[open-bibliography] Library support and REST

Tue Oct 26 12:05:32 UTC 2010

My colleague Celine has summed up brilliantly the point of view of the 
average Librarian on this, some are potentially very interested in 
contributing to Open bibliography (besides the large chunks of data we've 
already spent a lot of effort creating) but still unsure as to what and how 
we can do, given the other constraints on our time. A few personal 
observations on why you may not get the response you want:

1) Some library workers will sadly be very suspicious of this effort, 
mainly because they see it as an encroachment upon their professional work. 
Would you ask a plumber to fix your pipes in his spare time? Would you even 
feel cheeky asking for his advice?

However many people get by very well doing their own plumbing. 

Given the advantages of presenting library data freely and outside of the 
catalogue interface this 'we know best' attitude is a real shame. The 
latest version of the Cambridge collective catalogue now has a crude 
tagging mechanism, importing data from LibraryThing. Even in its non-open 
imperfect form, the benefits it brings in extra access points and thus 
extra value are clearly a good thing. But some do not see this.

2) Librarians as a personality type are not generally known for being 
out-going and engaging folk. This is a horrible crass generalisation on my 
part, but may count for something here.

We exist in large beaurcaracies and have multiple competing voices to 
listen to, most often our direct employers. As I have said before here, we 
do not operate with the same freedoms as academics. (I'm currently on a 
fellowship programme so can actually put some time aside to even write this 
email).

Furthermore, it really is just a 9-5 day job for many people in the role, 
(especially those cataloguing, actually sometimes a hum-drum job imho) so 
out-of-work or even out-of-workflow interest will be more limited.

Many will not be able to see that by opening up some aspects of 
bibliographic work, they could perhaps find other more useful and helpful 
things to do with their time (and Peters' money). I would personally agree 
that there is something of a head-in-the-sand attitude at work here.

3) I'll echo Celines' point again, wider engagement from both sides between 
OKFN and libraries is needed on this issue, to highlight its importance and 
what is involved if we want to get our hands dirty. Rufus gave an excellent 
talk at the UL fairly recently on the benefits of open data. The recent 
video on Copyright Calculation is a great mechanism for this type of 
outreach.

It would be great to see an OKFN presence at one of the UK Mashed Libraries 
events:

http://www.mashedlibrary.com/

You will reach a very different type of Librarian there, and also have fun. 
Open mapping in particular has been very well covered in the past. 
Ultimately, however, if Librarians do not want to contribute, it is as has 
been siad not stricly required.

4) Many Librarians are slowly trying to chip away at their own instituions 
attitudes from within regarding this. In the interests of professionalism, 
they will be doing it quietly, internally and within the rules, mechanisms 
and command structure of their institution.

If it works, it will not happen as quickly or as effectively as you would 
like. James Weinheimer's description of the general attitude to change is 
spot-on.

There is still unquestionably a vast gulf between what we can offer and 
what you would like. For traditional academic libraries to move 
institutionally in the direction you want, a lot of effort and grit would 
be required.

5) Sadly, Librarians may not be the best people to even do this, or at 
least the more technical aspects. As a whole, the professions' skill-set 
has not generally kept apace with the networked environment. I've written 
more on it here (http://communities.cilip.org.uk/forums/t/11967.aspx). 
Selling even the idea of Linked Data is frankly a challenge. To perform the 
potential roles we could in supporting research, a different type of 
individual may be required.

Meanwhile, to bring it home, here is another freedom we are loosing:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/26/libraries-ebook-restrictions

So no real answers. 

Best

--
Edmund Chamberlain
Systems Development Librarian / Arcadia Fellow Michaelmas 2010
Electronic Services and Systems
Cambridge University Library
West Road,
Cambridge
CB3 9DR

tel: (+44) 01223 747437
fax: (+44) 01223 333160

email: emc59 at cam.ac.uk

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