How Europe is exploring BIBFRAME and the role we, at Casalini Libri, are playing in support of the BIBFRAME model
As a major bibliographic agency for data regarding European publications, one of our priorities has always been the provision of quality bibliographic information, from details of relevant new titles to the in-house production of highly accurate catalogue records. We produce more than 40,000 original bibliographic records for Romance Language publications each year and contribute new authority records to the Library of Congress authority file, as well as making subject and classification proposals through participation in the NACO and SACO programs of the Program for Cooperative Cataloguing (PCC).
Remaining faithful to our original mission of providing the top-level bibliographic output required by our customers, we successfully implemented RDA (Resource Description and Access) in 2013 and has been active in the translation of the standard into Italian.
We are driven by the determination to anticipate the changing needs of the market and are currently working on the development of solutions to the newest aspects of cataloguing: Linked Data and the BIBFRAME data model.
Initiated by the Library of Congress, BIBFRAME provides a foundation for the future of bibliographic description, both on the web, and in the broader networked world that is grounded in Linked Data techniques. This video, from the Library of Congress, discusses the progress that is being made and how we, at Casalini Libri, are contributing.
Connecting libraries, archives and museums and their data
The Share Family supports libraries, archives and museums in the transition from traditional cataloguing environments to innovative models based on linked data.
An ongoing research and development project, the Share Family aims to explore and embrace the future of library catalogues, creating effective tools and environments that facilitate the cataloguing, exposition and discovery of bibliographic records in linked data and providing a comprehensive suite of instruments to information professionals across the LAM domain.
Based on collaboration within the Library, Archives and Museums community, the Share Family initiatives are shaped and furthered thanks to the active participation of an international group of national and research libraries and bibliographic agencies. The direction taken and decisions made by the Share Family are influenced by discussions on new models of data organisation such as BIBFRAME and by the vision of the LD4P project. The technology behind the community, including the advanced LOD Platform, is developed and maintained by our sister company @Cult, ILS provider and software house specialising in the design and creation of solutions for information management and knowledge sharing.
The Share Family tools harness the potential of linked data to connect and present library information in dynamic formats, enhancing the visibility of all library resources, including those that may previously have remained undetected in a traditional catalogue. This is achieved through:
the enrichment of original MARC data and of records converted into linked data using identifiers from external sources (e.g. ISNI, VIAF) and original Share identifiers
the indexing of records in the Cluster Knowledge Base, authoritative environment in RDF
the reconciliation and clusterization of entities
the conversion of library catalogues from MARC to linked data
the delivery of converted and enriched data to libraries for reuse in their own systems
the publication of library records in linked data on the relative Share discovery platform
The Share Family principles and expertise can be applied across the entire LAM sector and tailored to specific domains or disciplines, each with varying and distinct characteristics. The Share Family currently comprises the following specialised initiatives:
Share-Virtual Discovery Environment - a library-driven initiative which brings together, in a shared discovery environment, the bibliographic catalogues and authority files of a growing number of leading academic and national libraries from across North America and Europe. The project is based on discussion and exchange among participating libraries, as well as with other projects such as the LD4P initiative and the PCC.
Share-Catalogue - a network of Italian university libraries
Share-Art - home to the Kubikat-LOD project, which involves Art History libraries affiliated with the Max Planck Institut
Share-Music - currently a pilot project
Each single initiative is enhanced not only by the collaboration of its participating institutions but by the work carried out by the Share Family as a whole, with advancements relative to an individual discipline or domain being translated and applied where possibile to its sister environments.
Advanced discovery interfaces make possible the continuing development of cataloguing functions native to semantic web standards, the integration of processes with local systems and tools for implementation in a collaborative environment characterised by interoperability and reuse of enhanced data, while also delivering wider search results to library, archive and museum patrons.
To learn more about the Share Family and individual initiatives, please refer to https://wiki.share-vde.org. More information on how we are applying the experience and competences we have acquired as a part of this community to benefit our library customers through services for authority control is available here.
Casalini Libri is a member of the EDRLab community
EDRLab is an international, non-profit development laboratory, working on the deployment of an open, interoperable and accessible digital publishing ecosystem in Europe.
As aggregator and provider of original-language digital academic publishing, we are particularly interested in the efforts of EDRLab to contribute to an open-source and user-friendly ebook ecosystem that handles the expectations of all involved, from authors and publishers to libraries and patrons. A member of EDRLab since the beginning of 2020, we are studying the adoption of the Readium LCP DRM for our Torrossa digital library, with the aim of making the digital content we host even more accessible for students, researchers and scholars.
The future of Western European collections and librarianship
"New Shape of Sharing: Networks, Expertise, Information", a working forum in collaboration with CRL.
We are excited to be involved in this working forum on current issues in European librarianship. The ongoing project is sponsored by the Collaborative Initiative for French Language Collections (CIFNAL) and the German-North American Resources Partnership (GNARP), both working projects of the Center for Research Libraries (Chicago, USA).
