Article Summary #8: Getting Started with Linked Data, a LS 566 Post

Roy Tennant in Getting Started With Linked Data explains that the change caused by linked data for libraries and librarians will go unnoticed because these changes are swept up into the automated systems being used. He goes further to say that the basics of linked data are rather simple; the relationship between terms, or the information of those terms have to be encoded. He gives the example of a 'triple' using 'William Shakespeare -> is the author of -> Hamlet'. Each part is given a URL that links to machine description for it, also leading to other data stores. OCLC has worked with this concept in WorldCat to establish 'machine-understandable relationships'. It opens new doors on how the information is used and creating more exposure to web search engines. Tennant states that the potential of linked data in libraries will require a lot of changes; changing from one form of records (MARC) to another (BIBFRAME), and increased of different types of data services.

Nothing in libraries stay the same except one thing - access to resources. Linked data is just the newest step in providing people access to the resources that are available beyond the library's physical walls. I've used WorldCat quite a bit trying to find what is out there, and seeing it being used to develop new services is mind boggling. Another aspect of libraries that often goes unnoticed by people in general.

Article Summary #7: How Local Librarians Can Impact the Digital Asset Management Industry, A LS566 Post

Image from Article

Anthony Myers in How Local Librarians Can Impact the Digital Asset Management Industry explains that digital repositories are a type of library because of the way digital assets are stored and how they should be organized. David Diamond, director of global marketing at Picturepark, believes that librarians should reach out to DAM vendors to offer aid. The setup of a DAM system is very important because it can get very messy if not done properly. So having the solution of librarians in DAM setup makes since. Librarians work on organizing information so they would know how to organize the digital assets (proper terminology, definition, etc) to make accessing them possible.

This connection makes a good deal of sense; as Diamond states, "DAM is a library if you think about it." Organizing is more, let's say, complex than just storing (think of all those 'how-to-organize' book in bookstores), besides what would the point be of having a digital asset if it was impossible to find. It's a connection that not a lot of people would make, but it's a connection that makes a lot of sense.

Random Musings for LS 566

Random thought process - GO!

How does one name the publisher of a digital-born object?

For a book it's easy - look at the title or title verso and it's usually listed there. But a digital-born object like a digital scanned photograph does not have a title or title verso page. Cue the 'hmmmmm' and thinking induced chin stroking. According the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, the publisher is "[a]n entity responsible for making the resource available."

I thinking..............

So how is a digital photograph made available? My first thought was it can't be the photographer because he made/took the picture so that person is more along the lines of creator. My next thought was, well who handles the upkeep of the digital photograph? Electronic things to not react well to benign neglect like many physical objects do.The entity that hosts the digital photograph is the one that makes it available for people to view. So we could  make a case that they are the publisher.

Does that make sense? I think it does.

Article Summary #6: Image Retrieval, a LS 566 Post

From the Article

Abebe Rorissa discusses in Image Retrieval: Benchmarking Visual Information Indexing and Retrieval Systems how, even in this electronic age, a picture is worth a thousand words. People shares images and videos online on many websites. Because of this popularity he poses the question: What is the current status of images and video indexing and retrieval? He covers three main issues: firstly, efforts have been made to automate the process but it is highly limited; secondly, there are a lot of images out there but little organization with it; thirdly, there are challenges in analyzing the images that come from various domains. Rorissa goes over two approaches to indexing and retrieval: concept-based and content-based. Concept-based relies on people to manually index while content-based is automated using color, texture or shape to organize. He stresses that a combination of the two should be adopted as the best approach in indexing and retrieval. He also touches on how for videos query-by-content is the preferred retrieval method. A lot of strives have been made but improvements have to be continuously made to make indexing and retrieval better.

This article was written ten years ago to the month. As I've mentioned before that is in dog years for anything electronic. But the points that Rorissa makes are still valid today. Improvements have been made since this publication and improvements are still continuously being made. I am guilty of what he mentioned, taking lots of pictures, dumping them on my computer, then taking more pictures without organizing them. My computer organizes my pictures by the date they were taken so it's not a complete mess. It will be interesting to see how this will develop in the future and maybe someday there will be a standardized method like Dewey for books, but for images and videos.