23

7th Annual Meeting
19-20 September 2023
KBR Royal Library of Belgium
Brussels, Belgium
#eubfws2023

BIBFRAME Workshop in Europe 2023

The aim of the BIBFRAME Workshop in Europe is to be a forum for sharing knowledge about the practice of, production with, and planning of BIBFRAME implementation.
We bring together people working in the transition from MARC to Linked Data using the BIBFRAME model and related tools.

The workshop areas are strongly focused on the practical implementation of BIBFRAME, not a theoretical Linked Data / Semantic Web event.

Programme

Tuesday, September 19

 KBR Royal Library of Belgium

All times are in Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Conference

08:30 - 09:00
Coffee and registration
09:00 - 09:10
Welcome by the Organizer Group
  • Michele Casalini
    BFWE Organizer Group
     Video
09:10 - 09:25
Welcome by host library
  • Sophie Vandepontseele
    Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), Operational Director of Contemporary Collections
     Video
09:25 - 13:00
Community updates
Session
  • Convener

    Sally McCallum
09:25 - 10:10
Presentation
  • Sally McCallum
    Library of Congress (LoC), Chief of Network Development and Standards Office
    Library of Congress update
     Video

    Last year at the Workshop the Library of Congress was planning an ambitious project to take its BIBFRAME data input system and make it a component of its MARC ILS (Voyager), leaving most ILS functions essentially as they were. The MARC data in the ILS would be converted to BIBFRAME and loaded into the BIBFRAME system and the BIBFRAME data created in the BIBFRAME system would be converted to MARC and loaded to Voyager. With the decision to adopt a FOLIO ILS system we pivoted to enabling Folio, currently a MARC oriented system, deal with BIBFRAME. This presentation will outline the surprises, complexity, and eagerness of the Folio community to plunge into the linked data environment via BIBFRAME.

10:10 - 10:55
Presentation
  • Philip E. Schreur
    Stanford University, Deputy University Librarian
    Tom Cramer
    Stanford University, Associate University Librarian
    Jason Kovari
    Cornell University, Director of Cataloging and Metadata Services
    Simeon Warner
    Cornell University, Associate University Librarian
    Linked Data for Production Phase 4: Truly Shared Data in an Institutionally Neutral Data Pool
     Video

    In this presentation, we will discuss the trajectory of Linked Data for Production (LD4P) efforts with a focus on what we envision as the next steps. Thus far, we have focused significant effort on original cataloging workflows and tool development; however, we cannot move forward with BIBFRAME in a production environment without directly addressing the copy/cooperative cataloging workflow. Current cataloging practice entails copying data from shared pools into local environments, which has enabled local editing, data divergence and unending complexity when trying to aggregate data or perform large-scale enhancement operations. Meanwhile, many BIBFRAME proofs of concept are simply switching MARC for BIBFRAME and thus continuing the practice of copying data. To fulfill the promise of linked data, institutions must stop copying data and instead move to shared source data where groups of institutions consider their data of record to live in stores outside their sole control. We will discuss the vision for this model alongside the planning we have undertaken toward enabling this shift.

10:55 - 11:15
Coffee Break
11:15 - 12:00
Presentation
  • Jim Hahn
    University of Pennsylvania, Libraries Head of Metadata Research
    Tiziana Possemato
    @Cult, Founding partner & Director
    Anna Lionetti
    Casalini Libri, R&D Assistant
    Share-VDE and the Share Family - Advancements towards production
     Video

    This presentation will showcase the advancements in the cooperation that this library-driven initiative has been carrying on, including: an overview of Share-VDE and Share Family background; a focus on the progress of the working groups that inform the benefits that the common Share Family LOD Platform technology supports, to the advantage of the Share Family community and for interoperability opportunities with third parties including ILS/LSP organizations and linked data networks; the demo of JCricket, the tool for entity management and a dedicated editor for linked data editing enabling entity sharing.

