1. Linked Data and Libraries
Marlene van Ballegooie
August 12, 2015

2. Current Scenario in Libraries
Libraries and other cultural institutions are experiencing a time of huge, tumultuous change.
Library standards
Goodbye AACR2 & MARC
Hello RDA, Bibframe, RDF
ILS platforms evolving
Movement to cloud-based services
Changing nature of discovery
Dominance of web search engines

3. Intelligible by humans and machines
Where Are We Going?
We must forge new pathways, but where we are going is not entirely clear…yet.
Web based
Interlinked
Structured
Collaborative
Intelligible by humans and machines

4. All Signs Point To…Linked Data

5. Linked Data
A set of best practices for publishing and connecting structured data on the web
Builds upon standard Web technologies such as HTTP, RDF and URIs
It is about making data on the web:
machine-readable
linked to and from other data sets
Enables data from different sources to be connected and queried

6. Traditional Web link link link link link link link link link link link

7. Linked Data city_in capital_of lives_in author_of born_in located_in
born_on
founder_of
educated_by
founder_of
author_of
likes
likes

8. …of Linked Data

9. Resource Description Framework (RDF)
Primary data model for Linked Data
It’s not a format; it’s a framework for describing data.
Can be used to represent information about things. (i.e. book, person, idea, etc.)
RDF allows you to link a resource to other resources on the Web.
RDF will enable greater precision in Web searches.

10. RDF Triples Describe Relationships
Triples are used to describe a relationship between two things
dc: creator
Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane
Subject
Predicate
Object
Each triple is a statement about a resource.

11. http:// www.worldcat.org/oclc/881025115
RDF Triple
By using URIs as names for things, this makes the statement “machine actionable”.
Subject
Predicate
Object

12. From Strings…

13. To Things… Pride and Prejudice Austen, Jane (OCoLC)881025115 title
same_as
author
Graphic novels
England
genre
geographic term
Social classes
subject
adapted_by
King, Stacy
subject
isbn
Courtship
subject
subject
subject
Bennet, Elizabeth (Fictitious character)
Sisters
Darcy, Fitzwilliam (Fictitious character)

14. RDF graphs create a 'web of data'
LCSH
WorldCat
VIAF
Geonames
Publisher Web Site
DBpedia

15. Linked Open Data Cloud
Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch.

16. Why Linked Data for Libraries?
We have a huge store of valuable, trusted data
Library catalogue is a self contained data silo with no connection to the data on the Web
MARC not popular outside the library community
Provides a framework for sharing semantically rich data in a Web-friendly way.
Will allow libraries to be part of the Web of Data.

17. Think of the possibilities…

18. Serendipitous discovery
Oslo Public Library “Active shelves”

19. Sharing records rather than copying them
Evolution from cataloguing to “catalinking”

20. Greater interoperability
RDM
Sirsi
T-Space
Linked Data Discovery Layer
Collections UofT
ERM(s)
Summon
MyMedia

21. Building virtual collections …
…Together

22. Searching multiple datastores simultaneously
Yale University
Harvard University
Columbia University
University of Toronto

23. Re-Thinking What We Do …And How We Do It
Convergence of Linked Data and traditional library metadata
Constructing vocabularies
Describing properties of resources
Identifying and linking resources
Exchanging and aggregating metadata
We need to change the way we do things to respond to the needs and expectations of our users
Creative. Innovative. Inspired.