Author: James M. Day

Library Communities on Slack

Slack

You may have heard of Slack, perhaps mentioned on social media, but unless you’re a technical librarian, you’re probably not using it. Yet.  There currently are just a few librarian communities on Slack but it seems to be a welcome alternative to social media groups for the technical savvy librarians.

Slack was created to allow private teams to collaborate.  So you won’t find an index or search engine on the Slack website to find teams.  However, many coder communities have sprung up which are more open in nature.  You can use third-party sites to find them. We will maintain a list of them as they are created.

With all Slack sites, you’ll need to request access.

Slack LibUx ChannelsSlack team sites are divided into custom channels. Channels are topic threads. Each site comes with a #general and a #random channel by default.

In addition to normal textual messages, you can drag-and-drop in files, documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, and links.  You can react to others and set notifications.

Of course, Slack allows you to search the entire archives.

Slack also allows members to chat via direct messages.

The free version of Slack allows for unlimited members but a limit of 10,000 messages (with older ones disappearing from view and search).

Get the Slack app for Android and Apple devices.

Library Communities

code4lib

Even though code4lib has its own website with IRC and a wiki, much daily conversation takes place in its Slack site.  code4lib has over 500 users and 24 channels including the code4lib IRC channel.

code4lib can be found at code4lib.slack.com.
Request access at goo.gl/forms/p9Ayz93DgG.

Datalibrarians of Florida

As you can tell by the name, this Slack community is aimed at technical librarians in Florida.

Datalibrarians of Florida can be found at fladatalibs.slack.com.
Request access in the Florida Databrarians Facebook group.

LibApps

The LibApps Slack site was started recently as an alternative to the official Springshare Lounge.  It has over 150 members and 16 channels covering all Springshare apps and more.

LibApps can be found at libapps.slack.com.
Request access in the “Slack Team for LibApps” thread in the Under the Hood group in the Springshare Lounge.

LibTech

The LibTech Slack site is brand new!  It is less technical than code4lib and broader than LibUX, covering all library technology topics.  If you want to learn what Slack is about, come join this group as a founding member.  Help us reach critical mass and suggest some appropriate channels.

LibTech can be found at librarytech.slack.com.
Request access at erau.libsurveys.com/LibTech.

LibUX

The LibUX site is perhaps the most active of the library Slack communities with over 200 members discussing library user experience topics in 13 channels.

LibUX can be found at libraryux.slack.com.
Request access at libux.herokuapp.com.

Check for new additions on our Social Media Resources for Librarians page.

Altmetrics: Basics and Resources

Altmetrics are “alternative metrics” to measure the influence and reach of scholarly output on the Web through peer-review counts, influential news sites and blog posts, citation manager bookmarks such as Mendeley, Wikipedia citations, and social media mentions on sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Why understand altmetrics?

Altmetric ScoreAltmetrics go beyond the traditional citation metrics to take into consideration how scholarly output such as journal articles and research datasets are being cited and shared by others on the Web in order to measure influence. They are meant to complement tradition metrics, not replace them.

Altmetrics counts (and scores) are updated much more quickly than traditional citation counts so are especially helpful with “hot topics” getting mainstream attention where citation counts can lag by months and even years.

The Basics

Altmetrics are basically counts of mentions and links to scholarly journals and datasets from reputable news sites (and aggregators) and blogs, peer-reviewed sites, reference managers, and major social media sites.  The company Altmetric uses a weighted score with a Twitter post counting as 1 point, a news article counts 8, a blog is 5, and a Wikipedia link is 3. Sources counting less than 1 point include Facebook and YouTube at 0.25 point and LinkedIn at 0.5.

Wiley added altmetrics to Wiley journal articles in the Wiley Online Library in 2014.  Elsevier added Altmetric scores Scopus in 2012 and to ScienceDirect in a pilot project in late 2013, but in 2015 switched to their own altmetrics system for ScienceDirect and Scopus.