12:00 - 12:30
Presentation
  • Nancy Lorimer
    Stanford University, Associate Director of Metadata Services
    Ian Bigelow
    University of Alberta, Head of Cataloguing Strategies
    BIBFRAME Interoperability Group (BIG) Update
     Video

    The international BIBFRAME Interoperability Group (BIG), initiated by the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) in June 2022, has been meeting for almost one year. Since the introductory presentation given at last year's BIBFRAME Workshop in Europe, BIG has reviewed the output of the Strawperson Working Group, conducted a BIBFRAME implementation survey and analyzed the results, helped organize the 2022 Linked Data Summit held at the Library of Congress in November 2022 and developed a work plan in response to the recommendations from the Summit. This work plan includes defining a standard BIBFRAME "shape" necessary for data exchange utilizing PCC data and standards as a starting point, creating recommendations that are readable by technical staff and librarians (preferably only necessitating updates to be made in one place), codifying the interoperability scope, documenting best practices for technical aspects of BIBFRAME interchange as identified through the work of the group and sharing with consultants for testing and validation of assumptions. This presentation will go over the work plan, take stock of the work that has been accomplished so far (including the formation of subgroups to work on specific tasks) and the next steps that BIG is planning to take.

12:30 - 13:00
Presentation
  • Andreas Andersson
    National Library of Sweden, Metadata Specialist
    Clustering, extracting and linking bibliographical work entities
     Video

    When the National Library of Sweden five years ago converted its union catalogue from MARC21 to a linked data format based on BIBFRAME, a practical compromise was made where "works" were defined as anonymous entities within each instance. The structural change to formally separate and link work entities to instances was a step that we were ready to take earlier this year. The project, internally known as "work extraction", was carried out by grouping resources sharing titles and similar properties, followed by a cluster analysis to identify instances seemingly belonging to the same work. Remodelling was then implemented on a subset of the catalogue ("fictional literature in Swedish"). Some of the challenges that were encountered included how to relate existing data model concepts to BIBFRAME Work/Hub and LRM Work/Expression respectively; how to create, or recreate, functional MARC records based on two stand-alone BIBFRAME entities; and how to approach possible effects on cataloguing conventions.

13:00 - 14:00
Lunch
Delegates are free to make their own lunch arrangements
14:00 - 17:00
From theory to practice
Session
  • Convener

    Nancy Lorimer
14:00 - 14:30
Presentation
  • Richard Wallis
    Independant Consultant
    From Ambition to Go Live: The National Library Board of Singapore's journey to an operational Linked Data Management & Discovery System
     Video

    Like many institutions, the National Library Board (NLB) curates, hosts, and manages many disparate systems across the National Library, National Archives and Public Libraries, both print and digital. The NLB team evolved an ambitious vision for a Management and Discovery System built upon Linked Open Data and the Web, encompassing the many resources they manage. Richard, the project's Linked, Structured, & Web data, and Library metadata consultant, explores the two-year journey to a live production system. The agile project between NLB and commercial partners (utilising a cloud-based environment hosting a semantic graph database, a knowledge graph development & management platform, and server-less compute services) overcame many interesting challenges. These included:

    - No single source of truth. Providing continuously updated, reconciled and aggregation of data sources. Delivering a standardised view of five source environments; with individual data formats, data models, web presence and curation teams
    - A Data Model supporting a public discovery interface providing a consistent view of all entities regardless of the source system. Constructed using a core combination of Bibframe and Schema.org vocabularies

    - Automatic ingest and reconciliation of daily delta data dumps from source systems in Marc, CSV, and Dublin Core. Utilising Open Source Bibframe and Schema tools

    There were lessons learnt learned and practical future plans made, which Richard will also discuss.

