Linked Data

Community Discussion & Standards Development

OCLC researchers are committed to the development of library linked data through engagement with standards bodies and community discussion. This work produces reports, white papers, webinars, and proposals. It is also organically connected to our own research projects; see the Linked Data Research page for more detail.

OCLC participation in Grant-Funded Projects

Enslaved: People of the Historic Slave Trade
Principal Investigator: Dean Rehberger, director of Matrix: The Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at MSU, Michigan State University
OCLC Advisory Board member: Jeff Mixter
Started 2018 Funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Archives and Special Collections Linked Data Review Group
OCLC Lead: Karen Smith-Yoshimura
Working in collaboration with OCLC Research Library Partnership representatives from the rare book, archives, and special collections communities, OCLC will facilitate a series of virtual discussions to gather information that needs to be reflected in linked data approaches.

International Image Interoperability Format (IIIF)
"..defines several application programming interfaces that provide a standardized method of describing and delivering images over the web, as well as ‘presentation-based metadata’ about structured sequences of images. If institutions holding artworks, books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps, scrolls, single sheet collections, and archival materials provide IIIF endpoints for their content, any IIIF-compliant viewer or application can consume and display both the images and their structural and presentation metadata.” Source: Wikipedia

• OCLC Advisory Board members: Jeff Mixter and Bruce Washburn
• IIIF Discovery Working Group OCLC Working Group member: Jeff Mixter

OCLC Research Library Partnership Metadata Managers Focus Group
OCLC Lead: Karen Smith-Yoshimura
The group discusses metadata management issues of common interest to research libraries and OCLC, and initiates working groups to propose solutions. Linked data is a frequent topic.

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging
Since 2014, the PCC has addressed many issues involving the transition from MARC to linked data. In June 2017, the Linked Data Advisory Committee (PCC LCAC) issued the report: Strategic Directions, January 2018-December 2021, which states, "It is time to move beyond knowledge and skills related to linked data and into implementation." Three of the six strategic directions identified in the report apply to linked data:

• apply understanding of linked data;
• accelerate the movement toward ubiquitous identifier creation and identity managementa at the network level;
• expand use of linked data vocabularies to augment, and where feasible to replace, existing metadata practices.

OCLC linked data researchers are participating in three PCC task groups that are advancing these priorities. We are currently working with the Task Group on Identity Management in NACO to design and conduct two pilot tests:

• The identity management workflow in Wikidata
• The creation and use of linked-data URIs in MARC bibliographic and authority records. OCLC Research lead: Jeff Young
  

VRA Cataloging and Metadata Standards Committee
OCLC Committee Member: Jeff Mixter
"…a multidisciplinary organization dedicated to furthering research and education in the field of image management within the educational, cultural heritage, and commercial environment.” Source: https://vraweb.org/

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
OCLC Advisory Board member: Andrew K. Pace

Completed Projects

OCLC participation in Grant-Funded Projects

•  Funded by IMLS
  • Getting Found
    Principal Investigator: Kenning Arlitsch, Dean of the Libraries, Montana State University
    OCLC leads: Jean Godby and Jeff Mixter
    2011-2014
    
  • Measuring Up
    Principal Investigator: Kenning Arlitsch, Dean of the Libraries, Montana State University
    OCLC lead: Jeff Mixter
    Started 2014
    
  • Shareable Local Authorities
    Principal Investigators: Chew Chiat Naun and Jason Kovari, Cornell University Library
    OCLC leads: Jean Godby and Janifer Gatenby
    2015-2017
• Funded by the Mellon Foundation
  
  • Linked Open Data for Digitized Special Collections 2015-2017
    Principal Investigator Timothy Cole, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    OCLC Advisory Board Member: Jeff Mixter
    2015-2017

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging

• Task Group on URIs in MARC. Jackie Shieh (George Washington University) and Chew Chiat Naun (Harvard University), chairs. OCLC lead: Jean Godby.
• PCC SCS/LDAC Task Group on the Work Entity. Ed Jones (National University), Chair. OCLC lead: Jean Godby. Draft white paper (November 2017) (.pdf).