Toolbox: Standards, Systems & Tools for Organizing Information

RDA: Resource Description and Access · RDA Toolkit

Co-published by the American Library Association, the Canadian Federation of Library Associations, and CILIP (via Facet Publishing); day-to-day management sits with ALA Digital Reference. Replaced AACR2 as the standard for descriptive cataloging effective March 2013, built on the entity-relationship thinking of FRBR and now IFLA LRM. The Toolkit is a subscription service, with free options alongside it: a one-time 30-day free trial is available to anyone (rdatoolkit.org), and RDA-DACH and RDA-FR (links forthcoming) are free national adaptations for German- and French-speaking regions, hosted independently of the paid Toolkit by their respective national library consortia. RSC also runs its own YouTube channel and an annual Presentations page, including a current webinar series for African cataloguers (see the companion video entry in Core Readings).

Currently mid-transition: a "Countdown Clock" began 11 May 2026, retiring Original RDA as a live product on 12 May 2027 in favor of Official RDA. PDFs of every Original RDA page move immediately into Official RDA's own Instruction Archive; the web pages themselves are slated for eventual deposit in ALAIR, the ALA Institutional Repository — hosted at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This is a transition between versions of a delivery service, not a change in the standard’s current role in practice.

rdatoolkit.org

Template RDA Teaching Slides · Elisa Sze, RDA Education and Orientation Officer (v. 15 November 2024)

RSC's own unbranded, adaptable slide deck for teaching RDA, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 — reusable, not just a reference. Links back to specific Toolkit pages are embedded throughout, with citation numbers in the speaker notes. RSC updates it periodically when significant Toolkit changes warrant it, and continued to point to it as a current resource well into the Official RDA transition.

rdatoolkit.org/rsc/slidesforeducators

IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM)

Consolidated the earlier FRBR, FRAD, and FRSAD models into a single conceptual framework (2017); RDA is built on it. See also Core Readings, Section II.

repository.ifla.org

LRMoo · object-oriented model of bibliographic information

The object-oriented counterpart to IFLA LRM: a formal ontology for bibliographic and museum information, designed as an extension of CIDOC CRM and aligned with LRM. Version 1.0 was fully approved in April 2024. IFLA’s Bibliographic Conceptual Models Review Group supports maintenance of LRM, FRBRoo, and PRESSoo, the related model for serials and other continuing resources. LRMoo is the model layer beneath projects that express library data as RDF, such as the MARC-to-LRM/RDA/RDF mapping in Section II.

cidoc-crm.org/lrmoo

FRBRoo · object-oriented version of FRBR, FRAD, and FRSAD

IFLA’s object-oriented recasting of the FRBR family (2017; version 2.4), now superseded by LRMoo, which succeeds and builds on it. Kept for context: LRMoo is understood in relation to it.

repository.ifla.org (FRBRoo definition)

AACR2 · Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition

The descriptive standard RDA replaced. Kept here, dated and labeled rather than erased, because a great many legacy catalog records still reflect AACR2 practice and hybrid records are common.

MARC 21

Still the most widely used record-exchange format in production catalogs, even as libraries transition toward BIBFRAME; the specification itself is freely published. Status here reflects its current role in practice, not its direction of travel.

See also: MODS.

loc.gov/marc

BIBFRAME · Bibliographic Framework Initiative

The Library of Congress's linked-data vocabulary for describing bibliographic resources, built to eventually succeed MARC. The entire LC catalog has now been converted at id.loc.gov; a Conversion 3.0 was announced in December 2025 and an update forum held in February 2026, showcasing production tools including the Marva editor and the Scriptshifter transliteration tool. Emerging here describes adoption, not readiness: BIBFRAME is in production use at the Library of Congress, but the field has not settled on it the way it still relies on MARC 21. See also knowledge graphs, Section VII.

loc.gov/bibframe

MARC21 to LRM/RDA/RDF Mapping and Conversion Project · M2R / MARC2RDA

An independent, volunteer-led, open-source effort, begun in 2021 at the University of Washington Libraries, to map MARC21 bibliographic records to LRM/RDA/RDF and convert them with an XSLT transformation — a route from legacy records to the IFLA LRM and Official RDA that does not run through BIBFRAME. Phase I (concluded September 2025) covered single-expression manifestations and simple augmentation aggregates, and published mapping spreadsheets, transformation code, documentation, sample transformed records from the Library of Congress, the University of Washington Libraries, and the National Library of New Zealand, and an online conversion tool. Phase II extends the work to more complex aggregates and diachronic works. The project cautions that its output data and URIs are experimental, not persistent, and not ready for production. Co-led by Crystal E. Yragui and Cypress Payne (West Virginia University). The project’s documentation site is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the code license was not confirmed in the sources checked here, so confirm it in the repository before reuse.

marc2rda.info

github.com/crystalyragui/MARC2RDA

MODS · Metadata Object Description Schema

The Library of Congress's XML schema and guidelines for encoding a resource description. It can carry selected data from MARC 21 records and also supports original description, using language-based element names rather than MARC's numeric tags, which has made it a common descriptive layer in digital library systems; MODS records are often embedded in METS packages. Maintained by the MODS/MADS Editorial Committee with LC's Network Development and MARC Standards Office. Its companion for authority data is MADS (Section VI).

See also: MADS (Section VI), METS, MARC 21.

loc.gov/standards/mods

DCMI Metadata Terms · Dublin Core

The cross-domain vocabulary — the DCMI Metadata Terms, which extend the original fifteen-element Dublin Core set — still used and taught as one of the simplest on-ramps to structured description, and the schema Omeka is built around (Section IX).

See also: DCTAP.

dublincore.org

DCTAP · DC Tabular Application Profiles

A DCMI community specification for writing a metadata application profile as a table. Each row names a property and the rules for using it in one project: whether it is mandatory or repeatable, what kind of value it takes, and any constraint on those values. Only the propertyID column is required, and profiles are usually saved as CSV, so a profile can be drafted in any spreadsheet. DCTAP is the intermediate step between a general vocabulary such as DCMI Metadata Terms and the records a project creates. Supporting tools include dctap-python, which reads a profile and reports problems, and Tapir, a graphical editor; related tools generate SHACL shapes from a profile. A profile states rules; testing records against them is a separate step (see SHACL). The specification's license was not checked for this edition, so it is labeled Free to access. A sample profile for student projects is linked below.

