2015 Charleston Library Conference

Acquisitions functions remain operationally crucial in providing access to paid information resources, but data formats and workflows utilized within library acquisitions remain centered on the traditional integrated library system (ILS). As libraries have evolved an environment of distributed systems to manage information resources, so too must acquisitions functions adapt to an environment that may include the ILS, e-resource management systems (ERMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, institutional repositories (IR) and other digital content management systems.

This presentation is intended to articulate a vision for applying standards-based practice—as already employed for resource description—to acquisitions functions in a variety of metadata schema and systems. Utilization of standards will be demonstrated in the proposal of a core acquisitions element set that can exist in any system, with proofs of concept including demonstration of the element set within MODS, JSON, and how it could be reflected within the ILS and ERMS.

Building on these proofs of concept in recording interoperable acquisitions data will be an explanation of possible applications, including an exploration of more robust support for Semantic Web technologies. In particular, this presentation will explore how this element set could utilize published linked data sets, such as the North Carolina State University Organization Name Linked Data and Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) linked data service, to provide more accurate and efficient identity management.

This program is intended to provoke interest and in-session involvement in developing an acquisitions data standard that can be used to support linked data applications for acquisitions functions.