Ontario Library and Information Technology Association (OLITA) - 2013

1. Library Linked Data and the
Future of Bibliographic Control
Alastair Boyd & Marlene van Ballegooie
February 1, 2013

2. Library Linked Data and the Future of
Bibliographic Control
What does this mean?
Why now?
2

3. Library Linked Data and the Future of
Bibliographic Control
What does this mean?
Why now?
Is there a future for “bibliographic control”?
3

4. OCLC ‘Perceptions of Libraries, 2010’
4

5. Credo Reference “Libraries Thriving” survey 2012
5

6. Library Linked Data and the Future of
Bibliographic Control
To combine the best of libraries and the best of the
web...
•
metadata must be on the web
•
data must be open, useable by others
6

7. Library Linked Data and the Future of
Bibliographic Control
To combine the best of libraries and the best of the
Time
web... flies like an arrow;
•
fruit flies like on the web
metadata must be a banana.
•
data must be open, useable by others
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8. Linked Data
“describes a method of publishing structured data
so that it can be interlinked and become more
useful. 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.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_data

9. Traditional Web
link
link
link
link
link
link
link
link
link
link

10. Linked Data
likes
works_for
authored
located_in
presented_at
event_date
knows
hosted_by
authored
works_for

11. Why Linked Data for Libraries?





We have a huge store of valuable, trusted data
Library catalogue is a self contained data silo
with no connection to the data on the Web
MARC not popular outside the library
community
Provides a framework for sharing semantically
rich data in a Web-friendly way.
Will allow libraries to be part of the Web of Data.

12. Linked Data
Tim Berners-Lee

13. Principles of Linked Data
1. Use URIs as names for things.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12558693
http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/knows
http://sws.geonames.org/6167
865
http://viaf.org/viaf/109322990

14. Principles of Linked Data
2. Use HTTP URIs, so that people can
look up those names.
3. When someone looks up a URI, provide
useful information, using standards (RDF).

15. Principles of Linked Data
4. Include links to other URIs, so that
they can discover more things.
http://www.utoronto.ca/person/Margaret-Atwood
http://dbpedia.org/resource/Margaret_Atwood
Links
to more
things
Links to
more
things
http://dbpedia.org/resource/Women_novelists
http://dbpedia.org/resource/Booker_Prize_winners

16. Building Blocks of Linked Data

17. Resource Description Framework
(RDF)





Primary data model for Linked Data
It’s not a format; it’s a framework for describing
data.
Can be used to represent information about
things. (i.e. book, person, idea, etc.)
RDF allows you to link a resource to other
resources on the Web.
RDF will enable greater precision in Web
searches.

18. RDF Triples Describe Relationships



Concept of triples is used to describe a relationship between two
things.
subject – predicate – object
Statement: “Margaret Atwood is the author of ‘The Handmaid’s
Tale’.”
Margaret Atwood
(subject)
IsAuthorOf
The Handmaid’s Tale

Each triple is a statement about a resource.
(predicate)
(object)

19. RDF Triples
http://viaf.org/viaf/109322990
Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
(predicate)
(subject)
http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/creator
creator
The Handmaid’s Tale
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12558693
(object)

20. RDF triples, create RDF
graphs


Statements combine to form graphs
A graph is of no fixed size and contains no
predetermined types of statements.
Margaret Atwood
IsAuthorOf
IsAuthorOf
The Handmaid’s Tale
IsPublishedIn
Alias Grace
IsPublishedBy
IsPublishedBy
IsPublishedIn
London
Toronto
McClelland & Stewart
Bloomsbury

21. How Does This Relate to MARC?

22. Relationships Are Defined in RDF
name
type
http://utoronto.ca/cat/7866185
Schema:Book
Alias Grace
sameAs
author
about
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/612720361
http://viaf.org/viaf/109322990
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh89007039
name
name
Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
Women murderers
http://utoronto.ca/cat/7866185 schema:name “Alias Grace” .
http://utoronto.ca/cat/7866185 rdf:type schema:Book .
http://utoronto.ca/cat/7866185 schema:author <http://viaf.org/viaf/109322990> .
http://utoronto.ca/cat/7866185 schema:about
<http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh89007039> .

