publishers and libraries: sharing metadata between communities

What I’ll be covering today:

The Author Names project and development of the OAQ platform

Why did we undertake the project?... some background

What problems are we trying to solve & what benefits do we hope to gain

… for libraries? … for publishers?

Who are the project partners?

What is OAQ and what features does it currently have?

What is planned for the future?

How can you participate?

Michelle Durocher [email protected]

Charleston Conference 11/9/2013

Author Names Project ~ background & goals:

Innovation project conducted through the Harvard Library Lab through the generous support of the Arcadia Fund

Conceived as a WIN-WIN for both publishers and libraries

Leverages technology to create convenience for authors and automate how publishers and libraries work with author data

Share author data in support of earlier creation of rich discovery

metadata, first about authors themselves but also their works

Form publisher/library partnerships that serve as a foundation

for other mutually beneficial initiatives



Where library Metadata Creation departments have come from:

Enormous cataloging backlogs were common and expected within large research libraries

… still true in the very recent past. User expectations for timely discovery and access were not the central drivers they are today. Library cataloging has been a largely manual process

… one title at a time.



To meet the challenge of scaling metadata creation, we currently…

Never rekey data if we can cut & paste, preferably with a macro

Now, as information sources used by catalogers are increasingly electronic and available to be shared in a networked environment…

We want never to cut & paste if we can

establish a reliable data feed



What library issues are we trying to address?

Backlogs are no longer viable strategies to gain time for processing Shorten “time to shelf” for new titles

Transform information into data so that expertise outside the library can contribute to rich discovery metadata Collaborate beyond the library to identify and connect authoritative metadata sources with discovery tools



What publisher issues are we trying to address?

Creating & sending an Author Questionnaire (AQ) is a low-tech process at many publishers. Emailing Word docs or PDFs is common.

The AQ process could be made more convenient for Authors.

Unstructured AQ submissions can be unwieldy to work with, cutting & pasting into other formats to serve the business purposes that publishers have, e.g. marketing plans.

Rich discovery metadata could be created with author information already being gathered by publishers but currently not leveraged



You may ask… what IS an Author Questionnaire?

A form sent by publishers to their authors to obtain essential information about the author & their works

Common business practice across publishers of all sizes and types

Sent to an author well before a title is published

Used for core publisher activities, such as effective design, promotion and distribution of new titles



What is OAQ?

OAQ is an open source, web-based tool for publishers that is easy to use, flexible, brandable and supports publisher workflows to:

Create & distribute online questionnaires securely to authors

Package author data in custom formats that meets publisher internal business needs

Enable creation of robust discovery metadata about authors & their works much earlier in the publication process



What questions do Publishers ask their Authors?

variant name forms

list of author’s prior works

educational background

geographic affiliations

professional associations

biographical information



Why libraries would benefit from AQ data?

No rekeying information from book covers if a data stream is

established from publishers

No guessing about differentiating authors with similar names when

author-supplied data can establish author identities with certainty

Data is available well in advance of publication

Richer data than libraries could ever sustainably gather on their own

Reliable information comes from authors & their publishers directly



Features of OAQ that benefit Publishers: Secure publisher & author accounts with dedicated space in the tool that is not seen by other participating publishers Publishers assign user roles to their staff as their needs dictate Interface similar to Word Processing for creating publisher-specific questionnaires with branding (publisher logo, font, colors) Simple sign-on for Authors completing publisher questionnaires Upload files, such as author photos and CVs Email notifications to authors & publishers’ staff triggered by specific processes Customized outputs in multiple formats with selected data elements to create function-specific reports, such as marketing reports, in addition to seeing answers to all questions Exportable data for flexible uses, e.g. ingest into other systems

Michelle Durocher

[email protected] Charleston Conference 11/9/2013


DEMO SCREEN SHOT 1: showing menu bar layout & basic navigation



DEMO SCREEN SHOT 2: showing interface to create questionnaire elements



DEMO SCREEN SHOT 3: showing sample scrolling questionnaire w/ section breaks and logo

OAQ development partners with Harvard Library:

Tupelo Press, a small literary press

Harvard University Press

a PCC-contributing librarian from MIT Libraries

Additional advisors have included:

ORCID board member

MIT Press staff member



Opportunities for interoperability & collaboration :



In-process developments:

Integration via APIs of taxonomies, publisher schemas, and

identity registries, such as ORCID

More branding capabilities

Online Help & Documentation

Library-side outputs to automatically generate discovery

metadata (Name Authority Records for authors)

Outreach to additional partners for testing phase…

like you!



Thank You!

Questions?

publishers and libraries: sharing metadata between communities

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