This presentation was provided by Shana McDanold of The District of Columbia Public Library during the NISO event, Enabling Discovery, Part Two: Publishers and Libraries Talk Metadata & Monographs, held on January 16, 2019.

1. The Differences Problem
Or why consistency in metadata is critical in the discovery process
Shana L. McDanold

2. First A few caveats…
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3. Inthenotso
distantpast…
There were two main options when searching for ebooks:
1. Search each individual vendor’s website/database
2. Load MARC records (one record for each title) into the
catalog for each vendor
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4. Inthenotso
distantpast…
Problems with this approach:
 Loading records is a LOT of work and requires regular
maintenance
 Massaging/editing/enhancing metadata; loading;
updates; replacements; deletes
 Number of records/titles to load
 Lack of records available for loading
 Records come from numerous places and each vendor
requires a different procedure to download files
 Tracking titles in multiple places (duplicate work)
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5. Now:more
options…
1. Search each individual vendor’s website/database
2. Load MARC records (one record for each title) into the
catalog for each vendor
3. Integration of various vendors metadata into
discovery layers via APIs and linked data rather than
importing records into the catalog
4. Federated search tools that index multiple databases
(e.g. unified index search tools)
…but are more options better?
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6. Thegoodand
thebad
GOOD:
 fewer places to search (possibly even only one)
 most public libraries, while they have other ebook
databases, will have a single integrated discovery layer
BAD:
 MORE places to search
BUT discovery is still a challenge no matter which search
option you choose, and those challenges are centered
around:
METADATA
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7. Printbook
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8. Ebook
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9. Differences?
 ISBN
 Subjects
 Title
 Author
 Date
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10. Printbook
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11. Ebook
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12. Differences?
 ISBN
 Subjects
 Title
 Author
 Date
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13. Printbook
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14. Ebook
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15. Differences?
 ISBN
 Subjects
 Title
 Author
 Date
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16. Differences
defined
 Differences in description
 Current vs past rules and guidelines;
 RDA provider neutral vs individual vendor records
 Differences between vendors for same title
 Differences in how data is entered/presented
 Record proliferation
 Related to metadata differences: records cannot be
“collapsed” because the discovery layer doesn’t recognize
them as the same
 Different vocabularies and identity databases
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17. More
differences
 Missing metadata/missing records
 Data changes/updates
 Branding or custom text/collections
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18. Whydothese
differences
matter?
 How people search
 Keyword - forces dependency on keyword indexes
 Follow links - if you click on the subject search for
Obama, Michelle, search results include only print books
(no ebooks)
 Limits/facets - dependent on metadata, both visible
and invisible (coded)
 Missing metadata
 Discovery layer exposes ALL the metadata (good, bad,
missing)
All means items get “hidden” because they’re not
findable.
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19. How dowefix
it?
 CONSISTENCY
 use of controlled vocabularies and existing authority
databases (name matching, subjects, etc.)
 Use existing metadata sources
 Follow standards and recommended/best practices
 Communication
 Data points
 complete
 consistency across vendors
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20. Questions?
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