14:30 - 15:00
Presentation
  • Myung-Ja (MJ) K. Han
    University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign Library, Metadata Librarian
    Tricia Lampron
    University of California Irvine, Cataloging and Metadata Librarian
    Greta Heng
    San Diego State University, Cataloging & Metadata Strategies Librarian
    Considerations of designing a user friendly BIBFRAME editor: Challenges and future of information organization professionals
     Video

    With the growing recognition of the advantages offered by Linked Data within the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) community, libraries have made a lot of effort to provide strong support for cataloging and metadata librarians in the transition to Linked Data, which has lead to the development of BIBFRAME editors. While the currently available BIBFRAME editors facilitate Linked Data-based input templates and output formats, utilizing these tools requires extensive training on ontologies, systems, data models, and more. his presentation discusses the comparison of two notable Linked Data editors that create BIBFRAME data, based on their supported features and informal feedback from catalogers from their experiences using these editors. It will then discuss what should be considered when designing user-friendly and ontology-agnostic 'Linked Data' editors that support BIBFRAME as one of its output formats. Finally, the presentation will discuss the possible implications of simple and easy-to-use BIBFRAME (Linked Data) editors on the role and qualifications of information organization professionals.

15:00 - 15:15
Lightening Talk
  • Mihwa Lee
    Kongju National University, Faculty Member
    A Method of BIBFRAME's Acceptance of Manifestation Statement of LRM
     Video

    Summary
    Library Reference Model (LRM) replacing FRBR is a new conceptual model for constructing linked data in library community. BIBFRAME as encoding format should be revised in order to reflect LRM. This research is to propose the BIBFRAME’s application profile, practically mapping, to reflect manifestation statement of LRM's attributes

    LRM
    IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM) replacing FR family is a new conceptual model for linked data. A manifestation statement are newly developed as LRM properties. Manifestation statement is a statement appearing in exemplars of the manifestation and deemed to be significant for users to understand how the resource represents itself. For example, the manifestation statement attribute may include transcribed elements such as: publication statement (as a whole), or alternatively, place of publication statement + publisher name statement + date of publication statement (as three individual statements) (Riva, Boeuf, & Žumer, 2017, 49).

    RDA 2020
    Manifestation statements supports the user tasks identify and find to carry information that describes the manifestation itself and to follow the principle of representation. RDA 2020 developed attributes for it.

    MARC21
    MARC 21 has developed new tags for LRM according to MARC21 discussion paper. 881 tag is for manifestation statement, but not yet decided. Following is 881 tag example for the manifestation statement that is based on Library of Congress (2021).

    Mapping BIBFRAME to RDA
    Manifestation statement of LRM are mapping to BIBFRAME, but some RDA attributes couldn't be mapped to BIBFRAME. Therefore, BIBFRAME should develop additional properties and classes to reflect entities, properties, and relations of LRM/RDA

15:15 - 15:45
Presentation
  • Paloma Graciani Picardo
    Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, Metadata Librarian and Head of Printed and Published Media
    Mara Caelin
    Beinecke Library Yale University, Catalog/Metadata Librarian
    ​Christine DeZelar-Tiedman
    University of Minnesota Libraries, Cataloging Policies and Practices Librarian
    Zoe Dobbs
    Beinecke Library, Yale University, Catalog/Metadata Librarian
    Brittney Washington
    University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center, Metadata and Cataloging Librarian for Special Formats
    A community developed BIBFRAME profile for the description of Rare Materials
     Video

    In line with the LD4 Community strategic goal of "Developing Common Frameworks for Sharing Information", the LD4 Rare Materials Affinity Group (RMAG) is currently working on a set of templates for the description of Rare Materials in the RDF editor Sinopia. The RMAG BIBFRAME templates incorporate elements from the Art and Rare Materials ontology, a BIBFRAME ontology extension developed during the Linked Data for Production (LD4P) set of grants. By engaging in template development, the group aims to explore modeling approaches, identify guidance needed from the standards-setting organizations and facilitate a set of templates that can be used for further testing by the rare materials community. The group expects to have a set of proof of concept templates by July 2023. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce the RMAG templates to the BIBFRAME community, ask for feedback, and kick off a conversation regarding the sustainability and practical usability of ontology extensions within current BIBFRAME interoperability and data flow initiatives.

