11. Share data for Collaborative Cataloguing

The development of bibliographic data through a collaborative partnership for the purpose of generating, improving and enhancing records.

Description

Activity - The development of bibliographic data through a collaborative partnership for the purpose of generating, improving and enhancing records. The Use Case assumes that this is being undertaken by a structured group of library partners for the mutual improvement of their catalogues, though the resulting records will be designated as open data and therefore be available for wider use. The effort may be coordinated or by a third party entity.

Services in which the collaborators are not restricted to libraries (or other professional organizations) should be considered as instances of crowd sourcing (see UC12).
This use case differs from UC12 because it is about a closed group of cataloguers and libraries whereas UC12 is about the opening up the cataloguing process itself.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Actors - Libraries that wish to collaborate; perhaps a third party providing the overall service
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Data involved - Most likely full (but possibly partial) bibliographic records
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Data flow - Selective supply of current records and return of new / edited records.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Does this require Open Data - Whilst not essential, if the records are supplied under an open data license, the scope for reuse both within and beyond partner catalogues will be unambiguous. Look for open data licensing before engaging with collaborative services operated by a third party.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Current Examples - Biblios.net
Part of use case: | Share your experience

Benefits

Institution - Reduction in costs is the typical driver. There is also potential for improved use of and recognition derived from the collection.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Library Service - Reduction in cataloguing costs is the typical driver. There is also potential for improving discovery and access, resulting in increased and improved use of the collection.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Researchers - Depending on the emphasis, collaborative cataloguing may lead to improved discovery of specialized resources.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Students - Depending on the emphasis, collaborative cataloguing may lead to improved discovery of specialized resources.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Replication - Release of records for cataloguing requires different logistical considerations than more general release, though the licensing may be the same. The logistical process has features in common with UC12, though crowd sourced contributions may be focused on a single local catalogue
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Case for not doing it - Quality of local catalogue, reliance on other forms of records supply, or low volumes of new material may be considerations.
Part of use case: | Share your experience

Motivation

Principles - Well-populated, high quality finding aids are highly desirable. The effort to improve them is costly and the domain knowledge is likely to be scattered. A distributed effort involving professional organizations may therefore be advantageous, especially as the metadata does not itself confer competitive advantage.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Costs - There are significant potential savings in cataloguing time, even when weighed against the overhead of coordination and quality assurance (which may be the responsibility of a third party).
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Services - Improved services may result from better metadata and new services may result from wider description of the collection (assuming some libraries have significant resources incompletely described, notably in special collections). Open data offers the freedom to pursue those opportunities.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Rationale for not doing it - Issues of quality and authority need to be addressed, but should be mitigated by the nature of the collaborating community.
Part of use case: | Share your experience

Consequences of doing it as Open Data

What will happen? - Collaborative cataloguing within an open data paradigm is likely to open up a range of potential economies and opportunities.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Potential Risks - (1) Loss of control over institutional data; (2) Standards agreed for catalogue records fail to meet local needs; (3) effort and resource required to coordinate across partners outweighs benefits and savings
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Potential Opportunities - (1) Development of innovative / compelling third party services based on open data; (2) Collaborative cataloguing of grey resources amongst the same collaborators given the benefits of open access to the records and the content itself in digital form; (3) It may open up consideration of crowd sourced cataloguing [see UC12]; (4) Shift to outsourced cataloguing [see also UC3, UC4, UC5, UC9]
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Consequences of not doing it? - The sector needs ways of reducing the cost of cataloguing whilst addressing the growth in publication (i.e. of things to be catalogued). This is a major high integrity / low risk option.
Part of use case: | Share your experience

Rights and Licensing Issues

Rights and licensing issues - In keeping with the principles behind this act, the license should be explicit and as open and unencumbered as possible in order to facilitate genuine reuse. See the general guidance on Licensing Issues for further detail.
Part of use case: | Share your experience

Practicalities

Data exchange formatting - Such services have traditionally been based on the exchange of MARC and MARC XML records. Given open data licensing, the resulting records may be made available by the coordinating service in a wider range of developer friendly formats, including RDF.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Lifecycle implications - The lifecycle of such efforts is potentially complex. Planning the ingestion of the collaborative outputs is especially important, including any remaining local QA.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Hosting requirements - Hosting for editing and download will be the responsibility of the coordinating party.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Existing systems impact - The LMS should support the logistics of this approach through MARC export and import options.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Skills demands - Subject to the capabilities of the LMS, this will fall within the capabilities of a systems librarian.
Part of use case: | Share your experience

Costs

Setup - The simplest collaboration will be achieved using MARC export and import software, which should be part of the local LMS.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Ongoing - The resource implications of managing the operational process should be reviewed but are likely to fall within the scope of existing processes for managing catalogue records.
Part of use case: | Share your experience
Cost of doing nothing - No extra direct costs will be incurred by not doing it, though this may be the principal and most professionally acceptable opportunity to reduce local cataloguing costs.
Part of use case: | Share your experience