Interesting session on #openmetadata #openbibmetadata & #openinfras from @ellycope.bsky.social at #RLUK26 Conference #metadatamatters

Video: RLUK 2026 Keynote by Dr. Carla Hayden www.infodocket.com/2026/03/30/v... #libraries #librarians #RLUK26

RLUK 2026 Keynote by Lynda Kellam, University of Pennsylvania (Public Data Stewardship in Challenging Times) www.infodocket.com/2026/03/30/v... #RLUK26 #datastewardship #datarescue #libraries @datarescueproject.org

📺 Recordings from the #RLUK26 Conference that took place last week are now available to watch at rlukconference.com

We would like to thank all the speakers, session chairs, delegates, and sponsors: AM and Clarivate, and the RLUK26 Planning Committee for helping to make the event a great success.

#RLUK26 sounds like a great conference to be at -- and not because, like any good conference, they invited @lyndamk.bsky.social to speak. Grateful to @emmabooth.bsky.social for the formidable posting!

Had to leave the Zoom room as my laptop ran out of juice & there are no charging points here - thanks @rluk.ac.uk for a great conference #RLUK26

Any licence that is signed without challenging TDM & AI training for commercial purposes lessens our negotiating power in the future - the time to tackle this is now! #RLUK26

Especially if this leads to AI tools being sold back to universities - yet another extraction from HEIs! #RLUK26

Eugen adds: GenAI can be useful and it should be trained on quality scholarly outputs in order for it to be as useful as possible to society (as well as academia) - but not at any cost - not through exploitative industrial harvesting that crash our servers & infringe copyright #RLUK26

Eugen comments that the traditional perception of quiet polite librarians is being turned upside down in the face of huge challenges (to budgets, staffing levels, impacts of AI) it's time to be courageous & bold #activistlibrarians - silence indicates we accept what's happening! #RLUK26 #resistance

#openmetadata rallying cry particularly strong from @ellycope.bsky.social al - let's make this happen @cilipmdg.bsky.social! ✊
#RLUK26

#RLUK26 has been full of 'calls to arms' for action to address big issues facing academic and research libraries from supporting #diamondOA reinforcing #rightsretention and #copyright in the face of AI & now moving to #openmetadata #RLUK26

Practical steps can be made with incremental change over time - no need for huge system overhaul,but a need to apply open metadata licences support a linked open metadata environment & build a community that can share & support one another to prioritise open standards & open infrastructures #RLUK26

An Open Metadata ecosystem would support institutional strategic priorities towards greater impact for research and collections- greater ability to collaborate, build shared services, and improve the interoperability of our collections data #RLUK26

Not everyone can contribute 'equally' it depends on the size & specialism of the institution/library - it is more about 'equity' of contribution - and having a diverse community of contributors #RLUK26

Open Metadata can help us to address the fragmentation inherent in the current ecosystem moving us towards a more open and collaborative discovery environment without duplication of effort - but this requires open workflows & guidance & community knowledge sharing #RLUK26

Much of our infrastructure is vendor-driven - this isn't necessarily bad; add valuable services & expertise to the ecosystem, but this is at the cost of openness & interoperability between systems & institutions eg APIs - shared dev & distributed governance for #openinfras does work at scale #RLUK26

AI has the potential to support metadata generation, entity reconciliation, subject suggestions semantic enrichment & quality control but it needs good quality training (meta)data to learn from and human oversight from metadata experts to ensure quality accurate & ethical outputs #RLUK26

Open Metadata = Open Discoverability = Equity of Discovery
Visibility shapes access, closed metadata limits reach and has a negative impact on smaller institutions & marginalised institutions (that cannot afford to access the closed metadata) #RLUK26

Linked Open Metadata moves the data to structured data as entities not records, with connections across systems and networks of meaning - knowledge graphs
BIBFRAME is one example #RLUK26

Open Metadata is openly licensed and reusable without restriction - it has interoperable standards that are accessible beyond local systems to ensure it is discoverable on the web #RLUK26

Moving from #MARC to #Open models - MARC21 is stable but record-based - works well in a closed catalogue environment but not in an interoperable discovery environment #RLUK26

Finally to @ellycope.bsky.social Resource Discovery Senior Manager at @bodleian.ox.ac.uk, Uni of Oxford with: "Open to change: #metadata, infrastructure & the power of connection" - realities of moving from closed proprietary & siloed discovery systems to open interoperable discovery systems
#RLUK26

The scenario and materials from the workshops will be made available via OER Commons licenced with Creative Commons & open for remixing and adaptation to be of maximum benefit to the sector #RLUK26

A Toolkit for the sector has been developed to share copyright literacy principles - inspired by work by Chris Morrison & Jane Secker - there have also been workshops and interactive sessions with external speakers that included discussion of Copyright & TDM and Copyright & GenAI #RLUK26

Copyright Librarians often have to manage expectations - Researchers want simple answers to these complex questions about Copyright use - collaboration and community approaches to copyright literacy have helped to facilitate peer-peer discussions & access to expertise #RLUK26

Interesting insights into the role of the Copyright Librarian - Irene describes it as 'isolated' and with expectations that they can provide clear straightforward answers to complex questions about Copyright uses! #RLUK26

Next: "Building communities to develop a shared understanding of copyright: case studies from two HE institutions"
Irene Barranco Garcia, Copyright Librarian, @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social & @christined.bsky.social, Copyright Support Officer, @ucl.ac.uk #RLUK26

Change is inevitable - if universities need to shape the transformation not have it be imposed upon them by politicians or (commercial) publishers (who care more about profits) - choice is between managed openness = sustainable or unmanaged openness = exploitation
Inaction is not a solution! #RLUK26

This should be framed as 'protection' not 'control' with academic institutions acting collectively to ensure safety in numbers. Transparency in training data is necessary, & licensing for training should provide sustainable revenue to institutions for funding the OA ecosystem #RLUK26