1. 10.5962/BHL:)tle.24947
10.5962/bhl.)tle.
5 5 4 9 5 A S S I G N I N G / b h l . ) t l e . 3 5 1 8 2
10. 5962/b h l . DOIs .16580 & 10. 5962/
bhl.)tle. OTHER/IDENTIFIERS .20698
10.5962/bhl.)tle. TO 10.5962/bhl.)tle.
34905
10.LEGACY.LITERATURE10.5962
/ b h l . ) t l e . 1 7 4 9 7
1 0 . 5 9 6 2 / b h l . ) t l e .
3 8 1 8 2 1 0 . 5 9 6 2 / b h l . ) t l e . 3 7 0 5 8
Chris
F
reeland
@chrisfreeland
Technical
Director,
Biodiversity
Heritage
Library
Director,
Center
for
Biodiversity
Informa)cs,
Missouri
Botanical
Garden

2. About
Biodiversity
Heritage
Library
• Interna)onal
consor)um
of
the
world’s
leading
natural
history
libraries
• Funded
to
digi)ze
books
&
journals
in
the
public
domain
@BioDivLibrary

3. Purpose
of
exercise
• Make
legacy
scien)fic
literature
citable
via
modern
systems
– Make
250+
years
of
scholarly
communica)ons
available
via
new
tools
• Assign
contemporary
iden)fiers
to
legacy
literature
– DOI
– ISBN
– ISSN
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

4. Iden)fy
the
Iden)fiers
• Digital
Object
Iden)fier
(DOI)
– Resolvable
iden)fier
for
a
digital
object
– Register
through
an
agency:
CrossRef
is
popular
• Provides
cita)on
metrics,
reference
linking
– Co$t
• Interna)onal
Standard
Book
Number
(ISBN)
– US
Agency
for
registra)on:
Bowker
– Co$t
• Interna)onal
Standard
Serial
Number
(ISSN)
– US
assignments:
Library
of
Congress
– Free
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

5. DOI,
ISBN,
ISSN,
ei,
ei,…uh
oh…
• Ran
into
trouble
with
each
agency
– BHL
isn’t
a
publisher
– BHL
is
a
consor)um,
not
a
separate
legal
en)ty
– BHL
doesn’t
own
all
the
content
it
serves
– “We
know
we
need
a
policy
on
that…”
…and
on…and
on…for
more
than
3
years…
CrossRef
DOIs:
path
of
least
resistance
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

6. Challenge:
Title
Matching
for
Uniqueness
• Only
want
1
DOI
per
intellectual,
citable
unit
• Differences
between
cataloging
&
publishing
– Libraries:
<datafield
tag="245"
ind1="1"
ind2="4">
<subfield
code="a">The
amoebae
living
in
man;</subfield>
<subfield
code="b">a
zoological
monograph,</subfield>
<subfield
code="c">by
Clifford
Dobell.</subfield>
</datafield>
– Publishers:
<)tle>The
amoebae
living
in
man;
a
zoological
monograph</)tle>
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

7. Challenge:
Monographs/Series/Monographic
Series
• “Report
on
the
Rhynchota
collected
by
the
Wollaston
Expedi)on
in
Dutch
New
Guinea”
– Published
in
1914
– Bound
&
catalogued
as
a
monograph
– Scanned
as
a
monograph
– Assigned
a
DOI
as
a
monograph
in
BHL:
hqp://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.)tle.13791
• Transac)ons
of
the
Zoological
Society
of
London,
vol.
20,
pt.
11.
– Presented
by
current
publisher
of
that
)tle
as
an
ar)cle
– Assigned
a
DOI
as
a
journal
ar)cle:
hqp://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-­‐7998.1912.tb07839x
Guess
who
provides
free
access?
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