See also: DCMI Metadata Terms, SHACL (Section VII), SHACL Playground (Section XIV).

dublincore.org/specifications/dctap/primer

github.com/dcmi/dctap

toolbox-sample-dctap.csv (sample profile, CSV)

METS · Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard

Structural metadata for digital library objects — how pages, files, and behaviors of a digital object relate to one another.

See also: MODS, BagIt.

loc.gov/standards/mets

PREMIS · Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies

A widely used standard for documenting the preservation history and integrity of digital objects.

See also: BagIt, DART (Section X), CLOCKSS (Section X).

loc.gov/standards/premis

BagIt · File Packaging Format (RFC 8493)

A set of file-layout conventions for storing and transferring digital content. A bag is a folder holding the payload files plus small text tag files, including a manifest that lists every payload file with its checksum, so a receiving system can verify that what arrived matches what was packaged. Developed by the Library of Congress and the California Digital Library; version 1.0 was published as RFC 8493 in October 2018. A packaging specification, not software: DART (Section X) creates and validates bags. The teaching question: what exactly travels with a digital object, and how do we check that the transferred files match what was packaged?

See also: DART (Section X), PREMIS, METS.

rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8493

TEI · Text Encoding Initiative

A widely used markup standard for representing humanities texts in machine-readable form; still very actively maintained.

tei-c.org

EAD · Encoded Archival Description

The archival finding-aid encoding standard. The Library of Congress presents EAD4 as the current version; EAD3 and the older EAD 2002 persist in existing finding aids and tools.

See also: ArchivesSpace (Section IX), AtoM (Section IX).

loc.gov/ead

IIIF · International Image Interoperability Framework

A widely adopted framework for interoperable delivery of digitized images and audiovisual material across institutions.

iiif.io

PBCore

Metadata standard for public broadcasting and audiovisual archives.

pbcore.org

SCORM · Sharable Content Object Reference Model

Not primarily a metadata standard, despite often being filed as one — it's a content-packaging and runtime-communication specification (how an e-learning package is structured, and how it talks to the LMS via a JavaScript API), with a metadata layer folded in. Frozen since 2009 and still widely supported — many LMS platforms still import it — even though current guidance from the field treats it as legacy rather than the forward-looking choice.

See also: Common Cartridge.

adlnet.gov/scorm

xAPI (Experience API) / cmi5

xAPI (2013) tracks learning activity as "noun, verb, object" statements sent to a Learning Record Store, capturing activity SCORM can't see — offline, cross-device, outside the LMS entirely. cmi5 is a profile built on xAPI that adds back SCORM-style launch and completion structure. Some current guidance, including from the US Department of Defense, treats cmi5 as SCORM's intended successor for new development; SCORM's large existing content library is a main reason it has not been displaced outright. xAPI and cmi5 are related but not interchangeable: confirm which one a system actually supports.

See also: Common Cartridge.

xapi.com

Common Cartridge · 1EdTech

1EdTech's standard for packaging and exchanging digital learning materials and assessments between publishers, learning platforms, portals, and repositories, including links to LTI tools. A cartridge bundles content, activities, and assessments, and its learning objects can be tagged with topics, object types, and academic standards; version 1.4 adds accessibility and K-12 metadata. Mixed because version 1.3 is public while the 1.4 specification, implementation guide, validators, and certification materials are for members. These specifications address related but different problems: packaging and exchanging learning resources (Common Cartridge), packaging content and communicating with a learning platform at runtime (SCORM), and recording learning activity (xAPI and cmi5). They are not interchangeable. Aletheia (Section IX) is a reported implementation example: it exports Common Cartridge files, which is not evidence of certification or of tested compatibility beyond what its developer reports.

See also: SCORM, xAPI (Experience API) / cmi5, Aletheia (Section IX).

1edtech.org/standards/cc

IEEE LOM · Learning Object Metadata (IEEE 1484.12.1)

Present in the 2001 original under “Digital Learning Objects”; formally still alive (revised as recently as 2020, clearing IEEE's 10-year automatic-withdrawal rule), but its real ambition — a rich, nine-category schema meant to make learning objects discoverable and reusable across a networked ecosystem of repositories — never really arrived. All elements are optional, and most real records populate only a thin slice. Most often met today as the metadata layer folded into SCORM above. IEEE publishes the standard text, which is sold; free secondary descriptions exist.

schema.org

Cross-domain structured-data vocabulary consumed directly by search engines; used throughout this site's own JSON-LD. See also knowledge graphs and validation tools, Sections VII and XIV.

schema.org

ISBN · International ISBN Agency and national agencies

Assignment runs through national agencies, and fees and terms vary by agency and country; in the US, ISBNs are assigned through Bowker for a fee. The scheme itself is not proprietary: the cost is a registration service — unlike most of the open identifiers below.

isbn-international.org

ISSN · ISSN International Centre and national centers

Registered through national ISSN centers — in the US, through the Library of Congress — typically free to the depositing publisher. Terms vary by country, and access to the international registry’s database and services is separate from assignment.

issn.org

LCCN · Library of Congress Control Number, via the Preassigned Control Number (PCN) Program

Missing from the 2001 original entirely; distinct from ISBN. PCN assigns only the number itself — no cataloging — which is what distinguishes it from CIP below. The service is free, but eligibility is restricted; see LC’s PCN pages for who may apply.

loc.gov/programs/preassigned-control-number

CIP · Cataloging in Publication Program

One of the most consequential LC programs for daily cataloging practice. Eligible US publishers submit forthcoming titles through PrePub Book Link; an LC cataloger then does the actual work — full descriptive cataloging, subject headings, LC classification, and often DDC — before the book exists. The resulting CIP data block is printed on the book's copyright page and distributed electronically to libraries and vendors in advance of publication. For a cataloger, a CIP block is frequently the starting point for a full record rather than something built from scratch: LC's own cataloging labor here becomes reusable by every other library that acquires the book. Distinct from PCN above, which assigns only the control number with no cataloging attached; eligibility differs between the two programs, so check LC’s current CIP and PCN eligibility pages before assuming either is closed to a given publisher. Program availability depends on funding: PrePub Book Link submissions were reported suspended during the October–November 2025 federal shutdown. Check LC’s program page for current status.

loc.gov/programs/cataloging-in-publication

DOI · registered through Crossref (scholarly literature) or DataCite (datasets and research objects)

"DOI" names the identifier scheme; Crossref and DataCite are two of several registration agencies that actually register them, and it's the agency, not the DOI Foundation abstractly, that a depositing organization deals with. Resolving a DOI is free, but registering one usually costs the depositing organization; fees vary by agency.

