What is this about … developments in characterizing subjects

1. What is this about … developments in characterizing subjects Diane Vizine-Goetz Research Scientist OCLC

2. Challenge • Traditional library methods must compete with new approaches for accessing content • Computational, text-based search techniques • Foundation of most Web search engines • Systems that exploit the opinions and actions of individuals & communities • Citation indexing, recommendation systems, collaborative filtering techniques, etc. See Clifford Lynch, The New Context for Bibliographic Control In the New Millennium

3. Challenge • Methods effective for print, unlikely to be the same techniques used for digital documents • Need to determine role of knowledge organization (KO) resources in relation to new approaches • Authority files • Subject heading systems and thesauri • Classification schemes

4. KO resources are currently embedded in systems & services • OCLC Connexion • Provides access to several KO schemes & links among schemes • Dewey, LCSH, Name authorities • Automated application tools • Harvest & record creation • Classification • Control of names, subjects, class numbers

5. Dewey in OCLC Connexion

6. DDC with associated Library of Congress Subject Headings

7. Automated tools create records & assign class numbers

9. Auto-generated record with DDC

10. Automated checking of names & subjects

11. Need more flexible, modular knowledge organization services • CURL librarians wish list • Automatically check name and subject authorities • Automatically supply Dewey Decimal Classification numbers based on subject entries • On-demand check of subject and name authorities in non-OCLC record sources • Authorities notification service • Improve record quality/completeness

12. Emerging technologies provide opportunities for new services • Tools and features previously available only in integrated systems can now be provided as 'web services' • “network accessible application components” • “interoperable building blocks for constructing applications” • “self-describing applications that can be discovered and accessed over the web by other applications” • Technical definition • Web Services are a suite of protocols that define how requests and responses between software applications should be encoded & transferred over the web

13. Knowledge Organization Services • Record Enrichment • Classes • Subjects • Names • Summaries KO Schemes 635.951 • Classification • Auto-class • Number verification • Captions • Associated Terms • Updates • Authority Control • Auto-assign • Name/Subject validation • Associated Classes • Authorities notification Name Authority Files DDC LCSH

14. OCLC Web Services Demo Rare and endangered animals Rare and endangered species

15. Amazon Web Services Demos • http://www.php9.com/amazon.php • http://www.kokogiak.com/amazon/ • http://www.buildafrica.org/music.php

16. Record enhancement

17. Prototypes & Demonstration projects • Prototype • LCCN Web Service Demo (previous slide) • OCLC & Northwestern University • DDC number verification for Cataloger's Toolkit for Voyager ILS • eprints-UK • OCLC will supply subject descriptions & name authorities as Web services for harvested resources

18. References and Links • OCLC: www.oclc.org • Dewey Decimal Classification: http://www.oclc.org/dewey/ • Bicentennial Conference… lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/conference.html#program • Roy Tennant. Digital Libraries-What To Know About Web Services: http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/ • Tracy Gardner. An Introduction to Web Services: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue29/gardner/