Attendance at the 2024 BIBFRAME Workshop

I recently attended the 2024 BIBFRAME Workshop in Europe (BFWE), hosted by the National Library of Finland in Helsinki. It was an excellent conference in a great city! Having attended several BFWEs over the years, it’s gratifying to witness the continued progress toward making BIBFRAME the de facto standard for linked data in bibliographic metadata. BIBFRAME was developed and is maintained by the Library of Congress to eventually replace the flat record-based metadata format utilised by the vast majority of libraries – MARC (a standard in use since 1968). This year, Sally McCallum from the Library of Congress shared significant [...]

Presentations at SWIB23

My recent presentations at SWIB23 (YouTube), and the Bibframe Workshop in Europe, attracted many questions regarding the how, what, and most importantly the why of the unique cloud-based Linked Data Management & Discovery System (LDMS) we developed, in partnership with metaphacts and Kewmann, in a two year project for the National Library Board of Singapore (NLB). Several of the answers were technical in nature. However, somewhat surprisingly they were mostly grounded in what could best be described as business needs, such as: Let me explore those a little…

Seamless Knowledge Graph Integration

✤ Seamless Knowledge Graph integration of records stored and managed in separate [...]

MARC Ingestion Pipeline

The MARC ingestion pipeline is one of four pipelines that keep the Knowledge Graph, underpinning the LDMS, synchronised with additions, updates, and deletions from the many source systems that NLB curate and host.

Evolution of Library Metadata

When Schema.org arrived on the scene, I thought we might have arrived at the point where library metadata could finally blossom; adding value outside of library systems to help library curated resources become first class citizens, and hence results, in the global web we all inhabit. But as yet it has not happened.

Schema.org for Archives

The recent release of the Schema.org vocabulary (version 3.5) includes new types and properties, proposed by the W3C Schema Architypes Community Group, specifically targeted at facilitating the web sharing of archives data to aid discovery. When the Group, which I have the privilege to chair, approached the challenge of building a proposal to make Schema.org useful for archives, it was identified that the vocabulary could be already used to describe the things & collections that you find in archives.

Need for Linked Data in Libraries

In a session at the IFLA WLIC in Kuala Lumpur, my core theme was the need to use two linked data vocabularies when describing library resources — Bibframe for cataloguing and linked metadata interchange — Schema.org for sharing on the web for discovery.

Defining Terms for Data

Do you have a list of terms relevant to your data? Things such as subjects, topics, job titles, a glossary or dictionary of terms, blog post categories, ‘official names’ for things/people/organisations, material types, forms of technology, etc.

Schema.org Updates for Tourism

The latest release of Schema.org (3.4) includes significant enhancements for those interested in marking up tourism, and trips in general. For tourism markup, two new types: TouristDestination and TouristTrip have joined the already useful TouristAttraction.

Linked Data Choices for Libraries

We are finally on the cusp of establishing a de facto Linked Data approach for libraries and their system suppliers – not there yet but getting there. We have a choice between BIBFRAME 2.0, Schema.org, Linky MARC, and doing nothing.

Importance of Structured Data

Add Schema.org structured data to your pages because during indexing, we will be able to better understand what your site is about.

Enhancements for Tourist Attractions

These TouristAttraction enhancements have significantly improved the capability for describing Tourist Attractions and hopefully enabling more tourist discoveries.

Describing Organizations

There have been discussions in Schema.org about the way Organizations their offices, branches and other locations can be marked up; they exposed a lack of clarity in the way to structure descriptions of Organizations and their locations, offices, branches, etc.

Discovery for Archives

So why am I now suggesting that there may be an opportunity for the discovery of archives and their resources?

Testing Schema.org Outputs

Part of my efforts working with Google in support of the Schema.org structured web data vocabulary, its extensions, usage and implementation, is to introduce new functionality and facilities on the Schema.org site. I have recently concluded a piece of work to improve accessibility to the underlying definition of vocabulary terms in various data formats, which is now available for testing and comment.

Hidden Gems in Schema.org

I spend a significant amount of time working on the supporting software, vocabulary contents, and application of Schema.org. So it is with great pleasure, and a certain amount of relief, I share the release of Schema.org 3.1 and highlight some hidden gems you find in there.

Fundamental Component of the New Web

Let me explain what is this fundamental component of what I am seeing potentially as a New Web, and what I mean by New Web. This fundamental component I am talking about is a vocabulary – Schema.org.

Evolving Schema.org

OK. You have read the previous posts in this series and you have said to yourself I wish that I could describe [insert your favorite issue here] in Schema.org. You are now inspired to do something about it, or get together with a community of colleagues to address the usefulness of Schema.org for your area of interest.

Conclusion on Schema.org

Having covered the working environment; I now intend to describe some of the important files that make up Schema.org and how you can work with them to create or update examples and term definitions within your local forked version.

Webinar on Schema.org

I touch on both of these areas in a free webinar I recorded for DCMI/ASIS&T a couple of months ago. It is in the second of a two-part series Schema.org in Two Parts: From Use to Extension. The first part covers the history of Schema.org and the development of extensions based on my experiences applying and encouraging the use of Schema.org with bibliographic resources.

In its long auspicious history, the SemTech, Semantic Tech & Business, and now Smart Data Conference has always attracted a good cross-section of the best and brightest in Semantic Web, Linked Data, Web, and associated worlds. This year was no different. In my new role as an independent working with OCLC and Google, I was there on behalf of OCLC to review significant developments with Schema.org in general – now with 640 Types (Classes) & 988 properties – used on over 10 million web sites.