Category Archives: libraries

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

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

Learn more about ILS discovery interfaces

Posted on June 10, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’m presenting today at a NISO webinar on interoperability, giving an overview of the work I did with a Digital Library Federation task group to produce recommendations for standard APIs for ILS’s supporting information discovery applications. I’ll include a link … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, discovery, libraries | Comments Off on Learn more about ILS discovery interfaces

Free Decimal Correspondence: Now with more detail and CC0 goodness

Posted on May 16, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’ve just released a new version of the Free Decimal Correspondence (FDC).  FDC is a set of associations between numbers and subject terms that can be used as the basis for linear shelving or subject browsing of a simple library … Continue reading →

Posted in libraries, metadata, open access, repositories, sharing | Comments Off on Free Decimal Correspondence: Now with more detail and CC0 goodness

Will OCLC move to a service-oriented business model for bibliographic data?

Posted on May 15, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

As you may recall, there’s been a fair bit of criticism (including some of my own) against OCLC’s proposed records use policy, which asserts OCLC’s rights over libraries’ cataloging in ways that would make it very difficult for libraries and … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, libraries, metadata, open access, sharing | 3 Comments

Recent copyright news and comment (an extended mix)

Posted on April 9, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I seem to have a certain degree of inertia over getting a blog post out, and there have been at least 4 interesting recent items related to copyright.  Since I haven’t managed to post about each individually, I’ll get over … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, libraries | 2 Comments

Gloriana St. Clair: A brief appreciation

Posted on March 24, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

The organizer of today’s Ada Lovelace Day, a day to celebrate women in technology, says that women need female role models they can emulate.  I’d add that men can use female role models as well.  There are at least two … Continue reading →

Posted in awards, libraries, people | Tagged | Comments Off on Gloriana St. Clair: A brief appreciation

The Google Books settlement: A symposium, and a call for library action

Posted on March 18, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Last Friday I went to a fascinating symposium at the Columbia Law School: “The Google Books Settlement: What Will it Mean for the Long Term?” The symposium included presentations by US copyright register Marybeth Peters, and antitrust expert Randal Picker … Continue reading →

Posted in libraries, metadata, online books, open access, reading, sharing | 2 Comments