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Linked Data for Libraries (LD4L) project

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 December 20, 2013—The sea of information available to scholars and researchers can seem impossibly vast. But, with the help of a new grant, Cornell University Library, in collaboration with the Harvard Library Innovation Lab and Stanford University Libraries, aims to make that sea easier to navigate.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a nearly $1 million, two-year grant to Cornell to support an investigation using Linked Data and the Semantic Web to improve discovery and access of scholarly information by the three libraries. The Semantic Web is a set of conventions for making the human-readable information communicated on web pages more understandable and reusable by computers. Linked Data is a way of expressing data in large “clouds” on the Internet so that computers can make connections among different collections with a minimum of prior agreement. “Currently, a lot of information about books, articles and cultural materials that could make them easier to find and understand is hidden in scattered systems across many libraries,” said Dean Krafft, the Library’s chief technology strategist. “We have an opportunity to use Linked Data as a common format to bring together all that scattered information. At Cornell, we’ve been working with the Semantic Web for more than a decade, and we’re very pleased that the Mellon Foundation has given us the opportunity to further that work with our colleagues at Harvard and Stanford.” Ultimately, the goal of the project is to create a system that pulls information out of its existing silos—like library catalogs, finding aids, reading lists and more—into a common format that people can use to find and understand information. This new system would apply to all scholarly and creative disciplines, including the sciences, the arts and the humanities. “This project will directly benefit students, scholars and researchers around the world, and it will indirectly benefit everyone who makes use of the work those people produce,” Krafft added. https://wiki.duraspace.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=41354028

Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) – International collaboration to help transform the way libraries manage their resources

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This information is from the NISO Webinar : ” We Know it When We See It: Managing “works” Metadata”, February 12, 2014.

The first presenter was Kristin Antelman, Associate Director for the Digital Library, North Carolina State University – “The Use and Designation of “Works” in GOKb”

More information you may find on the link of the project: http://gokb.org/

Kuali OLE, one of the largest academic library software collaborations in the United States, and JISC, the UK’s expert on digital technologies for education and research, announce a collaboration that will make data about e-resources—such as publication and licensing information—more easily available.

Together, Kuali OLE and JISC will develop an international open data repository that will give academic libraries a broader view of subscribed resources.

The effort, known as the Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) project, is funded in part by a $499,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  North Carolina State University will serve as lead institution for the project.

GOKb will be an open, community-based, international data repository that will provide libraries with publication information about electronic resources. This information will support libraries in providing efficient and effective services to their users and ensure that critical electronic collections are available to their students and researchers

 

BIBFRAME in practice : BIBFLOW – An IMLS Project of the UC Davis University Library

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BIBFLOW is a two-year project of the UC Davis University Library, funded by Institute of Museum and Library Services.  Its official title is “Reinventing Cataloging: Models for the Future of Library Operations”. It will investigate the future of library technical services, i.e., cataloging and related workflows, in light of modern technology infrastructure such as the Web and new data models and formats such as Resource Description and Access (RDA) and BIBFRAME, the new encoding and exchange format in development by the Library of Congress.

This is from the online roundup of ALA Midwinter 2014 top picks

“Our hypothesis is that, while these new standards and technologies are sorely needed to help the library community leverage the benefits and efficiencies that the Web has afforded other industries, we cannot adopt them in an environment constrained by complex workflows and interdependencies on a large ecosystem of data, software and service providers that are change resistant and motivated to continue with the current library standards (e.g. Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (or AACR) and MARC. Research is required on how research libraries should adapt our practices, workflows, software systems and partnerships to support our evolution to new standards and technologies.As part of this research, we will be collaborating and communicating with partners across the library data ecosystem – key organizations like the Library of Congress and OCLC, library vendors, standards organizations like NISO, software tool vendors and commercial data providers, and other libraries that are trying to plan for change, such as the BIBFRAME “early experimenters”. Through this combination of research, collaboration, and outreach, our project will create a roadmap for the community, and particularly academic research libraries, and is designed in such a way that, as the new data models, standards, workflows and practices emerge and evolve the roadmap can be continuously updated with new roads and milestones.”

Congratulations to our colleagues. For more information please find the link below:

http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/bibflow/

….and the link to the available grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services

http://www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx

Archives Leadership Institute: takeaways

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From June 16 – 23, I had the privilege of attending the Archives Leadership Institute, a selective, weeklong immersion program in Decorah, Iowa for emerging archival leaders to learn and develop theories, skills, and knowledge for effective leadership. The program is funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a statutory body affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), hosted at Luther College for the years 2013-2015.

