Category Archives: discovery

Trails and tours in library online environments

Posted on March 6, 2026 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Below is the text of the lightning talk I gave at Code4Lib 2026 earlier this week, on March 3. The conference venue where I delivered it is located at 1 Dock Street in Old City Philadelphia. Links below go to … Continue reading →

Posted in censorship, citizen librarians, discovery, libraries, online books, people, preservation, teaching | Tagged | 2 Comments

How to help people find good reading on The Online Books Page (Some dos and don’ts)

Posted on February 13, 2026 by John Mark Ockerbloom

The catalog of free online books and serials at The Online Books Page continues to grow and improve every week. You can watch our new books listings, or subscribe to our RSS feed, to see what books we’ve newly cataloged … Continue reading →

Posted in citizen librarians, discovery, metadata, online books, open access, people, privacy, reading, sharing | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Meet the people behind the books

Posted on August 19, 2025 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Today I’m introducing new pages for people and other authors on The Online Books Page. The new pages combine and augment information that’s been on author listings and subject pages. They let readers see in one place books both about … Continue reading →

Posted in data, discovery, libraries, metadata, online books, wikipedia | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

From our subjects to yours (and vice versa)

Posted on December 3, 2020 by John Mark Ockerbloom

(TL;DR: I’m starting to implement services and publish data to support searching across library collections that use customized subject headings, such as the increasingly-adopted substitutes for LCSH terms like “Illegal aliens”. Read on for what I’m doing, why, and where … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, metadata, subjects, wikipedia | Comments Off on From our subjects to yours (and vice versa)

The worth of the work

Posted on September 20, 2019 by John Mark Ockerbloom

A number of research libraries, including the one where I work, are increasingly interested in catalogs built on linked data rather than on MARC records. Linked data work has been going on for years, in the hopes of reaping benefits … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, libraries, metadata, online books | Comments Off on The worth of the work

Forward to Libraries update, and some thoughts on sustainability and scale

Posted on October 3, 2016 by John Mark Ockerbloom

It’s been a while since I posted about Forward to Libraries, but if you’ve been following my Github repo, you may have noticed that it’s had a steady stream of updates and growth.  If making connections across library collections or … Continue reading →

Posted in data, discovery, libraries, metadata, wikipedia | Comments Off on Forward to Libraries update, and some thoughts on sustainability and scale

The value of catalogs in the linked data era: Two recent talks

Posted on September 12, 2016 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’ve recently uploaded two talks I gave this year to my Selected Works site.  I presented “How Not to Waste Catalogers’ Time: Making the most of subject headings” at the Code4lib 16 conference in Philadelphia in March.  “How to Read … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, metadata, open access, sharing, subjects | Comments Off on The value of catalogs in the linked data era: Two recent talks

Sharing journals freely online

Posted on May 25, 2016 by John Mark Ockerbloom

What are all the research journals that anyone can read freely online?  The answer is harder to determine than you might think.  Most research library catalogs can be searched for online serials (here’s what Penn Libraries gives access to, for … Continue reading →

Posted in citizen librarians, copyright, discovery, libraries, open access, serials, sharing | 2 Comments

Some presentations on reading (and linking) libraries

Posted on October 4, 2013 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Have you ever wanted to read a library?  I know I have.  More than once when I was young, and introduced to a new library, I’d contemplate, if just for a moment, whether I could read every book in it.  … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, libraries, metadata, reading | Comments Off on Some presentations on reading (and linking) libraries

50,000 online book and serial catalog records released as CC0

Posted on August 23, 2013 by John Mark Ockerbloom

What a difference a few years can make.  A few years ago, folks in the library world (myself included) were arguing about whether it was a good idea to let other people copy and build on their catalog records.  Whether … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, data, discovery, metadata, online books, open access, sharing | 6 Comments