Re: Schema.org and "Holdings"

Dan, thanks so much for this. I think we need to extend your experiment 
to some other holdings displays (ebook, periodical). I'm especially 
curious to see how to handle something like a book that is checked out 
(OutOfStock) but where the library offers an online 'place hold' 
service. How can we highlight those services?

I'm a bit nervous about linking the ISBN to the item -- the ISBN will be 
recorded in the schema/Book description, but, as we've argued at length 
on the BIBFRAME list, library data often has multiple ISBNs but these 
are not associated with individual copies. In fact, the library may not 
even have a copy for each ISBN in its bibliographic record.

Jeff suggested a while back something about listing the price as $0. I 
don't think that conveys the concept of lending, even though the price 
is right. It feels to me that we need something that means "lending" as 
well as the ability to give the loan period. I don't see anything 
similar to this in schema.org -- maybe I'm missing it?

If I get a chance (not until next week, at least) I'll see if I can't 
mock up some other examples, but of course if anyone else has some time...

kc

On 7/9/13 11:38 AM, Dan Scott wrote:
> Hi Jeff et al:
>
> On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 2:30 PM, Young,Jeff (OR) <jyoung@oclc.org> wrote:
>> Dan,
>>
>> Thanks for volunteering to experiment with schema:Product/Offer for holdings in your system. The attached UML might help illustrate how some of the Schema.org terms fit together. There are at least a couple ways to traverse their model to accomplish it, depending on how expressive you want to be. I look forward to comparing notes.
>>
>
> Thanks for the UML model. I opted to start with schema.org/Offer and
> map the Evergreen library system's public holdings display (physical
> and electronic) using only existing schema.org properties. As it turns
> out, ProductModel / IndividualProduct / SomeProducts /
> QuantitativeValue don't seem to be necessary if you're simply
> modelling holdings as they surface in many library systems today.
>
> Some of the real-world characteristics that came into play with
> Evergreen's sample data (reinforcing many of the examples that Karen
> provided at http://kcoyle.net/holdings.html) are:
>
> * Multiple copies may be displayed for any given record. I mapped each
> copy to a separate http://schema.org/Offer object. Also, I opted to
> use the additionalType of "Product" instead of "IndividualProduct", as
> IndividualProduct is defined as "A single, identifiable product
> instance (e.g. a laptop with a particular serial number)."
> * Each copy has a library at which it is currently circulating. I
> mapped this to the http://schema.org/Offer "seller" property (just
> using the raw text of the library name as a reasonable starting point;
> a future development could be for Evergreen to expose one URI per
> library, from which the library coordinates, opening hours, contact
> information, branch hierarchy, etc could be derived -- as Evergreen
> already knows most of that information).
> * Each copy has a call number. I mapped this to the
> http://schema.org/Offer "sku" (stock keeping unit) property, as "a
> merchant-specific identifier for a product or service" seems like a
> good enough match.
> * Each copy has a barcode. I mapped this to the
> http://schema.org/Offer "serialNumber" property.
> * Each copy has a shelving location. I mapped this to the
> http://schema.org/Offer "availableAtOrFrom" property (just using the
> raw text of the location as a http://schema.org/Place as a reasonable
> starting point).
> * Each copy has an availability status, which I was able to map to the
> http://schema.org/Offer "availability" property. In turn, I was able
> to use the stock http://schema.org/ItemAvailability enumeration
> without torturing definitions much. For example, "Available" =
> http://schema.org/InStock, "Checked Out" =
> http://schema.org/OutOfStock, "On Order" = http://schema.org/PreOrder,
> "On Reserve" = http://schema.org/InStoreOnly.
> * Records _might_ have an ISBN13; if they do, then I map those to the
> http://schema.org/Offer "gtin13" property for each copy. In
> retrospect, given that we have the addtionalType of
> http://schema.org/Product, I could just define that at the Product
> level... an optimization for next time! I could also get fancier and
> convert ISBN10 identifiers to gtin13 if we don't have an ISBN13.
>
> * Holdings often list electronic resources, as well. If so, I map them
> to a http://schema.org/Offer and make the
> http://schema.org/ItemAvailability enumeration using
> http://schema.org/OnlineOnly. There is some potential for using the
> http://schema.org/Offer eligibleCustomerType property to identify
> whether a given electronic resource is publicly available, or
> restricted to library patrons (or a particular subset of library
> patrons) via proxy access or the like.
>
> * The Evergreen record display also includes one or more summary
> statements about copy availability, reflecting each level of a
> consortium / system / branch hierarchy. For example, if you're
> searching at Branch 1, the display might say "36 copies available at
> Consortium; 15 copies available at Branch 1". I mapped these
> statements to simple http://schema.org/AggregateOffer objects using
> just the "seller" and "offerCount" properties.
>
> Thus far, I'm pretty happy with the results. You can see an example at
> http://stuff.coffeecode.net/schema.org/holdings_ex1.html and Google's
> Rich Snippets Tool appears to be happy with it (at
> http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=stuff.coffeecode.net%2Fschema.org%2Fholdings_ex1.html).
> I did strip out much of the unnecessary fluff from the example, but it
> originates from an Evergreen working branch at
> http://git.evergreen-ils.org/?p=working/Evergreen.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/user/dbs/schema_holdings
> so all of this would work in the wild today for Evergreen libraries
> eager to expose their holdings via schema.org microdata. Also, I can
> easily grab other samples from my local dev instance of Evergreen if
> people are interested, and I can import new records / create new
> combinations of holdings, etc, on demand. (This record came from
> http://laurentian.concat.ca/eg/opac/record/341237 which only has a
> minimal level of schema.org microdata).
>
> I didn't want to muddy the waters in the W3 wiki just yet, given that
> we already have a few different pages where holdings are being
> explored. Perhaps if this direction seems of interest to the group, we
> could work towards formalizing the suggestions for implementers.
>
> Dan
>
>

-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet

Received on Friday, 12 July 2013 00:10:22 UTC