OCLC Canada Advisory Council

Minutes — April 5^th 2024

Present

Joseph Hafner - chair, Associate Dean, Collection Services, McGill University
May Chan, Head Metadata Services, University of Toronto
Mélanie Dumas, Directrice de la collection de la Grande Bibliothèque, BAnQ
Allison Kelley, Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships, Chief of Federal Sciences Library Network, National Research Council
Gabrielle Prefontaine, Dean, University Library, University of Winnipeg
Sandy Ramos, Acting Director General, Description Division, Published Heritage Branch, Library and Archives Canada
Renee Reaume, Director, Metadata Services, University of Calgary
Debbie Schachter, Associate Vice-President, Students, Langara College
Michael Vandenberg, Dean of Libraries, Dalhousie University

Jeff Mixter, Senior Product Manager – Metadata and Digital Services, OCLC
Anne Washington, Product Analyst, Metadata and Digital Services – Linked Data, OCLC

Daniel Boivin, Executive Director, OCLC Canada, Latin America & the Caribbean
Eric van Lubeek, Vice President, Global Library Services, OCLC

Submitted agenda:

1. Opening of the meeting and agenda approval
2. Review the minutes of the Fall 2023 Meeting
3. Presentation/Discussion on OCLC's most recent initiatives in regard to link data and BIBFRAME (Jeff Mixter + Anne Washington)
4. Brief report on the recent Global Council meeting
5. Brainstorming on the Canadian library's landscape:
   • New/revised priorities
   • Budget trends, new/revised initiatives
   • Are new library positions / roles being created
   • Exciting projects underway
6. Other business (dates for fall meeting will be defined using Doodle)
7. End of Conference Call

1. Opening of the meeting and agenda approval
   • Mr. Hafner asked everybody to introduce themselves with the participation of a new delegate from the National Research Council Canada, Allison Kelley.
   • The agenda is approved with one item being added to the other business section:
   • Discuss emails/questions raised by some academic librarians regarding the implementation of the new ISO 18626 standard with Relais ILL.
2. Review the minutes of the Fall 2023 Meeting:
   • The minutes were approved.
3. Presentation/Discussion on OCLC's most recent initiatives in regards to link data and BIBFRAME
   • Jeff Mixter and Anne Washington, both from OCLC, were invited to present advancements in these areas and the upcoming OCLC's new entities management tool, Meridian.
   • Mr. Mixter proceeded with his presentation on linked data and BIBFRAME (shared on the OCAC portal -- OCLC Canada Advisory Council).
   • Ms. Washington completed in briefly presenting Meridian, the OCLC tool that will allow librarians to create and manage entities that can then be added to any WorldCat records and future BIBFRAME records. She also offered to do a more in-depth presentation at the delegates' libraries if desired.
   • Questions:
   • Ms. Chan asked about how the ontology was constructed and Mr. Mixter indicated that many experts were consulted in libraries and our office of research. This is an evolving ontology which relies on users and participants to maintain and update.
   • Meridian being the tool promoted at OCLC, it will have its own section in the Community Centre so that participants can talk about best practices, standards, ontologies, etc. It is even planned to have an "edit -othon" to help build the ontology. Of course, OCLC will keep on improving the tool, its workflow, etc., as time goes by.
   • Ms. Prefontaine then asked if a "place" for special collections, material unique to some institutions was planned, i.e. if there will be a place for linked data and a specific use case for these types of material? Mr. Mixter thought that he himself would need to think a little more about this but then added that the U of Utah had started reflecting on how to approach special collections. They have been using/storing local architects' names in a spreadsheet and they plan to create entities and descriptions for those to the added to the ontology. Ms. Washington indicated seeing the potential to link such content using these new entities which would leverage that context being created (for exhibits, etc.). Mr. Mixter added that many of these links are already in WorldCat.org, and the Web, and it helps increase libraries' visibility, leveraging the "network effect" for libraries. Large sets of identifiers are still needed to grow all of the potential behind entities.
   • Mr. Vandenberg asks if we already had some thoughts about the possible level of creation done between people versus machine (AI) and the distribution of how much could be created manually using Meridian versus AI? Mr. Mixter believes that it will be a balance between the creation and use of domain experts but that humans, including OCLC employees, will be the link to validate the data. It is expected that libraries will keep inputting new entities as this will become part of their future normal workflow. A human is still expected to judge if some entries are duplicates or not, i.e. human's abilities are for now still expected to make these decisions.
   • Ms. Ramos mentioned that at LAC, they have both organized library data and less organized and granular archival data. They are in the process of reviewing their archival data and she was wondering if OCLC / colleagues have minimal standards for common records / archival records and if so, she asked to be sent any info that could help them with their planning. She thinks that entities might help the archival sector in that regard.
   • Mr. Mixter added that CONTENTdm will be using WorldCat Ontology and will have best practice to describe archival collection, at the collection level.
   • Mr. Mixter reported that OCLC is working on a BIBFRAME editor and will have development partners (libraries) identified in the summer. OCLC is open to receiving library names ready to volunteer and Ms. Chan sounded very interested in contributing to the initiative.
     