See also: Eunomia's Labors.

crossref.org

Eunomia's Labors · Crossref deposits for rhetoric and composition journals

A free service, run by Justin Lewis (Olympic College), that helps small rhetoric and composition journals register DOIs with Crossref and deposit the reference lists that go with them. It keeps two jobs distinct: registering a DOI identifies an article, while depositing its reference list records what the article cites, which is what makes citation networks possible downstream. For each journal, Lewis builds a scraper for the archive, extracts reference lists, matches them against existing DOIs, audits the results by hand, and produces a validated deposit file. The service itself carries no charge; the journal pays Crossref for membership and DOI registration and keeps control of its own DOI prefix and credentials. Lewis has no affiliation or partnership with Crossref. Its site reported six journals and about 31,000 deposited references as of September 2026. A sister site to Pinakes, whose citation data depends on exactly these deposits.

See also: DOI, Pinakes (Section XII).

eunomiaslabors.xyz

ORCID

Open, persistent researcher identifier; the registry itself, distinct from ORCID-the-concept. Central to this site's own entity-resolution practice. Individual registration is free; terms for institutional membership and API use differ.

orcid.org

ISNI · International Standard Name Identifier

Persistent identifier for public identities — people and organizations — feeding into VIAF and library authority files (Section VI). Public lookup is separate from assignment: terms and fees for assignment vary, so check with the ISNI agency.

isni.org

ARK · Archival Resource Key

Persistent identifier scheme widely used by libraries and archives for digital objects, independent of any single resolver. The scheme is free to use; hosting a resolver and managing the identifiers has its own costs.

arks.org

Proprietary author identifiers · Scopus Author ID, Web of Science ResearcherID

Distinct from ORCID/ISNI above: these are controlled by the vendors that issue them, so their terms and portability differ from ORCID and ISNI, even though they're commonly encountered alongside the open identifiers in the same workflows.

Library of Congress Classification (LCC) · Classification Web

The classification scheme is published by the Library of Congress; the outline is publicly browsable, while full working access to Classification Web is a paid subscription. The free LC Classification Outline gives the main classes and subdivisions, a stable place to learn the logic of LCC before using the schedules.

classweb.loc.gov

loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco (LC Classification Outline)

Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) · WebDewey

DDC is a licensed scheme, and WebDewey is OCLC's subscription tool for full access; DDC itself has also been converted to linked data as part of OCLC's WorldCat Entities work (Section VII). OCLC also publishes DDC Summaries, an overview of the ten main classes and their divisions, a lighter way to see the structure without a subscription; use is subject to OCLC's terms.

oclc.org/dewey

oclc.org/research (DDC Summaries)

Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)

Maintained by the UDC Consortium. The UDC Summary is free to browse online; the full scheme (the Master Reference File) is licensed, so the summary should not be taken as access to the whole classification.

udcc.org

NLM Classification

Still actively maintained by the National Library of Medicine, updated in winter and summer editions each year (check the site for the current edition).

classification.nlm.nih.gov

Colon Classification · S. R. Ranganathan

The first fully faceted, analytico-synthetic scheme, developed by Ranganathan between 1924 and 1928 and first published in 1933; its seventh edition (1987) appeared posthumously. Built on five fundamental categories — personality, matter, energy, space, and time (PMEST) — combined by a citation order. Little used for shelving today and not being adopted by new libraries, but still taught, and the clearest way to see facet analysis and a faceted approach set beside the enumerative LCC and DDC. See also UDC above, and Core Readings. Retained here principally for teaching rather than as a current operational option. The scheme itself was published in print editions and its current access terms were not verified for this edition; the linked ISKO Encyclopedia article is free to read.

See also: Madras Library Association (MALA) (Professional organizations), Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS) (Professional organizations).

isko.org/cyclo/colon_classification

BISAC Subject Headings · Book Industry Study Group (BISG)

The subject categorization used across publishing and bookselling, assigned by publishers so that retailers can place a book on the right shelf or page. A useful contrast with library-controlled vocabularies: who assigns the subject, for whom, and for what purpose. BISG lets anyone browse the full list free of charge (2025 edition); a paid license is needed to download the complete list for use in business systems, and redistribution without permission is not allowed.

bisg.org/complete-bisac-subject-headings-list

OCLC Classify · experimental classification service

Developed in 2008 as an experimental service that suggested Dewey and LC classification numbers and related subject headings drawn from WorldCat records. OCLC discontinued its web interface and API on 31 January 2024, citing aging infrastructure, so it is no longer something to assign. It is kept here, dated and labeled, because it appears in a great deal of cataloging teaching material. OCLC points subscribers to WorldShare Record Manager and the WorldCat Metadata API, which can return the most popular LC and Dewey numbers for an OCLC number.

help.oclc.org (Why OCLC discontinued Classify)

LCSH via id.loc.gov

Library of Congress Subject Headings, now published as linked data with stable URIs.

id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects

FAST · Faceted Application of Subject Terminology

OCLC and LC's simplified, faceted derivative of LCSH, built for low-cost application at web scale by non-specialist staff; released under an open data license.

oclc.org/research/fast

Sears List of Subject Headings

The children's- and school-library-oriented counterpart to LCSH, regularly revised as a licensed publication.

Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM)

Library of Congress vocabulary for indexing pictorial and graphic materials.

loc.gov/pictures/collection/tgm

Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) · Getty Vocabularies

Now published as Linked Open Data alongside Getty's other vocabularies (ULAN, TGN).

getty.edu/vocabularies/aat

MeSH · Medical Subject Headings

The National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary for biomedical literature.

meshb.nlm.nih.gov

NISO Z39.19 · Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies

The US baseline for constructing monolingual thesauri. The edition linked here is Z39.19-2005 (R2010), so check NISO for the current status. See also SKOS, Section VII, the encoding such vocabularies are now typically published in.

niso.org/publications/z3919-2005-r2010

ISO 25964 · thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies

The international standard for thesauri, covering interoperability between vocabularies; it complements and in part succeeds Z39.19 above. ISO standards documents are typically sold (see ISO, Section XIV), unlike the NISO standard above.

