Dear Colleagues,
It was wonderful to see everyone at ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia, PA. Attached are the presentations given at the Heads of Cataloging Departments Interest Group meeting on Monday, January 27, 2020 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Many thanks to Lori Robare, Chris Long, and Ben Walker for presenting on such interesting and important topics, and to the nearly 100 attendees for their interest. My thanks also to Renee Bu, IG co-chair.
Dave Van Kleeck
Co- Chair, HCDIG
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1) Lori Robare (Monographic Catalog Team Leader, University of Oregon Libraries)
Exploring Wikidata and Its Potential Use for Library Data
Wikidata is a knowledge base of structured, open linked data - multilingual and collaboratively edited. It supports Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects and serves as a linking hub for identifiers (from the Library of Congress, ORCID, ISNI, etc.). As libraries begin to transition from MARC-based bibliographic data to linked data and from authority control to identity management, Wikidata provides interesting opportunities for collaboration that may enrich Wikidata and benefit library discovery. This presentation will describe a sabbatical project to explore the use of Wikidata as an approach to identity management, raise the profile of people and organizations important to Oregon by creating structured data about them and their works in Wikidata, and explore the feasibility of using Wikidata as a platform for publishing and linking library authority data.
2) Chris Long (Head of Monographic and Special Materials Cataloging, University Libraries, University of Colorado Boulder)
Investigating the Identifier Ecosystem of the University of Colorado Boulder Faculty
So many possible identity management projects, so little time! The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) has promoted several opportunities for members to extend their identifier creation work beyond NACO records (ISNI, Wikidata, etc.), but with limited resources it is difficult to know what is the best use of our catalogers’ time. This presentation will discuss the preliminary work being done at CU Boulder (in conjunction with the PCC URIs in MARC Pilot) to examine the current “identifier ecosystem” of CU Boulder faculty, including:
- the prevalence of existing identifiers (VIAF, ISNI, ORCID, Wikidata identifiers) for a sample population of faculty;
- the overlap of identifiers in NACO, VIAF, ISNI, ORCID, and Wikidata records;
- and potential strategies for identifier enrichment for CUB faculty.
3) Ben Walker (Associate Dean, Discovery, Digital Services & Shared Collections, University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries)
Alphabet soup: Balancing the (sometimes) competing demands in shared collections
The University of Florida is involved in multiple shared print programs (ASERL/Scholars Trust, EAST, HathiTrust, Rosemont Shared Print Alliance) and leads other shared print initiatives (FLARE, JRNL). This creates sometimes-competing demands for resources. This conversation will outline some of the challenges we have faced and point out areas for potential alignment. While not intended to provide comprehensive solutions, it may help generate thought and discussion around the topic of shared collections.