Congrats Eric Lease Morgan. A real eye opener for me.

Best wishes....

On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:18 PM, McAulay, Lisa <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Hi Eric,
>
> I really enjoyed this message. Thanks for sharing!
>
> Best,
> Lisa
>
> > On Jun 7, 2016, at 2:49 AM, Eric Lease Morgan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > In the past few weeks I have had some interesting experiences with
> WorldCat, VIAF, and the Levenshtein algorithm. [1, 2]
> >
> > In short, I was given a set of authority records with the goal of
> associating each name with a VIAF identifier. To accomplish this goal I
> first created a rudimentary database — an easily parsed list of MARC 1xx
> fields. I then looped through the database, and searched VIAF via the
> AutoSuggest interface looking for one-to-one matches. If found, I updated
> my database with the VIAF identifier. The AutoSuggest interface was fast
> but only able to associate 20% of my names with identifiers. (Moreover, I
> don’t know how it works; AutoSuggest is a “black box” technology.)
> >
> > I then looped through the database again, but this time I queried VIAF
> using the SRU interface. Searches often returned many hits, not just
> one-to-one matches, but through the use of the Levenshtein algorithm I was
> able to intelligently select items from the search results and update my
> database accordingly. [3] Through the use of the SRU/Levenshtein
> combination, I was able to associate another 50-55 percent of my names with
> identifiers.
> >
> > Now that I have close to 75% of my names associated with VIAF
> identifiers, I can update my authority list’s MARC 024 fields, in turn, I
> can then provide enhanced services against my catalog as well as pave the
> way for linked data implementations.
> >
> > Sometimes our library automation tasks can use a bit more computer
> science. Librarianship isn’t all about service and the humanities.
> Librarianship is an arscient discipline. [4]
> >
> > [1] VIAF Finder - http://infomotions.com/blog/2016/05/viaf-finder/
> > [2] Almost perfection - http://infomotions.com/blog/2016/06/levenshtein/
> > [3] Levenshtein - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance
> > [4] arscience - http://infomotions.com/blog/2008/07/arscience/
> >
> > —
> > Eric Lease Morgan
>



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Dr. Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay
Associate Professor, Department of Library and Information Science,
University of Kalyani,
Kalyani - 741 235 (WB), India
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