LOD = linked open data

Shawn/Kalmia – U Iowa – all HTML-transitioning to EAD finding aids (all digital) — interested in LOD/crowdsourced metadata and collaborating with other institutions

Elissah/Minneapolis CC – about 5K zine records in a standalone database
uses MARC 10 or 15 elements and has experimented with LOD using Google API, Google Fusion Tables, and Open Refine (previously Google Refine)

Jenna/Barnard – AACR2, about 4K zine records
uses genre terms and abstracts

Joshua/MI State
traditional cataloging (using RDA) plus summaries

Milo/QZAP
Gallery system
keywords generated by QZAP
moving towards xZINECOREx based — taxonomy of genre terms developed by Anchor Archive (http://www.robertsstreet.org/thesaurus/out.htm)
+ user-generated keywords
everything has the potential to become a facet

Stephanie (KC) starting new project
Worldcat
Library Thing

Gina — AACR2/MARC/Worldcat going RDA- interested in LOD

Elissah explains LD
http://metadataregistry.org/vocabulary/show/id/317.html
open metadata registry allows you to build subject authority
now working on building links

Honor – LD relies on you making statements about your data (machine-readable: this thing IS this thing)
potentially could link offensive LCSH to preferred term in community/institution

how would we do this? would still need zine union catalog to connect different collections through the open metadata registry

Honor – in the MARC record world, currently, in the 650 you can do:
2nd indicator 7 with subfield 2 to specifiy your thesaurus

Jenna — how is Anchor Archive authority edited?
Elissah — Amanda is opening to sharing control of it (potentially collectively managed and updated)
Jenna — could we experiment with starting a name authority file?
Joshua — national authority file (LC)
Honor and Joshua can do authority work for personal names, potentially?

RDA name authority record has a lot more data about the individuals than AACR2
but, is optional (only required to differentiate)

Elissah — moving forward, using VIAF or LC for name authorities would probably be best
URI

what about ZineWiki?

Wikidata

time/funding to make union catalog?

for those who are just starting — find a schema (xZINECOREx) and use it, then you’d do a data dump and mapping

Elissah will hopefully provide updates on her project! presenting at MN Library Association, ALA Tech Svcs webinar?

Jenna suggests — work session/codesprint in midwest?

Joshua — how can we share/get feedback from bigger community?

Honor recommends BibFrame listserv for those interested in LOD

Did quick review of zinecore/union catalog work to date.
Milo’s zinecore zine
Looked at QZAP’s test implementation of zinecore
Looked at MCTC Library’s back end in Google Fusion

• Includes some Dublin Core elements that map to zinecore, some additional elements.
• Uses Anchor Archive Subject Thesaurus (per cataloging discussion earlier today)

Union catalog will need data that’s been mapped from our various standards to a common set (e.g. zinecore)

• QZAP & MCTC schemas are similiar; MARC21 records need to be broken up into more elemental pieces.

(In ideal world) we won’t have to have “the same” metadata, but rely on linked data and URIs to point to same entity, but have different subject headings, etc.

Union Catalog

No platform chosen yet. QZAP experimenting with Collective Access platform. Haven’t broached scalability issues.
We don’t know if an institution would need to host a linked open data server, or all of us chip in. We don’t know what kind of infrastructure we need on the back end.
Interests for maintaining autonomy and/or to allow access for libraries not affiliated with an institution, we might want to avoid having it hosted by a particular institution; but we may also have to rely on an institution to get it off the ground.
What kinds of open access / open data resources and communities are out there that we could hitch on to?
As metadata becomes more of an aggregate of linked nodes and less of a centrally-maintained repository, maybe this will be less of an issue for us.

• Subject & genre nodes could be particularly important as means for searching/discovery

Zinecore for the layperson, or How do we get barefoot libraries in on the Union Catalog?

• Having a the foundation of recommended descriptors is a great start; anyone can enter these
• QZAP has zine donors supply metadata
• Zinecore code generator: anybody can populate this and generate code with very simple instructions. Code could be sent/uploaded to various places.

