Jennifer Bowen, University of Rochester ALA Midwinter Conference January 22, 2012, Dallas, TX The eXtensible Catalog (XC): Transitioning to a Post-MARC Environment

Agenda XC’s potential role in the transition from MARC to a non-MARC environment Lessons learned from XC to inform a new bibliographic framework XC’s potential for producing linked data 2

What is XC software? 3 eXtensible Catalog (XC) is open source, user-centered, next generation software for libraries. XC provides a discovery system and a set of tools for libraries to manage metadata and build applications.

Why Build XC? Empower libraries to have control over their discovery environment Put results of user research into practice Everything in XC user interface is customizable Create a new platform for metadata manipulation that uses FRBR, RDA 6

Bridge to a new Bibliographic Framework Image source: 7

XC’s Role in Transitioning to a non- MARC Environment…and RDA…

Facilitating RDA Implementation 9 XC transforms MARC data into a FRBR- informed “transitional” XML schema The “XC Schema,” uses a subset of RDA elements and roles alongside Dublin Core, some XC data elements More RDA elements can be added to the schema in the future

By January 2013… By the time that RDA is implemented, 10 Using XC Software, libraries will be able to use RDA in MARC and RDA in a non- MARC environment at the same time.

LC Requirements for a New Bibliographic Framework Environment 1.Broad accommodation of content rules and data models 2.Provision for types of data that logically accompany or support bibliographic description 3.Accommodation of textual data, linked data with URIs instead of text, and both 4.Consideration of the relationships between and recommendations for communications format tagging, record input conventions, and system storage/manipulation 5.Consideration of the needs of all sizes and types of libraries, from small public to large research 6.Continuation of maintenance of MARC until no longer necessary 7.Compatibility with MARC-based records 8.Provision of transformation from MARC 21 to a new bibliographic environment 11

Requirement #7 Compatibility with MARC-based records. While a new schema for communications could be radically different, it will need to enable use of data currently found in MARC, since redescribing resources will not be feasible. Ideally there would be an option to preserve all data from a MARC record. 12

Converting MARC 21 What XC software can do: –Convert MARC codes to vocabulary values –Remove extraneous data –Normalize inconsistencies –Map most MARC fields/subfields and parse to appropriate FRBR Group 1 entity records 13

Requirement #8 Provision of transformation from MARC 21 to a new bibliographic environment. A key requirement will be software that converts data to be moved from MARC to the new bibliographic framework and back, if possible, in order to enable experimentation, testing, and other activities related to evolution of the environment. 14

Easing the Transition Keep your MARC-based ILS! (for now…) XC works alongside MARC-based systems XC uses a copy of the metadata in your ILS or repository, allowing risk-free experimentation without disturbing current workflows 15

MARC to XC Schema Transformation Parses MARCXML records into linked FRBR-based records Maps MARCXML data elements to elements in the XC Schema.

Converting MARC 21 Problematic areas: –Some MARC fields/subfields are difficult to map to appropriate FRBR entities –Tracking relationships between FRBR entity records: How many relationships can we support with XC software? 17

Managing Relationships

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Issue 1: Managing Multiple Relationships 20 MARC bibliographic records can refer to multiple FRBR entities of the same type (analytics that represent multiple works/expressions, e.g. tracks on a CD)

Issue 2: Beyond FRBR Group 1 Entities 21 MARC “Alternate Graphic Representation” (880 fields) can contain data that belong in records for Group 2 and Group 3 entities Contributor: ‡ ‡a Vasil’ev, Maksim ‡ ‡a Васильев, Максим. Subject: ‡ ‡a Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, ‡d ‡ ‡a Путин, Владимир Владимирович, ‡d 1952-

If we were to parse this 880 data correctly: 22 Contributor Contributor in Cyrillic characters Contributor in Roman characters Subject Subject in Cyrillic characters Subject in Roman characters Alternative script of name from 880 Alternative script of subject from 880

Issue 3: Related Group 1 Entities Language attribute for a related expression ‡a eng ‡h ita ‡a Dante Alighieri, ‡d ‡a Divina commedia. ‡l English ‡a The divine comedy / ‡c Dante ; a new verse translation by C.H. Sisson. 500 ‡a Translation of: Divina commedia. 23

If we were to parse 041 ‡ h data… 24 Based on (Expression) Contributor Contributor in Cyrillic characters Contributor in Roman characters Subject Subject in Cyrillic characters Subject in Roman characters Alternative script of name from 880 Original language from 041 ‡ h Alternative script of subject from 880

Contributor Contributor in Cyrillic characters Contributor in Roman characters Managing Relationships Between Entities 25 Based on (Expression) Subject Subject in Cyrillic characters Subject in Roman characters Original language from 041 $h Alternative script of subject from 880 Alternative script of name from 880

Lessons Learned from Transforming MARC to the XC Schema

new records changed records deleted records changed relationships Maintaining links between separate FRBR entity records in a production environment may not be scalable if we continue to manipulate records. What we are learning from XC 27

28 There are hundreds of RDA Relationships between FRBR Group 1 entitles!

Bottom line… The GOOD news… bibliographic records can contain data about MANY FRBR relationships The BAD news… manipulating ALL of these relationships in a record-based structure is probably not feasible Conclusion: Linked Data may be a better option 29

Linked Data in XC

LC Requirements for a New Bibliographic Framework Environment 1.Broad accommodation of content rules and data models 2.Provision for types of data that logically accompany or support bibliographic description 3.Accommodation of textual data, linked data with URIs instead of text, and both 4.Consideration of the relationships between and recommendations for communications format tagging, record input conventions, and system storage/manipulation 5.Consideration of the needs of all sizes and types of libraries, from small public to large research 6.Continuation of maintenance of MARC until no longer necessary 7.Compatibility with MARC-based records 8.Provision of transformation from MARC 21 to a new bibliographic environment 31

XC’s original metadata goals - Aggregate MARC and other metadata for use in new applications - Define a FRBR-based metadata schema to support XC’s user-interface functionality - Create a software application to process batches of metadata through a set of services 32

XC and Linked Data Creating linked data was NOT among XC’s original goals However, XC software creates an opportunity to contribute to this effort 33

What is Linked Data? Give everything unique identifiers (URIs) online, so that everything is understandable to online applications. This means that information from one online application can be related to information in another automatically. Everything includes people, places, things, vocabularies, metadata elements, web documents, … 34

XC Linked Data Accomplishments XC has set the stage for Linked Data by: - Converting MARC data to FRBR entities as an interim step to produce better linked data - Ensuring that XC Schema records can be converted to RDF triples as easily as possible - Developing a plan for enabling linked data output from XC 35

Preparing Metadata for Linked Data Unique identifiers for all XC metadata records that represent FRBR Group 1 Entities (not MARC records!) Data elements from registered schemas (DC, RDA, XC) Support use of registered vocabularies 36 DC RDA XC

XC Software is “Linked Data Ready” XC’s software architecture can potentially enable three types of Linked Data output: – RDF/XML (Metadata Service) – RDFa (Drupal 7 User Interface) – SPARQL Endpoint (Incorporated into the MST) 37

Next Steps for Linked Data and XC What’s needed: – Community participation (libraries and developers contributing to further software development) – Now seeking funding for more open source development 38

Another XC presentation… …Tomorrow! Next Generation Catalog Interest Group Sunday, Jan. 22, 10:30-Noon Dallas Convention Center C156 39

Download XC software at eXtensibleCatalog.org