Intentional Arrangement SKOS · Jessica Talisman (2026), v0.17.3

A browser-based editor for building SKOS controlled vocabularies, taxonomies and thesauri, with SKOS-XL labels, ISO 25964 relationships, Dublin Core metadata, qSKOS validation and SPARQL querying. Imports and exports Turtle, RDF/XML, JSON-LD, CSV and Excel. Runs entirely in the browser, so vocabularies stay local unless you choose to publish them. Licensing is size-based and source-available, not OSI-approved open source: free to eligible small organizations (fewer than 75 employees, counting affiliated entities), with a separate written enterprise license required above that, which will apply to most university libraries. Taxonomies you create remain your own. Emerging here describes both development and adoption: the tool is new (2026; v0.17.3 at the time of writing), and adoption in cataloging practice is not yet documented on this page. A companion to Talisman’s Ontology Pipeline (see Core Readings).

jesstalisman-ia.github.io/intentional-arrangement-skos

GeoNames

An open geographical database of place names and coordinates, widely used for linking place names in metadata. Data is freely available; check its current license terms before reuse.

geonames.org

GEOnet Names Server · U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

The NGA’s database of foreign place names, the 2001-era source for such names. It is a distinct resource from GeoNames.org; confirm its current availability and update schedule with the NGA before relying on it.

LC Name Authority File (NAF) via id.loc.gov

Now published as linked data with stable URIs, replacing the vendor-specific authority lookups (e.g. the defunct DRA LC Authority Search) that the 2001 page pointed to.

See also: MADS.

id.loc.gov/authorities/names

VIAF · Virtual International Authority File

Aggregates national authority files into a single linked-data identity hub; didn't exist in 2001.

viaf.org

SNAC · Social Networks and Archival Contexts

A free, online resource for discovering primary source documents — photographs, letters, sound recordings — held by archives, libraries, and museums, and for tracing connections among the people, families, and organizations behind them across time and place. SNAC records are authority records, linked to one another by context and to other authority records, finding aids, and resources elsewhere. Hosted by the University of Virginia Library and the University of Maryland's IndigenizeSNAC, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Its SNACSchool offers training in creating, editing, and merging records, and recordings of past sessions are posted publicly.

portal.snaccooperative.org/about

MADS · Metadata Authority Description Schema

MODS's companion: an XML schema for describing authoritative entities, namely agents such as people and organizations, events such as conferences, and terms such as topics, places, and genres. Most MADS elements have equivalents in the MARC 21 Authority Format, which makes it a bridge between the encoding standards in Section II and the authority files in this section. Maintained by the MODS/MADS Editorial Committee with the Library of Congress.

See also: MODS (Section II), LC Name Authority File (NAF) via id.loc.gov.

loc.gov/standards/mads

Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) · NACO, SACO, BIBCO, CONSER

The actual participation structure behind authority-record contribution, absent from the 2001 page entirely. Distinct in angle from Core Readings' PCC Task Group on AI/ML link — that one is a report to read, this is the governance program itself. PCC’s documentation is public; contributing through NACO, SACO, BIBCO, or CONSER requires institutional participation.

loc.gov/aba/pcc

RDF / RDFS / OWL

The W3C stack underlying every linked-data vocabulary on this page — BIBFRAME, schema.org, SKOS vocabularies, and the identity graphs below.

w3.org/standards/techs/rdf

SKOS · Simple Knowledge Organization System

The W3C standard now used to publish thesauri and controlled vocabularies as linked data. See also Section V.

w3.org/2004/02/skos

SHACL · Shapes Constraint Language

The W3C standard for checking whether RDF data meets stated requirements. A validator takes a data graph and a shapes graph, the rules written as node and property shapes, and produces a validation report, itself an RDF graph, listing each result. It supplies the missing link between publishing linked data and testing it. SHACL became a W3C Recommendation in 2017, and a SHACL 1.2 revision is in draft. To run validation rather than read about it, use the SHACL Playground (Section XIV).

See also: DCTAP (Section II), SHACL Playground (Section XIV), RDF / RDFS / OWL.

w3.org/TR/shacl

Wikidata

The leading open knowledge graph; its data is CC0. Wikidata was recognized as a Digital Public Good in October 2025. Zenodo’s community pages — including the ALISE ART and Infophilia Research communities — sit adjacent to this same linked-data ecosystem.

See also — knowledge graphs. Google’s Knowledge Graph (2012) popularized the term, and Wikidata is the leading open example. OCLC’s WorldCat Entities is the concrete, current library-sector case: past 150 million entities, adding URIs for Works, Persons, Places, Organizations, Concepts, and Events directly into WorldCat MARC records as $1 links, with DDC itself converted into linked-data “concept” entities as of late 2024. help.oclc.org/WorldCat_Entities

See also: Scholia (Section XII), OpenAlex (Section XII), LINCS.

diff.wikimedia.org (Digital Public Good)

wikidata.org

Wikibase

The open-source software underlying Wikidata, which institutions can also run on their own to build a separate linked-data knowledge base. Distinct from Wikidata itself: the software and the data have different openness arrangements.

wikiba.se

LINCS · Linked Infrastructure for Networked Cultural Scholarship

A Canadian infrastructure project that converts, connects, enhances, and publishes cultural research as linked open data for the humanities. It runs in the Digital Research Alliance of Canada cloud, with storage and preservation through University of Victoria Libraries and the Borealis Dataverse. CIDOC CRM is its core ontology, with extensions including FRBRoo and CRMdig; published data is queryable through SPARQL endpoints, and its tools include ResearchSpace. Its data management plan commits published data to the FAIR principles and, for Indigenous and Traditional Knowledges, to the CARE Principles; final linked data is typically released under CC BY 4.0, with an exemption from open sharing available for reasons such as data sovereignty or community rights, and its code is open source. One example dataset, Historical Canadians, created by Jim Clifford, Susan Brown, and others, draws on the Dictionary of Canadian Biography with Wikidata and models families, occupations, and residences; its team chose not to carry over nationality and ethnicity designations because decolonized vocabularies for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people were lacking. The far end of the spectrum from a personal research graph: formal ontologies, persistent identifiers, and institutional infrastructure. Checked 18 October 2026.

