Creating and Retrieving Linked Data: Connecting Your Library Collections to the World

Have you heard the term "linked data" and want to know how and why it would be an improvement to library services? Are you curious about BIBFRAME, a potential replacement for MARC format, and how MARC data would need to change to become BIBFRAME?

The term Linked Data often means two things: (1) a set of best practices for publishing structured data on the Web and (2) the data created following the Linked Data best practices. BIBFRAME stands for BIBliographic FRAMEwork Initiative. It is the Library of Congress' linked data project that started in 2011 and is designed to build a foundation for the future of bibliograhpic description. One of the primary goals of BIBFRAME is to help boost the visibility and usage of library data on the Web.

This six-week online course will introduce core concepts of linked data and provide an interactive learning environment where you can practice creating and retrieving linked data. Through instructor-led demonstrations, resources and hands-on practices, you will gain practical knowledge of linked data and its applications in the library. Applying this knowledge, you will be able to work with entities, such as people, places, events, and create BIBFRAME descriptions for resources such as books, journals and other library resources.

By the end of the course learners will know how to create, search and retrieve linked data, as well as understand how linked data can boost exposure of libraries' events, programming and collections to the world.

Course Description: This six-week course will include two interactive 60-minute online sessions:

• Wednesday, March 29th, 9am (Pacific time)
• Wednesday, April 5th, 9am (Pacific time)

Please make every effort to ensure that you are able to attend these two meetings before enrolling in the course. If this is not possible, archived recordings will be made available.

In addition to the scheduled sessions, learners will participate in activities and discussion forums, with an opportunity to share their experiences. The instructors will provide resources, best practices, and guided activities to help learners gain practical knowledge of linked data and its applications in libraries.

Course Outline: When you log in to the Infopeople online learning site, you will see weekly modules with these topics:

• Week 1: Overview of Linked Data
  • What is linked data?
  • Why is linked data important?
  • Basic concepts of linked data: RDF, triples, URI/IRI, serializations, schemas, data modeling, triplestore, and SPARQL
• Week 2: BIBFRAME and MARC
  • What is BIBFRAME?
  • Transitioning from MARC to BIBFRAME
  • Authority control versus entity management
• Week 3: Cataloging in BIBFRAME
  • Live Online Meeting: March 29, 9am (Pacific time), 60 minutes
  • What will be covered?
    • Introducing BIBFRAME cataloging
    • Library of Congress BIBFRAME cataloging
    • Program for Cooperative Cataloging libraries' BIBFRAME experimentation
    • How BIBFRAME description is created, edited, imported, and exported in an integrated library system
• Week 4: Wikidata and Libraries
  • Live Online Meeting: April 5, 9am (Pacific time), 60 minutes
  • What will be covered?
    • Introducing Wikidata and reviewing basic elements in a Wikidata item
    • How libraries use and contribute to Wikidata
    • How to update and create Wikidata items
    • How to query Wikidata items
• Week 5: Searching and Retrieving Linked Data
  • Storing linked data in a database
  • SPARQL query
  • Querying Wikidata
  • Querying a BIBFRAME triplestore
• Week 6: Current applications of linked data in libraries
  • Enriching information discovery with linked data
  • Publishing bibliographic linked data for search engines
  • Converting metadata of digital repositories to linked data to boost visibility and discoverability

Time Required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend 2 to 2½ hours per week, for a total of fifteen course hours. Although you can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night, it is recommended that you complete each week's work within that week to stay in sync with other learners

Who Should Take This Course: Library staff who are involved in metadata creation or any staff member who wants to gain practical skills in creating library linked data and understand its impact and applications.

After the official end date for the course, the instructors will be available for limited consultation and support for two more weeks. These extra weeks give those who have fallen behind time to work independently to complete the course.

Do you work in a rural or tribal library? If so, you may be eligible for a course fee waiver for this course. This Infopeople course has up to five no-cost seats allocated for rural or tribal libraries. Fill out a fee waiver request, and if a no-cost seat is available you will be notified via email.

Keywords: cataloging, bibframe, data