Linked Data: What’s the Story?

The world’s libraries. Connected.

Roy Tennant

Senior Program Officer, Research

Linked Data:

What’s the Story?

Slides contributed by Bruce Washburn,Richard Wallis Karen Smith-Yoshimura, Dan Benson, and Mike Teets

The world’s libraries. Connected.Photo by Li Chen, https://www.flickr.com/photos/yiie/, CC BY 2.0 Generic License



Photo by Pilot Theatre, https://www.flickr.com/photos/pilottheatre/, CC BY SA 2.0


The Canonical Entity (of the past)


The Canonical Entity (of the present)


• A collection of statements…

• Taken from the piece itself…

• Sometimes “enhanced” with inferred parentheticals (e.g., [1975] )…

• Or additional statements not on the piece (e.g., subject headings)

• Mostly uncontrolled and only loosely connected to anything else

Classic Bib Record


The Problem


• Identification Problems:• “The Hamlet Problem” (titles aren’t enough)

• “The Wang/Li/Zhang Problem” (names aren’t enough)

• Linkage Problems:• “The Web Problem” (records aren’t enough, you need links)

• “The Language Problem” (surfacing the right translation for a given user is still a problem)

• Quality Problems:• Strings are not controlled terms; often, they cannot be turned into them

Actually, A Number of Problems




The Solution


First, define ALL THE THINGS

entity/ˈɛntɪti/noun

a thing with distinct and independent existence.

relationship/rɪˈleɪʃ(ə)nʃɪp/noun

the way in which two or more people or things are connected

RecordTitle: "War and Peace"Author: "Leo Tolstoy 1828-1910"ISBN: 0307266931

Type: WorkName: "War and Peace"Author: http://worldcat.org/entity/person/id/1234

Entity (http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/115206288)

Type: PersonName: "Leo Tolstoy "Born: 1828Died: 1910Birthplace: http://worldcat.org/entity/place/id/8976

Entity (http://worldcat.org/entity/person/id/1234)

Type: PlaceName: "Yasnaya Polyana"SameAs: http://geonames.org/468686

Entity (http://worldcat.org/entity/place/id/8976)

⤵

⤵

⟶


From records to entities: Works


Entities of Core Concepts

person place

object concept

organization work


Establishing Relationships Between Entities

person place

object concept

organization work

author

subjectitemavailability


Using authoritative sources whenever possible


And hookingup with otherdata sources



OCLC Production Services

External OCLC Research Systems

Internal OCLC Research Resources

enhancedWorldCat

WORKS

Kindred Works

Classify

Identities

FictionFinder

Cookbook Finder

LCSH

FAST

VIAF

GMGPC

GSAFD

GTT

DDC

LCTGMMeSH

Linked Data Entities



The Workinator


Some outcomes

WorldCat Catalog:15 billion triples

WorldCat Works: 5 billion RDF triples

DDC:300 million

triples

VIAF: 2 billion triples

FAST:23 Million


OK…but so what?


Cataloging

Integration with the web

Cascading updates More options

Intuitive searching

Benefits for all library workflows

Improving Discovery

The Name of the RoseThe Name of the Rose

Summary: The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. His delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths that take place in seven days and nights of apocalyptic terror.

Subjects

Borrowing Options

eBooks | Printed Books | Audio Books

Other Languages

Monastic libraries -- Italy – Fiction | Semiotics -- Fiction









Embedding Authority Control


Improving Cataloging

• Improve data quality• Cascading updates

• A new approach to cataloging:

• Point and click cataloging

• Managing entities instead of managing records

• Consistent with RDA

Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/97741188@N04/, CC BY 2.0


Title: Journey to the WestLanguage: EnglishTranslator: Anthony C. YuDate: 1977IsTranslationOf:


Title: 西遊記Language: ChineseAuthor: 吳承恩Created: 1592HasTranslation:





Title: Journey to the WestLanguage: EnglishTranslator: W. J. F. JennerDate: 1982-1984IsTranslationOf:

Title: Journey to the WestLanguage: EnglishTranslator: W. J. F. JennerDate: 1982-1984IsTranslationOf:



Title: Tay du ky binh khaoLanguage: VietnameseTranslator: Phan QuanDate: 1980IsTranslationOf:

Title: Tay du ky binh khaoLanguage: VietnameseTranslator: Phan QuanDate: 1980IsTranslationOf:

Title: 西遊記Language: JapaneseTranslator: 中野美代子Date: 1986IsTranslationOf:

Title: 西遊記Language: JapaneseTranslator: 中野美代子Date: 1986IsTranslationOf:

Title: PilgerfahrtLanguage: GermanTranslator: Georgette Boner Date: 1983IsTranslationOf:

Title: PilgerfahrtLanguage: GermanTranslator: Georgette Boner Date: 1983IsTranslationOf:



The contents of the 245 $h



Monthly Unique Visitors


• Requires a new kind of thinking: “sets of assertions about something” NOT a “record”

• Assertions about an item can be dynamic

• Authority control is built-in

• Requires much more than simply translating a record from MARC to a new format

It’s Not the Record, It’s the Linkage


For more information


Roy Tennant

roytennant.com

@rtennant

facebook.com/roytennant/

[email protected]

Thank You!

Education

Linked Data: What’s the Story?