Penn Libraries Open Metadata Policy

Open Metadata Benefits the Libraries' Mission

Sharing, using, blending, and repurposing metadata improves the discoverability and usefulness of library resources. It also enables libraries to more effectively manage large collections. Therefore, the Penn Libraries commit to making metadata describing their resources as open and as reusable as possible.

Make our metadata as open as possible, and clearly label open metadata as such

The Penn Libraries will not place restrictions on the use of metadata that it creates for information resources,^* and will not place restrictions on other metadata beyond what is required by its creators. Open metadata will be clearly identified as such, to promote reuse. We recommend associating a Creative Commons CC0^† declaration for metadata that we create, or that is otherwise in the public domain, to make its public domain status clear.

Seek open metadata sources, and honor any license conditions on republishing

When we republish metadata from other sources, we will seek out open-licensed metadata where feasible, and publish the open license that applies to that metadata. (For example, Alma catalog records that we create will be published with a CC0 annotation, and Alma catalog records that are derived from OCLC WorldCat, which currently uses an Open Data Commons ODC-BY^‡ license, will be published as ODC-BY with a credit to OCLC.)

Make our metadata formats easy to interpret and reuse

Metadata will be published in accessible formats. We will publish metadata using well-documented standards where possible, and will also publish information about any formats or profiles particular to our use, also under open licenses. For instance, if we publish repository records as PQC-METS, we will also openly publish the PQC specification.

Make our metadata easy to access, both by people and machines

Metadata will also be published in accessible protocols. We should make it as easy to get machine-parsable metadata as human-readable metadata for our resources, preferably through similar mechanisms. For example, a URL that shows a human-readable catalog record should also be usable (possibly with a slight transformation or content negotiation) for delivering the same information in one or more machine-parsable formats, such as XML, an RDF linked data format, or microdata in a well-documented schema.

Support bulk download of metadata

Where feasible, we will also support the downloading of metadata in bulk, so that interested users can analyze and reuse metadata at the full collection level. Ways to make metadata in bulk available include OAI-PMH servers (already available for some of our metadata), ResourceSync, or periodically generated dump files.

A partial list of metadata to open

Metadata that we can openly publish includes catalog records in our Alma database and library catalog (including both bibliographic and holdings records), metadata for our digital repositories and other collections of digital objects, finding aids, and other bibliographic and authority databases.

Implementing the Penn Libraries open metadata policy

The Metadata Subcommittee (of the Repository Services Team) will oversee the implementation of our open metadata policy and make recommendations on appropriate standards, formats, and protocols to use for openly disseminating our metadata. These will probably change over time as technologies and best practices evolve.

^*Confidential individual and business information out of scope: This metadata policy does not apply to metadata on individual library users, or to information about their use of library resources, that could be used to identify library users and monitor their uses of library resources, directly or through indirect inference, without their clear, informed consent. We follow library ethics and state law in preserving the privacy of individual library users and their use of library resources. Confidential business information is also not subject to this policy.

^†CC0 1.0 Universal (summary): creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
  CC0 1.0 Universal (full text): creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

^‡ODC-BY (summary): opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/summary/
  ODC-BY (full text): opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/

Open bibliographic records

In support of its open metadata policy, the University of Pennsylvania Libraries has released the bibliographic records for the items described in its catalog, including books, serials, electronic resources, sound recordings, scores, videos, manuscripts, dissertations and theses, images, and many other materials.

The records are offered, as is, in two MARCXML datasets:

1. Catalog records created by Penn Libraries - available for public use and released under Creative Commons CC0

   [zip: MARCXML]

2. Catalog records derived from other sources (e.g., OCLC) - released under Open Data Commons ODC-BY
   Penn Libraries requests that you act in accordance with the community norms set forth in the WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative.

   [zip: MARCXML]

Z39.50 Compatibility

The Penn Libraries catalog can also be accessed using the Z39.50 protocol. According to "An Overview of the Z39.50 Information Retrieval Standard" by Fay Turner, National Library of Canada:

Z39.50 is an American national standard for information retrieval. It is formally known as ANSI/NISO Z39.50-1995 - Information Retrieval (Z39.50): Application Service Definition and Protocol Specification. This document specifies a set of rules and procedures for the behaviour of two systems communicating for the purposes of database searching and information retrieval. As a network application standard, Z39.50 is an open standard that enables communication between systems that run on different hardware and use different software.

The Z39.50 standard was developed to overcome the problems associated with multiple database searching such as having to know the unique menus, command language, and search procedures of each system accessed. Z39.50 simplifies the search process by making it possible for a searcher to use the familiar user interface of the local system to search both the local library catalogue as well as any remote database system that support the standard.

Catalog Connect Settings

Server Address: na03.alma.exlibrisgroup.com
Port Number: 1921
Record Syntax: MARC21