Linked Data for Libraries: From Experimentation to Practice at Scale

Notes: View the community notes Google doc for this session.

Session Type: Presentation

Slides: BIBFLOW

Session Description Libraries have been moving to embrace linked data for years now, slowly and fitfully it sometimes seems. Now the landscape is firming up as major players have begun committing to well-formed initiatives that move beyond experimentation to practice at scale. This panel presents a view of four diverse, larger-scale, linked data efforts where the “rubber is meeting the road.” Each of the panelists will briefly present an overview of their efforts. A moderated discussion will follow, giving the panelists and audience a chance to compare and contrast approaches, and the larger implications for libraries of this potentially disruptive innovation.

Linked Data for Libraries (LD4L) is a Mellon-funded collaboration of Cornell, Harvard and Stanford libraries that is seeking to leverage the links among bibliographic data, person data (such as from faculty profiles & authority files), and usage data (curation, circulation, citation, etc.) to enhance the usage of scholarly resources.

OCLC is working with library, education and consumer web organizations to build an infrastructure that makes library data an integral part of the web, producing linked data views of creative works, people, organizations, places, concepts and events. Data from diverse sources is managed in a continually expanding library knowledge graph.

Zepheira are the technical architects of BIBFRAME, and pioneers in Linked Data technology across industries. Libhub is Zepheira’s new initiative to make libraries the visible center of credible information where it is most often sought, supporting a leap from current, legacy formats and publishing the embedded resources as library Linked Data.

BIBFLOW is an IMLS-funded project of the UC Davis Library, partnering with Zepheira, to investigate the changes needed and improvements to library technical services workflows afforded by new Web-centric data models and formats such as RDA and BIBFRAME. The project is developing a roadmap and prototypes to accelerate this evolution.

Session Leaders Jon Corson-Rikert, Cornell University Carl Stahmer, University of California, Davis Eric Miller, Zepheira Roy Tennant, OCLC