Support for Drupal 7 is ending on 5 January 2025—it’s time to migrate to Drupal 10! Learn about the many benefits of Drupal 10 and find migration tools in our resource center.The eXtensible Catalog (XC) Drupal Toolkit is collection of modules with the goal of making it easier for libraries to work by providing a user interface front-end for library resources connected to the XC system.
This guide will briefly introduce you to the XC system and the XC Drupal Toolkit, setting you on your way to a successful installation, configuration, and administration of the tools provided. However, to get a full understanding of XC, you should follow through to the links provided to learn more about each topic. You may also need to conduct your own research as well, as many of the topics discussed are complex.
What is XC
"XC" or the "eXtensible Catalog" is working to design and develop a set of open-source applications that will provide libraries with an alternative way to reveal their collections to library users.
eXtensible Catalog Software
The XC software is open source, user-centered, next generation software for libraries. It comprises four software components, known as "toolkits", that can be used independently to address a particular need or combined to provide an end-to-end discovery system to connect library users with resources. These are the:
- Metadata Services Toolkit (MST)
- Open Archives Initiative (OAI) Toolkit
- NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) Toolkit (Version 1 and Version 2)
- Drupal Toolkit (DT)
eXtensible Catalog Schema
The XC Schema is a metadata format that uses a FRBR-ized structure and a subset of elements from the forthcoming RDA standard, thus preparing XC libraries for the future. It consists of the following entities, and therefore record types: Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item, and Holdings.
eXtensible Catalog Organization
The eXtensible Catalog Organization is the organizational body behind all things "XC". To learn more about XC, you should visit our website at www.extensiblecatalog.org. There you will find more information about the entire system.
What is MARC
MAchine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) is a metadata format and set of related standards used by libraries to encode and share information about books and other material they collect.
MARC is old. Although widely-used, and refreshed recently to work with newer technologies, such as XML, MARC is still somewhat outdated. Working with large collections of MARC records, particularly from multiple sources, is oftentimes cumbersome because sets of records are not necessarily encoded alike.
The MST normalization and transformation services solve this problem by cleaning up MARC records and turning them into XC records. However, keep in mind that unlike MARC records, XC records are structured differently. There is no one-to-one mapping between the two. Information from one MARC record may be spread among multiple XC records and one XC record may include information from multiple MARC records.
What is DC
Dublin Core (DC) is a metadata format and set of vocabulary terms which can be used to describe resources. Its Simple level is comprised of just fifteen terms, which is very useful. Nevertheless, DC records are not entirely descriptive enough for complex usage. On the other hand, XC records can be used in very complex usages to describe all sorts of resources.
The OAI Toolkit works with DC and XC formats. The Drupal Toolkit supports harvesting records in OAI-DC, however full functionality, such as indexing, searching, and browsing records, is limited to XC format.
What is RDA
Resource Description and Access (RDA) is a set of instructions for the cataloguing of books and other materials held in libraries using an entity-relational structure, following the guidelines set forth with FRBR. It is a successor to the AACR2 current standard, of which MARC is based.
The XC schema is based on the forthcoming RDA standard and, therefore, follows the guidelines set forth with FRBR. Consequentially, it could be thought of as a possible replacement for MARC.
What is NCIP
National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) is a protocol for the exchange of messages between and among computer-based applications. It enables them to perform functions necessary to lend and borrow items, provide controlled access to electronic resources, and facilitate cooperative management of these functions.
The NCIP Toolkit works with an Integrated Library System (ILS) to provide circulation-related information via the NCIP protocol. The Drupal Toolkit connects to an NCIP application (or server), typically running the NCIP Toolkit, to display that information on the user interface. Both the NCIP and Drupal toolkits provide partial support for the first major version of NCIP and full support for the second major version.
What is OAI and OAI-PMH
The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) provides the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), which defines a mechanism for libraries to expose their metadata and harvest metadata from other libraries. OAI-PMH implementations must support representing metadata in DC format, but may support other formats, such as MARC or XC.
The OAI Toolkit add an OAI‐PMH interface to an ILS, allowing XC and other discovery interfaces to work with ILS metadata. The Drupal Toolkit includes a OAI Harvester module to harvest such records.
