MARCXTM: Topic Maps Modeling of MARC Bibliographic Information

1. MARCXTM: Topic Maps Modeling of MARC Bibliographic Information 2005.10.07 Hyun-Sil Lee, Yang-Seung Jeon, Sung-Kook Han Semantic Web Services Research Group Won Kwang University, Korea

2. Description of Bibliographic Information • MARC21 • MARCXML • MODS • Topic Maps Modeling of MARC21 • Requirements of MARC Modeling • UML Model • MARCXTM • Implementations • Conclusions Agenda

3. Overview: MARC • MARC: Machine-Readable Cataloging • standards used for the representation of bibliographic and related information for books and other library materials in machine-readable form and their communication to and from other computers. • All MARC Standards conform to: ISO 2709:1996 Information and documentation - Format for Information Exchange. • MARC was originally designed in the late 1960’s to aid in the transfer of bibliographic data onto magnetic tape, and also to replace the printed catalog cards with electronic forms. • There are a number of implementation of MARC, including USMARC used in US, CAN/MARC used in Canada, and UKMARC used in Britain. • After discussions and minor changes to USMARC and CAN/MARC, MARC21 was evolved to harmonize both formats and to cover diverse types of resources including digital materials and Internet resources. • MARC accommodates extensive data elements describing all forms of materials susceptible to bibliographic description, as well as related information.

4. Family of MARC Formats • Bibliographic • a carrier for bibliographic information about printed and manuscript textual materials, computer files, maps, music, serials, visual materials and mixed materials. • Authorities • a carrier for information concerning the authorized forms of names, [titles,]subjects, and subject subdivisions to be used in constructing access points in MARC records, the forms of these names, subjects and subdivisions that should be used as references to the authorized form, and the relationships among these forms • Holdings • a carrier for holdings information for three types of bibliographic items: single-part; multipart; serial and may include: copy-specific information; information peculiar to the holding institution; information needed for local processing, maintenance or preservation; version information. • Classification • a carrier for information about classification numbers and the captions associated with them that are formulated according to a specified authoritative classification scheme • Community Information • a carrier for descriptions of non-bibliographic resources that fulfil the information needs of a community.

5. Supporting Documentation of MARC • MARC 21 Specification for Record Structure, Character Sets, and Exchange Media • Character sets • MARC-8 (8-bit encoding) • UCS/UNICODE UTF-8 (8/16 bit encoding) • Repertoire of 15,000+ characters • Latin; Cyrillic; Hebrew; Arabic; CJK • Code lists • Countries, Geographical; Languages; Sources; Relators

6. MARC Record Format

7. Leader Directory Variable Control Field Variable Data Field MARC Record Format: Example

8. MARC Record Format: Example Sign Post

9. Formalization of MARC <MARC21Record>::=<Leader><Directory><VariableField> <Directory>::=<DirectoryElement>* <DirectoryElement>::=<Tag><Length><Position> <VariableField>::=<ControlField><DataField>* <ControlField>::=<ControlNumber><ControlFieldElement> <DataField>::=<Tag><Indicator><SubField>* <Indicator>::=<FirstIndicator><SecondIndicator> <SubField>::=<SubFieldCode><SubFieldValue>

10. Problems with MARC • Lack of expandability due to rigorous record formats, since it was originally intended for the production of printed catalogue cards in 1960s • Difficulties in representing bibliographic relationships • Ambiguities in describing MARC records • Incompatibilities between other MARC formats since the various library systems have invented their own non-standard peculiarities in order to handle local bibliographic materials • Weaknesses in describing bibliographic attributes of digitized resources

11. MARCXML MARC21 (2709)Records MARC21 (XML) Records Tagging Transformations Character Set Conversion Dublin Core Records MODS Records Other XML Formats HTML Output MARC Validation

12. MARCXML • MARCXML: a framework for working with MARC data in a XML environment • Design Considerations and Features • Simple and Flexible MARC XML Schema for representing a complete MARC record in XML • Supports all MARC encoded data regardless of format • Lossless Conversion of MARC to XML • Roundtrip ability from XML back to MARC • Data Presentation and Data Conversion • Extensibility • A component-oriented, extensible architecture allowing users to plug and play different software pieces to build custom solutions

13. MARCXML: Example

14. MODS • MODS: Metadata Objects Description Schema • XML-based descriptive metadata standard that includes a subset of data elements derived from MARC21 • Features • MODS is intended to complement other metadata formats. MODS provides a richer bibliographic element set than Dublin Core. • MODS has a high level of compatibility with MARC records because it inherits the semantics of the equivalent data elements in the MARC21 bibliographic format. • In MODS some elements that appear in various fields in MARC have been repackaged into one. So MODS can define 19 upper metadata elements. • MODS takes advantage of the XML environment. It uses language-based tags rather than the numeric tags traditional to MARC. • MODS also has flexible linking mechanisms by providing for all the top-level elements with attributes such as xlink and ID. • MODS accommodates special requirements for digital resources.