8. Challenge:
Ownership
of
Backfiles
• Who
owns
public
domain
works?
– Some
publishers
consider
they
have
ownership
of
backfiles
for
journals
they
currently
publish
• Long
running
series
in
natural
history
• Cur$s’s
Botanical
Magazine,
since
1787
• Those
publishers
assign
DOIs
to
their
current
volumes
• BHL
assigns
DOIs
to
the
public
domain
works
we’ve
digi)zed
Guess
who
is
upset?
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

9. BHL
DOIs
in
Use

11. Linked
Data
• CrossRef
DOIs
are
available
as
Linked
Data,
announced
April
2011:
– hqp://www.crossref.org/CrossTech/2011/04/
content_nego)a)on_for_crossr.html
• Awesome!
:)
• But
I
couldn’t
get
it
to
work
:(
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

12. So
I
asked
Twiqer
for
help…
• Any
#lodlam
#LOD
ppl
interested
in
taking
a
look
at
open
#bhlib
data?
hqp://t.co/is1a2dUl
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

13. …and
Twiqer
responded
@cajunjoel
• @chrisfreeland
I
poked
at
making
this
work,
but
my
results
were
not
encouraging.
See
the
comment
on
your
blog
post
for
details.
@asaletourneau:
• @chrisfreeland
Got
this
ht.ly/8zTuk
using
morph.talis.com
awer
conver)ng
BibTEX
to
RDF
using
ht.ly/8zTxq
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

15. I
also
asked
CrossRef
support
• Turns
out
it’s
a
bug!
• CrossRef
DOI
API
wasn’t
returning
results
for
ISBN-­‐less
books
– And
remember,
we
don’t
have
those
because
of
the
ugly
problems
• We
iden)fied
&
resolved
a
problem
via
Twiqer!
– Crowdsourcing
#FTW!
@cajunjoel
– Talk
about
#lod
bringing
people
together!
@asaletourneau
• And
all
because
of
this
panel
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

16. And
then
a
dash
of
reality
@rdmpage
• “…why
bother
with
linked
data?
Obviously
I
know
the
stock
answer,
but
the
reality
is
that
most
"linked
data"
isn't
linked.…CrossRef
RDF
for
an
ar)cle
the
only
external
link
(eventually)
is
to
hqp://
periodicals.dataincubator.org/
via
the
ISSN.
Author
names
have
arbitrary,
non-­‐resolvable
URIs.
So
effec)vely
the
data
is
a
silo.
Linked
data,
yes,
RDF,
yes,
but
s)ll
a
silo.”
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

17. Takeaway
• Assigning
modern
iden)fiers
to
legacy
content
is
challenging
– “We
know
we
need
a
policy
on
that…”
– Benefits
are
there,
but
may
be
slow
to
realize
• Working
with
an
agency
like
CrossRef
has
its
advantages
– Support
– Tech
advances:
they
flip
a
switch,
instaLOD
– Disadvantages:
Co$t,
may
s)ll
need
custom
solu)ons
for
emerging
technologies
• Linked
Data
is
conceptually
promising,
but
fraught
with
uncertainty
in
produc)on
systems
Freeland.
ALA
Midwinter.
21
Jan
2012.
@chrisfreeland
#bhlib
#alamw12

18. 10.5962/bhl.)tle.24947
10.5962/bhl.)tle.
55495
10.5962/bhl.)tle.35182
10.5962/bhl
. ) t l e . 1 6 5 8 0 T H A N K / b h l . ) t l e . 2 0 6 9 8
10.5962/bhl.)tle.33773
10.5962/bhl.)tle.
34905
10.5962/YOU.)tle.17497
10.5962/
bhl.)tle.3818210.5962/bhl.)tle.37058
10.5962/bhl.)tle.29660
10.5962/bhl.)tle.
4 2 4 5 8
1 0 . 5 9 6 2 / b h l . ) t l e . 3 3 2 6 1
Chris
Freeland
@chrisfreeland
Technical
Director,
Biodiversity
Heritage
Library
Director,
Center
for
Biodiversity
Informa)cs,
Missouri
Botanical
Garden