BIBFRAME: steps towards implementation : MDGS Bites no. 8

MDGS (Metadata and Discovery Group in Scotland) is excited to invite to you our latest MDGS Bite seminar entitled: BIBFRAME: steps towards implementation

This is the eighth MDGS Bites and will be held online via Zoom on Friday 9th May 2025, from 2pm until 3pm (BST). The event is free of charge, but registration is essential.

Do you want to know how libraries are actually using BIBFRAME? This is your chance! We are most fortunate to have speakers from the University of Pennsylvania and the National Library of Finland telling us about their experiences with BIBFRAME to date.

Speakers from the University of Pennsylvania will describe Penn Libraries pilot of testing BIBFRAME resources in production systems. These tests involve integrating BIBFRAME within the Alma ILS by cataloguing in BIBFRAME using an RDF editor and exporting the results into Alma. They will cover the cataloguing training they have put in place, and ongoing work on procedures for exporting data to external systems such as OCLC, discovery platforms, and other linked data systems. The integration with external systems will be critical to realising the benefits of linked data library descriptions on the web. They will also discuss their collaboration with other institutions to share knowledge and best practices. This session will provide insights into methodologies for assessing the feasibility of BIBFRAME in production, and outline future steps to realise the benefits of linked data in library systems.

After this, we shall have a presentation from Matias Frosterus, from the National Library of Finland. The National Library of Finland has been preparing for an eventual switch to BIBFRAME by adapting the data model for the needs of Finnish cataloguing conventions and the nature of their existing data. The main motivation for the adaptation was to enable deeper integration with RDA, as Finland is adopting Official RDA in the spring of 2025. The main differences from regular BIBFRAME are the use of the full WEMI structure as well as support for RDA aggregates. However, great care was put into ensuring interoperability with regular BIBFRAME. The 1.0 version of the data model was released in January 2025 as the culmination of the development project. This presentation details their approach, challenges encountered, as well as lessons learned.

These two use cases will be preceded by a few comments from Alasdair MacDonald, from the University of Edinburgh, and Vice-Chair of MDGS. He is starting to explore the use and validity of BIBFRAME in his institution, and sees these presentations as a useful guide to influencing his thinking.

Speaker biographies:

Kaylin Blount (she/her) is the Metadata Project Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Her work supports multiple areas of technical services, focusing on batch workflows for metadata using a variety of technologies, catalog maintenance projects, linked data, and metadata for digital collections. Kaylin holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton University and a Master of Science in Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Eun Lee is the Head of Cataloging at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Working collaboratively across the Libraries, she has participated in numerous metadata projects, including developing strategies for linked data cataloging both internally and externally with ExLibris, Blue Core, and OCLC. Eun also currently serves as the co-chair of the Penn Cataloging Policy Working Group, which develops best practices and local cataloging policies at Penn. Before joining Penn, she was the Head of the OCLC CIP Unit. Eun holds a Master's in Library and Information Science from Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul, Korea.

Jim Hahn is the Head of Metadata Research at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries leading linked data and metadata projects and research for the Libraries. Working collaboratively across the Libraries, his work is developing a vision for the services, technologies and policies to enhance discovery of collections, following international standards and best practices for linked data and metadata. Jim holds an M.S. and C.A.S. in Library and Information Science from University of Illinois and is current PhD student in Information Sciences at the University of Illinois.

Matias Frosterus is an information systems manager at the National Library of Finland. His main interests lie in interoperability of metadata from many different angles. He has been working with linked data in library context for over ten years and his doctoral thesis dealt with utilizing linked data techniques for legacy data. For the past few years, he has been seriously getting to grips with BIBFRAME.

This online semnar is part of our series of occasional online (and free) seminars. We have a fascinating selection of topics with metadata at their heart, with speakers that we might not otherwise encounter. We are calling this series MDGS Bites. If you have any suggestions for future bites we'd love to hear from you!!

Event name: BIBFRAME: Steps towards implementation

Date: 9th May, 2025

Time: 2pm-3pm BST

Location: Online, via Zoom