Israeli Bibliographic Data and the International Scene

Elhanan Adler

National Library of Israel and David Yellin Academic College of Education

Background

• Digital preservation and access to national cultural heritage materials is (or should be) an important activity of all countries.

• Local and national efforts need to be made international in order to reach the greatest possible audience.

• Cultural heritage materials from various countries often overlap.

• Jewish cultural heritage materials are an extreme example of this overlap.

• The National Library of Israel (NLI) is actively working to make its metadata acceptable to international projects

Metadata issues

• Merging metadata from various countries creates challenges related to – Standards

– Terminology

– Languages

– Scripts

• Israeli metadata needs to be adaptable to international standards while continuing to meet local needs

Israeli bibliographic metadata

• Generally follows international standards (AACR, RDA) but data is recorded in four vernacular scripts

– Latin

– Hebrew

– Arabic

– Cyrillic

US-style cataloging

• All entry points in Latin alphabet

• In recent years, option to enrich the record with parallel vernacular 880 fields

• Major advantage: works in all languages and alphabets are retrieved by a single search

• Major disadvantage: Latin alphabet heading is not always obvious – particularly for Hebrew names (various romanization schemes)

• This approach is now known as MARC Model A

Israeli style cataloging • Works in Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and Cyrillic

scripts are cataloged in the original script

• Major advantage: headings are searched in the native language of the work (no romanization)

• Major disadvantage: Multiple searches necessary to retrieve material in more than one script

• This approach is now known as MARC Model B

Example –Headings for Benjamin Netanyahu

• Netanyahu, Binyamin

• Нетаниягу, Биньямин

• בנימין, נתניהו

• ، بنياميننتنياهو

The solution: retain separate alphabets but enable cross-alphabet searching

• NLI Name headings: currently 4 scripts

• NLI subjects: English only (LCSH) with Hebrew translations

• The goal: searching any of the scripts will retrieve headings using all of them

How? • Create single authority record for each heading with multiple

1xx fields (one for each script), e.g. – 1001 $aNetanyahu, Binyamin,$9eng – 1001 $aНетаниягу, Биньямин, $9rus – 1001 $a בנימין, נתניהו ,$$9heb

• Each can have its own cross references – 4001 $aNetanyahu, Benjamin,$9eng – 4001 $a ביבי, נתניהו ,$$9heb

• Bibliographic record contains only one form (in alphabet of cataloging) but can be retrieved by all.

Software support

• This solution is non-standard (MARC field 1xx is non-repeatable)

• It is supported by ALEPH 500 software

• It is used by other ALEPH libraries (e.g. Swiss for French/German/Italian headings)

• It is acceptable to the VIAF project

Example of name cluster

Four separate authority records before merge

After merge

Browse index – before merge (10+11+2+11 records)

Browse index – after merge

Same records under each heading

VIAF project (Virtual International Authority File)

• Authority records are loaded to the international VIAF project where they are further clustered with other name headings from other countries

• Bibliographic projects using VIAF data will be able to locate material related to all forms

The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) is an international service designed to provide convenient access to the world's major name authority files. Its creators envision the VIAF as a building block for the Semantic Web to enable switching of the displayed form of names for persons to the preferred language and script of the Web user. VIAF began as a joint project with the Library of Congress (LC), the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB), the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) and OCLC. It has, over the past decade, become a cooperative effort involving an expanding number of other national libraries and other agencies. At the beginning of 2012, contributors include 20 agencies from 16 countries.

[2014: 34 agencies in 29 countries ]

Merging/clustering headings

• Initial clustering based on VIAF merging

• Ongoing clustering in current cataloging

• Retrospective clustering based on likelihood that name appears in more than one alphabet (major authors, historical figures, translations, etc.)

• Currently over 57,000 names have multi-script clusters

Further Authority record enhancement

• Import biographical data (formatted and unformatted)

• Import alternate name forms

• Export the enhanced records to the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)

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Bibliography of the Hebrew Book data

BHB authority records (about 20,000) are rich in biographical information (narrative format)

But - very different forms of headings Stage 1 – Match 95% of the BHB authority records to

NLI authority records - done Stage 2 – transfer narrative biographical data and

alternate heading forms from BHB to NLI – done Stage 3a – mine biographical data to create RDA coded

data fields – done Stage 3b – Use BHB forms/references in NLI authority

records to expedite single search of both databases – in process

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NLI authority record enhanced with BHB data

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Israel Museum database

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Artist data transferred as Excel file

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NLI enhanced record

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Link to Israel Museum site

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Israel Museum data in VIAF

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ACUM (לים למוסיקה בישראל"אגודת קומפוזיטורים מחברים ומו)ם "אקו

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ID numbers of creators and performers

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ACUM data in authority record

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Hierarchical geographic data

• Organize data on place names in hierarchical form (English and Hebrew) in order to use it in Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

• Enrich records with geographical coordinates (field 034)

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Example: Authority record for Białystok (Poland)

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Subject headings

• In 2010-2011 The NLI converted its classified catalog (modified Dewey Decimal Classification with added descriptors) to Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)

• In parallel the NLI began a project to translate all relevant LCSH headings to Hebrew

• English forms are used in the bibliographic records. Searching can be either on English or Hebrew terms.

NLI subject thesaurus

• 990,000 subjects: base and compound • Not all in use (includes entire LCSH file) • Of those in use > 95% have Hebrew translations • Unique subfield dictionary contains 104,000

translations • Most new subject headings are compound of

subfields with existing translations (automatic translation)

• New subfields are translated and added to the dictionary (ongoing)

NLI subject thesaurus – in house

• NLI general catalog

• NLI special collections (maps, music, [mss.])

• Index to articles in Jewish studies (Rambi)

Creating a national Israeli authority file

• The NLI has invested much effort in clustering names in different scripts (ongoing)

• The NLI has invested much effort in translating subject headings to Hebrew (ongoing)

• Other Israeli libraries wish to make use of this data for their own catalogs

• Additional partners will make the authority work, clustering and translation more effective and efficient

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Beta site: University of Haifa

• A copy of the NLI’s authority file is part of the Haifa ALEPH installation

• It is automatically synchronized every evening

• Headings can link to either the NLI authorities or the local Haifa ones – priority to NLI

• U. of Haifa catalogers have authorization to add and update original NLI authority records

• Requires coordination of cataloging practices!

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Use of NLI authority data by other Israeli libraries

• 2014 – University of Haifa

• 2015 – Some members of the College Libraries consortium

Future development plans

• Partnership with other institutions in developing and expanding the NLI authority date (NACO/SACO model)

• Maintain and expand Latin script forms of all possible headings for international compatibility

• Make data available to international metadata and cultural heritage projects