4. Brief report on the recent Global Council (GC) meeting
   • Ms. Chan reported that GC delegates focused on two main items during the 2.5 days:
   • Voting for the new board of trustees (2). Both presented statements and delegates voted. Apparently, they had a lot of questions from the delegates. The two new board members will start their positions in November.
   • The second topic was about the possible upcoming changes to the GC governance. Name and structural changes were on the program. The proposed and accepted new name is Leaders' Council. The discussions were so intense that they had to adjust the agenda to allow for more discussions between delegates. In the end, the majority voted in favor of the name and structural changes. Thus, the Council will go down from 48 to a maximum of 24 delegates (20 to 24). The responsibility of electing board members remains but it is believed that a "lighter" structure will facilitate and promote more engagements from the delegates.
   • Mr. Hafner added that this is adapting to the times. It is hard to bring 48 people together and do these meetings online and/or in person. It is also felt that this will give a chance to give better input to OCLC. The model of having "affiliate groups", such as OCAC, was also discussed to allow for reaching out a little further with the membership, especially if the Council is getting smaller and regional councils are not meeting any longer.
   • Mr. Van Lubeek added that the Council will also have a planned period to review the GC / Leaders Council structure and its role, ie. it will be planned to take place every 18 months. There will not be any elections until the new Council structure is fully in place, i.e. sometimes in 2025. This means that those delegates that are on the Council will stay until their term ends. Then, there will be a moment where new leaders will be needed/added. It was still undecided as to how, between regions, the distribution will be constituted but it is being worked on.
     
5. Brainstorming on the Canadian libraries' landscape
   • Mr. Van Lubeek took the opportunity to briefly spoke about the acquisition of cloudLibrary. It currently has over 500 users worldwide and the bulk are in the US and Canada. He said that the announcement was well received at PLA.
   • Then, OCAC delegates agreed to discuss the "other business" first as this was a Canadian matter and it was felt we needed time to discuss it.
   • Ms. Chan was happy we bumped the issue up. She indicated being happy to share her own update and brainstorming ideas in writing on the listserv and everybody was agreeable to the idea.
     
6. Other business
   • Relais ILL in Canada.
   • Some OCAC delegates had shared emails received by academic librarians in Ontario and Western Canada, raising concerns about the limited interoperability of Relais ILL and asking OCLC to commit to enable the ISO 18626 standard for all Relais ILL users within a reasonable timeframe.
   • Mr. Boivin indicated that Relais ILL was supporting ISO 18626 and explained where OCLC was with its implementation. The following summarize the situation for Relais ILL and VDX:
   • VDX is still being supported and will be until late in 2025.
   • OCLC has enabled the new ISO standard 18626 in Relais ILL, but as this implementation is not "one size fits all", we have had to prioritize our deployment and implementation efforts.  This means that currently and in addition of supporting the old ISO ILL standard, we are using ISO 18626 to connect Relais ILL libraries to WorldShare ILL and Tipasa libraries in Canada. This ensures that, as you note, no libraries are completely cut off. This also helps libraries continue to get maximum benefit from Voilà, the national union catalog, as it is using WorldShare ILL as its mechanism to offer ILL services. So, libraries using Relais ILL are able to communicate with the vast majority of libraries in Canada and are not isolated. 
   • A few libraries do use WorldShare ILL in Canada to do ILL internationally only. For some, to do this also provincially and/or nationally is not something they want to consider despite the ease of doing so. This was expressed as being inconvenient, and we understand that. We will continue to work with libraries to expand configuration options to use preferred systems.
   • Additionally, a new challenge has been recently reported to the OCLC ILL team, and it is the connection between Relais ILL and Alma ILL and/or Rapido services. Both Relais ILL and ALMA/Rapido do use the old ISO standard, but the way it has been developed for Alma/Rapido does not work with the old ISO standard in Relais ILL. Since OCLC has moved to the new ISO standard, it does not seem like a good business investment for OCLC to develop something specific for the old standard. This functional gap impacts a limited number of libraries, which for the most part, have a subscription to WorldShare ILL. Again, flexible configuration is the long-term goal, but the current impact, as we understand it, is limited. 
   • As many of you are aware, Tipasa is what PBUQ libraries are using, and it is our migration path offered to OCUL libraries to move them off VDX due to the enhanced integration with ALMA. A demo on how this will work is scheduled with the OCUL ILL committee in April. 
   • With the combination of the old ISO standard and our developments to connect systems using ISO 18626, libraries that subscribe to Relais ILL will not be isolated. This coverage encompasses the vast majority of academic and public libraries in Canada, including groups migrating from VDX to our new Resource Sharing for Groups platform over the next year.
   • After the exchanges, delegates asked that an answer be posted on the OCAC listserv so that each delegate could use it to respond to colleagues that had approached them by email.
   • Mr. Hafner asked the delegates if they knew why they, or other libraries, were not using Tipasa versus Relais ILL and why more were not considering a change. The consensus seemed that it is really a local decision, and most are happy with their current tool.
   • Mr. Van Lubeek added that some of these tools are getting old and it is difficult for OCLC to keep staff that know how to "fix" these old technologies. The "market" is familiar with new technologies and of course, OCLC keeps on progressing (cloud base, etc.) so, some of these changes are becoming mandatory overtime as we are unable to find the labor to help supporting older technologies.
   • Mr. Vandenberg said that many in the Atlantic provinces are working in a multi-consortia environment. One group could be in the Maritime while another one is all the Atlantic provinces, and some are even maintaining affiliation outside their region. Additionally, the Atlantic group has to deal with various ILS within its group and the feeling is that they now need a tool, a layer, to connect this all.
   • Ms. Reaume felt that OCLC should try to reach out to COPPUL to have such a discussion regarding OCLC's ILL products. However, Ms. Prefontaine is not sure this is appropriate to do so since COPPUL is mostly made up of library directors and such a discussion would be better with an ILL committee, but COPPUL does not have one. Mr. Boivin reminded them that most COPPUL libraries are Relais ILL users, and these individuals were part of the recent user group meeting. They had heard some of this information and OCLC should provide further updates at the next Relais ILL User Group meeting.
     
   • Ms. Prefontaine acknowledged being very pleased to have been reached out for this topic. She reinforced the fact that this is why OCAC is there and she would welcome hearing more about members and would be happy to reach out further to the members to have these discussions.
     
   • No other item for business.
7. End of the meeting
   • At 15h10 Eastern Time.