15:45 - 16:05
Coffee Break
16:05 - 16:35
Presentation
  • Judith Cannan
    Library of Congress (LoC), Chief of Policy, Training and Cooperative Programs Division
    Linked Data for Catalogers
     Video

    The presentation will focus on two reasons catalogers should embrace linked data and encourage management to adopt it. First, linked data definitely improves the discovery layer and allows for multiple connections. It may seem unimportant to librarians but it is critically important to the user searching the data base. Second, ALA has announced May 2027 as the date for the removal of the Original RDA Toolkit. The Official RDA Toolkit is based on RDF (resource description framework) data structure and leans strongly toward linked data. The standard is very flexible with multiple options and works well in a linked data environment and less well in MARC. If linked data is ignored, catalogers around the globe in libraries that embrace Official RDA will be forced to adapt the standard to work in a non-RDF environment, MARC.

16:35 - 16:55
Presentation
  • Serafia Kari
    National Library of Finland, Information Specialist
    Usability study of Share-VDE
     Video

    The Share-VDE platform is a search portal that allows users to find different linked entities, such as Agents, Original works, Publications and Items. Share-VDE uses BIBFRAME-metadata model, and its original data is provided by participating institutions. The development of the search-platform has had a focus on the user-perspective. An usability study was performed to get insight on how well users understand the platforms search-logic and the relationships between Share-VDE entities. For the test a target user group of 5 people were selected. The user group had previous knowledge on linked data, which helped to provide interesting insights from the test-sessions. Users got different tasks that they needed to solve for the test-sessions. During these tasks, users were asked to "think-aloud", to verbalize what the user is thinking as they are using the platform to search information. After each task, users were asked to choose how they were feeling from a feedback form. The feelings in the form were inspired after Kulthau’s information seeking model. The results of the usability study suggest that some users might struggle interpretating the relationships between entities even when they have good background knowledge of the BIBFRAME-model. The users also gave insight for the intuitiveness of the basic search versus advanced search. Also, number of usability issues found seemed to relate to problems with clustering, particularly with subject-headings.

16:55 - 17:00
Closing of day 1
17:00 - 18:00
Optional visit to KBR

Wednesday, September 20

 KBR Royal Library of Belgium

All times are in Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Conference

08:30 - 09:00
Coffee and registration
09:00 - 10:00
Interoperability / Convertibility
Panel
  • Sally McCallum
    Library of Congress (LoC), Chief of Network Development and Standards Office
    Kevin Ford
    Library of Congress (LoC), Librarian, Linked Data Specialist
    Nancy Lorimer
    Stanford University, Associate Director of Metadata Services
    Jodi Williamschen
    Library of Congress (LoC), Technical Metadata Specialist
    MARC to BIBFRAME both ways and the developer's viewpoint
     Video

    This panel will focus on converting between MARC and BIBFRAME including the developer's perspective.
    This has been an important consideration from the very beginning of BIBFRAME system development because many in the community will not be into linked data with RDF and BIBFRAME for an extended period, if ever. Initially, the supposition (or hope) was that it would only be necessary to go from MARC to BF and not back and forth, but implementation work has shown that is not the case. A real effort was made in the attempt to insert BIBFRAME record update and creation into the MARC systems in use. It appears that reasonably flexible movement between MARC and BIBFRAME is required.
    This panel will address the following questions that the community struggles with during BIBFRAME implementations:

    • Does that mean we are stuck in data configurations that date from the 1960/70s environment when MARC was invented?

      - Is there a difference between conceptual analysis of bibliographic data and data exchange requirements?
      - As we enhance BIBFRAME for linked data do we need to change MARC also, and vice versa?
      - How do we gradually ease MARC into better alignment with BIBFRAME, i.e., are there MARC data input policies or changes that would yield improved convertibility going forward?
      - What are some of the sticky problem areas, e.g., like MARC/007, punctuation, parsing?
      - How much of MARC is really implemented and used, by what types of libraries
      - How much parity is needed between MARC and BIBFRAME data elements?
      - Does BIBFRAME need to accommodate data elements tacked onto MARC for convenience but not really bibliographic description, e.g., acquisition data?
      - If there are differences between MARC and BIBFRAME, how do we assure catalogers understand and agree on differences?