We are seeing altmetrics incorporated into several library products. Two of the most prominent companies, Altmetric and EBSCO’s Plum Analytics, provide altmetrics to vendors for inclusion in services such as discovery tools and institutional repositories.

ProQuest Central Altmetric BadgeIn October 2015, ProQuest announced the addition of Altmetric badges to 360 Link and ProQuest databases.  On the abstract page of some scholarly journal articles in ProQuest databases will be displayed an Altmetric badge with basic details of the article’s reach on the Web.  Users can click through to see the complete details page [Altmetric.com version].

In February of this year ProQuest added altmetrics to its Summon service for free.  Libraries using Summon simply need to turn on the feature.  If available, search results will show an Altmetric score.  Hovering over this button (see below) shows more detailed counts.  Like above, users can click through to see the complete details page.  This same information can be displayed in the right-side preview panel.

Summon Search Results Altmetrics

Plum Analytics’ PlumX Metrics integrates with institutional repositories and categorizes metrics into five separate types:

  1. Usage – clicks, downloads, views, library holdings, video plays
  2. Captures – bookmarks, code forks, favorites, readers, watchers
  3. Mentions – blog posts, comments, reviews, Wikipedia links
  4. Social media – +1s, likes, shares, tweets
  5. Citations – PubMed Central, Scopus, patents

Unlike Altmetric, PlumX does not give a score.  At the bottom of the abstract and information page, PlumX displays a count of these metrics by category with a link to see details.

PlumX Institutional Repository Summary

Impactstory is another service providing altmetrics.  Its focus is on individuals who want to learn the impact of their research output. It’s an open-access website which you can access with an ORCID.

Resources

Here are some great online resources to learn about altmetrics:

Altmetrics: a Manifesto – Definitive post from altmetrics.org.

#altmetrics – Twitter hashtag.

Against the Grain – Link to the article “Altmetrics: Documenting the Story of Research” (2016).

arXiv – Link to the article “Altmetrics in the wild: Using social media to explore scholarly impact” (2012).

Impactstory blog – Link to blog post “4 things every librarian should do with altmetrics” (2014).

Mendeley Altmetrics Group – A group to “discuss new approaches to the assessment of scholarly impact based on new metrics.”

NISO Altmetrics Initiative – Project to create standards and best practices for altmetrics.

Here are some popular books about altmetrics:

Altmetrics by Robin Chin Roemer and Rachel Borchardt

AltmetricsThis title is actually an issue of Library Technology Reports from ALA Tech Source.  The report “outlines both the promises and major obstacles faced by the field of altmetrics” as well as covers the librarian’s role in providing education and support of altmetrics. Published in 2015.

View details and find a place to buy or borrow at Google Books.

Altmetrics: A Practical Guide for Librarians, Researchers and Academics edited by Andy Tattersall

Altmetrics: A Practical Guide for Librarians, Researchers and AcademicsThis forthcoming book gives an overview and the theory behind altmetrics.  It looks at the ways libraries can utilize altmetrics and educate researchers.  To be published in June 2016.

View details and find a place to buy or borrow at Google Books.

Altmetrics for Information Professionals: Past, Present and Future by Kim Johan Holmberg

Altmetrics for Information Professionals: Past, Present and FutureThis scholarly book looks at key altmetrics research innovations.  It presents the data sources used.  Finally, it looks to the future to determine alternative metric trends.  Published in 2015.

View details and find a place to buy or borrow at Google Books.

More Common Library Technology Acronyms

Throughout your professional library reading, you will occasionally come across esoteric library technology acronyms.  It’s annoying to have to stop reading to look up their meanings.  To help prevent that, we present our list of more common library technology acronyms.

These acronyms have been added to the Library Technology Acronyms page.

AAP – Authorized Access Point, text string that names the item for a BIBFRAME Authority (bf:authorizedAccessPoint).

API – Application Program Interface, “a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building applications and providing a way to interact with online services”.

BIBFRAMEBIBFRAME – Bibliographic Framework, a new model for bibliographic description to replace MARC.

