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Ebook cataloging: trouble, even in batch

Kathryn Lybarger Fourth Friday February 22, 2013. Ebook cataloging: trouble, even in batch. MARC. A data format used to encode and share bibliographic data Developed in the 1960’s, still quite popular. Cataloging. Vendors often provide MARC records. Batch loading. All done?. Not quite….

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Ebook cataloging: trouble, even in batch

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  1. Kathryn Lybarger Fourth Friday February 22, 2013 Ebook cataloging: trouble, even in batch

  2. MARC • A data format used to encode and share bibliographic data • Developed in the 1960’s, still quite popular

  3. Cataloging

  4. Vendors often provide MARC records

  5. Batch loading

  6. All done?

  7. Not quite…

  8. Records may be icky… Title: CESMM3 price database 2009, edited by Franklin + Andrews 100 1_ Franklin. 245 10 CESMM3 price database 2009 ‡h [electronic resource] / ‡c edited by Franklin and Andrews. 500 __ Ebook. 516 __ Document. 538 __ PDF: Adobe PDF 700 1_ Andrews. 856 40 …

  9. …but worse, non-functional! • Data may be unhelpful, or misleading • Links may not work • This may change over time

  10. A crazy mixed-up record (with 112 holdings) • From one book: • Title • Author • Series • Subject headings • From another book: • Notes • ISBN • Link to e-book

  11. URLs from other vendors • Provider-neutral records may have URLs from multiple vendors • An OCLC search for records with URLs from eblib, ebrary, ebscohost AND myilibrary returned over 43,000. • Even if they are labeled, patrons don’t know which vendor we’re using

  12. URLs that point nowhere

  13. URLs that point somewhere new!

  14. DOI troubles

  15. Books may not be available yet(or ever)

  16. “Slippage” • Some ebooks on a frontlist may never appear on the site • Individual ebooks may just disappear

  17. Lists may be available… • But not forthcoming. • You may have to periodically dig several levels deep on the website to get them:

  18. Or they may just not mention it… After we confronted one vendor: “Of the 15 accounts that I spot checked the most usage for (TITLE) was 5 views. However, I see that the 2 titles listed below are in the top 5 most viewed for UKY in 2012.”

  19. Platform change

  20. Solutions? • Start with the best records you can find • Edit MARC records to conform with local standards • Verify access to all titles (periodically) • Report problems when you find them

  21. Vendors may do some editing • But how do you predict what you will need?

  22. MarcEdit • Developed by Terry Reese • MARC editing in a friendly yet powerful text editor • Z39.50 client • (Binary editor!)

  23. Automation • Efficiency, Consistency • .mrk format is text, so you can process with your favorite programming language • Don’t have a favorite language (yet)?

  24. Codecademy #libcodeyear

  25. My automation: Normac • NORMalization and Access Checking • Open source software, releasing soon • Configure per vendor: • Fields to add/delete • Changes to make • How to check links

  26. Generic link checkers may not be effective • Ebook errors can be valid web pages, and errors don’t mean you should give up! • HTTP/1.1 200 OK • Full text ebook • Web site form to buy the book • HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found • No such page on server • Broken DOI (that you should report)

  27. Effective link checking (my method) • Database holds a list of links to be checked • Script checks each according to site profile (pausing 10 seconds between each link): • Is it a PDF? • Does it contain the phrase “This is not part of your subscription”? • Can you click through to fulltext chapters?

  28. If you see broken links… • Let me know! • I have to know what broken ebooks look like (from a given vendor) before I can detect them • If a vendor has many broken ones I can do a systematic check

  29. Any questions?

  30. Links • MarcEdithttp://people.oregonstate.edu/~reeset/marcedit/html/index.php • Code Academy http://www.codeacademy.com • My GitHub repository https://github.com/zemkat/

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