    • What is the point of view of MARC developers, concerning the conversion between MARC and BIBFRAME

10:00 - 13:00
BIBFRAME implementation planning
Session
  • Convener

    Hannes Lowagie
    Convener

    Bjørge Vestli
10:00 - 10:30
Presentation
  • Matias Frosterus
    National Library of Finland, Information Systems Manager
    Adapting the BIBFRAME data model to our needs: challenges encountered and lessons learned
     Video

    In 2022 the National Library of Finland began a project preparing the adoption of BIBFRAME for our cataloguing. In practice this means the adaption of BIBFRAME to the needs of our data and our national cataloguing conventions. We are also adopting the Official RDA and fitting BIBFRAME to it has been the most interesting part of the project so far. But aside from such deep mapping considerations we've also had to make decisions about the conversion of our existing records and what type of conversion loss we can live with as well as what type of identifiers to use. For the latter, we are planning to make use of the new URN:META namespace that's intended for data models. In this presentation we plan to share our experiences and lessons learned while adapting BIBFRAME to our needs and our suggestions on how to make the process easier for others. We will also present a checklist of things that need to be considered and decided when making the decision to adopt BIBFRAME for bibliographic records.

10:30 - 11:00
Presentation
  • Ian Bigelow
    University of Alberta Libraries, Head of Cataloguing Strategies
    Abigail Sparling
    University of Alberta Library, Serials Metadata Librarian
    UAL LSP Migration Planning: BIBFRAME Needs and Requirements
     Video

    In January 2022 the University of Alberta Library (UAL) launched a Linked Data Implementation Plan (LDIP). LDIP is a living document, with numerous risks and dependencies that require course corrections as we progress. The 2023 launch of a new project to migrate our existing Sirsi Symphony ILS to a new LSP solution, offered a timely opportunity to review and update LDIP. As much as possible, UAL hopes that the pending LSP migration will provide the requisite infrastructure to achieve our Linked Data Implementation Plan, or minimally to find an LSP solution that will support our goals. With this in mind, LDIP needed to be updated to include project goals tied to the LSP migration plan, but we also needed to incorporate LDIP needs and requirements into the overall needs assessment and requirement building process for our LSP Request for Proposals, and related communications with vendors. This presentation will provide an update on the UAL LDIP as adjusted for our LSP migration project, and give a high level overview of linked data and BIBFRAME based requirements that are being incorporated into our migration planning. With the library community in a state of transition from MARC to BIBFRAME based data and systems we hope that sharing this information will be helpful to others considering similar transitions, or those interested in available support for BIBFRAME based systems.

11:00 - 11:30
Coffee Break
11:30 - 12:00
Presentation
  • Gloria Gonzalez
    EBSCO, Senior Product Manager for Linked Data and Innovation
    Data Unlocked: Empowering Libraries with Rich Connections and Insights in FOLIO
     Video

    EBSCO and the Library of Congress have joined forces in an exciting partnership to introduce BIBFRAME to FOLIO, revolutionizing the open-source library service platform. In this session, we will delve into the intricacies of this collaboration, presenting real-world examples that highlight the seamless integration of LC's renowned BIBFRAME editor, Marva, with the FOLIO platform. By harnessing the power of linked data in FOLIO, libraries will witness firsthand how they can establish rich connections among their diverse information resources, unlocking actionable insights. Attendees will understand how linked data in FOLIO can empower libraries to unlock actionable insights, enhance user experiences, and drive data-informed strategies. Together, we will explore practical design strategies for implementing linked data in FOLIO and review the roadmap for further development.

12:00 - 12:30
Presentation
  • Adina Marciano
    Ex Libris, Product Manager
    Xiaoli Li
    University of California Davis Library, Head of Content Support Services
    From MARC to BIBFRAME in a global ecosystem
     Video

    By bringing Linked Open Data into the library, you're joining a metadata ecosystem of global discoverability and comprehensive interoperability. Cataloging is far more accurate and much less manual, while search results are relevant, reliable, informative, and fast. We want to share with you how this vision is becoming a reality in Ex Libris products Alma and Primo and how we plan to cope with the expected challenges.