This year represented a complete re-visioning of the program, which featured 5 daylong sessions: New Leadership Thinking and Methods (with Luther Snow), Project Management (with Sharon Leon, The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University), Human Resource Development (with Christopher Barth, The United States Military Academy at West Point), Strategies for Born Digital Resources (with Daniel Noonan, The Ohio State University), and Advocacy and Outreach (with Kathleen Roe, New York State Archives).

ALI has been one of the greatest learning experiences of my career. So much of this program related directly to my work and current role — but more importantly, much of it could be applied in the UCI Libraries. Enthusiastic participant responses and notes are captured in this Storify story from ALI and also this excellent recap by a fellow participant, but I will attempt to illustrate what I see as the biggest takeaways from the program that could relate to us here at UCI.

Each day of the program included introductions and wrap-up by Luther Snow, an expert consultant/facilitator who originated the concept of “Asset Mapping.” Luther’s background as a community organizer provided a solid foundation for his positive leadership strategy, which emphasizes networked, or “generative” methods of getting things done. There are several principles that I took away from this:

  • Leadership is impact without control. We cannot force people to contribute or participate; the goal is to get people to do things voluntarily by allowing people to contribute with their own strengths.
  • Generative leadership is about asset thinking. The key to creating impact is in starting by thinking of what we actually have: our assets. Focus on talent and areas of strength instead of “needs” and problems — avoid focusing on scarcity or pity.
  • Look for affinities. How can our self-interests overlap? Asset thinking helps us find common interests and mutual benefit — we can connect what we have to get more done than we could on our own.
  • Be part of the larger whole. By emphasizing abundance, we can create affinities, which leads to a sense that “my gain is your gain is our gain.” This sets up a virtuous cycle based on an open-sum (think: potluck; network) instead of a closed-sum (think: slices of pie; gatekeeping) environment.

Of particular importance to generative thinking is the fact that semantics matter. In one activity, participants took turns making “need statements” and then turning them into “asset statements.” One example? Time. Instead of saying “time is scarce,” consider saying “time is valuable.” Instead of “we need more staff,” say “we have lots of great projects and so much enthusiasm from our users. How can we continue to provide these services?” Some more examples of language choices were included in Luther’s (copyrighted) handouts.

Building affinity can be difficult, since it is based on trust and recognizing likeness. We can build affinity with stakeholders connected to our assets — emphasize what you have in common, or talk about how your differences complement each other. Relate to stakeholders by focusing on mutual interests, and try to create opportunities to do a project together. Keep in mind: we can do more together than we can on our own.

And now for some highlights from the daylong sessions…

Strategies for Born Digital Resources (with Daniel Noonan, The Ohio State University)

Project Management (with Sharon Leon, The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University)

  • Historical Thinking Matters, a resource for teaching students how to engage critically with primary sources
  • Consider collaborative, flexible workspaces that increase staff productivity: moveable tables, whiteboards, a staff candy drawer
  • Articulating the Idea, worksheets for project planning from WebWise, IMLS, and the CHNM at GMU
  • Leon’s presentation from a different workshop on project management, including guidelines for creating “project charters” that include a scope statement, deliverables, and milestones
  • Share full text of grant projects and proposals with your staff for learning purposes!
  • Recommended PM tools: Basecamp and Asana; deltek.com/products/kona.aspx … https://podio.com/  http://basecamp.com/  http://asana.com/  https://trello.com/ (we are using Trello with some projects in collaboration with IT) — trick is to use these tools yourself to get team buy-in
  • Example from my former institution on positive reinforcement: Dedicated Deacon, which sends automatically to supervisor of person recognized; weekly drawing for prizes

Strategic Visioning and Team Development (with Christopher Barth, The United States Military Academy at West Point)

Advocacy and Outreach (with Kathleen Roe, New York State Archives)

The next phase of my ALI experience includes a practicum, workshop, and group project. I plan to focus my practicum on building and empowering a new team — my current focus as Acting Head of Special Collections & Archives — by integrating asset-based thinking into our projects and strategic planning. Looking forward to continued growth both through my ALI cohort and the valuable leadership tools and resources I gathered from the intensive in June.

 

Help Crowdsource a Library Project Management Toolkit!

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In my quest for new and interesting project management literature, especially in the LAM realm, I stumbled upon this “toolkit” in the form of a Google doc:

Library Project Management Toolkit

Started by Jennifer Vinopal of NYU, this toolkit is “crowdsourced”, meaning anyone is allowed and encouraged to add content. The toolkit already contains a fair amount of useful information, including some software reviews and presentations from colleagues at UCLA and CDL:

  • Description of PM software and use experiences from different Libraries
  • General PM methodologies in context of digital library projects
  • Bibliography of presentations & articles on PM and Library Project Portfolio Management

If you’re involved with or have an interest in library and/or technology Project Management, this is a great starting point for learning more. And if you discover some more info relevant to Library PM, feel free to add it to the toolkit!