See also: Wikidata, FRBRoo (Section I), SPARQL (Section XIII), Local Contexts (Section XV).

portal.lincsproject.ca

portal.lincsproject.ca/docs/explore-lod/project-datasets/hist-cdns

portal.lincsproject.ca/docs/about-lincs/policies/data-management-plan

WordNet

Princeton's electronic lexical database; Princeton states that it is no longer developed, though the database and tools remain freely available to download. Its role has also diminished relative to newer NLP resources since 2001.

wordnet.princeton.edu

MarcEdit

Terry Reese's free, widely used MARC batch-editing tool. Freeware, not open source: the developer states that MarcEdit is not open source; includes linked-data tooling (MARCNext) resolving to VIAF, id.loc.gov, and FAST.

marcedit.reeset.net

OpenRefine

General-purpose tool for cleaning and reconciling messy tabular and non-MARC data against external vocabularies; more flexible than MarcEdit but with a steeper learning curve, and often used alongside it.

See also: OpenMetadata.

openrefine.org

OCLC Connexion · cataloging client

OCLC’s cataloging client, distinct from the web-based WorldShare Record Manager below and from WorldShare Management Services, the full LSP (Section XI). Its AI Enrichment macro is listed below.

oclc.org

WorldShare Record Manager

OCLC’s web-based cataloging interface, a different tool from the Connexion client and from WorldShare Management Services. OCLC points former Classify users to Record Manager and the WorldCat Metadata API (see OCLC Classify, Section IV).

OCLC AI Enrichment macro · Connexion client

A macro for the Connexion client (OCLCAIEnrichment in Macro Manager) that proposes Dewey Decimal Classification numbers, Library of Congress Classification numbers, and Library of Congress Subject Headings for an open record or workform — up to three classification and five subject suggestions. OCLC states that the suggestions are based on existing WorldCat data; the cataloger checks which to add and may edit the fields afterward. A title is required, and a name and summary give the best results. OCLC's help page dates from October 2025 and was revised in December 2025.

help.oclc.org/OCLC_Cataloging_AI_macro

AI Metadata Assistant · Alma Metadata Editor, Ex Libris (Clarivate)

A generative-AI feature that proposes MARC 21 metadata — subjects, summary notes, content notes, and other fields — to create a new bibliographic record or enrich a brief one, working from a title plus optional author, ISBN, notes, or uploaded images and documents. Ex Libris says the suggestions are for review by a cataloger, appear as unsaved drafts marked “AI Generated” or “AI Enriched,” and may reflect “limitations, inaccuracies, or biases.” Phase I covers English-language MARC 21 records for books and LC authorities. The feature is off by default; an institution's administrators enable it and assign catalogers a dedicated AI Assisted Cataloging role. Ex Libris states that submitted data is used only for processing, not for training. Emerging here describes development stage: the documentation calls this Phase I, with more languages, formats, and vocabularies planned. Documentation last modified May 2026.

knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/AI_Metadata_Assistant

Digital Metadata Assistant / Metadata Enrichment · Alma Specto, Ex Libris (Clarivate)

An AI feature for digital collections: it analyzes a digital resource's content together with its existing metadata and proposes bibliographic fields, including LCSH subject headings (checked against GND for German) and the MARC 21 347 field for digital file characteristics. Generated fields appear in a distinct color and the title becomes a Working Copy; a provenance note records that AI helped create part of the record. The documentation tells catalogers to check warnings and errors before approving, and to approve or edit at the title level. Documentation page last updated October 2026.

knowledge.ag-software.clarivate.com (Metadata Enrichment workflow)

Normalization rules · Alma Metadata Editor, Ex Libris (Clarivate)

Rules, written in Drools or XSL, that edit or delete fields in bibliographic metadata, conditionally if needed. They run when a record is saved, from the “Enhance the record” menu, on records brought in through import profiles or external searches, and in batch on sets of records. Ex Libris documents them as explicit, programmed rules, not AI — a useful contrast with the AI Metadata Assistant above. Part of Alma, so access depends on an institution’s Alma subscription. Alma's training materials also cover Browse Shelf Listing in the Metadata Editor, alongside searching external resources and browsing headings.

knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Normalization_Rules

knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Search_and_Browse_in_the_Metadata_Editor

ErgoCat · Casey Mullin, Cataloger in the Loop

A sabbatical-stage cataloging interface built from scratch to explore what generative AI and current tooling could do for metadata work, starting with music formats. Chronicled openly, module by module, in a free newsletter. The newsletter is free to read, but the software is not yet distributed, so no access terms for the tool itself are established — not yet a finished, installable tool the way MarcEdit is, which is exactly why it earns the Emerging status rather than a stretched Active. The clearest current example of the case this pill exists for.

catalogerintheloop.substack.com

OpenMetadata

An Apache-2.0-licensed platform for discovering, documenting, and governing organizational data assets. It connects technical metadata with glossaries, classifications, ownership, data-quality information, and lineage, helping users understand what data exists, what it means, where it came from, and what depends on it. A useful comparison with library catalogs and authority systems: its primary focus is organizational data infrastructure rather than bibliographic collections, and lineage is provenance for data assets. Community documentation, a Slack community, and contribution guides are linked from its repository; commercial managed services are offered separately through Collate. Not to be confused with Egeria's "Open Metadata and Governance." An example from organizational data management that extends the Toolbox's library-centered view of metadata.

See also: OpenRefine, PREMIS (Section II).

open-metadata.org

github.com/open-metadata/OpenMetadata

Omeka Classic and Omeka S

Dublin Core is native to Omeka’s schema, making Omeka one of the better hands-on ways to teach structured description. Omeka Classic and Omeka S are free, open-source software (GPL-3.0) that an institution installs and hosts itself.

omeka.org

Omeka.net

The hosted version of Omeka, as distinct from the installable software above. It still has a free plan, but that plan is scoped to a single site with limited themes and plugins; paid plans differ. Verify current terms before building a syllabus around it.

omeka.net

LibraryThing

A social cataloging site. It teaches the opposite lesson from Omeka: uncontrolled, crowdsourced tagging as a counterpoint to controlled vocabulary. Free and paid membership options exist; check current terms. See also LCSH/FAST, Section V, for the controlled-vocabulary contrast.

librarything.com

LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL)

A separate, library-facing product that adds enhancements to a library’s own catalog. LTFL continues shipping OPAC enhancements (tag clouds, “similar books,” ratings and reviews) into 2026.

librarything.com/forlibraries

TinyCat

The companion small-library OPAC product from the LibraryThing family. Distinct from LibraryThing, which is the social cataloging site, and from LTFL, which enhances an existing catalog.