DOAJ – The Directory of Open Access Journals.

FAST – Faceted Application of Subject Terminology, a “faceted subject heading schema” by OCLC with the LOC, used as an authority file.

FOAF – Friend of a Friend, describes people and their relationships using an RDF schema.

HILCC – Hierarchical Interface to Library of Congress Classification, structured menu for LC Classification subject access on the Web.

JSON – JavaScript Object Notation, “a lightweight data-interchange format” and standard.

LCNAF – Library of Congress Name Authority File, “provides authoritative data for names of persons, organizations, events, places, and titles”.

LOD – Linked Open Data, Linked Data which is published under an open-access license.

LSP – Library Services Platform, a term for a suite of library applications which might include an ILS, ERM, and discovery service.

MADS/RDF – Metadata Authority Description Schema in Resource Description Framework, a data model for authority records.

MFHD – Multi-Format Holdings Data, a holdings record containing location and call number (sometimes pronounced “muffhead”).

OWL – Web Ontology Language, “a Semantic Web language designed to represent rich and complex knowledge about things, groups of things, and relations between things”.

RDF – Resource Description Framework, a W3C standard for describing Web data.

REST – Representational State Transfer, the software architectural style of the Web.

SPARQL – SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language, used to retrieve Web data in RDF format.

URI – Uniform Resource Identifier, string of characters that points to a resource (with a URL being the most popular type).

W3CW3C – World Wide Web Consortium, “an international community that develops open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web”.

WEMI – Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item; Group 1 entities and the foundation of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model.

FRBR Group 1 WEMI

Free Articles on Institutional Repositories

Routledge, through - Taylor & Francis Group

Routledge announced that they are offering more than 50 articles for free through Taylor & Francis Online covering institutional repositories.  They are aimed at the scholarly communication librarian and cover the “basics of starting and maintaining an institutional repository, the impact of repositories on the open access movement and publishing, repositories for special collections, and institutional repositories around the world”.

Routledge is pleased to offer the Library & Information Science community free access to a collection of over 50 articles covering the topic of Institutional and Subject Repositories in academic libraries. The articles in this collection cover the basics of starting and maintaining an institutional repository, the impact of repositories on the open access movement and publishing, repositories for special collections, and institutional repositories around the world.

You can access the free articles from the Institutional Repositories & the Digital Library collection at Taylor & Francis Online until September 30, 2016.

BIBFRAME: Basics and Resources

BIBFRAME is a bibliographic framework for the description of physical and online objects to make them accessible on the Web by using a standard Linked Data model. It is a replacement for MARC.

Why the move to BIBFRAME?

The Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) standard was developed over forty years years ago to make bibliographic records usable by computers.  MARC records were the basis for online public library catalog (OPAC) records to make items searchable in library catalogs. This sufficed until the 1990s and the rise of the Internet.

However, MARC was so entrenched that it took another decade before the Library of Congress made the first move towards converting MARC to a Web standard with MARCXML.  This schema essentially reformatted the MARC record fields and subfields into an XML schema but was not an entirely new model.  MARCXML wasn’t widely adopted.

So in 2011 the Library of Congress, along with the consulting company Zepheria, set out to create a new bibliographic framework called BIBFRAME to make library records conform to Web standards. BIBFRAME is a web-first Linked Data model intended to make library records accessible to the Web at large.

The Basics

BIBFRAMEThe BIBFRAME initiative was announced in an open letter “A Bibliographic Framework for the Digital Age” (dated October 31, 2011) by Deanna Marcum from the Library of Congress. In this letter it was recognized that the MARC record was outdated and a new format was needed for the Internet age.

So BIBFRAME was developed on the RDF model using Linked Data through the Bibliographic Framework initiative.  Its current draft specification is version 2.0.

