Karen Calhoun
metadata management bw (before the web) and aw (after htet web)
bw
- or finding library materials
- catalog records (well-understood)
- shared cooperative cataloging systems
aw
- for finding all kinds of things
- many types of records and sources
- loosely-coupled metadata management
- multiple batch creation and extract
metadata is now really cool stuff
recommends O’Reilly’s article “What is Web 2.0?” and David Weinberger’s book Everything Is Miscellaneous
“the third order of order” - make the biggest pile you can
“include and postpone” - can be organized over time, some of them will be grassroots (like LibraryThing), some will be official (taxonomies, etc.)
- need them both, but have to pay attention to the less formal ones
people are using metadata to interact and contribute, even though they may not know what it is
what would metadata 2.0 be like?
- not your father’s metadata
- remixing, reuse, mashups
- wth the necessary rights
- metadata syndication
- enabling a rich user experience
- global, group, and local metadata management
- long term vision
- things you can do right now at your library
Amazon relentlessly enhanced metadata and redefined it for the world of books
what is a “full record?”
showed the same record from Libraries Australia, WorldCat, and Amazon to show the differences between a “full record” for each
from a user perspective, which one is the “full record?” amazon
- the horse has left the barn
using metadata from multiple sources
all of this remixing has generated a high interest in copyright
Creative Commons licensing has proven to provide an alternative to full control - it’s a bridge between a world that controls every use (”all rights reserved”) and anarchy where content providers are exposed to exploitation
CC lets you protect your work while also allowing your content to be remixed
“intellectual property management” is one of the burning issues of Web 2.0
be where their eyes are; syndicate your metadata outwards
OCLC calls this getting libraries to “web scale” - getting collections to show up in as many places as possible through this kind of syndication
showed WorldCat Facebook widget
- showed how you can share a WC list with people in FB
makes library collections more visible and connects everyday users the ability to share books in new and exciting ways
overwhelmingly, users start with an internet search engine, not library resources
this doesn’t mean people are no longer using libraries or library resources, but it does mean they no longer begin with the library website
so we have to take our collections where the users are
catalog used to be our sun in the galaxy, but now it’s just a planet in the user’s galaxy
the story of the catalog is not over
one library working by itself is not going to make this happen, is not going to get to “web scale”
can’t command a huge amount of attention for just one library
she believes that to keep libraries strong and vibrant in their communities, we need to work together to command a much larger presence on the web for library collections
talked about Open WorldCat Partner Program
showed an example of driving traffic from the web to a library-owned title
chose a German title (since the internet and books aren’t just for English readers)
we can be connected: a new vision for metadata management
data can flow local <--> group <--> global
worldcat.org statistics
- number of libraries visible through WC and partner sites = more than 10,000
(ed. - see my Flickrstream for the rest of this slide)
everywhere, the library
anchors for neighborhoods and communities, just as they always have been
welcoming space in the community + great visibility of the collection on the web so that no matter where you start, you can end up at your library
long-term vision
no less than a new age in which an individual library catalog is one node on the web that is attached to many other nodes and the user can traverse those nodes easily and conveniently to their library’s collections
can retain your independence but be loosely connected in Web 2.0-fashion, the same way so many other things are today
what can you do right now?
- take libraries to a wider audience, eg surface your collections in as many places as you can on the web
- encourage a Web 2.0 “culture of participation” in your own communities; support digital citizenship
- partner with museums, historical societies, cultural organizations, eg to add new online content
pushing our data out, pulling users in: libraries and course management systems
in 2004, 40% of classes used course management systems; more now
good: embed a library presence in course sites
better: customize RSS feeds to course sites, links to course readings
American University has done some great work integrating conent into LMS courses using customized RSS feeds
public libraries in Canada created http://mycommunityinfo.ca/
working with the community to index locally-relevant sites
has a “life events” section (retirement, what to do if you lose your pet, going off to college, etc.)
public libraries in the UK created The People’s Network
was funded by the lottery
partnering with individuals and community groups to create content
question: if we spoonfeed the content into the LMS, does that give students less incentive to learn how to do it themselves
answer: if 2% are starting with the library website, 98% of them aren’t seeing this stuff anyway; doing this can drive users back to using your resources and services
question: what should catalogers be doing differently in terms of their work
answer: they should be embracing many sources of data, reuse it, get it done as quickly and as easily as you can; make sure your catalog is current - never have a backlog; revamp your skills and this kind of metadata management; learn how to interact with your user community; learn how to handle special collections
question: is there a way for me at my public library to find out how many links are coming back to my catalog from WorldCat?
answer: yes!
karen calhoun,
metadata,
open worldcat,
solinet,
worldcat
I have a question for you seasoned sellers, those that have a thriving shop (or maybe two).
Have any of you made one single change, after having been open a few years, that threw your business up a level - kicked it into gear.
I find that as our own business nears the three year mark the growth is not as robust as I would have hoped for. In our case our slow growth (8% - 10% yearly) is mainly a result of our small floor space. We decided to keep the risk to a minimum when we opened and rented a little 600 ft. hole in the wall. We have just added a new room, an additional 150 feet and reconfigured the look of the place enabling us to add 2 000 more titles. Business has been improving and I’m pleased that we are at least heading in a postitve direction but…
I keep wrestling with a few ideas that may or may not help us. One thought is to give my employee more hours while I spend more time in the field hunting for books to list online. We all know the drawbacks of this; employees are a huge expense and books listed online may not sell for a year or more. Another thought is to break out into a serious location of 2500+ feet. This is something I am sure we will do within the next two years but for today it would be too expensive an investment. So my question to you all, have any of you made a drastic change that drove your business to the next level or has it always been a case of slow but steady growth? You can answer by hitting the comment button beside the title of the post, thanks.
