Linked Data for Librarians

Libraries and Linked Data…

• …share the same agenda
  • Making information available in an open and structured manner
• …have different world views
  • Libraries have boutique metadata: carefully curated sets of cataloging records and controlled vocabularies
  • Linked Data is based on the open-world assumption and embraces the opportunities offered by big data

Integrating the different paradigms is challenging!

Goal of these modules

• Librarians, be aware of IT fashion!
  • Technologies come and go at a fast pace, librarians should be capable to go beyond the hype and understand what fundamentally changes their profession
• Clearly identify the apples and the bananas.
  • Linked Data offers low-hanging fruits, bringing immediate gains at a relative small cost, but may also require heavy up-front investments in your library’s information architecture

Seeing beyond the hype

But wait…
Why do we actually need a smarter Web?

• Looking for information on Picasso?
  • Easy: Type Picasso into a search engine!
• Looking for paintings created by artists who were influenced by Picasso?
  • Hmmmm…

Both humans and machines need access to structured and semantically meaningful data on the Web.

Even if the road to integrate library catalogs within a smarter Web is bumpy and uncertain, it is no option to just stick with our former practices and tools…

MARC has been an invaluable tool, but its card-based record-centric focus has also effectively locked our data in a tower and only those close aligned with the library profession have access to the key.

F. Tim Knight, 2011

Progress with Linked Data in libraries

Important work on both the cataloging rules and the format has taken place over the last few years:

• Resource Description Access (RDA)
  • New cataloging rules replacing AACR2
• BIBFRAME
  • New container format to replace MARC, that allows embedding Linked Data within a cataloging record

Will Linked Data help you find a job?
Yes, if you acquire new skills!

• Metadata cleaning
  • The transition process underlines the importance of cleaning up inconsistencies in legacy metadata
• Reconciliation and enriching
  • Creating automated links with knowledge bases
• Issuing identifiers
  • BIBFRAME requires the creation for example of IDs for Works, which libraries often do not have yet

Structure of the learning materials:
two parts with five modules each.

1. Part 1 – Introduction and context
   • Overview of data models, limits and possibilities of RDF, and a specific focus on data quality and cleaning to underline some of the challenges to implement Linked Data in libraries
2. Part 2 – Advanced topics and future
   • Metadata reconciliation and enriching, overview of architectural aspects of Linked Data with REST and the importance of decentralisation and federation

Structure of each module

1. Introduction video
   • Overview and context of each module
2. Slide deck
   • Interactive HTML slides detailing the course content, containing links to relevant other information sources
3. Self-assessment exercises
   • Each module contains auto-evaluation exercises, allowing you to check your learning outcomes

Get in touch and reuse our materials!

• Interactive slides
  • Comments or questions in regards to the content?
  • On each slide, you will find the possibility to tweet to us and engage with other participants!
• Reuse the content
  • The content of these modules can be freely downloaded from GitHub. We would be happy to hear from you how you reuse the content in your own classes or workshops.