educational taxonomy working group, presented by connie harbison, director, quality assurance, baker...
DESCRIPTION
The essential best practices for making sure the metadata for books intended for the educational market include information about their common core conformance, to enhance their discovery by teachers and educators. It includes practical tips on how to use ONIX fields to cite Common Core State Standards in book metadata, as developed by BISG’s Common Core Working Group and published in BISG’s Recommendations for Citing Common Core State Standards in ONIX which you can download free here. The implementation of Common Core State Standards is changing how teachers and librarians select classroom material, with significant consequences for publishers' product development and marketing programs. If you are a publisher, this series of three webcasts will help you understand educator needs, provide guidance for developing and marketing content that teachers and librarians will look for, and optimize its discoverability by showing you how to include details of a title's conformance with common core state standards in its metadata. Presented by Connie Harbison, Director of Quality Assurance, Baker & Taylor, Patricia Payton, Chair of the BISG Metadata Committee Common Core Working Group and Senior Manager of Publisher Relations and Content Development for Bowker, & Josh Weiss, VP, Managing Editorial/Digital Publishing Services at HarperCollins Children's Books. This 45-minute presentation will be followed by a 15-minute Q&A session.TRANSCRIPT
Educational Taxonomy Working Group(a Working Group of BISG’s BISAC Subject Committee)
Connie Harbison
Director, Quality Assurance, Baker & Taylor
Chair, BISAC Subject Committee
October 29, 2014
What is an educational taxonomy?
A classification system to organize material based on educational standards so that it is easily discoverable and content within is easily identifiable.
Why the need for an educational taxonomy?
• Numeric identifiers such as dot notation and age levels are limited.
• Keywords are free form and vary across and within publishers.• Common Core and related standards call for more detailed
information than is currently available.• Standardizing terms will allow for greater discoverability across
search engines.
Educational Taxonomy Working Group
• Goals:• Recommend selected glossary of terms for sending educational related materials in ONIX.
• Determine extent of glossary and the structure for it.• Address terms meaningful to the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards.
• Limit the number of interpretations that can be made on the data by supplying user notes on terms.
• Identify best practices for using the taxonomy.• Update Recommendations for Citing Common Core State Standards in ONIX with recommendations for use of this taxonomy.
• Recommend use of terms within other metadata standards, e.g., MARC.
Example of metadata available
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.9
(Reading Standard for Informational Texts Grade 1)Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
• Based on existing metadata fields in ONIX, the following information can be determined about a text:
•Age and grade range•Fiction versus nonfiction (based on BISAC Subject)•Illustrations•Table of contents to indicate level of detail on topic•Possibly keywords or subject codes for time period & setting
Example of metadata missing
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.9
(Reading Standard for Informational Texts Grade 1)Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
• Order of events (chronological or not)• Themes within text• Sophistication of graphics
Example of metadata missing
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.6
(Reading Standard for Literature Grade 1)Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.
• Author’s perspective• Character’s perspective• Cultural perspective
Sources for compiling taxonomy
• Standards• Common Core• Next Generation Science• State Standards• Professional Organizations
Sources for compiling taxonomy
• Glossaries and existing taxonomies (created by individual states, publishers, organizations).
Additional information gathering
• Working Group compiled survey for distribution to educators and librarians.
• Survey examines:• Sources responders use to identify materials to support curriculum; • How responders search for those materials (e.g., subject area, text features, keywords from standard or lesson, etc.);
• Information they might like to see on websites that they currently do not.
Taxonomy direction/possibilities
• “Controlled” keywords• No overlap with free text keywords
• E.g., “Allegory”• Keywords field might also include: parable, analogy, metaphor, symbol, emblem
• Hierarchical structure• Comprised of codes and literals (similar to the BISAC Subjects and Merchandising Themes)
• E.g., • ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS / Character Types• MATHEMATICS / Fractions• INTERDISCIPLINARY / Persuasion
Timeline
• The WG target to meet goals is first quarter 2015.
• Deliverables:•Taxonomy for sending educational related materials in ONIX (specific terms and/or structure);
• Scope notes on recommended terms; •Best practices for using the taxonomy;•Update on Recommendations for Citing Common Core State Standards in ONIX with recommendations for use of this taxonomy.
Thank you
For more information please contact Working Group co-chairs:
Connie Harbison, Baker & Taylor
Pat Payton, Bowker