MCTC’s baby steps to understand a zine union catalog: started with linked data.
Big Picture Questions re: Union Catalog
This conversation is the purview of librarians, but we should be iterative with the zine community about things like “How do you feel about these things being in a union catalog?”
Questions about research being done on zines; some that doesn’t respect or understand them – should we be facilitating that?
But we’re also cataloging for now and for years from now, when we’re all dead.
Recommendation: open up this conversation (the big picture stuff) on WeMakeZines.
Have to understand that Linked Data future is an open data future – for anyone, any entity (Google, Govt., etc.). It’s powerful, but it’s also there for anyone.
Action Items

1. Get the “big picture” conversation rolling w/ the zine community: do they want this?
   1. Jenna’s working on an ILL/scanning survey for some zine creators now – maybe could lead to a second survey of same population.
2. Get feedback on zinecore & union catalog infrastructure questions from broader catalog/metadata/IT communities.
3. Update the zinecore zine as some of these questions get answered.
4. Play with linked data.

• location vis a vis last year
• place it hadn’t been
• housing costs
• transportation costs
• transportation convenience
• community support

Committee composition.
Things we can do now to make it easier for the next unconference.
Kudos to Kalmia, Kelly and Lisa for doing an amazing job organizing this event!
Online participation is crucial.
Organizers serving as curators, encouraging workshop leaders.
Have topic suggestions more fleshed out, add abstracts? It would help to have the unconference site in a blog format, rather than as a wiki for easier commenting? THATCamp model of providing bibliographies, along with with abstracts.
Basics and advanced tracks.
Suggested topics page could include links to previous ZLuC conference notes.
Survey potential attendees for topics. Have people answer what am I bringing/what do I want to get beforehand.
Intro for newbies/1st time attendees. (Ellisah and Colleen)
Some of this year’s first time attendees make a zine for next year’s newbies.
Post bio of yourself and your zine library to the unconference website.
Encourage some zinesters to attend?
Encourage library school students to come if they want to?
Need a technical fix for contacting everyone registered.

Other zine events

Use them as an opportunity to survey zinesters–zine panel that’s about asking questions, not presenting.
Develop a survey with input from the list beforehand.
Zine library day activities–remember it’s about getting people to show their appreciation of zine libraries and zine librarians by bringing them donuts.
Events people have done this year:

• MSU 24-hour zine thing (not 24-hours!), in cooperation with Mid-Michigan Zine Fair event.
• CLP comics (comics, minicomics, graphic novels) event with help from local comics experts. Got a grant to pay panelists to come.
• ABQ had a dirty zine reading on Valentine’s Day “so people don’t have to feel shame on that day–unless that’s their thing.”
• ABQ events prior to zine fest. “Seek and zine” event where cyclists follow clues about the city and then assemble a zine based on what they learn, working with Critical Mass.
• ABQ opens zine library during Noise show and other zine events.
• CLP zine reading hangouts, partnering with local themed groups, e.g. working with a bicycle advocacy group and bringing bike zines to a bar.
• Barnard crafty workshop by longtime zinester/artist Marissa Falco.
• MCTC zine maker kit
• Maker Faire events with families
• Billy Da Bunny’s zine olympics
• Iowa: orientation activity–made cootie catchers (fortune-tellers/choose your own adventure) about Iowa
• CLP zine library day: table set up with zine question prompts (maybe PGH city & sports related). Going to leave the table alone as much as possible.
• Iowa–zine machine takeover with trans group
• QZAP: guest curation or exhibit by a regular patron, a guest curator grouped pink zines
• Schlesinger: showed Girls Rock film, solicit zines from Girls Rock zine making workshop

POC discussion

Moderated by Kalmia
Notes by Stephanie

Questions we have for ourselves:
What has already been done with representation of People of Color in zine collections and doing outreach to POC and other communities? What are people doing?

How does this affect collection policies and development?

Call to zine librarians to have POC representation in collections? Is it because you don’t have relationships with POC in your town?

Jude is feeling like she wants to develop more relationships in the community. She has been looking at how her collection is cataloged and what’s in the collection. She has created a general POC tag to the collection and has added specific cultures as well.

Moving towards Anchor archive subject authority does use the same subjects that America uses to talk about culture, ethnicity, or race. They might have “ethnic cooking” but not a reference to a specific culture. What are the categories to use for this?

There was a question about whether or not librarything has been used to access POC collections, and we are not sure.

QZAP uses self-identified tags created by people of color to access the collection. They were fortunate to have queer people of color provide them with ideas on the type of metadata to use when searching the collection.

Jude does this when someone adds a collection to the zine, she will ask them where they zine should be cataloged.