CONTENTdm

OCLC's institutional-grade digital collections platform — the heavier-weight sibling to Omeka.

oclc.org/contentdm

Islandora

Drupal-based digital repository framework that works with a Fedora repository backend (Section X), common in academic and research library digital collections. Architecture and components differ between Islandora versions, so check the version in use.

islandora.ca

CollectionBuilder

Newer, lightweight, static-site-generator-based digital collections tool gaining real traction in LIS teaching specifically because it is open source and needs no application server (hosting, building, and maintenance still have their own costs) — a possible fallback if Omeka.net's free tier keeps shrinking.

collectionbuilder.github.io

Aletheia · open course readers for writing classes

A web tool by Justin Lewis for assembling open-access course readers and assignment sets for rhetoric, composition, and writing-studies classes. An instructor chooses a course focus, starts from a sample course or a blank one, fits it to a term of five to sixteen weeks, and selects from an index of about 2,000 openly licensed readings and 500 assignments; an outcomes tool checks coverage against documents such as the WPA Outcomes Statement, using word-stem matching rather than an AI model. The result exports as a reader (HTML or PDF), a print PDF, a Common Cartridge package, a calendar file, and a .docx syllabus, and a program mode produces a zero-textbook-cost report. The organizing work is selection, arrangement, and packaging, not description. Emerging describes development: the repository describes the project as in early development (October 2026). The code is MIT-licensed and the catalog records are CC BY 4.0, while the works it points to keep their own licenses (checked 18 October 2026). The developer reports that the print PDF is not tagged for accessibility, that the Common Cartridge export has been tested only on Canvas, and that generated courses are a skeleton for instructors to complete.

See also: Common Cartridge (Section II), Pinakes (Section XII).

aletheia-oer.fly.dev

github.com/justalewis/aletheia

justalewis.substack.com/p/aletheia

ArchivesSpace

An open-source, browser-based archives information management system that supports accessioning, arrangement and description, agent and subject records, rights, and reference work. Its underlying descriptive standard is DACS, and it imports and exports EAD, EAC-CPF, MARCXML, METS, MODS, and Dublin Core. Yale Library's implementation documentation, linked below, notes that resource descriptions are based on DACS and can be serialized as EAD, so archivists create descriptions without writing XML directly. Lyrasis is its organizational home, and it is developed under a community membership model. It is not a digital asset management system.

See also: EAD (Section II), SNAC (Section VI), AtoM.

archivesspace.org

guides.library.yale.edu/archivesspace

AtoM · Access to Memory

A web-based, open-source application for standards-based archival description and public access in a multilingual, multi-repository environment. First commissioned by the International Council on Archives, it is built around ICA standards (ISAD(G), ISAAR(CPF), ISDIAH) and imports and exports EAD. Developed and maintained by Artefactual Systems under the AGPLv3 license, with paid hosting and support offered separately. A useful contrast with ArchivesSpace: AtoM leads with public description and access across institutions and languages, ArchivesSpace with the archivist's internal workflow.

See also: ArchivesSpace, EAD (Section II).

accesstomemory.org

github.com/artefactual/atom

DSpace

DSpace 7 introduced a new architecture and interface; the project’s own site now discusses DSpace 10 (news posts dated September 2026). Check dspace.org for current release and migration details before planning around any version.

dspace.org

EPrints

An open-source institutional repository platform from EPrints Services at the University of Southampton, in use for more than two decades. Check eprints.org for the current stable release.

eprints.org

Fedora

The third leg of the classic DSpace/EPrints/Fedora institutional-repository triad; the backend Islandora (Section IX) is built on top of.

fedorarepository.org

Invenio

CERN-built repository framework; InvenioRDM, an application built on it, is the software Zenodo runs on.

inveniosoftware.org

Dataverse

Harvard-originated platform built specifically for research-data deposit, distinct from the document-oriented focus of the platforms above.

dataverse.org

DART · Digital Archivist's Resource Tool

An open-source desktop application from the Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust) for creating BagIt bags that conform to a BagIt profile, validating them, and uploading them to S3-compatible or SFTP storage, with a point-and-click profile editor and repeatable workflows. DART 3 builds jobs in its graphical interface and runs them through a companion command-line tool, DART Runner. Chosen here over Bagger, whose repository states that the Library of Congress is reviewing next steps for its future.

See also: BagIt (Section II).

docs.aptrust.org/dart-docs/dart3

github.com/APTrust/dart

CLOCKSS · Controlled LOCKSS archive

A dark archive for web-published scholarly content, governed by participating publishers and libraries and built on LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) technology from Stanford, with copies held at twelve archive nodes at libraries around the world. Content stays dark until a trigger event, such as a journal disappearing from the web, when the CLOCKSS Board can release it for free public access. Participation is funded by publisher and library fees while triggered content is free to everyone, hence Mixed. The Center for Research Libraries certified it as a trustworthy digital repository in 2014. It answers a different question from BagIt and PREMIS: who holds copies for decades, and under what conditions do they open?

See also: BagIt (Section II), PREMIS (Section II).

clockss.org

NOTIS & Dynix · the Ameritech lineage

NOTIS was Northwestern's mainframe system; its demise was structural, not competitive — it ran on IBM mainframes that became obsolete as smaller servers took over. Dynix (founded 1983) and NOTIS were both acquired by Ameritech and merged into Ameritech Library Services in 1994.

Horizon · SirsiDynix

Descended from an internal Dynix project called Marquis. SirsiDynix announced in 2007 that it would consolidate on Unicorn (later rebranded Symphony), but its current Horizon page describes active development and continuous support, so Horizon cannot be filed with the historical systems above.

sirsidynix.com/horizon

Voyager & Aleph · Ex Libris legacy ILS

Voyager was built by Endeavor Information Systems, founded by the same people who had been developing NOTIS's own abandoned client/server successor. Ex Libris acquired Endeavor in 2006; both Voyager and Aleph are in a migration period, with Ex Libris offering dedicated migration paths to Alma; Ex Libris support documentation still lists both products, and sunset dates vary by product, so confirm them with the vendor. Syracuse, for instance, retired a Voyager instance running since 1997 in 2024.

