BHL: Assigning DOIs & Other Identifiers to Legacy Literature

10.5962/BHL:title.2494710.5962/bhl.title.55495ASSIGNING/bhl.titl e . 3 5 1 8 210.5962/bhl.DOIs.16580&10.5962/bhl.title.OTHER/IDENTIFIERS.2069810.5962/bhl.title.TO10.5962/bhl.title.34905 1 0 . LEGACY . LITERATURE 1 0 . 5 9 6 2/ b h l . t i t l e . 1 7 4 9 7 Chris Freeland10.5962/bhl.title.3818210.5962/bhl.title.3 @chrisfreeland Technical Director, Biodiversity Heritage Library7 Director, Center for Biodiversity Informatics, Missouri Botanical Garden 8 0 5

About Biodiversity Heritage Library• International consortium of the world’s leading natural history libraries• Funded to digitize books & journals in the public domain @BioDivLibrary

Purpose of exercise • Make legacy scientific literature citable via modern systems – Make 250+ years of scholarly communications available via new tools • Assign contemporary identifiers to legacy literature – DOI – ISBN – ISSNFreeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

Identify the Identifiers • Digital Object Identifier (DOI) – Resolvable identifier for a digital object – Register through an agency: CrossRef is popular • Provides citation metrics, reference linking – Co$t • International Standard Book Number (ISBN) – US Agency for registration: Bowker – Co$t • International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) – US assignments: Library of Congress – FreeFreeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

DOI, ISBN, ISSN, ei, ei,…uh oh… • Ran into trouble with each agency – BHL isn’t a publisher – BHL is a consortium, not a separate legal entity – BHL doesn’t own all the content it serves – “We know we need a policy on that…” …and on…and on…for more than 3 years… CrossRefDOIs: path of least resistanceFreeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

Challenge: Title Matching for Uniqueness • Only want 1 DOI per intellectual, citable unit • Differences between cataloging & publishing – Libraries: <datafield tag="245" ind1="1" ind2="4"> <subfield code="a">The amoebae living in man;</subfield> <subfield code="b">a zoological monograph,</subfield> <subfield code="c">by Clifford Dobell.</subfield> </datafield> – Publishers: <title>The amoebae living in man; a zoological monograph</title>Freeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

Challenge: Monographs/Series/Monographic Series • “Report on the Rhynchota collected by the Wollaston Expedition in Dutch New Guinea” – Published in 1914 – Bound & catalogued as a monograph – Scanned as a monograph – Assigned a DOI as a monograph in BHL:http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.13791 • Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. 20, pt. 11. – Presented by current publisher of that title as an article – Assigned a DOI as a journal article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1912.tb07839x Guess who provides free access?Freeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

Challenge: Ownership of Backfiles • Who owns public domain works? – Some publishers consider they have ownership of backfiles for journals they currently publish • Long running series in natural history • Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, since 1787 • Those publishers assign DOIs to their current volumes • BHL assigns DOIs to the public domain works we’ve digitized Guess who is upset?Freeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

BHLDOIs inUse

Linked Data • CrossRefDOIs are available as Linked Data, announced April 2011: – http://www.crossref.org/CrossTech/2011/04/cont ent_negotiation_for_crossr.html • Awesome! :) • But I couldn’t get it to work :(Freeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

So I asked Twitter for help… • Any #lodlam #LOD ppl interested in taking a look at open #bhlib data? http://t.co/is1a2dUlFreeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

…and Twitter responded @cajunjoel • @chrisfreeland I poked at making this work, but my results were not encouraging. See the comment on your blog post for details. @asaletourneau: • @chrisfreeland Got this ht.ly/8zTuk using morph.talis.com after converting BibTEX to RDF using ht.ly/8zTxqFreeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

I also asked CrossRef support • Turns out it’s a bug! • CrossRef DOI API wasn’t returning results for ISBN-less books – And remember, we don’t have those because of the ugly problems • We identified & resolved a problem via Twitter! – Crowdsourcing #FTW! @cajunjoel – Talk about #lod bringing people together! @asaletourneau • And all because of this panelFreeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

And then a dash of reality @rdmpage • “…why bother with linked data? Obviously I know the stock answer, but the reality is that most "linked data" isnt linked.…CrossRef RDF for an article the only external link (eventually) is to http://periodicals.dataincubator.org/ via the ISSN. Author names have arbitrary, non- resolvable URIs. So effectively the data is a silo. Linked data, yes, RDF, yes, but still a silo.”Freeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

Takeaway • Assigning modern identifiers to legacy content is challenging – “We know we need a policy on that…” – Benefits are there, but may be slow to realize • Working with an agency like CrossRef has its advantages – Support – Tech advances: they flip a switch, instaLOD – Disadvantages: Co$t, may still need custom solutions for emerging technologies • Linked Data is conceptually promising, but fraught with uncertainty in production systemsFreeland. ALA Midwinter. 21 Jan 2012. @chrisfreeland #bhlib #alamw12

10.5962/bhl.title.2494710.5962/bhl.title.5549510.5962/bhl.title.35 1 8 2 1 0 . 5 9 6 2 / b h l.title .16580 THANK /b hl .title .2069810.5962/bhl.title.3377310.5962/bhl.title.3490510.5962/YOU.title.1749710.5962/bhl.title.3818210.5962/bhl.title.37 0 5 8 1 0 . 5 Chris Freeland i t l e @chrisfreeland0 962/bhl.t .29661 0 . 5 9Technical Director,h l . t iHeritageeLibrary 2 4 5 8 6 2 / b Biodiversity t l . 4 Director, Center for Biodiversity Informatics, Missouri Botanical Garden

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BHL: Assigning DOIs & Other Identifiers to Legacy Literature

by Chris Freeland on Jan 20, 2012

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