Open Publication Distribution System

Well, I'm back to the weblog again because an idea has taken hold of me. I recently became aware of Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) Catalog format, a syndication format for e-pubs based on Atom & HTTP. It is something like an RSS feed for e-books. People are using it to find and acquire books. It sounds like a natural fit for library digitization projects. An easy way for folks to know what's new and grab a copy if they like.

So is anyone using this? Is it built into Omeka, Greenstone, DSpace or any of our tools? If you do use it do you have separate feeds for different projects. Say, one for dissertations, another for the local history project and another for books by state authors. Or do you have just one large feed? Is it being used by the DPLA or Internet Archive? How's it working for you?

We have plenty of documents we have scanned as well as our own publications. Might this be a good way to make them more discoverable?

Trying Twitter

I've been doing this weblog for over ten years. It's getting a bit old. I'm going to try posting to <a href="https://twitter.com/Catalogablog">Twitter</a> and see if that revives my interest.

Cataloging Tool?

For years I've used MARC Magician to create bibliographic records. It is showing it's age, updates have been few since 2005 and most of the newer fields and codes are missing. I can establish them myself, but it seems to me that is work the company should do for all their customers. I get the feeling the company is not interested in the software and are just letting it age into obsolescence.

Is there an RDA ready tool out there? Something that has all the new MARC fields, shows examples and gives tips according to RDA? How about ITS BiblioFile? Anything else?

Thanks

Open Monograph Press 1.0

The Public Knowledge Project has announced the 1.0 release of Open Monograph Press.

The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) is very pleased to announce the 1.0 release of Open Monograph Press (OMP). OMP is an open source software platform for managing the editorial workflow required to see monographs, edited volumes, and scholarly editions through internal and external review, editing, cataloguing, production, and publication. OMP will operate, as well, as a press website with catalog, distribution, and sales capacities.

OMP 1.0 improves upon the public beta released in September 2012 in a number of ways. It includes a number of stability bug fixes and enhancements, particularly to the production and distribution workflows, and creation of ONIX for Books metadata support. It also includes multilingual support for French, Greek, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish.

Standards for Sharing

“Like”-able Content: Spread Your Message with Third-Party Metadata by Clinton Forry appears in the latest A List Apart. He looks at Twitter Cards and Facebook’s Open Graph protocol.

While implementing third-party metadata schemas will add to the content creation workload, that extra effort will provide a much better user experience across multiple platforms and devices, both current and upcoming. Crafting content in discrete chunks with an eye on universal application and flexibility is the way of the future.