EIFL 2014 - Linked Open Data

Linked Open Data

best practices for publishing, sharing, and interlinking structured data on the Web

Antoine Isaac

EIFL General Assembly, Nov 10, 2014

http://vimeo.com/36752317

Linked (Open) Data – what is it?

http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13506631t

Data on the web, for machines

http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13506631t

Typed links for machines

http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13506631t

http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb119396291

http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb119396291

http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13506631t

External links

http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13506631t

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85011098

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85011098

General benefits of linked data

Structured data

URIs and links, not just strings

Good for internationalization

Shareable data

Fits and completes open data strategies

Extensible and mashable

"Open world" - anybody can add descriptive information and annotations about the same thing

Standard protocols/techniques

http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/XGR-lld/

Benefits to researchers, students and patrons

Information seekers can extract and re-mix the parts of the data they need, add own annotations

Library items and data can be fully integrated into research documents and bibliographies

Greater discovery and use, across library and non-library resources

Benefits to developers

Use of standard protocols and models

Web-based identifiers makes resources immediately available and up-to-date

Freely mix or mash-up data from libraries with other sources

Modeling, linked data style

Cross-community re-use of data models

Models that re-use existing models

Semantic Web technology allows mixing them!

Collaborative, softer form of standardization

Benefits to librarians, archivists, curators and their institutions

Pull together data from outside their direct environment

Concentrate on their domain of local expertise rather than re-creating existing descriptions

Less duplication of effort, lower infrastructure costs

Available Linked Library Data

http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/XGR-lld-vocabdataset/

Available Linked Open Data (well, a subset)

http://lod-cloud.net/

Benefits to librarians, archivists, curators and their institutions

Use of mainstream technologies rather than systems specific to libraries

Clarification of metadata licensing

Greater visibility on the web and reuse

Challenges and opportunities

Vision works better if data is Open

Some parts of the technology still in maturation

Adaptation to business processes still in progress

Full potential not reached yet

It does not replace librarian work of creating metadata!

But it makes it better focused and more valuable…

Thank you!

Antoine Isaac

antoine.isaac@europeana.eu

Thanks to Agnes Simon (BnF) for the RAMEAU example

Relevant past and ongoing activities

Library Linked Data W3C Group http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/XGR-lld/

LOD-LAM community http://lod-lam.net

IFLA Semantic Web group http://www.ifla.org/en/swsig