Librarians in North America have long-standing relationships with Western European libraries and materials vendors to support research in the humanities and to maintain non-English collections. In today's research and budgetary environments there are increasing pressures on the traditional humanities, while developments in technology and large-scale initiatives offer new opportunities for libraries, publishers, and content suppliers to collaborate. Despite the importance of addressing these changes, there are few opportunities for librarians and vendors to have meaningful and deep discussions. Continuing conversations begun at the New Directions Symposium held in Frankfurt in October 2017, the overarching theme of this forum is The New Shape of Sharing: Networks, Expertise, Information.
Initially planned for May 2020, the in-person meeting of colleagues has been postponed to a later date (to be determined) in light of the COVID-19 situation. In the interim, beginning on 11th January and ending on 19th April, a series of virtual presentations/discussions will take place, focussing on three main areas: new models for collaborative collection development and services, the challenges of the growing range of content and format types, and the evolving role of libraries and librarians in the research process. Meetings are free to attend; please register in advance. All details and the full programme are available on the conference web site.
Torrossa Open, part of the Torrossa digital library, is designed specifically to contribute to the dissemination of research content from Southern Europe in Open Access
Testimony to our mission to diffuse European scholarly culture worldwide, TorrossaOpen currently gives access to over 13,000 articles/chapters, 2,000 e-books, 120 e-journals and 1,900 issues and is constantly updated with new material from existing and new collaborating publishers.
The repository is an important point of reference and essential resource for
publishers wishing to publish research in open access, particularly in the fields of the Humanities and Social Sciences
researchers wishing to make their work available and visible internationally
students, scholars and library patrons, who benefit from Torrossa's additional study support tools
libraries and research centres that already have access to digital content through Torrossa
international databases and Discoveries Services, who find in TorrossaOpen a reliable partner for the timely and up-to-date supply of metadata.
A number of additional functions and services, developed specifically for use within research institutions, include quality metadata, searching within the full text, integration with Discovery Services, long-term preservation in archives such as CLOCKSS and Portico, indexing in Google Scholar, MARC records, COUNTER statistics and a personal user workspace for the creation of bibliographies, compatible with leading citations software.
What is the likely shape of the library of the Future? And how do we build collections for it?
The Fiesole Collection Development Retreat Series creates the space for an informal meeting of leading library and information industry participants devoted to thinking through and debating the new world order in collection development.
Founded by The Charleston Company in collaboration with Casalini and Against the Grain, the annual retreat meetings concentrate on the latest big topics to affect the scholarly publishing world, bringing together publishers, libraries, intermediaries and industry experts to discuss current questions from differing points of view.
ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier, ISO 27729) is the globally recognised and adopted standard for the unique identification of the public identities across all fields of creative activity, in use by numerous libraries, publishers, databases, and rights management organizations around the world. The mission of the ISNI International Authority (ISNI-IA) is to assign to the public name(s) of a researcher, inventor, writer, artist, performer, publisher, etc. a persistent unique identifying number and diffuse each assigned ISNI across all repertoires in the global supply chain so that every published work can be unambiguously attributed to its creator wherever that work is described.
As a major bibliographic agency for data regarding European publications, we have extensive and consolidated experience in producing original catalogue records and contributing to authority control through, for example, participation in the NACO and SACO programs of the Program for Cooperative Cataloguing (PCC). Our involvement in the Bibliographic Framework Initiative (BIBFRAME), detailed attention to authority and identifier management, and activities in the field of linked data demonstrate our shared goals with ISNI.
As an ISNI Registration Agency, we contribute data to the central ISNI database, provide ISNI related services to organisations and users in the information chain, and support data enrichment and procedures for the reconciliation of entities.
We are proud to partner the Master's degree course in BookTelling of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan organized in collaboration with the Centro di ricerca Europeo libro, editoria, biblioteca (CRELEB)
Introduced in 2018, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore's Master's degree course in BookTelling uses a practical and interdisciplinary approach, in close collaboration with industry professionals to provide the analytical, technological, economic and legal skills necessary to pursue a career in the publishing sector.
Dealing with aspects as wide-ranging as communication, marketing, copywriting and web content editing, data analysis, rights management, metadata management and e-commerce, the course aims to offer a complete picture of the many and varied characteristics and viewpoints of the industry, from the trends of the Italian and international scene to the increasing digitalization and globalization of publishing and the remaining niche sectors.
As partners in the programme, we at Casalini Libri are pleased and honoured to be able to contribute to the training of future publishing professionals both through the award of a scholarship and by sharing our knowledge and expertise in the promotion and distribution of academic publishing in libraries around the world.
The lesson hosted by our professionals highlights the variety and complexity of our work: from the sourcing and profiling of new titles and the provision of personalised bibliographic, collection development and technical services to libraries, to the creation and maintenance of a digital library, the hosting of content and creation of metadata. It also offers insight into our role as intermediary, responding to the expectations of both libraries and publishers.