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Our review of the eBay search tool we promised will be coming this weekend, sorry for the delay.
A fantastic story about following a dream came to us via the Old Bookstore group on Yahoo. It comes from Lera of
Aunt Teek’s & Uncle Lectable’s Vintage Store. - Thanks Lera.
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May I take a moment and share my “story” with you. First, a little
history and scene-setting.
Without giving away my age, I will share with you that I am a
grandmother of 12, mother of 4, wife of 1 and daughter of 1. For many
years my husband and I owned an auto body repair shop (far cry from
the book world) and we worked side by side to make it a reputable,
fair and honest body shop. My mother-in-law died, my father-in-law
developed Altzheimer’s and my husband dealt with those problems by
absenting himself from the business, leaving me to run it all alone.
Now, please understand that I am a woman and although I love
Corvettes and a few other cars, that is a love that is not extended
to anything beyond looking at or driving. Which resulted in my
running a business that was more my husband’s than mine, and
continuing his dream, not mine. Suffice it to say, I reached the end
of my rope and, feeling like I had no other choice, I walked out. I
moved in with some friends in another town to house-sit for them
while they traveled and started putting on stupid seminars on how to
manage a body shop using a computer.
One day, I drove by a yard sale that had literally hundreds of boxes
of books in the front, side and back yards. They wanted 25 cents a
book. All of them were hardcover book club editions with DJs from
about 1950-1970. I love mysteries and most of them were mysteries so
I spent a good bit of time going through the boxes picking out the
ones I wanted. After a while, with the hot Texas sun beating down on
my back, the man on the porch said I was giving him a backache
watching me so if I’d give him $10, I could take them all. Now, I’m
fairly certain he didn’t really expect me to take them all, but I
did. Two trips in 3 vehicles by 3 people later, I was the owner of
about 3000 books. I had a booth in an antique mall so that’s where I
took the books. The booth wasn’t big enough, so I rented the building
next door and hung out my shingle. (Just to keep the time-line
straight, this was BOBS [Before Online Book Selling].
Shortly after that, my dentist and the friends whose house I was
house-sitting with talked to my husband who came to see me. And I am
sharing these personal issues with you because I am an extremely
lucky and blessed lady. In short, my husband sold the business, sold
the house and said it was time for him to stop being selfish about
living out his dream and he would now — for the rest of our lives –
help me fulfill my dreams. BOBS came along and I closed the
bookstore, we bought an old house in another town and “started over”.
Life is never simple so the new complication was a 2-story pier and
beam house built in 1920 with a fireplace in the middle and a lake
that formed underneath it every time it rained. By this time I had
amassed a lot more than 3000 books and that weight, coupled with the
fireplace and the “lake”, made us realize what we were doing wasn’t
going to work. Nor was the moisture good for the books. So a few
years ago I opened my 2nd bookstore.
I tell you all this to help illustrate a philosophy and support some
advice I’m going to give you. It is not just a cliche to say “life is
too short”. It is, indeed, a fact. Why did I wait until my father-in-
law got Alzheimer’s before I became unhappy about the road I chose in
life? Why did I think that road had to be the same road as my
husband’s? Was it a generational thing? Why did I not “get in touch”
with my own wants and desires? These are, of course, hypothetical
questions at this point and even though I may now know the answers, I
am so totally satisfied with my life as a whole — and so is my
husband, by the way — that my only regret is that I waited so long
in life to pursue my dreams.
I will never be able to advertise my bookstore as having been in
business for many years. My children will not be able to say they
were raised in a bookstore instead of a body shop (although my girls
are quite proud of that, having won some trophies with cars they
customized themselves, and my son continues the body shop business
today). I have more books than I could possibly catalog in the amount
of time I have left on earth if I never buy another book. Soon I
won’t be able to carry boxes of books from one end of the store to
another.
So no matter what you think the obstacles are, forget about them. If
it truly is a dream, don’t wait another day to put the wheels in
motion. Organize it all in your mind over the next 24 hours and go
browse some bookstores over the weekend. Look at the stacks, smell
the books and remember the first time you ever stepped foot in a
bookstore (that was NOT a Barnes & Noble or Waldenbooks, etc.). Go
back home and do some googling on how to handle books, repair books,
and identify books.
Another cliche: Do what you love and the money will follow. If it
doesn’t, that’s okay too, because you’ll be happy anyway.
Then just do it.
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Scratch a bookseller and find:
an escaped civil servant,
an armchair environmentalist,
and a 50 year old entering her third childhood.
a retired vehicular placement specialist,
a high handicapper,
an eternal optimist.
a jaded media peon,
a dumpster diver,
A dragon greedily guarding his treasure.
Joe Orlando runs a great service for owners of Brick and Mortar store. Many of you are already subscribers, for those who own a shop and aren’t you may want to consider signing up. Have a question on return policies, buying out another store or simply pricing a rare tome then