12:30 - 13:00
Presentation
  • Jeff Mixter
    OCLC, Senior Product Manager Metadata and Digital Services
    Meeting users where they are today: easing the burden of migrating to linked data
     Video

    As libraries migrate to BIBFRAME, the necessity of MARC and MARC-centric workflows will persist. To ease the burden of transition and realize the inherent benefits of linked data (primarily the use of URIs to support authority workflows), we need to meet catalogers where they are today: in MARC. Additionally, as the use of URIs become more standard practice across the library domain, the process of creating and curating authoritative URIs for People, Organizations, Places, and Events needs to scale and the overhead needs to be lowered to ensure equitable access to identifiers for metadata management and data reuse. In this presentation, we will talk about the work OCLC is doing to merge the authority cataloging workflow and bibliographic cataloging workflow; provide services and APIs to meet users where they are today; and ease the burden in transitioning from MARC to non-MARC standards.

13:00 - 14:00
Lunch
Delegates are free to make their own lunch arrangements
14:00 - 14:30
Presentation
  • Sebastian Hammer
    Index Data, President
    FOLIO Meets Collaborative Entity Management
     Video

    FOLIO is an open-source Library Service Platform (LSP) with an internal metadata model designed to be format neutral and support many different local or shared bibliographic description models. This integration case study involves the Share Virtual Discovery Environment (Share-VDE), a suite of tools and services developed and driven by libraries, for libraries, in an international collaborative, consortial effort, enabling the discovery and management of knowledge as linked open data. Building integration points between FOLIO and Share-VDE opens several exciting opportunities. First, it creates an environment in which Share-VDE and FOLIO community members can make use of linked data workflows in the context of everyday workflows within the LSP. Second, we hope it will be a practical tool for libraries to use alongside other metadata mechanisms to meet descriptive needs. Finally, we would like to use the combination of FOLIO and Share-VDE to experiment with collaborative metadata management within consortial and other contexts. We look forward to sharing ideas, designs, and running code in our presentation. We believe that the real opportunity here is to create an incubator for entirely new ideas for how a working, practical BIBFRAME ecosystem can support and benefit from integrations and workflow support within an LSP. Moving from flat MARC records to living linked data creates numerous opportunities and challenges prior assumptions about data flows. We hope that a meeting of the communities behind FOLIO and Share-VDE will lead to mutual inspiration and innovation.

14:30 - 16:30
Community reports
Session
  • Convener

    Matias Frosterus
14:30 - 14:45
Presentation
  • Maurits van der Graaf
    Pleiade Management en Consultancy, Consultant
    En route to Linked Data
     Video
14:45 - 15:15
Coffee Break
15:15 - 16:15
Exchanging experiences
Roundtable
  • Convener

    Matias Frosterus
    ​Kevin Ford
    Library of Congress (LoC), Librarian, Linked Data Specialist
    Fredrik Klingwall
    National Library of Sweden, Developer/Data curator
    Tiziana Possemato
    @Cult, Founding partner & Director
    Philip E. Schreur
    Stanford University, Deputy University Librarian
    What are the most interesting challenges the adoption of BIBFRAME is facing
     Video
16:15 - 16:30
Closing remarks and presentation of 2024 BFWE host
  • Michele Casalini
    BFWE Organizer Group
     Video

Proceedings

Listed in order of program schedule

Organizer Group

Harriet Aagaard, National Library of Sweden
Michele Casalini, Casalini Libri and Share-VDE (Spokesperson)
Matias Frosterus, National Library of Finland
Reinhold Heuvelmann, German National Library
Nancy Lorimer, Stanford University Libraries and LD4P
Hannes Lowagie, Royal Library of Belgium (2023 Host)
Sally H. McCallum, Library of Congress - NDMSO
Bjørge Vestli, National Library of Norway

Contacts

For further information please contact us at conference@bfwe.eu.