Category Archives: subjects

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 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

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

From Wikipedia to our libraries

Posted on March 4, 2013 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’ve heard the lament in more than one library discussion over the years.  “People aren’t coming to our library like they should,” librarians have told me.  “We’ve got a rich collection, and we’ve expended lots of resources on an online … Continue reading →

Posted in citizen librarians, discovery, libraries, online books, subjects | 24 Comments

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

Keeping subjects up to date with open data

Posted on July 31, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

In an earlier post, I discussed how I was using the open data from the Library of Congress’ Authorities and Vocabularies service to enhance subject browsing on The Online Books Page.  More recently, I’ve used the same data to make … Continue reading →

Posted in data, discovery, online books, open access, sharing, subjects | 4 Comments

Making discovery smarter with open data

Posted on May 6, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’ve just made a significant data enhancement to subject browsing on The Online Books Page.  It improves the concept-oriented browsing of my catalog of online books via subject maps, where users explore a subject along multiple dimensions from a starting … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, discovery, online books, open access, sharing, subjects | 3 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

Subjects are more than just facets (and an ALA talk plug)

Posted on January 10, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

The Library of Congress’ Working Group for the Future of Bibliographic Control announced its final report today. I haven’t yet read over the final version, but I read an earlier draft, and was particularly interested in what it had to … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, libraries, subjects | Comments Off on Subjects are more than just facets (and an ALA talk plug)