PowerPoint Presentation Trying to Mean More with Metadata Prepared for the Sorting Libraries Out Symposium, March 13th 2019 by Sue Andrews UBC Library Outline • Challenges • Goals • Strategies • Details of Xwi7Xwa enhancements • Future plans and aspirations Limitations of our traditional library approaches to cataloguing • Readily available information on title page ; and first named author focus • Settler terminology and vocabulary • “Official” subject headings use dated/obsolete language • A few major publishers and/or vendors get most of the business • Focus on Roman alphabet and the qwerty keyboard Surfacing First Nations content • How to make contributions to scholarship by and about Indigenous people more “findable” in our catalogue • How to improve/increase the descriptive language in the metadata • How to use more meaningful ontologies • How to better represent the original language and script of writers in our metadata • How to lead researchers to discover the Xwi7xwa part of our massive UBC library collection RDA core record Xwi7xwa enhancements Ensuring the endurance of our enhancements • “Owning” library • Prevention of accidental editing • All requested Xwi7xwa staff can participate • Updates from • Vendors • OCLC • Special treatments and instructions for authority services • Overlay protection (e-versions, micro versions) • Less confusion over appropriateness/reliability of terms – other thesauri vs. local – when not all mixed up in one record Enhancement: Statements of responsibility • Transcribed from title pages and elsewhere. • Title: Dah dz̲āhge es̲igits = We write our language / contributions, Angela Dennis [and four others] • Title: Dah dz̲āhge es̲igits = We write our language / contributions, Angela Dennis, Regina Louie, Odelia Dennis, Hostełma ̄ Pauline Hawkins, Edōsdi Dr. Judy Thompson ; illustrations, Peter Morin, Una-Ann Moyer, Ts̲ēma Igharas. Enhancement: Additional access points • Listing additional contributors as additional names (100/700) Enhancement: Alternative titles • Cover/container/jacket titles • Title page: “The Okanagon …” • Cover title: “The Okanogan …” • Title screen: Art of drum making • Container title: Making a drum • Other language titles • Title page: Li minoush • Cover has additional title in English: Thomas and his Cat • Standard Romanization rules (for example: ॽ = ʻ or ə = ä ) vs. more user-friendly romanization? • Actual characters: Xwiॽxwa • Xwiʻxwa or Xwi7xwa ? • Actual characters: tənəmén • tänämén or tenemén Enhancement: Additional contents of interest to note • Maps • Includes maps of Stoney Highway and Morley Reserve and Bow Valley. • Glossaries • Includes glossary of Dene words • Portraits • The illustrated song cards have portraits of Gitxsan elders and can be used as posters or for shared reading and singing. • Timelines • Includes timeline: “Indian residential schools in British Columbia” p. 10 Enhancement: Places • Locations of conferences, workshops • Proceedings of a conference held May 12-14, 1994, in Bkejwanong, Ontario • Locations of studies/research • This study explores the conditions that contribute to teacher success in First Nations communities by focusing on the experiences of educators and community members from the Ermineskin Reserve, which is located in central Alberta. • Places or Nations of authors and other contributors of content • Ten Sto:lo Elders … shared traditional and personal life experience stories about traditional ways of becoming a storyteller. Enhancement: Contents notes • www.worldcat.org/oclc/939203554 Enhancement: Subjects of Contents WorldCat UBC catalogue Enhancement: Summaries, credits, participants in videos Credits: Written, directed and produced by Shane Belcourt ; editor, Jordan O'Connor ; director of photography, Shane Belcourt. Cast: Melanie McLaren, Duane Murray, Cheri Maracle, Lorne Cardinal. Summary: "Ray and Jolene discover an unexpected connection when their paths cross in Tkaronto (the original Mohawk word for "Toronto"). Through their chance meeting they reveal their hopes, dreams, fears and failures, and realize their common struggle: to stake claim to their urban Aboriginal identity"-- Container. Enhancing access to Language content • Multilingual publications • Identifying the multiple languages, recording alternative titles, noting presentation of texts (facing pages, etc) • Language groups vs. languages vs. dialects • “sal” Salishan -> Halkomelem (and variant spellings) -> island/downriver/upriver dialects (Wikipedia terminology!) • Scripts (syllabics) • Identifying presence of scripts other than Roman • Transcribing • Wysiwyt whenever possible • Fonts : International : Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics • Fonts: Local : First Nations Unicode Font • Art that speaks (symbolic figures) : example, Susan Point • Respectful language for our records (notes and summaries) • UBC's 2018 Indigenous Peoples : Language Guidelines • Terminology guide from the Government of Canada: Terminology Guide : Research on Aboriginal Heritage • Gregory Younging’s 2018: Elements of Indigenous Style (Younging) https://jrgraphix.net/r/Unicode/1400-167F https://fnel.arts.ubc.ca/resources/font/ http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?products_id=8718 https://brand.ubc.ca/october-16-2018-updated-indigenous-peoples-language-guidelines/ http://publications.gc.ca/pub?id=9.838448&sl=0 Xwi7xwa collection name • Dedicated added entry : Xwi7xwa Collection • Persists into storage locations • Preserves the trail of where (at Xwi7xwa branch) the material entered the collection • Donor name added if needed or desired Future work possibilities : our aspirations • Thesaurus software • Sharing terms locally • Involving community in validating/updating/expanding/correcting • Identity management • Cross references in existing NARs • Corrections (dates, etc.) • Disambiguation • Providing Canadian context • Filling gaps with new NARs • Location identification • Names of places (alternatives) • Names of nations (preferred and alternative) • Mapping • Enriching our local metadata with community input and scholar guidance • Enriching metadata at the co-operative level, to enhance discovery of Indigenous content North America wide Thank you ! Trying to Mean More with Metadata Outline� Limitations of our traditional library approaches to cataloguing Surfacing First Nations content RDA core record Xwi7xwa �enhancements Ensuring the endurance of our enhancements Enhancement: � Statements of responsibility Enhancement: � Additional access points Enhancement: Alternative titles Enhancement: � Additional contents of interest to note Enhancement: � Places Enhancement: Contents notes Enhancement: Subjects of Contents Enhancement:� Summaries, credits, participants in videos Enhancing access to Language content Xwi7xwa collection name Future work possibilities : our aspirations Slide Number 19