Brief overview of BIBFRAME, with a slight emphasis on intellectual freedom issues. Lightning round presentation by Angela Kroeger of the Criss Library at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, presented at the Joint Spring Meeting of the Nebraska Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Round Table and Technical Services Round Table, March 28, 2014. Full presenter notes/script and bibliography available upon request. Contact angelajkroeger [at] gmail [dot] com.

1. THE PROMISE OF
BIBFRAME
Angela Kroeger
Archives & Special Collections Associate
Criss Library, University of Nebraska at Omaha
IFRT/TSRT Spring Meeting
“Technical Services Facilitates Intellectual Freedom”
March 28, 2014

2. ALA Code of Ethics
Principle I
“We provide the highest level of service to all library users
through appropriate and usefully organized resources;
equitable service policies; equitable access; and accurate,
unbiased, and courteous responses to all requests.”
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics

3. What’s Wrong With MARC?
• Not used outside of libraries
• Not very interoperable with other metadata schema
• MARC encodes metadata in textual strings which do not
easily translate into a Linked Data environment
• Keeps library catalog data in a silo

4. What is BIBFRAME?
• Bibliographic Framework
• Work-in-progress by the Library of Congress
• Intended to eventually replace MARC
• Traditional bibliographic records will be replaced by
linkages among metadata pieces
• Machine-actionable relationships gather the pieces
together for coherent display

5. Why Linked Data?
• Traditional hyperlinks contain no machine-readable
information about the nature of the link
• Linked Data uses RDF data triples, so links have
semantic “meaning” that machines can understand and
act upon

6. BIBFRAME is all about

7. BIBFRAME Data Model Core Classes
• WORK – “conceptual essence of the cataloging item”
(abstract)
• INSTANCE – “individual, material embodiment of a Work”
(tangible)
• AUTHORITY – “authority concept which has a defined
relationship to a Work or Instance”
• ANNOTATION – “augments another main BIBFRAME
class when knowing who asserted the Annotation is vital
information”
Source: Kevin Ford, "BIBFRAME: Not Just Walking, But Running," Information Standards
Quarterly 25 no. 4 (Winter 2013),
http://www.niso.org/apps/group_public/download.php/11947/BIBFRAME_isqv25no4.pdf

8. Annotations Enhance Library Data
• Flexible way to add new information to bibliographic data,
including material from beyond libraries
• Established Annotation types include cover art, reviews,
and summaries
• Potential Annotation types include user-contributed
photographs

9. Being Where Our Users Are
"We are not far off from me being able to browse my
discography and see related books that are from the library."
--Eric Miller, November 2013
"It was so satisfying being able to add an additional property to
this and being able to use the existing tools and infrastructures
the library community has provided to allow me to connect
various different vinyl assets to the recording engineers they
care about. "
--Eric Miller, January 2014
Sources: "Bibliographic Framework Initiative (BIBFRAME) Update." Presentation by the Library of
Congress, January 26, 2014. http://www.loc.gov/bibframe/media/updateforum-jan26-2014.html
"Bibliographic Framework Initiative (BIBFRAME) Update." Presentation by the Library of
Congress, November 22, 2013. http://www.loc.gov/bibframe/media/updateforum-nov22-2013.html

10. BIBFRAME Authority and the “Lightweight
Abstraction Layer”
• BIBFRAME Authorities do not replace existing authorities,
but facilitates access to many authority types
• A BIBFRAME Authority may link to one or more existing
authorities, like LCSH or the Getty Thesaurus
• If no other authorities exist, the “lightweight abstraction
layer” itself provides the authoritative URI
Source: Kevin Ford and Ted Fons, eds., "On BIBFRAME Authority," discussion paper, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C., August 15, 2013, http://bibframe.org/documentation/bibframe-authority/

11. Faster, Easier Authority Creation
1. The cataloger has a book 100 Tips for Supporting
Campers with Autism
2. BIBFRAME Authority has two existing authority topics:
“Camps for children with mental disabilities” and
“Autism spectrum disorders”—an ill fit for the book in
hand
3. The cataloger creates a new URI for “Camps for
children with autism spectrum disorders”—a perfect fit
4. The Library of Congress is automatically notified of the
proposed topic refinement
Source: Miller, Eric, Victoria Mueller, Uche Ogbuji, Kathy MacDougall, and Zepheira, eds.
"BIBFRAME Use Cases and Requirements." Discussion paper, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C., August 21, 2013. http://bibframe.org/documentation/bibframe-usecases/

12. The Future of Bibliographic Control
Fontenelle Forest, Bellevue, Nebraska. Photograph © 2013 by Angela Kroeger

13. References
American Library Association. Code of Ethics of the American Library Association, last updated January 22,
2008. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics
Dean, Jason W. "Charles A. Cutter and Edward Tufte: Coming to a Library Near You, Via BIBFRAME." In the
Library with the Lead Pipe (blog). December 4, 2013.
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2013/charles-a-cutter-and-edward-tufte-coming-to-a-library-near-
you-via-bibframe/
Ford, Kevin. "BIBFRAME: Not Just Walking, But Running." Information Standards Quarterly 25 no. 4 (Winter
2013). http://www.niso.org/apps/group_public/download.php/11947/BIBFRAME_isqv25no4.pdf
Ford, Kevin, and Ted Fons, eds. "On BIBFRAME Authority." Discussion paper, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C., August 15, 2013. http://bibframe.org/documentation/bibframe-authority/
Wiggins, Beacher J.E., Sally Hart McCallum, Reinhold Heuvelmann, Jackie Shieh, and Eric Miller.
"Bibliographic Framework Initiative (BIBFRAME) Update." Presentation by the Library of Congress,
January 26, 2014. http://www.loc.gov/bibframe/media/updateforum-jan26-2014.html
Wiggins, Beacher J.E., Sally Hart McCallum, Vinod Chachra, and Eric Miller. "Bibliographic Framework
Initiative (BIBFRAME) Update." Presentation by the Library of Congress, November 22, 2013.
http://www.loc.gov/bibframe/media/updateforum-nov22-2013.html
Miller, Eric, Uche Ogbuji, Victoria Mueller, and Kathy MacDougall. Bibliographic Framework as a Web of
Data: Linked Data Model and Supporting Services (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 2012).
http://www.loc.gov/marc/transition/pdf/marcld-report-11-21-2012.pdf
Miller, Eric, Victoria Mueller, Uche Ogbuji, Kathy MacDougall, and Zepheira, eds. "BIBFRAME Use Cases
and Requirements." Discussion paper, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., August 21, 2013.
http://bibframe.org/documentation/bibframe-usecases/
Nimsakont, Emily Dust. "Beyond MARC: BIBFRAME and the Future of Bibliographic Data." NCompass Live.
Webinar presented by the Nebraska Library Commission, January 2, 2014.
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/scripts/calendar/eventshow.asp?ProgID=12856
United States Library of Congress & Zepheira. BIBFRAME.ORG Technical Site. Website for the Bibliographic
Framework Initiative project, accessed January 24, 2014. http://bibframe.org/

14. QUESTIONS OR
COMMENTS?
Angela Kroeger
akroeger@unomaha.edu