15. MODS: Example

16. Topic Maps Modeling of MARC 21 • Requirements for MARC Modeling • A model should be able to support the full set of data elements in MARC21 to achieve seamless compatibility with MARC formats. • This is a practical requirement in order to embrace the current circumstances even though it is awkward. • It should have the same expressive power as metadata. • This implies that the model should be realized with semantic descriptors to be used in an XML environment instead of obsolete alphanumeric codes. • The use of attributes should be minimized to maintain consistency and increase readability. • It should be able to maintain the structure of MARC record format • A model does not intend to develop bibliographic metadata system based on MARC. • A model can be handled without expertise in MARC to achieve the usability of the model. • A model should be simple and lightweight for system implementation and harmonization with other models.

17. DataField TagCode:String DataFieldName:String Repeatability:{NR, R} Description:String 1 1 1 1 FirstIndicator SecondIndicator SubField Description:String Description:String Description:String 1 1 1 1…* 1…* IndicatorItem SubFieldItem IndicatorCode:{Integer, ‘#’} IndicatorName:String Description:String SubFieldCode:String SubFieldValue:String SubFieldName:String Repeatability:{NR, R} Description:String 1 0…* UML diagram of MARC Modeling

18. Librarians/Users XTM Representation of MARC Records MARCXTM for MARC Specification MARCXTM for MARC Records MARC Records MARCXTM Implementation

19. <association id="data100"> <instanceOf> <topicRef xlink:href="#DataField"/> </instanceOf> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#Field"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#Field100"/> </member> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#FirstIndicator"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#TypeOfPersonalNameEntryElement"/> </member> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#SecondIndicator"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#Undefined"/> </member> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#SubField"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#a100"/> <topicRef xlink:href="#b100"/> <topicRef xlink:href="#c100"/> <topicRef xlink:href="#d100"/> ……………………………………. <topicRef xlink:href="#q100"/> <topicRef xlink:href="#t100"/> <topicRef xlink:href="#u100"/> <topicRef xlink:href="#four100"/> <topicRef xlink:href="#six100"/> <topicRef xlink:href="#eight100"/> </member> </association> XTM Realization of MARC Specification • DataField: <association> of data item, indicators, and subfield codes

20. XTM Realization of MARC Specification • Hiding the real data value by topic abstraction <topic id="TypeOfPersonalNameEntryElement"> <baseName> <baseNameString> Type of personal name entry element </baseNameString> </baseName> <occurrence> <instanceOf> <topicRef xlink:href="#Forename"/> </instanceOf> <resourceData> 0 </resourceData> </occurrence> <occurrence> <instanceOf> <topicRef xlink:href="#Surname"/> </instanceOf> <resourceData> 1 </resourceData> </occurrence> <occurrence> <instanceOf> <topicRef xlink:href="#FamilyName"/> </instanceOf> <resourceData> 3 </resourceData> </occurrence> </topic>

21. MARCXTM for MARC Specification

22. XTM Realization of MARC Records • MARC Records • Complex to maintain MARC structure due to its idiosyncratic dependency between indicators and subfield code • Difficult to realize the seamless compatible with MARC records • Repeatability of subfield elements are individually defined in MARC specification. • XTM supports for MARC modeling • XTM does not provide multiple instances for <occurrence>. • Difficult to define record schema with <association>.

23. XTM Realization of MARC Records

24. MARCXTM for MARC Records

25. Conclusions • MARCXTM: Topic Maps-based implementation of MARC 21 • MARCXTM for MARC Specification • MARCXTM for MARC Records • Application of Topic Maps paradigm to bibliographic information system • Seamless compatible with MARC 21 • expressive power as metadata • XTM is inappropriate to represent MARC format due to its idiosyncratic structure and dependency between data elements. • Metadata models similar to Dubline Core or MODS are necessary for XTM modeling of MARC. • FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) framework is an attractive model for XTM modeling of bibliographic information system.

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