1) The document discusses creating a Linked Data index of library institutions by minting URIs for libraries using their stable identifiers (ISILs) and domains. 2) Existing library databases are being converted to provide basic information about libraries like names, addresses, and contacts using standards like FOAF and vCard. 3) The quality of the data could be enhanced by having libraries provide information directly through RDFa on their websites, making the data more up-to-date than existing databases.

1. A Linked Data based index of
library institutions
Felix Ostrowski
ostrowski@hbz-nrw.de
Talis Open Day: Linked Data and Libraries
Wednesday 21st July 2010
British Library Conference Centre

2. Background
 For various reasons, we (will) need
to link to libraries and related
organisations
 Libraries don't have URIs
 Minting URIs is easy, since they have
stable „non-web“ identifiers (ISILs):
http://lobid.org/organisation/DE-605
 Domain + ISIL = Done!?

3. But what about some
„useful information“?
 Convert existing databases to provide
information „using the standards“:
Database of German libraries
MARC Organization Codes Search
 Currently only very basic information
(name, address and contact, using FOAF
and vCard)
 In the long run, use the Library Ontology

6. How to enhance the
quality of the data?
 Source databases
 differ in detail
 are often outdated
 Provide editing capabilities? No,
because libraries have websites!
 Usually only human readable
 RDFa turns the website into a
machine readable interface
 Further reading: Nodalities blog post

9. Next steps
 Include more databases
 Provide SPARQL-endpoint and search
capabilities
 Make modelling decisions (e.g. opening
hours)
 Address © issues
 Make libraries aware
 Libraries: provide RDFa
 Harvest web-sites

10. Thank You!
Questions? Now or never!
(Actually, any time to: ostrowski@hbz-nrw.de)
You are more than welcome to comment on
http://blog.lobid.org/