Product analyst → she would define as user's advocate – meeting with users, learning about their needs and bring them back to the development team to make sure they are met.
OCLC linked data strategy
What they have been hearing from libraries during the past few years is that libraries are managing more diverse collections (not just traditional library collections described in MARC) which comes with the management of a more diverse set of identifiers
Need to have more robust systems to bridge across different platforms (ILS, CMS, DAMS...) – they hope OCLC Entities could be that link
Linked data is a means to an end. The end goal is to build rich workflows and improve discoverability across library systems and outside of the library
Main areas of focus
Expertise
Focused on growing the community around use – hoping to leverage the expertise of Meridian users to build up best practices
Anne is part of the PCC Identity Management Advisory Group (IMAC)
IMAC's current effort is to add entities from sources other than LoC to MARC records. PROJECT - Entity Management Cooperative (EMCO). This would be something like NACO but for entity management outside of LoC. They are trying to build up different community of practices across groups that are using different platforms for entity creation/management (e.g. ISNI, Wikidata, ORCID, OCLC Entities) to serve the needs of the PCC community.
Data
WorldCat Entities
Infrastructure
Rethinking WorldCat to support linked data workflows at scale
Tools
Meridian
Dewey linked data
WorldShare
API's for these different services allow for connections to other systems
There is a primer document defining classes and properties -WorldCat ontology
Existing entities can be updated to add new statements that are key for entity disambiguation
New entities can be created – URIs are minted on the fly once the new entity is saved
FAST is the preferred source for concepts
Data quality features
Use of quality scores (algorithm that takes into account aspects like level of completeness and linked information)
With Meridian you can change relationships between entities, or ask for merging duplicates (OCLC will review before merging)
Detection of potential duplicates
Data privacy features
Properties can be locked so that if someone requests to remove personal information from an entity, the specific property is also removed from use
Entities can also be completely removed upon request
Data trust features
Allows to add references for statements
Has a creation/editing history with user information for each change
user roles in Meridian are not yet defined – Users can edit any entity they want – looking forward to get community of practices that would recommend appropriate workflows
Integration with other OCLC products and services
RecordManager (they are planning to add this functionality to Connexion as well)
Adding existing URIs
Programatic – if the heading is controlled, add a URI if it exists in OCLC entities
Manually – insert WorldCat entity – add URI
Creating new entities
You can create a WorldCat entities right within the workflow in RecordManager – It creates a new WorldCat entity with minimal data without having to leave RM. The entity can be further fleshed out on Meridian
Since the RecordManager workflow is using Meridian APIs to read and write, these functionalities can eventually be added to other products
Hanlin's question – can you track the data source or edit history? yes
If you are an OCLC library, you can request a key for worldcat entities API and programatically get this data
Adding .jsonld to the Worldcat entity URI allows to get the entity json directly on your browser
Meridian workflow
Questions/discussion topics sent to Anne in advance – Some of these has been addressed, but she will send an email with answers to those that have not come up, and she will also send the Ymal files:
General comparison of Meridian to Wikidata (since we are a community of practice somewhat invested in Wikidata)
Reusability/interoperability - Ideas/use cases for how the data can be used outside the library system?
Who has access to contribute to it? What do access restrictions look like?
Governance/expectations of community contributions of Meridian entities
Similar/different from OCLC community cataloging protocols and practices?
More about the advisory group that helped with modeling WorldCat entities in an ethical way- is this group something that will continue, or was it a one-off during the design phase?
Who decides how this works now and going forward?
What does development (roadmap?) & support for Meridian look like?
How is Meridian integrated with other traditional OCLC services/products and customer workflows?
Time permitting, how Meridian compares to Share-VDE’s J Cricquet editor
Melanie has also invited catalogers to answer the questions
HRC and UTSA will submit their own survey answers
Ex Libris updates:
Webinar Thursday, September 26, 2024 - Freeing Librarians with Linked Open Data: What’s Available, In-Progress, and the Future, Presented by a panel of librarians, Americas and EMEA, 10:00-1100am CST | Register
Webinar Wednesday, October 30. 2024 - Using Linked Open Data in Primo VE - Person Entity, 10:00-11:00am CST | Register
BIBFRAME Workshop in Europe 2024 takeaways: (save for next meeting when Ann M. can join)
ELUNA LOD Community of Practice Survey
Melanie
Review survey questions (local copy) and discuss responses with group
Looking ahead
all
shift meeting time block forward 11am-12:30pm for last 2 meetings of 2024? shift to 2:30-4pm time block in Spring 2025? (these look relatively open on typical attendee calendars)
October 23 - share takeaways from Sept ExLibris webinar and LD4 conference; review Person entity feature in UTL Primo & brainstorm questions for Ex Libris webinar on 10/30
December 4, 11, or 18 - retrospective review of 2024, brainstorm goals and ideas for 2025
Update's from Hanlin research later in December
Action items
Move October meeting to 2:30-4, and November-December meeting at 12/18 at 2:30-4 (Paloma)