Alma · Ex Libris (Clarivate)

The explicit migration target for Voyager and Aleph; among the largest recent moves, the British Library moved to Alma following its October 2023 ransomware attack. Its AI Metadata Assistant and normalization rules are listed in Section VIII.

exlibrisgroup.com/alma

SirsiDynix Symphony / BLUEcloud

Symphony (Unicorn's eventual rebrand) is the flagship ILS of the Sirsi/Dynix family, paired since 2013 with the web-based BLUEcloud suite of applications; the two are a system and its application suite, not interchangeable names.

sirsidynix.com

OCLC WorldShare Management Services (WMS)

OCLC's own LSP, distinct from Connexion/Record Manager, the cataloging client (Section VIII).

oclc.org/worldshare-management-services

FOLIO

Open-source LSP built through a broad library-community collaboration.

folio.org

Koha

One of the most widely deployed open-source ILS in the world.

koha-community.org

Sierra · Innovative Interfaces (Clarivate)

The other major commercial player alongside Alma and Symphony; still receives active development and support, often paired with Clarivate's Vega discovery layer.

iii.com/sierra

EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS)

A widely used index-based discovery service; adoption comparisons across vendors shift from year to year and depend on which libraries are counted. Built around a large, EBSCO-maintained central index of licensed article and e-resource content that patrons search alongside local holdings in one box.

ebsco.com/eds

Ex Libris Primo (VE)

Tightly integrated with Alma (Section XI); Primo VE eliminates the separate Primo back office entirely, configuring discovery through Alma directly. Primo VE is the Alma-integrated edition of Primo; Primo and Summon (formerly Serials Solutions) are distinct Ex Libris discovery products.

exlibrisgroup.com/primo

OCLC WorldCat Discovery

The natural discovery-layer pairing for OCLC WorldShare Management Services (Section XI), built on WorldCat's own shared bibliographic data.

oclc.org/worldcat-discovery

VuFind

An open-source library discovery interface. It is one common choice for FOLIO (Section XI), which ships with no patron-facing search of its own and has to be paired with a discovery layer. Libraries often pair open-source interfaces with a commercial central index anyway — EBSCO sells EDS integration for VuFind — and an open-source interface does not automatically mean open data underneath.

vufind.org

Blacklight

An open-source discovery interface framework, widely used in academic libraries and digital collections. As with VuFind, an open-source interface does not automatically mean open data underneath, and libraries may pair it with a commercial central index.

projectblacklight.org

Yale Library AI Connector · Yale University Library

Connects AI assistants that support the Model Context Protocol (MCP), with Claude and ChatGPT named as the most reliable, to Yale Library's catalog (almost 15 million records) and digital collections (nearly 185,000 records) through the library's MCP server, so researchers can request library resources within an AI conversation. Opened to the Yale community for beta testing on 15 October 2026, after staff testing and a fall 2025 student diary study. Retrieval covers catalog and digital-collections records, not licensed articles or article databases such as JSTOR and EBSCO. Emerging describes development: the service is in beta. Access is Restricted: use is limited to the Yale community. The software license was not verified, and AI-platform requirements and licensing should be assessed separately from eligibility. A useful example of AI-mediated discovery built on curated library metadata, distinct from AI-assisted cataloging (Section VIII): library metadata, then a retrieval connection, then an AI assistant, then the researcher. Grounding retrieval in library records is not an independent evaluation of every resulting answer. Checked 18 October 2026.

See also: AI Metadata Assistant (Section VIII), VuFind.

library.yale.edu/news/yale-librarys-ai-connector-library-sources-no…

library.yale.edu/news/yale-library-testing-ai-powered-connection-de…

OpenAlex

A free, open index of the global research system: works, authors, institutions, sources, topics, publishers, and funders, linked to one another and to DOIs, ORCID iDs, and ROR IDs. Built by the nonprofit OurResearch as a successor to Microsoft Academic Graph, it offers a web interface, an API (free, with a free API key), and monthly bulk snapshots; the data is CC0. Annotated here both as a scholarly index and as reusable metadata infrastructure: Pinakes, for one, draws its institutional affiliations from it. The infrastructure example: how identifiers and entity relationships make metadata reusable across applications.

See also: ORCID (Section III), Wikidata (Section VII), Pinakes.

openalex.org

docs.openalex.org

Scholia

Visual scholarly profiles of researchers, organizations, venues, works, and topics, generated on the fly by SPARQL queries against Wikidata. The code is open source (GPL-3.0), and the web app runs on Wikimedia Toolforge. Profiles show only what Wikidata records, so gaps in Wikidata's coverage of the scholarly literature become gaps in Scholia, and the Toolforge instance currently notes that it can reach only part of the data after changes to the Wikidata Query Service, with a fuller mirror under evaluation; check its banner before demonstrating it. The clearest linked-data example: students can connect an interface to the structured statements and queries behind it.

See also: Wikidata (Section VII), SPARQL (Section XIII).

scholia.toolforge.org

github.com/WDscholia/scholia

Open Knowledge Maps

A free visual search engine from a Vienna-based nonprofit. A keyword search gathers about 100 relevant documents from BASE (all disciplines) or PubMed (life sciences) and clusters them into a knowledge map of topic areas using the similarity of their metadata. The project shares its source code, content, and data under open licenses. The useful contrast: relationships computed from textual similarity, not from citations or explicitly recorded subject relationships.

See also: Pinakes, OpenAlex.

openknowledgemaps.org

Pinakes · Rhetoric & Composition

A free disciplinary index of scholarship in rhetoric, composition, writing studies, and technical communication, covering more than 50,000 articles from 54 journals and about 800 scholarly books, hosted by the WAC Clearinghouse. Built by Justin Lewis (Olympic College), who describes it as a personal scholarly tool shared publicly rather than peer-reviewed infrastructure. It updates from Crossref, RSS feeds, and web scraping; assigns each article topics automatically from a 61-term disciplinary vocabulary; and combines subject browsing with citation exploration, author profiles, co-authorship and citation networks, and a coverage page explaining which journals deposit reference data. Not to be confused with the IRHT's Pinakes database of Greek manuscripts. Emerging describes development: its developer presents it as a one-person scholarly tool rather than peer-reviewed infrastructure, and it is still changing, having moved to WAC Clearinghouse hosting in September 2026 while adding coverage and tools, which a What's New page tracks. The disciplinary-design example: someone selects a corpus and builds a particular representation of a field, and metadata aggregation, automated subject assignment, and coverage gaps all shape what can be discovered.

