Library of Congress’s Bibliographic Framework, or BIBFRAME, sets out to create fully web-enabled bibliographic descriptions
“Ever since the Library of Congress announced an effort to lead us beyond MARC a year ago last May, many of us have been wondering just what the effort would produce. With the recent release of a report titled “Bibliographic Framework as a Web of Data: Linked Data Model and Supporting Services”, we have a much clearer, albeit not fully formed, idea of that.
“The paper sets forward a model that is populated by Creative Works, Instances, Authorities, and Annotations. The goal of this new Bibliographic Framework (BIBFRAME for short), is to form a foundation for the future of bibliographic description that is fully web-enabled. “It is designed to integrate with,” the report states, ” and engage in the wider information community while also serving the very specific needs of its maintenance community — libraries and similar memory organizations. The strategies they are employing to achieve these ends are:
- Differentiate clearly between conceptual content and its physical manifestation(s) (e.g., works and instances)
- Focus on unambiguously identifying information entities (e.g., authorities)
- Leverage and expose relationships between and among entities
“It is still early days, so many things remain less than fully fleshed out, but at least we have more information about LC’s direction than we’ve had previously.
“To participate in the discussion, sign up for the BIBFRAME list.”
From Roy Tennant’s article for The Digital Shift, Library of Congress’ BIBFRAME Initiative: Part 1
Cambridge University makes a Digital Version of a 2,000 year old Ten Commandments manuscript now available
“A host of important historical books and manuscripts – including a 2,000-year-old copy of the Ten Commandments – have been released for the first time in digital versions.
“Cambridge University has published the documents through its digital library, which aims to make 25,000 historically important images freely available. They include some of the most significant religious manuscripts in the world.
“Other additions include a 13th-century Life Of Edward The Confessor and the 10th-century Book Of Deer, widely believed to be the oldest surviving Scottish manuscript.
“While the latest release focuses on faith traditions – including important texts from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism – many of the manuscripts being made available are also of great political, cultural and historical importance.
“The new additions include the Nash Papyrus – fragments of the commandments – and the Codex Bezae – a remarkable ancient copy of the New Testament.
“University librarian Anne Jarvis said: “Cambridge University library preserves works of great importance to faith traditions and communities around the world.
“Because of their age and delicacy these manuscripts are seldom able to be viewed – and when they are displayed, we can only show one or two pages.
“Now, through the generosity of the Polonsky Foundation, anyone with a connection to the internet can select a work of interest, turn to any page of the manuscript and explore it in extraordinary detail.”
From The Telegraph, Ten Commandments go digital
HathiTrust releases November report, notes continued efforts with multiple computer applications
“November was a busy month at HathiTrust. HT prepared technical systems to offer access to out of print and brittle works at partner institutions; worked with several institutions on deposit of locally-digitized materials; received the first deposit of content from the University of Florida; and welcomed a new member to the User Experience Advisory Group.
“Work continued on projects such as Zephir (HT’s bibliographic management system), mPach (a package of tools being developed to provide a modular platform to enable the publication of open-access journals in the HT repository), and updates to HathiTrust Web applications. There is also a story with a happy ending, apt for the holidays, about full-text search.
“Additionally, note there is a special message this month regarding bibliographic corrections to HathiTrust records.”
From Heather Christenson’s update for the California Digital Library, HathiTrust November 2012 Update
Looking at the marketing impact of library e-book lending, further examination needed for determining factors in the connection of libraries and book sales
“Although it is not a popular opinion, I believe that library ebook borrowing erodes ebook sales, at least modestly, particularly of frontlist titles, net of whatever positive marketing effect libraries have in introducing new books and authors to readers. Obviously, it would be useful to verify this with solid data, but it is damnably difficult to construct a reliable instrument with control cases. Determining whether (and how) innovative, alternative models of ebook retailing might impact both publishers and libraries bears further examination, and recently I have started thinking about the possible impact of ebook subscription services.
“Most considerations of library e-book lending take into account the potential commercial impact on digital book markets, as well as consumer expectations of the e-books we buy. Without question, there are gaping holes in ebook functionality that frustrate readers. For example, the inability to lend an e-book I’ve purchased to my wife is a maddening display of pecuniary greed that diminishes the overall value of the publishing sector.
“When it comes to the market impact of library e-book lending, there are many factors to bear in mind. One is the suggestion that potentially losing some frontlist sales while profiting from reader introductions to more authors and books is a worthwhile trade, ultimately smoothing the revenue curve across publishers’ available inventory. Many publishers, however, believe that community services such as Goodreads already do a good enough job with recommendations, while delivering more efficient and stronger direct sales.”
From Peter Brantley’s article for Publishers Weekly, Unsubscribing to the Library
Yemen’s new Digital Library seeks to preserve and grow access to country’s scientific intellectual property as well as local and international archives
“Yossra Mohammed Abdul Qadir, who is in her final year at the University of Science and Technology’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences in Sanaa, has in recent months taken up a new resource as she works on her graduation project: The National Information Centre’s new digital library.
“Abdul Qadir told Al-Shorfa that the digital library provides rich and useful information for new researchers. In fact, she visited the digital library 10 times in two months only to peruse various abstracts and studies.
“Launched in October, the digital library was created to provide access to information to researchers as well as to advance the process of scientific research.
“Acting director Abdul Kareem Ali al-Rwaishan told Al-Shorfa that the centre seeks to provide information services for researchers, students and policy-makers.
“Users can access approximately 10,000 master’s theses and doctoral dissertations in different fields of scientific study, in addition to many thousands of digital books and databases that offer research services through local and international archives.
“The centre is developing the library by creating a giant digital reading room, he said, adding that the centre is also building several national databases to preserve Yemeni intellectual property, facilitate easy access and guarantee its regular output.
“The digital library seeks to preserve and organise national intellectual production, as well as to develop and build digital content and improve the quality of performance,” said Essam al-Ammari, the centre’s deputy director general of information services.
“Forty specialists are working in teams to organise, categorise and retrieve digital content that has been accumulating over the past years, al-Ammari said.”
From Faisal Darem’s article for Al Shorfa, Yemen’s National Information Centre launches digital library