Author Archives: John Mark Ockerbloom

About John Mark Ockerbloom

I'm a digital library strategist at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.

Lots of conversation keeps stuff sustainable

Posted on March 23, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Among the hats I wear at my place of work is that of LOCKSS cache administrator. LOCKSS is a useful distributed preservation system built around the principle “Lots of copies keep stuff safe” (whose initials give the system its name).  … Continue reading →

Posted in libraries, people, preservation, sharing | Comments Off on Lots of conversation keeps stuff sustainable

Implementing interoperability between library discovery tools and the ILS

Posted on March 9, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Last June I gave a presentation in a NISO webinar about the work a number of colleagues and I did for the Digital Library Federation to recommend standard interfaces for Integrated Library Systems (the systems that keep track of our … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, discovery | 1 Comment

Shedding light on images in the public domain

Posted on February 8, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

For years, I’ve regularly gotten requests from authors and publishers for licenses to reproduce images in books listed on The Online Books Page, or included in the local collection of A Celebration of Women Writers.  Sometimes these requests relate to … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, sharing | 3 Comments

Every book its libraries: or, Taking care in withdrawal

Posted on January 28, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

The question of when to withdraw materials from libraries has gotten heightened attention lately.  Everyday readers may not always realize it, but most libraries get rid of books and other materials on a regular basis.  Libraries typically have limited space, … Continue reading →

Posted in preservation, sharing | 9 Comments

Concepts in catalogs: Where the data comes from

Posted on January 15, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’ve now made a few posts about concept-oriented catalogs, describing the basic idea, showing some examples, and talking about the kinds of context they should provide for users.  As I mentioned in my first post, concepts in such catalogs are … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, discovery, formats, metadata, sharing, subjects | Comments Off on Concepts in catalogs: Where the data comes from

Content and context in concept-oriented catalogs

Posted on January 7, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

2010 has been designated the year of cataloging research by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services.  So it’s a good time for me to continue my series on concept-oriented catalogs.  Before I talk about specific ways to implement … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, discovery, metadata | Comments Off on Content and context in concept-oriented catalogs

Public domain day 2010: Drawing up the lines

Posted on January 1, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

As we celebrate the beginning of the New Year, we also mark Public Domain Day (a holiday I’ve been regularly celebrating on this blog.)  This is the day when a year’s worth of copyrights expire in many countries around the … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, online books, open access | 2 Comments

Some concepts and their catalogs

Posted on December 10, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

This is the second of a series of think-aloud posts on what I’m calling “concept-oriented catalogs”; catalogs that, as Lorcan Dempsey aptly describes them, go “beyond the bibliographic record”.  This post will present examples of concept-oriented catalogs, describe the concepts … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, discovery, libraries, metadata | Comments Off on Some concepts and their catalogs

Understanding concept-oriented catalogs

Posted on December 4, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’ve recently been thinking a fair bit about the future of library catalogs, particularly after reading Diane Hillmann’s review of the recent Library of Congress-commissioned Study of the North American MARC Records Marketplace.  Hillmann laments that the study tries to … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, discovery, libraries, metadata | 5 Comments

Respecting failure: Some thoughts, and a proposal

Posted on December 1, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Last month’s Digital Library Federation forum involved a number of interesting discussions, both at the conference site and online.  This forum, different from previous ones, centered around discussions of strategies for innovation in libraries.  It also involved discussions of the … Continue reading →

Posted in failure, libraries | 3 Comments