Register here | with apologies for cross-posting
Earlier this week, we announced the Bibliographic Conceptual Models Interest Group (BCMIG) session, entitled "Schrödinger's Catalog: Is BibFrame Alive or Dead?" that will take place March 7th, at 12 noon ET. Today we're following up to provide details on the two speakers and their presentations, which follow the program description below.
In November of 2023, Jeff Edmunds published a provocative essay entitled, "BIBFRAME Must Die". This was followed by a brief but animated discussion on BIBFRAME discussion lists, but it seemed the topic was worthy of deeper analysis and more sustained debate. Regardless of whether one agrees with his thesis and arguments, there's no question that Edmunds introduced a very "heterodox" opinion into what is usually a consensus mood on the inevitability of BIBFRAME.
For this IG week session, the Bibliographic Conceptual Models Interest Group (BCMIG) will be hosting a discussion of the issues raised by Edmunds in his paper. BCMIG co-chair Tom Dousa will serve as moderator and provide a brief summary of Edmunds's arguments. This will be followed by remarks from two panelists: Yale's Senior Director for Digital Cultural Heritage Rob Sanderson and EBSCO's Senior Product Manager for Linked Data Innovation and Design, Gloria Gonzalez. Each will provide their unique perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of BIBFRAME and its prospects for the future. The panelists will then engage in Q&A with audience members.
Robert Sanderson
Title: "BibFrame needs a Usability Makeover (and it's as easy as ABC)"
Abstract: The bibliographic modeling community is fragmented, heading in several different directions, despite BibFrame being now more than a decade old. For the model, the ontology that encodes it, and the data created using it to be valuable, it needs to recognize the audience for data is software developers, and make it easy for that audience to engage. With reflections on the recent criticism of the ontology, this presentation will briefly assess the challenges and propose steps towards resolving its not-quite-dead but not-quite-alive status.
And my intent is to walk through my "5 stars of Usable Data" notion:
- A – Right Abstraction for the Audience
- B – Few Barriers to entry
- C – Comprehensible by introspection (e.g. by just reading the record)
- D – Documentation with working examples
- E – Few Exceptions, many consistent patterns
To show that BibFrame fails all of these tests, and that has led to the current situation where people like Jeff can legitimately claim that its existence is harmful to the domain.
Bio: Dr Robert Sanderson is Senior Director for Digital Cultural Heritage at Yale University, and works with Yale's museums, libraries and archives to help them to be more connected and consistent in their processes and data. He is the technical architect and visionary for LUX, Yale's cross-collection discovery platform built using the Linked Open Usable Data paradigm and technologies. He is chair of the Linked Art CIDOC committee and long-standing editor for IIIF specifications, and has been co-chair and editor of core W3C specifications in the domain including JSON-LD and Web Annotations. He has previously worked at the Getty in Los Angeles, Stanford University and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Gloria Gonzalez
Title: "A Love Letter to BIBFRAME: Embracing the Future of Open Library Data"
Abstract: In "A Love Letter to BIBFRAME," the enduring relevance and transformative potential of BIBFRAME in library data management are passionately defended. Acknowledging that sometimes love is ugly, this position navigates through the highs and lows of BIBFRAME's journey. Amidst skepticism, BIBFRAME is portrayed as a beacon of innovation, crucial for the continued evolution of libraries and their ability to meet modern user demands.
This argument will highlight the adaptability and essential role of BIBFRAME, presenting evidence of its successful implementation and impact on enhancing user experiences. Furthermore, we'll look at a vision for the future of BIBFRAME based on a collaborative development approach that includes a wide range of stakeholders. This stance affirms BIBFRAME's importance and calls to grow the movement that enables libraries to serve their communities more effectively through improved data management.
Bio: Gloria Gonzalez works with knowledge graphs for public, academic, and government libraries at EBSCO, where she is Senior Product Manager for Linked Data Innovation. In this role, she assists libraries in devising innovative methods for enhancing discoverability and access to their collections through linked data technologies.
Her journey with linked data commenced in 2011 when she contributed to developing a visualization tool, Viewshare, at the Library of Congress. After working as a Digital Archivist at UCLA Library, she co-founded the Library.Link Network with Zepheira in 2015. In 2022, she spearheaded the launch of BiblioGraph at EBSCO.
Gloria is currently a Linked Data Advisory Committee member for the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC). Her work enables linked data integration into library services platforms such as FOLIO, BiblioGraph, EBSCO Discovery Service, and Locate, demonstrating a forward-thinking approach to library data management and user engagement.
Registration: https://ala-events.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAlcuCorjwjE90oHJ-T9gXNZFs1EJw1X6pe#/registration
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Benjamin Riesenberg
they/them
Metadata Librarian
University of Washington
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