Bibliographic metadata forms have evolved over centuries, the last 50 years in machine readable formats. The library community appears to be evolving from records, towards describing real-world entities using an agreed form of linked data. Is that step a step far enough to satisfy the ever-present need to aid discovery? Discovery in the environment of the approaching twenty first century’s 3rd decade. Or do we need to include a move into the landscape of globally understood structured data and knowledge graphs? The millennial environment of answer engines, mobile/local search and voice assistants. #cilipconf19

1. Library Metadata Evolution
The Final Mile?
CILIP Conference 2019
Manchester
July 3rd 2019
Richard Wallis
Evangelist and Founder
Data Liberate
richard.wallis@dataliberate.com
@rjw

2. Independent Consultant, Evangelist & Founder
W3C Community Groups:
• Bibframe2Schema (Chair) – Standardised conversion path(s)
• Schema Bib Extend (Chair) - Bibliographic data
• Schema Architypes (Chair) - Archives
• Financial Industry Business Ontology – Financial schema.org
• Tourism Structured Web Data (Co-Chair)
• Schema Course Extension
• Schema IoT Community
• Educational & Occupational Credentials in Schema.org
richard.wallis@dataliberate.com — @rjw
40+ Years - Computing
29+ Years – Cultural Heritage technology
18+ Years – Semantic Web & Linked Data
Works With:
• Google – Schema.org vocabulary, site, extensions. documentation and community
• OCLC – Global library cooperative
• FIBO – Financial Industry Business Ontology Group
• Various Clients – Implementing/understanding Schema.org:
British Library — Stanford University — Europeana — NLB Singapore

4. Globally Understood
Structured Data
MARC
The Bibliographic
Metadata Journey

5. Globally Understood
Structured Data
MARC XML
The Bibliographic
Metadata Journey

6. Globally Understood
Structured Data
MARC XML
RDA
The Bibliographic
Metadata Journey

7. Globally Understood
Structured Data
MARC XML
RDA
Linked
Data
The Bibliographic
Metadata Journey

8. Globally Understood
Structured Data
MARC XML
RDA
Linked
Data BIBFRAME
The Bibliographic
Metadata Journey

9. Globally Understood
Structured Data
MARC XML
RDA
Linked
Data BIBFRAME
The Bibliographic
Metadata Journey

10. Globally Understood
Structured Data
MARC XML
RDA
Linked
Data BIBFRAME
The Bibliographic
Metadata Journey

11. Globally Understood
Structured Data
MARC XML
RDA
Linked
Data BIBFRAME
The Bibliographic
Metadata Journey

12. BIBFRAME
Metadata

13. BIBFRAME
BIBFRAME 2.0
Metadata

14. BIBFRAME
BIBFRAME 2.0
Metadata
What is it good for?

15. BIBFRAME
BIBFRAME 2.0
Metadata
What is it good for?
Helping to find
stuff!

16. Linked DataLibrary
The Holly Grail
“What does it give us?”
• A better catalogue
• Visibility & Discoverability on the Web
• Intuitive searching
• Authoritative authorities
• Works based searching
• A better [public] user interface
• Amazon-like experience
• A Knowledge Graph

17. Linked DataLibrary
The Holly Grail
What does it give us?
• A better catalogue
•
But in our always-online world
what is the point if we don’t get:
Visibility & Discoverability on the Web

18. Schema.org Structured Data
Visibility & Discoverability on the Web Means:
• A page / URL per entity
- Work / Person / Organization / Authority
Event / Place / …
• Persistent URLs
• Search Engine crawlable pages
- sitemap.xml preferred
• SEO friendly pages
• Schema.org Structured Data
- preferably in JSON-LD
• URLs wherever possible
• External links – to authorities
• Organization / Locations / Availability
- Library / Branch pages – Offers to loan / view

19. Schema.org Structured Data

20. Schema.org Structured Data
Job
done!

21. Schema.org Structured Data
Job
done!
Not yet …..

22. Globally Understood Structured Data
Not yet …..
We have the components – Linkable Authorities, Linked Data Standards,
Schema.org, Understood Web Techniques.
BUT

23. Globally Understood Structured Data
Not yet …..
We have the components – Linkable Authorities, Linked Data Standards,
Schema.org, Understood Web Techniques.
BUT
Bibliographic Metadata
[MARC] Record based
URIs/URLs an afterthought
BIBFRAME
No Schema.org
Many Library Systems
No crawl policy
Non-persistent URLs
Inflexible user interfaces

24. Globally Understood Structured Data
Getting there …..
We have the components – Linkable Authorities, Linked Data Standards,
Schema.org, Understood Web Techniques.

25. Globally Understood Structured Data
Getting there …..
We have the components – Linkable Authorities, Linked Data Standards,
Schema.org, Understood Web Techniques.
Library Systems
 Most have a BIBFRAME policy
 New interfaces emerging
 Individual examples
- OCLC WorldCat, OSLO Public,
NLB Singapore, FOLIO.

26. Globally Understood Structured Data
Getting there …..
We have the components – Linkable Authorities, Linked Data Standards,
Schema.org, Understood Web Techniques.
Library Systems
 Most have a BIBFRAME policy
 New interfaces emerging
 Individual examples
- OCLC WorldCat, OSLO Public,
NLB Singapore, FOLIO.
Bibliographic Metadata
 BIBFRAME 2.0 established
 MARC > BIBFRAME Specs
 MARC > BIBFRAME Tools
 Bibframe2Schema.org

27. Globally Understood Structured Data
Getting there …..
We have the components – Linkable Authorities, Linked Data Standards,
Schema.org, Understood Web Techniques.
Library Systems
 Most have a BIBFRAME policy
 New interfaces emerging
 Individual examples
- OCLC WorldCat, OSLO Public,
NLB Singapore, FOLIO.
Bibliographic Metadata
 BIBFRAME 2.0 established
 MARC > BIBFRAME Specs
 MARC > BIBFRAME Tools
 Bibframe2Schema.org
Are we nearly there yet ?...

28. A default route from MARC to Web Discovery
Imperfect but a good foundation to build from
Embarking on the Final Mile

29. A default route from MARC to Web Discovery
Imperfect but a good foundation to build from
Embarking on the Final Mile
• System Suppliers taking notice – and reacting (slowly)
• Emerging understanding that Web visibility and discoverability
are key for the future of collections
• Emerging Bibliographic Linked Data standards – BIBFRAME
• Established standards for Structured Web Data – Schema.org
• Emerging standards for BIBFRAME to Schema.org mapping
o A default route from MARC to Web Discovery
o Imperfect but a good foundation to build from

30. Embarking on the Final Mile
A default route from MARC to Web Discovery
Imperfect but a good foundation to build from
Library Metadata Evolution
CILIP Conference 2019
Manchester
July 3rd 2019
Richard Wallis
Evangelist and Founder
Data Liberate
richard.wallis@dataliberate.com
@rjw