Linked Data Cloud image courtesy of Linked Data.org
How can we as librarians and archivists effectively link our data, extending our reach to a global community of users? On April 10 this and related topics were discussed at the “Semantic Web for Librarians and Special Collections” workshop, collaboratively presented by the LACUNY Emerging Technology Committee, METRO, and the Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York (NYART). The workshop, conducted at METRO, was led by Corey Harper, New York University Metadata Services Librarian, who provided participants with an enthusiastic presentation clarifying the Semantic Web for the uninitiated.
The first half of the workshop dealt with introducing basic concepts and foundations of the Semantic Web. Corey began with a brief talk on the history of the Semantic Web, referring to Tim Berners-Lee, the founder and director of the W3C, and his original intentions to make data more open and accessible on the web. Corey then went on to describe the objectives of the Semantic Web and Linked Data movement: to progress from a “web of documents” to a web of data about everything, with an emphasis on the relationships between various datasets, consequentially improving metadata interoperability across all kinds of information repositories, such as publishers, news organizations, government bodies, and libraries. Indeed, this represents the beyond and all the endless possibilities of Linked Data.
The second half of the workshop was spent exploring how librarians can take a more proactive approach to publishing Linked Data, allowing others on the web to make innovative and effective use of librarian-created metadata. Corey discussed the significance of how examining library metadata in a broader context has the potential to allow libraries to more effectively recombine sections of metadata at a finer granularity than what is currently possible with a traditional metadata record. This data, along with controlled vocabularies, thesauri, and classification schemes developed by libraries over the years, has the potential to allow greater integration with other Semantic Web sources, such as DBPedia, ultimately contributing to the ever-expanding Linked Data Cloud. By using web languages, standards, and ontologies such as Dublin Core, RDF, and URIs, it is possible to make library holdings and collections interoperable and provide users to content-based search and browsing services to a global collection base. Doing so also provides us with the opportunity to easily integrate new data sources into our discovery environments.
Corey closed the session with the claim that librarians and archivists, who have spent centuries building a reputation for being the authoritative source of knowledge, have an obligation to get more involved with and familiarize themselves with rapidly developing Semantic Web technologies. This was followed by a lively Q&A with participants, who walked away with a broader understanding and an increased level of engagement with Semantic Web and Linked Data issues. Thanks to LACUNY President Jane Fitzgerald for her assistance in securing the event space and to Jason Kuscma, Emerging Technologies Manager at METRO and Kevin Reiss, Emerging Technologies Co-chair for their assistance in co-sponsoring this event with NYART.
Cynthia Tobar (Graduate Center) is the Education Coordinator for NYART