2009 ALA Annual Conference
ALCTS Continuing Resources Section College and Research Libraries Interest Group program

Adam Chandler: Towards OpenURL Quality Metrics

Chandler described a study conducted at Cornell University in 2008 to evaluate the quality of OpenURL metadata. He noted that in the 10 years since the launch of the OpenURL standard, he could find no evidence of a study establishing quality benchmarks. In 2008-09, the Cornell OpenURL resolver received more than 400,000 requests, and studies show that users now expect to find online full-text for journal articles. It is therefore very important for OpenURL resolvers to perform with a high degree of accuracy and reliability. Unfortunately, there are many possible points of failure in current OpenURL systems. OpenURL metadata problems are a major source of failure. Following methodology developed by Hughes (2004), the Cornell study identified key elements used by various content providers in their link to targets (e.g. title, author, date) and used regular expression matching and Perl scripts to normalize data and build a database to analyze the variety of formatting found in OpenURL metadata from various providers. Chandler has also created an online tool for running reports on this database. Data analysis continues, and Serials Solutions recently agreed to provide some data. See: http://openurlquality.blogspot.com/ for updates and additional findings.

Peter McCracken: KBART Update

McCracken provided an update on the progress of the KBART Working Group. Three main problems with OpenURL currently exist: bad data, bad formatting, and lack of knowledge among vendors/suppliers about the value and importance of OpenURL. The KBART Working Group includes members from link resolver/ERM system vendors, publishers, subscription agents and aggregators, and the main goal of the initiative is to improve the quality of data for everyone and thereby improve the performance of OpenURL resolvers. Improving access for patrons will be the measure of success; if a library has online full-text content from one or more sources, the OpenURL resolver should return accurate results for all sources based on a single search. Right now, the focus is on identifying points of failure and developing solutions. Deliverables include: establishing best practices for delivery, content, and structure of data. They are currently working on identifying 15 distinct fields for data, and EBSCO has supplied a sample file of data for testing. They plan to analyze this file to identify missing data and determine how to fill in any missing elements. They also plan to work on how to routinely collect and take appropriate action on error reports and other feedback from libraries that could help to improve data quality. In the near future, they hope to work on methods for facilitating direct communication between third party resolver providers and database vendors, so that libraries no longer have to take total responsibility for informing vendors about the content that they have purchased. They also plan to address issues associated with consortial packages and non-textual resources.

Regina Reynolds: Best Practices for Presentation of E-Serials

Focused primarily on the problems caused when e-journal publishers and/or aggregators utilize latest entry style treatment for serial title changes in their systems. Basic problem: people cite articles using the title that the serial has at the time they read it. If the title changes later, those old citations persist. If publishers/aggregators eliminate all references to earlier title(s) in their systems, it makes it very difficult for end-users to locate known articles based on older citations. She cited JSTOR as an example of a vendor that provides excellent access and linkages between titles.

EBSCO Academic luncheon

Discussed challenges EBSCO has faced due to the recession. They are cutting costs internally, but not content. Can’t afford to lower prices for customers. Discouraged libraries from canceling journal subscriptions based on full-text availability in EBSCO databases because this drives up the prices that EBSCO must pay to license the full-text content, and will ultimately mean that EBSCO has to raise prices for its full-text database products. Provided information on upcoming database releases, including a new Art & Architecture database intended to compete with Art Abstracts and full-text versions of America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts. Libraries that own some flavor of Academic Search will receive pricing that reflects only the new full-text content they are getting if they subscribe to the full-text versions of these new products. Provided a preview of the EBSCO Discovery Service. New databases and Discovery Service to be released before the end of 2009.

Look Before You Leap: Taking RDA for a Test Drive

Arrived around 2:15 because the EBSCO luncheon didn’t let out until about 1:30, and I had to get myself from the Chicago Hilton all the way down to McCormick West. Even with pretty direct CTA bus service, transit between the downtown hotels and the convention center in Chicago took a long time (and the CTA buses were much faster than the ALA shuttle buses). I arrived in time to see most of Nannette Naught’s presentation, which demonstrated various aspects of the RDA Online toolkit product being developed by ALA Editions. I skipped out part way through the next speaker’s presentation, because it didn’t interest me much and spent some time cruising the conference exhibits. I stopped by the LibLime booth for a brief demo of Koha’s cataloging module. I returned to the RDA ses sion around 5:00 p.m., in the middle of a presentation about the plans for the national libraries RDA testing project. While I understand their concerns, this testing project seems too narrowly focused on the logistical aspects of implementing RDA, primarily in large library environments, with very little focus on actually assessing RDA itself and whether it is going to work any better than AACR2/MARC. I hope that somebody else is going to take a look at that aspect, since that’s the most important thing, as far as I’m concerned. I’d be willing to help out with such a project during my sabbatical if I could get hooked up with some similar-minded people.

Kyle and I treated Anya and Russ Arnold to dinner at Russian Tea Time to welcome Anya as the new Summit Program Manager at the Orbis Cascade Alliance.

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