23. RDF graphs create a 'web of
data'
WorldCat
LCSH
http://utoronto.ca/cat/7866185
Geonames
Publisher
Web Site
DBpedia
VIAF

24. Linked Open Data Cloud
Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net/

25. Library Linked Data Examples

26. Library of Congress

27. Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)

28. LIBRIS – Swedish National Library

29. BL - British National Bibliography

31. OCLC WorldCat

32. BIBFRAME Initiative
Draft released November 21, 2012
 Requirements

•Content model agnostic
•Description and management of all types of library
holdings, traditional and born-digital
•Provision for all library data: bibliographic,
authority, holdings, classification
•Replace MARC
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33. BIBFRAME Model
33

34. BIBFRAME Model

35. BIBFRAME Model

36. BIBFRAME Model

37. BIBFRAME Model
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38. Putting it into practice
Migrating MARC to Linked data environment
● Prototype of translation services & interfaces
● Publishing RDF vocabulary for Bibframe model, mappings to
MARC and RDA
● Continued work with “Early Experimenters”
Developing other tools and supporting services
● Prototype open source cataloguing interfaces
● Encourage faceted search interfaces
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39. Putting it into practice
Migrating MARC to Linked data environment
Work level data in XML
<!-- Work -->
<Report id = "http://bibframe/work/frbr-report">
<title>Functional requirements for bibliographic records :</title>
<titleRemainder>final report / IFLA Study Group on the Functional
Requirements for Bibliographic Records ; approved by the Standing
Committee of the IFLA Section on Cataloguing.</titleRemainder>
<creator resource = "http://bibframe/auth/org/ifla" />
<subject resource = "http://bibframe/auth/topic/cataloging" />
<subject resource = "http://bibframe/auth/topic/bibliography" />
<subject resource = "http://bibframe/auth/topic/frbr" />
<language>English</language>
<hasInstance resource="http://bibframe/inst/frbr-1997-09-01:0" />
<hasInstance resource="http://bibframe/inst/frbr-1997-09-01:1" />
<hasInstance resource="http://bibframe/inst/frbr-1997-09-01:2" />
</Report>
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40. Putting it into practice
Migrating MARC to Linked data environment
Instance level data in XML
<!-- Instance -->
<HardcoverBook id="http://bibframe/inst/frbr-1997-09-01:0">
<date>1998</date>
<place resource=”http://bibframe/auth/geo/münchen” />
<publisher resource="http://bibframe/auth/org/k.g.saur" />
<isbn>359811382X</isbn>
</HardcoverBook>
<!-- Instance -->
<DigitalResource id="http://bibframe/inst/frbr-1997-09-01:1">
<link>http://www.ifla.org/files/cataloguing/frbr/frbr_2008.pdf</link>
<format>application/pdf</format>
<date>1997-09-01</date>
<publisher resource="http://bibframe/auth/org/ifla" />
</DigitalResource>
… etc.
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41. Putting it into practice
Migrating MARC to Linked data environment
<!-- BIBFRAME Topic -->
<Topic id="http://bibframe/auth/topic/bibliography">
<label>Bibliography</label>
<generalSubdivision>Methodology</generalSubdivision>
<hasIDLink resource=”http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/
sh85013838” />
</Topic>
<!-- BIBFRAME Topic -->
<Topic id="http://bibframe/auth/topic/cataloging">
<label>Cataloging</label>
<hasIDLink resource=”http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/
sh85020816” />
</Topic>
<!-- BIBFRAME Organization -->
<Organization id="http://bibframe/auth/org/ifla">
<label>IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic
Records</label>
<link>http://www.ifla.org/</link>
<hasIDLink resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr98013265” />
</Organization>etc.
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44. Think of the possibilities…
•Oslo Public Library “Active book” prototype
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45. Think of the possibilities…
“Credibility overlays” on search engine results
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46. The end of the ILS
“Library Service Platforms” as the next-generation
of integrated data management for libraries
● actual sharing rather than copying of records
● pooling of resources (e.g. sharing of apps)
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47. Bibframe project plans
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48. Next steps for us:
● Visit LC’s Bibliographic Framework Transition Initiative:
http://www.loc.gov/marc/transition/
● Visit BIBFRAME.org:
http://www.bibframe.org
● Watch “Tim Berner-Lee on the next Web”:
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html
● Read the Bibframe draft document available online:
http://www.loc.gov/marc/transition/news/bibframe-112312.html
● Join the Bibframe list: bibframe@listserv.loc.gov
● Start talking to vendors….
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