Sharing Best Practice For National Bibliographies In The
Digital Era
Neil Wilson
Information Coordinator
IFLA Bibliography Section
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Key Areas of Interest
• The content, arrangement, production, dissemination & preservation of bibliographic information
- especially national bibliographic services
• Promotion of the importance of the discipline of bibliography to:
• Library professionals & publishers
• Distributors & retailers
• Users
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New Users
Bibliographic data has been given greater value by new technologies
assisting its reuse e.g.:
• Research via citation management software
• ‘Mashups’ of data from multiple sources including libraries
• Data Mining of large datasets, e.g. to identify publication trends
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Evolving Library Requirements
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Libraries operating in a global market require metadata for a wider range of resources than ever
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New commercial suppliers offer coverage of nonbook resources with rich supporting information
Evolving Market Requirement
 Printed works + e-books, chapters, articles etc.
 Multimedia (video, audio, software games etc.)
 Additional content (contents, reviews, book jacket images etc.)
Traditional Library
Coverage
 Core descriptive information
 Authors, titles, ISBN, subjects etc.
 Printed books, serials etc.
Range of resources requiring description
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Free Metadata Sharing Services
New non-library based services are emerging based on freely shareable metadata
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The Open Library Project:
Aggregates metadata from libraries, publishers & book reviewers in a free Wiki database of 24 million books
Biblios.net: the largest repository of freely licensed bibliographic metadata
LibraryThing: Allows users to catalogue books online using metadata from 700 sources.
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Linked Data
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Potential benefits to libraries:
Improved web integration of resources increasing visibility
& reaching new users
An open global pool of reusable data for libraries to add unique value
New leadership opportunities due to library persistence, stability & authority
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Library Sector Relevance
Declining?
“I did my PhD with only 12 visits to a library. That was 5 years ago; things have improved since then, now you don’t need to use a library at all!”
Increasing?
“The release of library data offers the opportunity for it to be used in ways un-thought of by the library & information community…”
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In an era of disruptive change libraries need open access to bibliographic best practice on:
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Service development, delivery & lifecycle
Resource description & standards
Business models & administration
User support
And much more…
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Guidance & New Directions (2009)
“The changes brought about by the World Wide Web & the explosion of electronic media have called into question many of the assumptions on which national bibliographies have been founded…”
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“Considering that the environment is evolving fast, this document is expected to be revised periodically … to reflect
the changes “
Libraries now require a more flexible, open, & dynamic solution than traditional printed text
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Create a new web resource describing best practice
Organise by theme
Provide links to back up sources to ensure continuing relevance & currency
Supplement with real world examples when possible
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Context
•
Site Home Page
Purpose, scope, intended audience etc
.
The Value of National
Bibliographies
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The mission of the national bibliography
Users & stakeholders
International recommendations
The changing operational context
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Organisation & Administration
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Organisation
Responsibilities of a national bibliographic agency
Legal deposit legislation
National bibliographic control
Cooperative options for data creation
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Administration
Resource issues & business models
Measuring the effectiveness of the national bibliography
Service lifecycle
Intellectual property & rights issues
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Scope, Selection & Standards
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Scoping & Selection
General selection criteria
Resource format
Exclusions policies
Resource Description & Standards
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Bibliographic control principles
Bibliographic content standards
Identifiers
Metadata formats
Character encoding standards
Semantic web standards
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Delivery
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Service Delivery
Global context of national services
Common requirements e.g. currency
Management & dissemination of changes to metadata
Delivery options e.g. online, linked data, PDF etc
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User support
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•
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At IFLA 2012 SC meetings:
Discuss Conference outcomes
Agree final WG membership & methodology
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Autumn 2012 – Summer
2013
Allocate work for site sections & identify expert contributions
Create site structure & begin to populate it
Create text with external links
Offer sample pages for feedback
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•
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At IFLA 2013 SC meetings:
Discuss progress & feedback received
Finalise next steps
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Autumn 2013 – Spring 2014
Allocate further work for site sections & invite expert contributions
Create further text with external links
Offer pages for feedback
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•
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Development – via SC
Wiki & expert contribution
Announcements on blog
& mailing lists
Use cases link to ‘National
Bibliographic Register’
User feedback – on sample pages
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Further Information
• Web site: http://www.ifla.org/en/bibliography
• Blog: http://blogs.ifla.org/bibliography/
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