Linked Data and

Libraries:What? Why?

How?

Emily Dust NimsakontNebraska Library

CommissionNCompass Live January 11, 2012

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An announcement from the Library of Congress…

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“…the Library community’s data carrier, MARC, is ‘based on forty-year-old techniques for data management and is out of step with programming styles of today.’”

“…something new is now needed…”

“The new bibliographic framework project will be focused on…Linked Data principles and mechanisms…”

“A Bibliographic Framework for the Digital Age” http://www.loc.gov/marc/transition/news/framework-103111.html

What is Linked Data?

“It builds upon standard Web technologies such as HTTP and URIs, but rather than using them to serve web pages for human readers, it extends them to share information in a way that can be read automatically by computers.”“This enables data from different

sources to be connected and queried.”

“…linked data describes a method of publishing structured data so that it can be interlinked and become more useful.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_data

Semantic Web vs. Linked Data

web of documents vs.

web of data

resource

resource

resource

resource

resource

links to

links to

links to

links to

links to

data links to

links to

links to

links to

data data

data

datadata

datadata

datadata

data

datalinks to

Relationships are key

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Encoded meaning

<h1>This is a heading.</h1><p>This is a paragraph.</p>

<h1>My Favorite Trees</h1><p>I like oak trees.</p>

<p>I also like maple trees.</p>

Encoded meaning

<rdf:Descriptionrdf:about="http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Empire Burlesque">  <cd:artist>Bob Dylan</cd:artist>  <cd:country>USA</cd:country>  <cd:company>Columbia</cd:company>  <cd:price>10.90</cd:price>  <cd:year>1985</cd:year></rdf:Description>

http://www.w3schools.com/rdf/rdf_example.asp

Links between entities

<rdf:Description rdf:about=“http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bookmashup/books/0375507256”>

<rev:hasReview rdf:resource=“http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bookmashup/reviews/0375507256_EditorialReview1”/>

<dc:creator rdf:resource=“http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bookmashup/persons/David+Mitchell”/>

<dc:format>Paperback</dc:format> <dc:identifier

rdf:resource=“urn:ISBN:0375507256”/> <dc:publisher>Random House Trade

Paperbacks</dc:publisher> <dc:title>Cloud Atlas: A Novel</dc:title></rdf:Description>

http://commonplace.net/2009/06/linked-data-for-libraries/

data links to

links to

links to

links to

data data

data

datadata

datadata

datadata

data

datalinks to

1. Data instead of documents2. Relationships are key3. Encoded meaning4. Links between entities

So what?

Linked Data

makes the Web into a database.

How does Linked Data

happen?

Linked Data Principles

Tim Berners-Lee, “Linked Data-Design Issues.” http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

Use URIs as names for

things

Use HTTP URIs so people can look up these

names

When someone looks up a URI, provide

useful information, using the standards

Include links to other URIs, so that they can discover

more things

URIs

Uniform Resource Identifiers = unique identifiers

http://www.example.com/thing1

RDF

Resource Description Framework

Describes relationships based on triples (statements):

subject-predicate-object

http://www.w3.org/RDF

RDF

subject object

A Christmas

Carol

Charles Dickens

has author

predicate

RDF Graph

Charles Dickens

A Christmas

Carol

has author has

publisher

Penguin

RDF Graph with URIs

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/

n78087607/

http://example.org/books/2002275771

http://example.org/

hasAuthor

http://example.org/hasPublisher

http://example.org/publishers/12345

RDF

<rdf:Description rdf:about=“http://example.org/books/2002275771”>

<dc:creator rdf:resource=“http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n78087607”/>

<dc:publisher ref:resource=“http://example.org/publishers/12345” />

</rdf:Description>

Ontologies

An ontology is a vocabulary of specific terms to be used to

describe resources.

Sound familiar?

5 Stars of Linked Open Data

★ Available on the web★★ Available as structured data★★★ Available in a non-proprietary format★★★★ Use open standards to identify things, so people can point at your stuff★★★★★ Link your data to other people’s data to provide context

http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

Linked OPEN Data

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Why should libraries

care about Linked Data?

Changes to bibliographic

data

In traditional cataloging, a record is one package.

Author

Title

Bibliographic Record

Bibliographic Record

Records can be exchanged, but there is no way to exchange the individual pieces of information within a record.

Bibliographic Record

Bibliographic Record

Person

Is author of

Title

Bibliographic Record

With Linked Data, a bibliographic record is made up of many pieces of data.

And the relationships between these pieces of data are defined.

Person

Is author of

Title

Bibliographic RecordThe boundaries of the record can be dissolved…

Person

Is author of

Title

Bibliographic Record

…and the data can interact with other information on the Web…

Person

Is author of

Title

Bibliographic Record

…and make use of other data on the web.

New federated

search possibilities

New ways of searching

our catalogs

New homes for librarians’

skills

Are there sources of

linked library data?

http://id.loc.gov

http://viaf.org

http://dewey.info/

http://rdvocab.info/

http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/

What does Linked

Data look like?

http://www.nines.org

http://www.civilwardata150.net/

http://www.openlibrary.org

Resources

The Thirty Minute Guide to RDF and Linked Data

by Ian Davis and Tom Heath

http://www.slideshare.net/iandavis/30-minute-guide-to-rdf-and-linked-

data

Be Part of the Web - Not Just On It: Report of the Stanford Linked Data Workshop, 27 June - 1 July

2011

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub152/LinkedDataWorkshop.pdf

Linked Open Data in Libraries, Archives, and

Museums

http://lod-lam.net/

Managing Metadataby Laura Smart

http://library.caltech.edu/laura/

ALA Linked Data Interest Group

http://connect.ala.org/node/142470

Bibliographic Framework Transition Initiative

http://www.loc.gov/marc/transition/

BIBFRAME listserv

http://listserv.loc.gov/listarch/bibframe.html

Thank you!

Emily Dust NimsakontCataloging Librarian

Nebraska Library Commission

emily.dust.nimsakont@nebraska.gov800-307-2665

www.delicious.com/NLC_Reference/ncompasslive+linkeddata

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