This document summarizes the benefits of libraries, archives and museums implementing linked open data practices. It discusses how aggregating metadata using common standards and vocabularies allows these institutions to make connections between collections and provide richer context. Implementing linked open data can improve search engine optimization and integration with other data services. The document provides examples of exploring open data sources and representing an institution's metadata as linked open data to gain these benefits.

1. Linked Open Data for
Libraries, Archives, and Museums
An aggregators view.
Richard J. Urban, Assistant Professor
American Association of Museums
School of Library and Information Studies
May 2, 2012
Florida State University
Minneapolis, MN
rurban@fsu.edu
@musebrarian

2. Digital Collections & Content Project
http://imlsdcc.grainger.illinois.edu
Opening
History
Sowing This project is a collaboration
Culture IMLS among:
DCC • University of Illinois Library
• Graduate School of Library
and Information Science
(Center for Informatics
DPLA Research in Science and
Scholarship)
Beta
Sprint

3. 3

4. IMLS Digital Collections & Content

5. Number of
collections
Figure 2: Heat map of U.S. state coverage in DCC & Opening History* aggregation
* Note that this map does not reflect collections in U.S. Territories.

6. Open Archives Initiative
Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
•CIMI
•Federated (Z39.50) •ArtStor
•IMLS DCC/OAISter
•Aggregated •DLF Aquifer
6
•Museum Data Exchange

7. WWW - documents with simple relationships 7

8. Linked Open Data 8

11. Linked Open Data
Archive
IMLS
DCC Library
Museum
DPLA
11

12. Shareable
Metadata

13. Consistency • Use controlled vocabularies.
• Use open, linked vocabularies
where available.
• Use new tools to clean up
messy and inconsistent data.

14. Coherence • Does your data follow a
logical model?
• Ontology: a model of your
interpretation of the world
– Resource Description
Framework
– CIDOC-CRM
• Data models: how
information is represented
– Dublin Core Abstract Model
– Europeana Data Model (EDM)
– Future Linked Data versions of
CDWA/VRACore?

15. Context • Do your models fit the
environment you are sharing
with?
• Collections/Institutions as
important context.
• Collections aren’t silos, they are
important nodes in a network.
They provide important context
to resources.

16. Contextual Contextual mass places the emphasis on
collecting materials that work together as a
Mass system of sources, with meaningful
interrelationships between different types
of materials and subjects, to support
research inquiry....selection is based on
criteria that produce dense, rich, and
cohesive groupings of sources for research
and analysis.
Top Subject Categories in IMLS DCC & Opening History
120
Number of at-least-inclusive collections
100
80
60
40
20
0

17. Communication • We need to translate human-
readable content standards into
machine-understandable
representations.
– Validation of rules
– Consistency/coherence checks
• Will we open our vocabularies to
the world?
• Don’t just publish data. Publish:
– Your models
– How local vocabularies extend
shared vocabularies.

18. Trusted • Libraries, archives, and
Linked Data museums have traditionally
been trusted sources of
information on the Web.
• In an “anybody can say
anything about anything”
world, how do we build a
reputation as a source of
trusted Linked Open Data

19. Getting Started
with
Linked Open Data

20. Explore Open Data
http://usnris.freebase.com/
20

21. Make Connections
21

22. Represent
Yourself!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Historical_Society http://www.freebase.com/view/en/minnesota_historical_society
http://dpla.grainger.illinois.edu/Results.aspx?st=ciname&pt=browse&id=14 http://dbpedia.org/page/Minnesota_Historical_Society

23. HABS/H
AER Hagley
Wikipedia
Library
dbPedi
a DE
State
Vessel Archive
USN Library of
Congress
Ships
Database
NARA

24. Why • Search Engine Optimization
Linked Data (SEO). (links count)
• Allows integration with
emerging linked data
services.
• Watch this space:
Bibliographic Framework
Transition Initiative
http://www.loc.gov/marc/transition/

25. Credits
• Grain Elevators, Caldwell, Idaho. Courtesy Library of Congress
http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2178285893/
• Press Building. Archival Photographic Files, [apf2-05961], Special Collections Research
Center, University of Chicago Library.
• Wagner Flagging Dawson. Courtesy Library of Congress
• Aerial view of a freeway interchange in Los Angeles, [s.d.] - USC Libraries Special Collections
Doheny Memorial Library
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m22750.html?x=1334678405001
• Workers laying keel. Contract 1091.M.C.303 Built for U.S. Maritime Commission, Pusey and
Jones Photograph Collection, 1972.35, Hagley Museum and Library
http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p268001coll9/id/649