When we get to creating a thesaurus or control words, QZAP can share ways that their collection is being used through self-identified tags and also doing research to find out what people want to be self identified with. Retroactively looking at tags. Institutions that have done work to get direct feedback from communities on what to self identify with need to share that with others, but we also need to keep being open to getting that information.

How do you develop relationships with POC and the zine collection? How do you be inclusive?

For example, the community college librarian could reach out to a cultural group and see if they want to create a zine about their collection.

Could be harder to reach out to groups as a public librarian, because you have to reach outside of your institution and there are endless possibilities of who to contact in the community.

The concept of how to act as an ally, can help inform how to do outreach in a way that is not weird or icky. Making contact and saying, “if this is something that feels interesting as a place to contribute experience or documentation of project and work. If so, let me know if I can support that in anyway.”

There is this weird power dynamic that can happen if you own a collection and are trying to get someone interested in the collection and to publish, and we need to be aware of that.

We need to be aware of our power and privilege so that it’s not exclusive or monolithic or exclusionary. We need to be aware of what we are doing in terms of collection, interpreting, and sharing. Let access flow without barriers. There is a need to constantly be aware of historically of how there are certain assumptions, privileges and powers that I have and that I need to be aware that this is always going to be a factor. Be aware to move past that and let other people express themselves. From the perspective of Queer zines, POC were creating zines from the beginning! Struggle against misperceptions that zines are just an extension of hipster white culture!

White person + person who gets to make decision about what gets to be included in the collection is a “Double Whammy” thing to be concerned about. I’m the person that says yes or no to what you do. Collection development policies related to being inclusive!

Talking about the collection development policy is a way to be transparent about the power dynamics involved in creating the collection.

One librarian had an issue where they didn’t have POC zines for latino zines project, and since their collection is based on donations, they don’t have buying power. There are issues with saying, “hey POC” donate zines to our collection.

Reader’s Advisory guide on topics could be helpful.

Here are resources that can help you when you realize the limitation of your own collection. Is there a possibility to create a guide on this?

Cross referencing to relieve the pressure? Do we need to develop a “zine creator” to help make that representation?

How do I not create a new segregation? Do I want to have all the black zines on the table that nobody looks at, as this happens at zine fests.

Integration is also a part of the problem. There is a need create visibility and transparency without segregating a group of writers. We don’t want to create an extra hurdle to get over, so use caution in creating a “sub” group.

Who is already making? And who should be making?

We do want to create makers of the collection sometimes…

With tagging of library collections, we can make POC zine findable in that way if they want that, but topic wise they are integrated.

Why don’t we have more people of color at this zine conference?
- Is this because of institutional issue and how the library professional is mostly white women?
- The conference reflects in some ways the diversity in library staff at our institutions.
- Being conscientious about it isn’t enough, but what is the next step?

The conversation then talked about how libraries in general are inclusive or not of POC. The more we can represent diverse experiences, the better we are.

Never stop thinking about these things. Explore the diversities of ourselves and how it connects to the world and libraries at large.

Making personal connections based on own experiences in relation to barriers that prevent people from accessing and exploring libraries. Find out what the “thing” is inside you that makes you different.

Qzap- Step one is listening and taking advice that is freely given to us. Acknowledge how you are wrong and what you are doing to change. Continue listening. Get better at asking. Be comfortable learning as you go. It’s a lifelong process.

Constantly need to make sure we are balancing things in terms of power and assumptions about privilege and constantly checking, listening, and learning.

I try not to let shades and colors neutralize my experience. White does not mean one experience. Black does not mean one experience. Where we shut down, is when we label to shade in deciding it’s a singular experience that you only know through communication and talking. “Anyway in” Do you have a family history that you want to share with others? What have you collected? Can you make a zine?

DIY – everyone has something that they can share. One student created a zine about DIY maintenance for your car. “college life” They were created by POC, but everyone can relate to the experience. It’s easier for me to approach it as “what can you contribute to DIY” as opposed to “Creating Diversity” in the collection.

“You are part of this diverse world”

“Find your own diversity” (or your relationship to diversity). Something can get off balance when we don’t understand our own diversity and our own struggles. “I need to keep thinking and sharing about my struggle.”

It helps to play “less of a role” and more of a person. Helps diminish the sense of “otherness”. “There might be words as a white person I can’t say, but I can connect to the culture in other ways”. “These are part of my own experiences in how I learned and how I am growing”

Perhaps we can have more discussions at future events about this! Not just this one. Or not even just one discussion at an event.