Présentation faite au cours du 41e congrès de LIBER à Tartu (Estonie), le 28/06/2012 (http://www.utlib.ee/liber2012/)

1. Uniting heritage digitization and
EAD metadata : “Calames Plus”
solutions and other tracks
LIBER Annual Conference
Tartu, Thu. 28 June 2012
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2. ABES & the French context (1)
• ABES = Bibliographic Agency for French Higher Education
– created in 1994 to implement Sudoc (the union catalogue of French
higher education libraries, opened in 2001 : www.sudoc.abes.fr)
– a public organ of the French Ministry for Higher Education and
Research, located in Montpellier
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3. ABES & the French context (2)
• During the last 10 years, diversification of activities range,
development of new applications and devices for scientific
data management :
– Catalogue of archives and manuscripts (2008, www.calames.abes.fr)
– Hub for authority records (2010, www.idref.fr)
– French theses portal (2011, www.theses.fr), etc.
• New management plan for 2012-2015 :
– Mutualized Library Management Software
– National licences (native digital resources)
– A “heritage” constituent in the plan
• BUT no national nor official mission regarding digitization …
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4. Written Heritage in France
• Several catalogues (MARC/EAD and institutional boundaries)
CCFR (MARC metadata) : French libraries’ meta search interface, in
particular for printed heritage
≠ CCFR-Manuscrits (EAD metadata) : gathers BnF Archives & Manuscrits,
municipal libraries inventories… and soon Calames records.
• Several digitization initiatives : especially towards
medieval and/or illuminated manuscripts, but a long-
lasting lack of projects regarding non-books heritage
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5. A database for academic libraries’
heritage: Calames
• Originally developed for hosting and modifying EAD conversions of
manuscripts records published in national directories
• More and more directed towards archival inventories (manuscripts
and non-manuscript materials)
• Main purpose : to improve descriptions, and not to give direct
access (to surrogates or transcriptions)
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6. Calames’ public and professional interfaces
1° An XML editor (XMetal) plugin with ABES developments,
for creating and modifying online XML-EAD inventories …
° … a public
catalogue fed with
full XML data as
soon as librarians
wish to publish it 6

7. International Library of
Contemporary History Jacques Doucet
and Documentation Literature Library
Calames’ customized services
for heritage-centric institutions
Sainte-Geneviève
Institut de France Inter-Academic
(French National Academies) Library
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8. The digitization file : ABES’s « missing link » (1)
• NUMES : a public and professional
database of digitization projects
and digitized collections
– using Michael Europe standards
– a few tens of records, basically for
administrative or internal uses
– unsatisfactory : we all need to know
precisely which item is (or is going to be)
digitized, better than collections or sets of
documents
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9. The digitization file : ABES’s « missing link » (2)
Other liabilities :
• Abandonment of a French Manuscripts Portal project
• Prevalence of Gallica as meta-interface in the French
digitization landscape
• Ticer « Environmental scan » for ABES strategic plan
(2011) : digitization is a major area of intervention for
similar organizations
 So how can we turn our catalogues towards digitized
resources ? Does ABES have a “niche” ?
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10. A range of solutions for union catalogues (1)
Three kinds of solutions to take over the digitization file within ABES’ catalogues:
• Classical linking solutions through metadata :
-Textual mentions (one single link to another web page, or more) inside a public
record
-Textual mentions strengthened with one or more clickable images next to a public
record
-Other digital pictures (not reproductions) directly inserted into a public record
• API solutions : (javascript) code for equations between catalogue data and a targeted
digital library  in which cases do we inscribe links in metadata, and when don’t we?
Ex. Liber Floridus in Calames, or Google Books API in Sudoc
• ABES digital repository with a specific viewer for Calames catalogue : Calames Plus
solution (not a complete digital library)
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12. 12

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14. Specific metadata
for hypertext &
customizable links
dedicated to
digization in
Calames public
interface.
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15. A more visual and practical kind of linking : clickable images
next to a record…(or inside, in some specific cases)
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16. A range of solutions for union catalogues (2)
Three kinds of solutions to take over the digitization file within ABES’ catalogues:
• Classical linking solutions through metadata (sometimes with standard adjustment or
interpretations needed) :
-Textual mentions (one single link to another web page, or more) inside a public record
-Textual mentions strengthened with one or more clickable images next to a public
record
-Other digital pictures (not reproductions) directly inserted into a public record
• API solutions : (javascript) code for equations between catalogue data and a targeted
digital library
Ex. : Liber Floridus in Calames, or Google Books API in Sudoc
 in which cases do we inscribe links in metadata, and when don’t we?
• ABES digital repository with a specific viewer for Calames catalogue : Calames Plus
solution (not a complete digital library)
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17. ISBN matching =
clickable cover
(link to Google Books)
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18. Links and title of this clickable image are defined
inside EAD metadata (<daogrp><daoloc> tags)…
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19. …but here, there are no information in the library’s
inventory : a javascript code compare library names
and shelfmarks in Calames and Liber Floridus
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20. A range of solutions for union catalogues (3)
Three kinds of solutions to take over the digitization file within ABES’ catalogues:
• Classical linking solutions through metadata (sometimes with standard adjustment or
interpretations needed) :
-Textual mentions (one single link to another web page, or more) inside a public record
-Textual mentions strengthened with one or more clickable images next to a public
record
-Other digital pictures (not reproductions) directly inserted into a public record
• API solutions : (javascript) code for equations between catalogue data and a targeted
digital library  in which cases do we inscribe links in metadata, and when don’t we?
Ex. Liber Floridus in Calames, or Google Books API in Sudoc
• ABES digital repository with a specific viewer for Calames catalogue : Calames Plus
solution (not a complete digital library)
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21. « Calames Plus » : commenting records…
Example of a Calames
account
Profile
Comments
For librarians
only (images)
Mailing librarians
A thread of
comments

22. « Calames Plus » :
loading images on
ABES’ servers
Simply by zipping a file containing
the library’s identification number,
and the shelfmark numbers of the
targeted documents
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23. « Calames Plus » :
viewing images
loaded by
librarians
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24. As a conclusion…
• A step-by-step strategy :
– first dealing with a description puzzle by tackling with
iconographic collections
– then reforming union catalogues by enhancing an easy-to-use
and flexible repository for different kinds of digital surrogates
(and other types of complementary documents later on)
• To join databases for bibliographic or archival metadata, and
repositories for digital surrogates, is for a mutualistic organization
like ABES a matter of pragmatism.
Any question ?
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