By Kay Teel, Metadata Librarian for Serials and Arts Resources, Stanford University Libraries
My institution is participating in Linked Data projects and the move to BIBFRAME, and all metadata librarians here are involved in these efforts in some way. What does this “bleeding edge” participation look like from the trenches? What follows is a snapshot.
Start the morning off right with a large chai latte and some identity management. A shared spreadsheet contains hundreds of names that never underwent authority control. Each librarian selects a few dozen names to work on. The first step is to search the Library of Congress authority file through its Linked Data Service. If the name is the Name Authority File (NAF), I input the name’s URI into the spreadsheet. If the name is not in NAF, I go to ISNI, as my institution is participating in the PCC ISNI Pilot Project.
Searching ISNI is challenging because there are many duplicates, and each different kind of search (for example, “any phrase” or “name keyword”) yields different results. If the name is in ISNI, I input the name’s ISNI URI in the spreadsheet. If it’s not in ISNI, I login to the ISNI production database website to create a new ISNI record. There are not a lot of required fields, and ISNI doesn’t follow any set of cataloging rules, only its own guidance. I input the name, title of the resource where the name came from. Any other information I have about the name (such as language of the resource) is optional. After I save the record, it is in provisional status until eventually it is reviewed to become an assigned ISNI. After it is assigned, there is an ISNI URI available for the name.
For some projects I also search ORCID and input ORCID identifiers for names found there.
At lunchtime, chances are there will be a webinar about FRBR-LRM, RDF, or Linked Data project updates.
After lunch, I attend a weekly team meeting of five colleagues who are building BIBFRAME Profiles to be used in my institution’s BIBFRAME Editor. During the meeting we look at the latest behavior of our profiles by examining the JSON-LD output and RDF graphs. Building a profile requires reading the BIBFRAME 2.0 vocabulary and mapping the properties and classes to the appropriate level (Work, Instance, or Item), finding vocabulary sources such as Library of Congress’s Linked Data Service or the RDA Registry, and a lot of troubleshooting. Our profiles are built on a web form based on the Library of Congress’s BIBFRAME Profile Editor, and the team monitors changes LC makes through their Github code depository.
After the meeting, I have tasks to complete on my assigned BIBFRAME Profile (for serials). Today’s tasks include going through the list of unconstrained properties at the RDA Registry and deciding which ones are required for serials, and which ones are not relevant or nonessential for serials. I also need to de-bug some existing modeling to figure out why some of the RDF triples ended up floating by themselves in the RDF graph (not supposed to happen!).
After I track down the bug (some errant properties had been modeled to take literal strings as their objects, but the only valid objects for them are BIBFRAME classes), I have some time to review a file of vendor-supplied MARC records containing URIs in subfield zero ($0) of access points such as names, subject headings, and series. This requires plugging the URI in a browser and seeing what data results. If the data appears to match the name in the MARC record, it’s good. If not, I highlight the field in the file and mark it as a mistake. The URIs come from the Library of Congress Linked Data Service Name Authority File, ISNI, or VIAF.
At the end of the day, I work on assignments for the Python programming course I’m taking, and if there is time before I need to catch the train home, I do some RDA cataloging in MARC in OCLC.
(This essay reflects the personal opinions of the author and not the official views or policies of Stanford University Libraries)
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