Presentation at the Fedlink Spring Expo

1. Whither Bibliographic Data
Designing a roadmap
to a new
bibliographic information
ecosystem
Todd A. Carpenter, Executive Director, NISO
Channeling Content in an Integrated World,
FEDLINK Spring Expo - May 22, 2013
1Sunday, May 19, 13

2. • Non-profit industry trade association accredited by ANSI
with 150+ members
• Mission of developing and maintaining technical standards
related to information, documentation, discovery and
distribution of published materials and media
• Volunteer driven organization: 400+ spread out across
the world
• Represent US interests to ISO TC 46 & also serve as
Secretariat for ISO TC46/SC9 - Identification &
Description
• Responsible for standards like ISSN, DOI, Dublin Core
metadata, DAISY digital talking books, OpenURL, MARC
records, and ISBN (indirectly)
About
2Sunday, May 19, 13

3. The NISO Community
3Sunday, May 19, 13

4. NISO’s Community
35 % Publishers/Publishing
Organizations
32% Libraries/Library
Organizations
36 LSA Members
(non-voting)
33% Library Systems Suppliers,
Publishing Vendors & Intermediaries
ISO
ANSI
Other SDOs
72 LSA Members
4Sunday, May 19, 13

5. Actively participate internationally with ISO, EDItEUR,
IFLA, ICSTI, International STM Association, CODATA,
UK Serials Group, LIBER, Standards Australia, IETF,
ISO Registration Authorities
NISO Internationally
5Sunday, May 19, 13

6. Technical Committee (TC) 46
Information & Documentation
Subcommittees (SC):
4 – Systems Interoperability
8 – Performance Measurement
9 – Identification & Description
11 – Records Management
NISO manages the Secretariat of ISO TC 46, SC 9
6Sunday, May 19, 13

7. Our Dear Old Friend, MARC
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50069444000540071950000290077365000600080265000580086265000730092071000430099399100480103638568
5319951219150001.4881118s1989 nju 000 0 eng 9(DLC) 88029610 a7bcbccorignewd1eocipf19gy-
gencatlg aCIP ver. pv04 12-06-95 a 88029610 a0887389538 aDLCcDLCdDLC an-us---00aZ674.8b.N44
198900a021.6/5/09732192 aNational Information Standards Organization (U.S.)10aInformation retrieval service and
protocol :bAmerican national standard for information retrieval service definition and protocol specification for
library applications /capproved January 15, 1988 by American National Standards Institute ; developed by the National
Information Standards Organization. aNew Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A. :bTransaction Publishers,cc1989. axii, 50 p. ;c26
cm. 0aNational information standards series,x1041-5653 a"ANSI/NISO Z39.50-1988." 0aLibrary information
networksxStandardszUnited States. 0aComputer network protocolsxStandardszUnited States. 0aInformation storage
and retrieval systemsxStandardszUnited States.2 aAmerican National Standards Institute. bc-GenCollhZ674.8i.N44
1989tCopy 1wBOOKS
7Sunday, May 19, 13

8. Our Dear Old Friend, MARC
(formatted for your viewing pleasure)
8Sunday, May 19, 13

9. MARC Components
Encoding Structure
Z39.2
ISO 2709:2008 -- Format for information exchange
Format structure
Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (2nd Edition) AACR2
Resource Description & Access
Exchange System
Z39.50
SRU/SRW
9Sunday, May 19, 13

10. Photo: Minneapolis College
of Art and Design Library
10Sunday, May 19, 13

11. Why is MARC so efficient? It had to be.
Photo: Computer History Museum Data: Memory Prices (1957-2013)
11Sunday, May 19, 13

12. Why is MARC so efficient? It had to be.
$2,642,412
per MB
in 1965
Photo: Computer History Museum Data: Memory Prices (1957-2013)
11Sunday, May 19, 13

13. How much computer technology pre-dates this?
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14. Unfortunately, quite a bit...
13Sunday, May 19, 13