See also: Eunomia's Labors (Section III), Open Knowledge Maps, OpenAlex.

pinakes.wacclearinghouse.org

pinakes.wacclearinghouse.org/about

Z39.50 · NISO/ANSI Z39.50, also ISO 23950

The Library of Congress is the Maintenance Agency and Registration Authority for both the NISO and ISO editions, which are technically identical. Still present in many ILS platforms, but less used in new development than SRU and REST APIs.

loc.gov/z39-50

SRU / SRW · Search/Retrieve via URL / Web Service

A more web-native alternative to Z39.50 for structured search. SRU and SRW are related but distinct bindings of the same search model, so check which one a system supports.

loc.gov/standards/sru

OAI-PMH · Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting

The harvesting protocol underlying interoperability across the repository platforms in Section X (EPrints, DSpace, Invenio all comply with it).

openarchives.org/pmh

SPARQL

The W3C query language for RDF data, used to query linked-data endpoints such as the Wikidata Query Service.

See also: Scholia (Section XII).

w3.org/TR/sparql11-query

NISO · National Information Standards Organization

niso.org

W3C · World Wide Web Consortium

w3.org

ISO · International Organization for Standardization

ISO standards documents themselves are typically sold, unlike most of the NISO/W3C output above.

iso.org

DCMI · Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

dublincore.org

Creative Commons

The nonprofit behind the Creative Commons licenses, the licensing framework this site itself uses (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, carried in every Infophilia-ecosystem footer).

See also: RightsStatements.org, Local Contexts (Section XV).

creativecommons.org

License Chooser · Creative Commons

A practical companion to the licensing framework: the Chooser generates standardized, machine-readable license markup rather than requiring hand-written HTML.

creativecommons.org/chooser

RightsStatements.org

A small set of standardized rights statements that libraries, archives, and museums use to tell online visitors the copyright and reuse status of digital objects. Each statement has its own URI, which institutions store in a rights element of the record. Unlike Creative Commons licenses, the statements grant no permission; they give information, and they cover cases where the institution does not hold the rights. Launched in 2016 by Europeana and the Digital Public Library of America, and used by aggregators including both; since April 2026 its organizational home is Digital Scholar, the nonprofit behind Omeka and Zotero. Reuse terms for the statements themselves were not checked for this edition.

See also: Creative Commons, Local Contexts (Section XV).

rightsstatements.org

schema.org Markup Validator and Google's Rich Results Test

Two distinct, complementary checks: the schema.org validator (successor to Google's old Structured Data Testing Tool) checks markup against the schema.org vocabulary across JSON-LD/RDFa/Microdata (a clean result is not a guarantee of full specification compliance or of search eligibility); the Rich Results Test checks Search-eligibility specifically, a narrower question. Both are what this site's own JSON-LD is checked against to reach zero errors and zero warnings.

See also: SHACL Playground.

validator.schema.org

SHACL Playground · Zazuko

A browser-based place to write SHACL shapes, paste in RDF data, and examine the validation results. Validation runs entirely client-side in JavaScript, so nothing is uploaded. Released as open source under the AGPL. It lets students run validation rather than only read about it; pair it with SHACL (Section VII) and DCTAP (Section II).

See also: SHACL (Section VII), DCTAP (Section II).

shacl-playground.zazuko.com

github.com/zazuko/shacl-playground

Cataloging Lab

Moved here from Core Readings' Section III, where it sat among scholarly critiques (Berman, Drabinski, Olson) despite being a toolkit rather than a reading. Clearinghouse for reparative-cataloging proposals, subject-heading change advocacy, and community documentation of practice.

cataloginglab.org

Homosaurus

The anchor vocabulary of the reparative-cataloging movement, used for LGBTQIA+ subject access alongside broader reparative-description work at institutions including Harvard's HOLLIS.

homosaurus.org

Brian Deer Classification · Xwi7xwa Classification

The Brian Deer Classification System, developed by a Kahnawake Mohawk librarian, and UBC's Xwi7xwa Classification are alternatives to LCC/DDC built to organize materials about Indigenous peoples from an Indigenous perspective, adopted and adapted by several tribal and First Nations libraries. Public descriptions are freely available; reuse terms and cultural authority over these schemes rest with the communities and institutions that maintain them, so check with them before adapting.

See also: Local Contexts.

xwi7xwa.library.ubc.ca

Local Contexts · Traditional Knowledge & Biocultural Labels and Notices

An initiative supporting Indigenous data sovereignty. Indigenous communities customize Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Biocultural (BC) Labels to state their own rules for attribution, access, and use of cultural heritage and data, and institutions and researchers apply Notices; both are created through the Local Contexts Hub and can be carried into systems such as Omeka S (through a module), Mukurtu, and DataCite metadata. The point for metadata work: authority over reuse rests with the community, not the holding institution, a question Creative Commons licenses and RightsStatements.org do not settle. Public descriptions are free to read; Hub account terms were not checked for this edition.

See also: RightsStatements.org (Section XIV), Brian Deer Classification, Omeka Classic and Omeka S (Section IX).

localcontexts.org

localcontextshub.org

ZineCat · the Zine Union Catalog

A union catalog for zines, grown out of a CUNY Graduate Center Digital Humanities capstone project — explicitly framed by its own community as “an open source WorldCat specifically for zines,” since zine holdings are inconsistently represented in WorldCat itself. The catalog runs on the open-source CollectiveAccess software below; the software’s license does not by itself make the catalog’s records open.

zinecat.org

Zine Subject Thesaurus

A companion vocabulary built because zines resist LCSH: a hierarchical thesaurus its maintainers describe as more accessible, current, and radical than standard subject thesauri. A concrete case, alongside Homosaurus above, of a community building its own vocabulary because the standard one doesn’t serve its materials. Check the maintainers’ terms before reusing it.

CollectiveAccess

Open-source collections-management software, the platform ZineCat is built on. Listed separately because the software, the catalog data, and the thesaurus each carry their own terms.

collectiveaccess.org