Issue 21, 2013-07-15
Editorial Introduction: How Things Change
Introducing Issue 21
Crafting Linked Open Data for Cultural Heritage: Mapping and Curation Tools for the Linked Jazz Project
This paper describes tools and methods developed as part of Linked Jazz, a project that uses Linked Open Data (LOD) to reveal personal and professional relationships among jazz musicians based on interviews from jazz archives. The overarching aim of Linked Jazz is to explore the possibilities offered by LOD to enhance the visibility of cultural heritage materials and enrich the semantics that describe them. While the full Linked Jazz dataset is still under development, this paper presents two applications that have laid the foundation for the creation of this dataset: the Mapping and Curator Tool, and the Transcript Analyzer. These applications have served primarily for data preparation, analysis, and curation and are representative of the types of tools and methods needed to craft linked data from digital content available on the web. This paper discusses these two domain-agnostic tools developed to create LOD from digital textual documents and offers insight into the process behind the creation of LOD in general.
Integrating Linked Data into Discovery
Although the Linked Data paradigm has evolved from a research idea to a practical approach for publishing structured data on the web, the performance gap between currently available RDF data stores and the somewhat older search technologies could not be closed. The combination of Linked Data with a search engine can help to improve ad-hoc retrieval. This article presents and documents the process of building a search index for the Solr search engine from bibliographic records published as linked open data.
Actions Speak Louder than Words: Analyzing large-scale query logs to improve the research experience
Analyzing anonymized query and click-through logs leads to a better understanding of user behaviors and intentions, and provides opportunities to create an improved search experience. As a large-scale provider of SaaS services that returns search results against a single unified index, Serials Solutions is uniquely positioned to learn from the dataset of queries issued to its Summon® service by millions of users at hundreds of libraries around the world.
In this paper, we describe the Relevance Metrics Framework that we use to analyze our query logs and provide examples of insights we have gained during development and implementation. We also highlight the ways our analysis is inspiring changes to the Summon® service to improve the academic research experience.
Batch metadata assignment to archival photograph collections using facial recognition software
Useful metadata is essential to giving individual meaning and value within the context of a greater image collection as well as making them more discoverable. However, often little information is available about the photos themselves, so adding consistent metadata to large collections of digital and digitized photographs is a time consuming process requiring highly experienced staff.
By using facial recognition software, staff can identify individuals more quickly and reliably. Knowledge of individuals in photos helps staff determine when and where photos are taken and also improves understanding of the subject matter.
This article demonstrates simple techniques for using facial recognition software and command line tools to assign, modify, and read metadata for large archival photograph collections.
Using a Raspberry Pi as a Versatile and Inexpensive Display Device
This article covers the process by which a library took some unused equipment and added a cheap computing device to produce very inexpensive but effective electronic signage. Hardware and software issues as well as a step-by-step guide through the process are included.
The Moab Design for Digital Object Versioning
The Stanford Digital Repository has adopted the “Moab” design for versioned archiving of digital objects–a locally developed approach that optimizes data transfer, storage, and replication while providing efficient single file retrieval or full object reconstruction for any version of an object. This paper includes a review of various versioning strategies including forward-delta, reverse-delta and content-addressable mechanisms, the pro’s and cons of each, and highlights the relative advantages of the Moab design. In our approach, the fixity information of a file manifestation is used as its primary identifier and the filename is treated as metadata. Storage and retrieval of an object’s files is faciliated by mapping between a virtual version inventory and the physical location via a file signature catalog.
Out From Behind the Firewall: Towards Better Library IT Communications
Traditionally, IT departments lack a strong focus on communications and promotions. Numerous exciting projects and services are created by library IT departments and web development teams daily, but resources for promotion are typically unavailable or deemed low priority. This article examines IT-specific communications within the library context, offers a model of user-focused communications useful to libraries of any size, and discusses University of Toronto Libraries’ Information Technology Services department’s efforts to increase library technology communications.
Renewing UPEI’s Institutional Repository: New Features for an Islandora-based Environment
In October of 2012, the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) launched an updated version of IslandScholar, UPEI’s Institutional repository. The repository, available from http://www.islandscholar.ca, is built on Islandora 6 (http://islandora.ca). The repository includes a number of new features, including: CSL integration for ingest, site display, and export of user-specific bibliographies; MADS-based Authority integration for Departments and Authors (with authorities created automatically using LDAP); batch ingest from Refworks (crosswalked to MODS for storage in the repository); embargo and statistics functions. Features from the first version of IslandScholar were also migrated to the new site, including Sherpa/Romeo integration (which provides just-in-time information about open access policies).
Relevance and Phrase Searching in Summon: looking under the hood
This article briefly examines the mechanisms behind seemingly counter-intuitive phrase search results in Serials Solutions’ discovery platform Summon. The authors use the platform’s search API to explain why users sometimes encounter greater numbers of results when typically they would expect fewer. The article explores the reasons behind the search results and the implications for library instruction.
Comparing the LibraryThing, OCLC, and Open Library ISBN APIs
LibraryThing, OCLC, and the Open Library project all provide ISBN services that take an ISBN and return information about related works for that ISBN. This article compares the license terms, quality of the data returned, documentation available, and details of the APIs for the three products. The article focuses on ease of use for developers, restrictions on types of use (and assumptions about types of use built into the license or terms of use), and cost of the services.