The BIBFRAME Model consists of the following core classes:

  • Creative Work – a resource reflecting a conceptual essence of the cataloging item.
  • Instance – a resource reflecting an individual, material embodiment of the Work.
  • Authority – a resource reflecting key authority concepts that have defined relationships reflected in the Work and Instance. Examples of Authority Resources include People, Places, Topics, Organizations, etc.
  • Annotation – a resource that decorates other BIBFRAME resources with additional information. Examples of such annotations include Library Holdings information, cover art and reviews.

BIBFRAME Model

Within the Vocabulary of BIBFRAME there is a current total of 53 classes and subclasses falling under Resource such as Work, Instance, Authority, and Annotation.  A BIBFRAME Resource can have 289 current properties such as absorbedBy, classificationLcc, doi, format, relatedInstance, title, uri, to give just a few examples.

A good explanation of BIBFRAME was given in an ALCTS webinar titled “From MARC to BIBFRAME: An Introduction” by Victoria Mueller from Zepheira and Carolyn Hansen from the University of Cincinnati.

With millions of MARC records created over the last several decades, an obvious question arises: How will MARC records be converted into BIBFRAME?  The Library of Congress addressed this need in their paper “Bibliographic Framework as a Web of Data” (see Resources below):

A key part of supporting the BIBFRAME model is in providing tools and supporting services for helping migrate from MARC to a Linked Data environment. They should provide a means of navigating the output of a declarative BIBFRAME pipeline which takes existing MARC 21 data and translates this to the BIBFRAME model.

BIBFRAME.ORG offers a MARC to BIBFRAME Transformation Service to convert MARCXML files.  There is also an experimental open source marc2bibframe XQuery utility from the Library of Congress (and a Python version by Zepheira).

Resources

Here are some great online resources to learn about BIBFRAME:

  • BIBFRAME Editor – Open source editing software downloadable from Github.
  • BIBFRAME FAQ – Frequently asked questions and answers from the Library of Congress.
  • BIBFRAME Listserv – Bibliographic Framework Transition Initiative Forum.
  • BIBFRAME.ORG – Is an index site to BIBFRAME Initiative, Model & Vocabulary, and Implementation and Testing sites.
  • Bibliographic Framework Initiative – Library of Congress website with official BIBFRAME information, specifications, FAQ, tools, news, and more.
  • Zepheira – Linked Data and BIBFRAME training from the company which was consulted by the Library of Congress to develop the BIBFRAME specifications.

Here are some popular papers about BIBFRAME:

BIBFRAME AV Assessment: Technical, Structural, and Preservation Metadata by Bertram Lyons and Kara Van Malssen

BIBFRAME AV Assessment: Technical, Structural, and Preservation MetadataThis paper, undertaken on behalf of the Library of Congress, investigates how metadata of audiovisual material can be best handled using BIBFRAME.  Sections cover preservation, structural, and technical metadata.   Appendices give examples of video, audio, and film examples.  Published in 2015, revised January 4, 2016.

Access the full-text paper (PDF).

Bibliographic Framework as a Web of Data: Linked Data Model and Supporting Services by the Library of Congress

Bibliographic Framework as a Web of Data: Linked Data Model and Supporting ServicesStraight from the source, this paper is an early look into the BIBFRAME model to introduce the subject and begin discussion.  It covers the four classes (Creative Work, Instance, Authority, and Annotation) and vocabulary.  The papers covers related initiatives such as OCLC’s WorldCat, Schema.org, RDA, and FRBR.  Published in 2012.

Access the full-text paper (PDF).

The Relationship between BIBFRAME and OCLC’s Linked-Data Model of Bibliographic Description: A Working Paper by Carol Jean Godby

The Relationship between BIBFRAME and OCLC’s Linked-Data Model of Bibliographic Description: A Working Paper“This document describes a proposed alignment between BIBFRAME and a model being explored by OCLC with extensions proposed by the Schema Bib Extend project, a W3C-sponsored community group tasked with enhancing Schema.org to the description of library resources.”  The paper also covers FRBR and gives examples of BIBFRAME in Turtle and RDF/XML syntax.  Published in 2013.

Access the full-text paper (PDF).