Category: Libraries

Free Data for 2.4 Million European Culture Heritage Items

Posted on by Richard Wallis

Europeana recently launched an excellent short animation explaining what Linked Open Data is and why it’s a good thing, both for users and for data providers.  They did this in support of the release of a large amount of Linked Open Data describing cultural heritage assets held in Libraries, Museums, Galleries and other institutions across Europe. The significant elements in the press release, from Europeana Professional (Europeana’s professional knowledge-sharing platform), are that they are releasing data for 2.4 million items, under a CC0 open data license, and it is Linked Data in RDF. This is a wonderful resource, and example …

A Data 7th Wave Approaching

Posted on by Richard Wallis

I believe Data, or more precisely changes in how we create, consume, and interact with data, has the potential to deliver a seventh wave impact. With the advent of many data associated advances, variously labelled Big Data, Social Networking, Open Data, Cloud Services, Linked Data, Microformats, Microdata, Semantic Web, Enterprise Data, it is now venturing beyond those closed systems into the wider world. It is precisely because these trends have been around for a while, and are starting to mature and influence each other, that they are building to form something really significant.

More Linked Open Data under a More Open License from German National Library

Posted on by Richard Wallis

The German National Library (DNB) has launched a Linked Data version of the German National Bibliography. The bibliographic data of the DNB’s main collection (apart from the printed music and the collection of the Deutsches Exilarchiv) and the serials (magazines, newspapers and series of the German Union Catalogue of serials (ZDB)) have been converted.  Henceforth the RDF/XML-representation of the records are available at the DNB portal. This is an experimental service that will be continually expanded and improved. This is a welcome extension to their Linked Data Service, previously delivering authority data.  Documentation on their data and modelling is available, …

Create Data Not Records

Posted on by Richard Wallis

One phrase in particular leapt out at me when reading Karen Coyle’s Bibliographic Framework: RDF and Linked Data post a few days ago.

My message here is that we need to be creating data, not records, and that we need to create the data first, then build records with it for those applications where records are needed.

What Is Your Data’s Star Rating(s)?

Posted on by Richard Wallis

The Linked Data movement was kicked off in mid 2006 when Tim Berners-Lee published his now famous Linked Data Design Issues document. Many had been promoting the approach of using W3C Semantic Web standards to achieve the effect and benefits, but it was his document and the use of the term Linked Data that crystallised it, gave it focus, and a label.

In 2010 Tim updated his document to include the Linked Open Data 5 Star Scheme

Ambitious Technology Plan Emerges From Stanford Linked Data Workshop

Posted on by Richard Wallis

Although there has been a half year lag between the the workshop held at Stanford University, at the end of June 2011, and the Stanford Linked Data Workshop Technology Plan [pdf] published on December 31st, the folks behind it obviously have not been twiddling their thumbs.

W3C Library Linked Data Final Report Published

Posted on by Richard Wallis

The W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group has published it’s Final Report after a year of deliberation. The mission of the Library Linked Data Incubator Group was to help increase the global interoperability of library data on the Web by focusing on the potential role of Linked Data technologies. This report contains several messages that are not just interesting and relevant for the Linked Data enthusiast in the library community. It contains some home truths for those in libraries who think that a slight tweak to the status quo, such as adopting RDA, will be sufficient to keep libraries [data] …

Will Europe’s National Libraries Open Data In An Open Way?

Posted on by Richard Wallis

A significant step towards open bibliographic data was made in Copenhagen this week at the 25th anniversary meeting of the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL) hosted by the Royal Library of Denmark. From the CENL announcement: …the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL), has voted overwhelmingly to support the open licensing of their data. What does that mean in practice? It means that the datasets describing all the millions of books and texts ever published in Europe – the title, author, date, imprint, place of publication and so on, which exists in the vast library catalogues of Europe – …

Significant Bibliographic Linked Data Release From The British Library

Posted on by Richard Wallis

Today the British Library announced a significant contribution to the development, application, and sharing of bibliographic data using Linked Data techniques and technologies, with a preview of a new approach to publishing the British National Bibliography. Chief Executive Dame Lynne Brindley announced the initiative in her Keynote at Linked Data and Libraries 2011, hosted by Talis at the British Library (BL) in London. The Metadata Services Team at BL have been working with Tim Hodson, and other Talis consultants, over the last few months to apply Linked Data modelling practices to bibliographic resources. The British National Bibliography (BNB) of 2.8 …