Linked Library Data Miiya Holmes October 6-7, 2012

Introduction  Linked Library Data is one of the next evolutionary steps in metadata  Libraries have formed tons of quality data that we should now share with the rest of the world  Linked Library Data allows the metadata about authors and their works to be shared through the interlinked knowledge on the Semantic Web.

Terms- Council on Library and Information resources  Library- In my presentation, libraries includes libraries, museums, and archives which hold collections of physical and digital objects  Library Data- any type of digital information produced or curated by libraries that describes resources or aids their discovery  Linked Data- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Director Tim Berners-Lee defined Linked Data as “a method for publishing structured data that could be shared openly among producers and consumers of that data”  Linked Library Data- any type of library data (as defined above) that is expressed as Linked Data

Linked Data  The Semantic Web connects all of its hubs together with Linked Data  Linked data uses the RDF triple of subject/predicate/object  In 2008 there were only 4 hubs.  In September of 2011 the graph looked like this…

Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. /

The green area is for publishing and the arrows point to some of the library hubs. At the center of it all is DBpedia, a database built from the data in Wikipedia.

Library Data  Linked Library Data expert Karen Coyle (2009) believes that libraries are perfect for linked data because unlike webpages that rarely make use of ontologies (controlled vocabularies) and authority control necessary for the Semantic web, the library uses well coded metadata that already does.

Uses of Linked Library Data Linked Library Data would further allow more data to be incorporated into information about the resource

Booker T. Washington is the subject of the first set and I linked the next set to the first one with him as the creator.

Uses of Linked Library Data cont.  Allow for the display of additional biographical information and links to digital full-text versions  Helps distinguish between people with the same name such as Thomas Jefferson:

Jefferson, Thomas, Jefferson, Thomas, Which one was the US President?

Advantages  Seamless movement to open access materials

To…

Advantages cont.  Greater chance for Resource Discoverability  Web crawlers and indexers can use the paths created to make relationships between authors and items  Less need for proprietary APIs because catalogs and information about the resources will already be linked together (book covers, reviews, etc)  Metadata creators would have more time for maintenance and other duties more specific to their libraries because much of the information needed to create the RDF triples are already out in the Semantic Web  Helps in citation creation such as those used with Zotero that can pull the data right from the catalog using the DOI

Issues  Users cannot access resources that are in print unless they are at their local library which negates the point of bringing the information to the user through the Web instead of the library catalog.  Users can discover electronic resources but there may be licensing laws that keep the user from being able to access it

Linked Library Data in Practice

LIBRIS- Swedish Union Catalog

Library of Congress Subject Headings

The German National Library

OCLC Top 1 Million

OCLC and DDC

Open Library

Conclusion  Libraries have been using a closed form of Linked Data through authority lists such as LC Name and LCSH. The Semantic web makes it possible to share this information with the rest of the world.  Linked Library Data is currently in the stages of getting the data prepared to be used by machines.

References  Council on Library and Information Resources. (2012). Report of the stanford linked data workshop, 27 june-1 july Retrieved from Linked Data Workshop Report FINAL htm  Coyle, K. (2009). Making connections. Library Journal, 134(7),  Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. /  Tim Berners-Lee (2010). Linked Data—Design Issues; last changed (accessed September 13, 2012).