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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1p6yJfxdw-txQL1G13RjeUXL2IU5w2MHo1ENMiICHGZQ/edit?usp=sharing
Presentation to University of Colorado Boulder Libraries Faculty and Staff
October 12, 2017
Description
Brief presentation given to a general audience of CU Boulder librarians and staff at the outset of our project.
From Strings to Things: Transitioning from Authority Control to Identity Management at Stanford University Libraries
Poster Presented at the California Academic & Research Libraries 2018 Conference, April 13-15, 2018, Redwood City, California
Joanna Dyla, Head, Metadata Development Unit, Stanford University
Hilary Thorsen, Metadata Librarian for Humanities, Stanford University
Abstract
The cataloging community has arrived at a pivotal time of transition from traditional authority control to identity management. Originally, authority control relied on text strings to differentiate names and direct users to their authorized forms. However, with the rise of Linked Data, URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) can fulfill the role of entity differentiation aiding in needed disambiguation. The transition comes at a time when the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) was already looking for ways to make NACO (Name Authority Cooperative Program) more inclusive to institutions who wanted to contribute, but did not have the resources to meet the program’s rigorous requirements. To involve more organizations, the PCC and the ISNI International Agency decided to establish a PCC umbrella membership in ISNI to be available to PCC members as a part of its cooperative programs.
The PCC embarked on a yearlong pilot project with ISNI to experiment with ways to reduce the burden on member institutions as they include ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) creation in their metadata workflows and investigate use cases. Professional catalogers and non-catalogers in the Metadata Department at Stanford University Libraries have been participating in the project by creating ISNIs for persons in three categories not under authority control in our discovery environments--authors and advisors of electronic theses and creators of electronic games.
We surveyed participants shortly after the pilot began to gain a preliminary assessment of how effective the training materials were, how much time participants spent creating ISNIs, and their overall feedback about the process. Participants’ responses indicated that the available training materials were adequate for self-instruction regardless of cataloging experience, but enhancements to the web interface, tools, and overall database maintenance would be needed to increase efficiency of ISNI creation in comparison to NACO. Participants envisioned creating ISNIs in the future for digital collections with large batches of names and for names that do not qualify for NACO.
PDF of poster https://stanford.box.com/s/khvyjkt6xjj727v0ovjlc6mgnitrnhc6
PCC ISNI Pilot public wiki https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/PCCISNI/PCC+ISNI+Pilot+Home
ISNI website http://www.isni.org/
•ISNI search http://www.isni.org/search
Library of Congress
•Online catalog https://catalog.loc.gov/
•Authorities http://authorities.loc.gov/
WorldCat Identities search http://www.worldcat.org/identities/