Library Services and for which OSI resources are requested, OSI stands ready to contribute and add to its portfolio. Meanwhile, the OSI Web Services group clearly has experience and expertise that could be relevant and objectives that overlap with yours.