Category Archives: metadata

Going beyond 1922: Finding periodicals with (and without) renewed copyrights

Posted on June 16, 2014 by John Mark Ockerbloom

As mass digitization progresses, and as copyright terms grow longer, we now have access to much more literature from 1922 and the years before it than from the years that come soon after it.  This graph by Eric Crampton, based … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, libraries, metadata, preservation, serials | 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

Categorizing people without marginalizing them

Posted on April 29, 2013 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Libraries and bookstores have perennially faced the problem of how to organize books on their shelves.  There’s a tension between making certain books easy to find for readers with one set of interests, and making them more difficult to find … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, libraries, metadata, online books, people, subjects | 2 Comments

Open data’s role in transforming our bibliographic framework (Updated)

Posted on May 24, 2011 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’ve seen a fair bit of buzz of the Library of Congress’s recent announcement of a new initiative for transforming the bibliographic framework of the library community.  The announcement notes a number of recent developments that are drivers for such … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, metadata, open access, sharing | 7 Comments

A million books for Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

With the arrival of a new set of books from Hathi Trust onto our extended shelves, I’m happy to report that The Online Books Page now lists over 1 million books and serials that are free to read on the … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, metadata, online books | 1 Comment

Two talks on making the most of metadata

Posted on October 29, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Earlier this week, I participated in the Books Online workshop in Toronto. The workshop featured an update from James Crawford on Google Books, and papers on social reading and ebook interfaces, and the development of ebook services for various communities … Continue reading →

Posted in libraries, metadata, online books, subjects | Comments Off on Two talks on making the most of metadata

Book liberation with open data (or, how The Online Books Page just got much bigger)

Posted on October 18, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

As we begin Open Access Week, it’s worth noting the importance of open access not only to research articles, data, teaching materials, and the like, but also to books.  We are fortunate not only that millions of historic volumes are … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, discovery, metadata, online books, open access, subjects | 2 Comments

The concept of a work in the catalog web

Posted on September 17, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

My previous post showed four examples of web-based catalogs that describe books and other library resources in a FRBR-like manner. They’re oriented around “works” (like Shakespeare’s Hamlet) that are embodied in multiple editions (like the hundreds or thousands of publications … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, data, discovery, formats, metadata, online books, sharing | 1 Comment

“What do you read, my lord?” “Works, works, works”

Posted on September 8, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

There’s been a lot of talk lately in the library world about the coming age of FRBR-ized library catalogs (prompted in part by development of RDA, a cataloging standard that uses FRBR).  Exactly what such catalogs will look like, and … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, libraries, metadata, online books | 6 Comments