Open (linked) Bibliographic Data

A perspective from Cambridge University Library

Ed Chamberlain – Systems Development Librarian

Why did you decide to expose your bibliographic data?

• Natural follow on for ‘meeting reader in their (online) place’

• Already exposing data to others (OCLC, COPAC, SUNCAT etc.)

• Value for money for taxpayer

• Internal academic pressure

Learn good things from other people …

• Rufus Pollock - Cambridge Researcher / Open Knowledge Foundation

• Analysis of size and growth of the public domain using our bibliographic data*

• Helped to develop a copyright calculation services based on bib-data

*http://rufuspollock.org/tags/eupd/

COMET (Cambridge Open METadata) What does it entail?

• Releasing large amount of records under an Open Data Commons License

• Formats include Marc21 and linked RDF with a triple-store

• Road-test linking to OCLC resources (FAST / VIAFF)

• Supporting documentation on whole process

The library sector’s ambition around resource discovery ( … what I think they should be) #1

• Success of ‘out-of-domain exposure’ outside of cultural heritage

The library sector’s ambition around resource discovery ( … what I think they should be) #2

• Multiple points of discovery at multiple levels for multiple audiences - built on a shared community platform of data

The library sector’s ambition around resource discovery ( … what I think they should be) #3

• Services for undergraduates

• Services for academics } Services for

developers

COMET (Cambridge Open METadata) :What barriers are you facing and how are you overcoming them?

• Licensing (OCLC)

• RDF vocab and mappings

• Triplestores

Licensing

• The preferred ideal …

• Full unrestricted access

• Creative Commons Zero / Public Domain Data License …

• Complete dump of data

• There are other types of open …

• Examining all license options

• But any published data is better than none at all …

• No good legal reason not to publish

• Will need some sort of license - more open the better

RDF vocab and mappings – no standard

dc:title 245$abh

dc:alternative 130;210;240;246$abh;247;730;740

dc:contributor 100;110;700;710;730651;662

bibo:lccn 010$a

dc:coverage 650,651

<http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/Book>.<http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/Document>. <http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/countries/enk> <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#inScheme> <http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/countries>. <http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/countries/enk> <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#notation> "enk"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>. <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://RDVocab.info/ElementsplaceOfPublication> <http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/countries/enk>. _:cnode0076e8b9d1bf838806998604ed868f41 <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person>. _:bnode5103c3584b063c431bd1268e9b5e76fb <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://purl.org/vocab/bio/0.1/Birth>. _:bnode5103c3584b063c431bd1268e9b5e76fb <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> "1926-01-01T00:00:00Z". _:cnode0076e8b9d1bf838806998604ed868f41 <http://purl.org/vocab/bio/0.1/event> _:bnode5103c3584b063c431bd1268e9b5e76fb . _:cnode0076e8b9d1bf838806998604ed868f41 <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#notation> "Herbert, Stan,1926-". _:cnode0076e8b9d1bf838806998604ed868f41 <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1#name> "Herbert, Stan,". <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://purl.org/dc/terms#contributor> _:cnode0076e8b9d1bf838806998604ed868f41. <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://purl.org/dc/terms#extent> "65 p :" . <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://purl.org/dc/terms#publisher> "De Beers Industrial Diamond Division," . <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/def/marc#scn> "(UkLNAL)76577" . <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/def/marc#scn> "(UkLCURL)7576577" . <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://purl.org/dc/terms#title> "The Charters story /" . <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://purl.org/dc/terms#date> "1987" . <http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/eng> <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#inScheme> <http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2>. <http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/eng> <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#notation> "eng"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>. <http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/eng> <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#Concept>. <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://purl.org/dc/terms#language> <http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/eng> . <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://purl.org/dc/terms#rightsHolder> "UkLCURL" . _:snode023aaa2202e2efe0f4f7a0270f695942 <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#inScheme> <http://id.loc.gov/authorities#conceptScheme>. _:snode023aaa2202e2efe0f4f7a0270f695942 <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#prefLabel> "Charters (Sunninghill, England) -- History." . _:snode023aaa2202e2efe0f4f7a0270f695942 <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#Concept>. <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://purl.org/dc/terms#subject> _:snode023aaa2202e2efe0f4f7a0270f695942 . _:snode359dca0354e8998543f523349e2c0775 <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#inScheme> <http://id.loc.gov/authorities#conceptScheme>. _:snode359dca0354e8998543f523349e2c0775 <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#prefLabel> "De Beers Industrial Diamond Division" . _:snode359dca0354e8998543f523349e2c0775 <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#Concept>. <http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/id/entry/cul_comet_pddl_5027636> <http://purl.org/dc/terms#subject> _:snode359dca0354e8998543f523349e2c0775 .

Gah!

Triplestores

• Not fun

• Keep it sweet and simple for now

What benefits have you gained / do you expect to gain?

• Understanding of capabilities and concepts of linked data

• Limitations of marc21 encoded data

• Lean about FAST and VIAF (next-gen authority control!)

• More down the line …

• Strong platform for future development, may take several ‘cycles’

• Growth area in government and HE for linked data – makes sense to be in the same sphere

• Hugh scope for back office benefits

In what ways does the new landscape of linked open data potentially change what is possible for the

libraries sector?

How do you wish to go forward? What are your plans post-COMET?

• Encourage others – provide useful documentation and code

• Advice on licensing

• Expose more data – from different sources

• Do something cool with it!

Beyond bibliography …

Bibliographic

Holdings

FAST subject headings

Libraries

VIAFF name authorityTransactions

Special collections

Archives

Creator / entity

Place of publication

LCSH subject headings

Course lists

Language

Librarians

Ed Chamberlain

• emc59@cam.ac.uk

• http://cul-comet.blogspot.com/

• @edchamberlain