Metadata Management
How will we evolve our metadata structures to work effectively in a semantically richer Web or to connect to network hubs? How can we make our data work harder, to release greater value in systems and services? We're working to make the future investment in descriptions of library materials less costly, more responsive to network-level discovery requirements, and more consistent with user expectations. We're making the accumulated investment in library metadata, terminologies and authorities yield new returns by recombining it to create new relationships and associations that are valued by a wider Web community.
For a complete overview of our approach to our work in this area and what we want to accomplish, see the Metadata Management full narrative. A list of current activities for this theme is available below.
Current Activities
A Web interface for FAST Subject selection, assignFAST explores automating the manual selection of the Authorized and Use For headings based on autosuggest technology.
Classify is a FRBR-based prototype designed to support the assignment of classification numbers and subject headings for books, DVDs, CDs, and other types of materials.
This collaborative initiative aims to pilot the use of existing and newly developed OCLC Research methods and techniques for cleansing and enriching large aggregations of metadata to identify and create semantic links between heterogeneous objects that are connected.
FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology)
FAST is an enumerative faceted subject heading schema derived from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). FAST is easier to apply and can be successfully used by non-professionals.
The FAST Converter is a Web interface for the conversion of LCSH headings to FAST headings. Either single headings or small sets of bibliographic records can be converted. The intent of this Web site is to provide a learning tool to help familiarize users with FAST and the differences between FAST and LCSH.
Kindred Works is a demonstration interface built upon an experimental content-based recommender service. Various characteristics associated with a sample resource, such as classification numbers, subject headings, and genre terms, are matched to WorldCat to provide a list of recommendations.
mapFAST is a Google Maps mashup prototype designed to provide map based access to bibliographic records using FAST geographic authorities.
This project will study the use of MARC tags and subfields in WorldCat and produce reports to inform decisions about where we go from here.
Metadata Schema Transformation Services
The goal of the Metadata Schema Transformation project is to develop a simple, web-accessible service that translates metadata records from one publicly defined format into another.
This project attempts to develop tools that advance the state of the art in extracting names from unstructured text and disambiguating them using authority files developed in the library community.
An experimental service to provide authority control for publisher names in bibliographic catalogs.
Registering Researchers in Authority Files
The Registering Researchers Task Force aims to create a concise report summarizing the benefits and trade-offs of emerging approaches to the problem of incomplete national authority files.
Sharing and Aggregating Social Metadata
Identify the user contributions that would enrich the descriptive metadata created by libraries, archives, and museums and the issues that need to be resolved to communicate and share user contributions on the network level.
This project provides Web-based services for controlled vocabularies.
View rich descriptions for books and other library materials.
Genre profiles allow users to browse genre terms for hundreds of titles, authors, subjects, characters, places, and more, ranked by popularity in WorldCat.
The WorldCat Identities Network gives users the opportunity to visually explore the interconnectivity and relationships between WorldCat Identities.
The WorldCat Identities Network gives users the opportunity to visually explore the interconnectivity and relationships between WorldCat Identities.
Some of the activities listed here have prototypes or demonstrations you can explore and play with. You can find a list of just those hands-on activities in ResearchWorks.
A few of these activities have generated software that you can download and build upon. Go to our software page for a list of only those activities.
The OCLC Research Library Partnership has sponsored the activities with this mark.
OCLC Research on YouTube
Check out the OCLC Research YouTube Channel for a fresh, succinct view of what OCLC Research staff are up to.