Solve for X(ML): Transforming metadata to transform data access

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Huck, John

• At the University of Alberta, a subscription to data resources from the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) presented a cataloguing problem for library staff and access difficulties for users: resources were published in digital and physical formats, but the digital access was difficult to catalogue, and some datasets were only available in physical format. As a result, there was no single place to discover what datasets the library had purchased, and accessing the data involved a different retrieval process for each format.

  This presentation describes a project undertaken by staff from three library units to develop a simplified access model for LDC resources, due to be launched in 2019. LDC metadata available from an actively updated OAI-PMH host provided the basis for a transformation workflow to generate MARC records with custom XSLT stylesheets. This allowed the team to think about user goals rather than cataloguing workflows, and imagine an access model where users would not need to know anything about data format. In the new access model, each MARC record includes a link to a retrieval request form. Library staff pick the best format for retrieval and deliver the data electronically to authorized users.

  This presentation was given at the North American DDI (NADDI) conference held at Statistics Canada in Ottawa, Canada, on April 25, 2019.

• Date created

  2019-04-20

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Linguistics
  • Library Access Models
  • Data
  • Metadata
  • Cataloguing
  • Library Services

• Type of Item

  Conference/Workshop Presentation

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-zd7y-9f91

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International