15. 14Sunday, May 19, 13

16. Why?
15Sunday, May 19, 13

17. We avoid improving infrastructure
16Sunday, May 19, 13

18. Billions and billions of records
Photo: dfulmer
17Sunday, May 19, 13

19. Photo:from I Love Libraries
MARC’s Massive installed base
18Sunday, May 19, 13

20. If you were building a network today
would you string copper everywhere?
19Sunday, May 19, 13

21. If you building a metadata ecosystem,
would you start here?
01386cam 2200301 a
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00176040001800191043001200209050002200221082002100243110005500264245030800319260006700627300002
50069444000540071950000290077365000600080265000580086265000730092071000430099399100480103638568
5319951219150001.4881118s1989 nju 000 0 eng 9(DLC) 88029610 a7bcbccorignewd1eocipf19gy-
gencatlg aCIP ver. pv04 12-06-95 a 88029610 a0887389538 aDLCcDLCdDLC an-us---00aZ674.8b.N44
198900a021.6/5/09732192 aNational Information Standards Organization (U.S.)10aInformation retrieval service and
protocol :bAmerican national standard for information retrieval service definition and protocol specification for
library applications /capproved January 15, 1988 by American National Standards Institute ; developed by the National
Information Standards Organization. aNew Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A. :bTransaction Publishers,cc1989. axii, 50 p. ;c26
cm. 0aNational information standards series,x1041-5653 a"ANSI/NISO Z39.50-1988." 0aLibrary information
networksxStandardszUnited States. 0aComputer network protocolsxStandardszUnited States. 0aInformation storage
and retrieval systemsxStandardszUnited States.2 aAmerican National Standards Institute. bc-GenCollhZ674.8i.N44
1989tCopy 1wBOOKS
20Sunday, May 19, 13

22. “MARC Must Die!”
-Roy Tennant (2002)
21Sunday, May 19, 13

23. Mmmmmm, Brains!
22Sunday, May 19, 13

24. MARC is useful.
It is efficient.
It is our lingua franca.
There are many reasons to
retain it.
But wait.....
23Sunday, May 19, 13

25. 24Sunday, May 19, 13

26. 25Sunday, May 19, 13

27. Everyone understand the
semantic web?
Image: Matthew Hodgson - Beyond Web 2.0
26Sunday, May 19, 13

28. Everyone understand the
semantic web?
Image: Matthew Hodgson - Beyond Web 2.0
27Sunday, May 19, 13

29. Movement toward linked data
datahub.io - 5107 data stores
id.loc.gov
British National Bibliography (BNB)
VIAF
OCLC WorldCat Linked Data Store
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie (DNB) (Germany)
datos.bne.es (Spain)
W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group
Many, many more...
28Sunday, May 19, 13

30. But is it sufficient?
29Sunday, May 19, 13

31. Organizations will not move away from a legacy system
unless the new system:
a) Is demonstrably cheaper
b) Is demonstrably more effective in producing results
(discovery, use, etc.)
c) Will make the organization demonstrably more
efficient (staff, management, sales, etc.)
OR
d) The legacy system becomes entirely
non-interoperable with other, more important systems
OR
e) The legacy system breaks and cannot be repaired
30Sunday, May 19, 13

32. Can we say a new
metadata management system
based on linked data
will be/do one of those things?
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33. What can we learn from IETF?
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34. 2001 : 0db8 : 3333 : 4444 : ccc : 0ab9 : c0a8 : 9898
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35. 34Sunday, May 19, 13

36. A good specification is
necessary
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37. A good specification is
necessary
but it is not sufficient
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38. 35Sunday, May 19, 13

39. It
is
in….
Adop%on
(or
rather,
in
its
absence)
The point at which most standards
fail is not prior to consensus
36Sunday, May 19, 13

40. “You would be a fool to
design a system based
on an interchange
protocol.”
- Mark Bide, EDItEUR
37Sunday, May 19, 13

41. Next generation library
systems are
already in production
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42. Just a few...
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43. 40Sunday, May 19, 13

44. How can we assure that we
are doing the right things?
For everyone?
That will save resources?
That will improve services?
That will be adopted?
40Sunday, May 19, 13

45. NISO’s Bibliographic
Roadmap Initiative
With gracious thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
41Sunday, May 19, 13

46. Initiative coordination
Gap identification
Economic analysis
Engage diverse players
Open process
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47. Defining what you are
by what you are not
Not designing a spec
Not picking winners/losers
Not advancing any “agenda”
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48. What have we done?
In-person meeting on April 15-16
in Baltimore
An unconference on bibliographic data exchange
45 in-person
more than 40 more online
more than 200 subsequent viewers
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49. Next steps
Prioritization (IdeaScale)
Virtual discussion sessions
Meeting at ALA
Report this fall
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50. What we are trying to avoid
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51. The world
makes way for
the man who
knows where
he is going.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
47Sunday, May 19, 13

52. “If you don't know where
you're going, you might not
get there.”
-Yogi Berra
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53. Questions?
Comments?
Thoughts?
Discussion
49Sunday, May 19, 13

54. Thank you!
Todd Carpenter, Executive Director
tcarpenter@niso.org
National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 302
Baltimore, MD 21211 USA
+1 (301) 654-2512
www.niso.org
50Sunday, May 19, 13