This book is about the use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) which has been widely adopted by libraries and publishers for sharing metadata about the information resources they collect, publish or licence. The content of the book results from a workshop, sponsored by the American Library Association’s Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, which dealt with ways in which XML technologies can be used in library cataloguing, metadata management and information discovery. It’s written by practitioners, which shows in the clear explanations and examples throughout the book.
The authors suggest that some prior knowledge of XML is helpful, but for those without this background they cover XML basics (Chapter 2), explaining what XML is and why you would use it, discussing content and markup, and XML elements and syntax. In Chapter 3 they discuss library metadata in XML – MARCXML, Dublin Core, Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), and guidance in selecting metadata standards. This background material is about 15% of the text. Chapter 4 is concerned with valid XML and the creation and use of XML schemas; it introduces the XML Schema Definitions language (XSD). The remaining chapters (5 to 11) introduce specific tools – XML Path Language (XPath), Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations (XSLT) and XML Query Language (XQuery) – and give examples of their application in library and metadata workflows, such as cataloguing workflows using XSLT, and creating HathiTrust submission files using XQUERY. The chapters include clear explanations and examples.
Supporting this material is a particularly useful chapter on resources for those wishing to learn more: tutorials, knowledge bases, XML tools (editors, testers and debuggers), locations (URLs) for metadata schemas used in the library domain), and crosswalks between standards. Four appendices support the discussion of XSLT, setting out the coding for various applications. The last appendix provides information on downloading, installing and using selected XML, XSLT and XQUERY software. Finally, the book has an excellent index – generous and detailed.
I think the authors have achieved their stated goal ‘to introduce and illustrate concretely a few of the ways that XML technologies can be used in library cataloguing and metadata management settings’. The book is clearly written and well laid-out. Although packed with technical detail, the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the different tools is accessible and easy to understand. The reader is introduced to a bewildering array of XML-related abbreviations and guided to understanding how they fit together.
If your work involves cataloguing, bibliographic control, resource description and exchange of metadata, this book will be a practical guide to XML technologies. If you are new to this area of librarianship, Chapters 2 and 3 are an excellent introduction to XML basics and library metadata in XML. It is content that one might read for general background information, and then dip into again for specific guidance when needed. This title is recommended as a useful resource for practitioners and those seeking to know more about the applications of XML technologies in libraries.