Linked Data Links - Contents
Linked Data Basic Resources Bibliographic Metadata Elements Some Useful Ontologies Some Useful Vocabularies Tutorials Databases and catalogs Software and tools Linked Data Organizations and Activities Linked Data Examples Background Reading
Linked Data Basic Resources
Bibliographic Metadata Elements
There are a number of existing element sets for bibliographic data. Some come out of library cataloging concepts, others have been developed from an academic research perspective and favor print materials, primarily journal articles.
- Bibliographic Ontology (BIBO)
- Citation Typing Ontology (CiTO) [part of SPAR] An ontology for citations
- FRBR-Aligned Bibliographic Ontology (FABiO) Description of bibliographic resources using FRBR principles
- Dublin Core Metadata Elements
- RDA Vocabularies and Elements
- British Library Terms in RDF
- British National Bibliography (diagram, PDF)
- FRBR (FRBRer)
- ISBD
- FRAD
- MADS in RDF
- BIBFRAME (Library of Congress)
- BIBFRAME (Zepheira)
Some Useful Ontologies
- Friend of a Friend (FOAF) (Foaf-o-matic) FOAF is a social ontology for people and their information such as contact information, email, and connections to other people. Foaf-o-matic is an easy way to create a FOAF profile.
- BIO (Biographical information) and various vocabularies at Vocab.org
- schema.org (Microformat ontology for marking up web pages)
- DBPedia Ontology This ontology mirrors the data carried in Wikipedia
- Event Ontology Allows you code the date, time, and place of an event
Some Useful Vocabularies
Note: these are controlled lists of terms that can be used as values ("objects") in linked data. The lists included here only ones with http URIs for each term. There are many standard lists of terms that have not yet been expressed as URIs, such as many ISO lists.
- Geonames Geographic Data
- BBC Wildlife vocabulary
- Library of Congress Vocabularies (LCSH, subject authorities, classification, others)
- FAST in RDF
- RDA Vocabularies and Elements
- Dewey Decimal System in RDF (discontinued. Was http://dewey.info)
- Rameau subject headings Subject headings from the National Library of France
- Deutsche national Bibliothek subjects Subject headings from the National Library of Germany
- AGROVOC (FAO thesaurus)
Tutorials
- Linked Data tutorial, by Bizer, Cyganiak and Heath
- Euclid Project Tutorial
- SPARQL by Example
- Karen Coyle's Tutorial on Metadata and Semantic Web (in progress)
Databases and Catalogs using Linked Data
These are databases and catalogs that are searchable through a user interface whose data is stored as linked data. The amount of linking varies, and may change over time as these systems and the available resources grow.
- OpenAgris, Food and Agriculture Organization
- LIBRIS, National Library of Sweden
- Open Library
- Freebase(Note: "closed Aug 31 2016. This page provides access to the last available data dump")
- Geonames
- Biblioteca Nacional de Espana
Data Sets
These are bulk data sets that have been made available for download. They can be used for experimentation, or to feed into other data projects.
- The Data Hub (includes BNB, LIBRIS, and other bibliographic datasets) (The Data Hub is a UK non-profit dedicated to open knowledge. It makes its site available as a place to list open data sets of any type, so look for the "RDF" button to find linked data.)
Software & Tools
New tools are being develop constantly. This is only a small sample. Visit the W3C tools page or Berman's Sweet Tools to see more.
- W3C list of tools
- Bergman's Sweet Tools list of tools
- Protege Ontology Editor
- Relfinder (finds relationships)
- MarcNExt (BIBFRAME records from MARC, based on MarcEdit
- Apache Jena
- Pellet Reasoner
- Snoggle Mapper
- OWL viewer
- PoolParty
- Swoogle Search
Linked Data Organizations and Activities
- Semantic Web activity at the W3C
- W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group - Final Report
- Open Bibliographic Data Working Group
- JISC Open Bibliographic Data Guide
- LITA/ALCTS Linked Library Data Interest Group
Linked Data Examples
Sample Data
RDA use cases from DCMI/RDA Working Group pages. (Click on links like "Scenario/1" by each case's heading.)
Open Library
Edition (Manifestation) page
Edition in RDF
Open Research Online
Article page
Article metadata in RDF
VIAF
Name authority page
Name authority in RDF
DBPedia
Page for Herman Melville
Page for Moby Dick
Freebase
Jonathan Franzen in RDF
Book: Freedom in RDF
Background Reading
Particularly for librarians
- Understanding the Semantic Web: Bibliographic Data and Metadata, by Karen Coyle. ALA Library Technology Reports, January, 2010
- RDA Vocabularies for a Twenty-first Century Data Environment, by Karen Coyle. ALA Library Technology Reports, February, 2010
- Linked Data Tools: Connecting on the Web, by Karen Coyle. ALA Library Technology Reports, May/June, 2012. v. 48, n.4
More technical readings
- Linked Data: Evolving the Web in a Global Data Space
- - Free online in HTML. "We begin by outlining the basic principles of Linked Data, including coverage of relevant aspects of Web architecture. The remainder of the text is based around two main themes - the publication and consumption of Linked Data. Drawing on a practical Linked Data scenario, we provide guidance and best practices on: architectural approaches to publishing Linked Data; choosing URIs and vocabularies to identify and describe resources; deciding what data to return in a description of a resource on the Web; methods and frameworks for automated linking of data sets; and testing and debugging approaches for Linked Data deployments. "
- Semantic web for the working ontologist by Dean Allemang, 2008, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers/Elsevier
- If you are comfortable with general metadata concepts and perhaps some database management technologies, then this is a good first book on Semantic Web metadata concepts. It's not really for beginners, but I can't find anything that is truly for beginners. So expect to struggle a bit, but the information here is solid.
- Semantic Web Programming, by John Hebeler, et al. Indianapolis, Ind., Wiley, 2009. ISBN:9780470418017
- Although this is in the end a book for programmers, the first half talks about Semantic Web concepts and standards without requiring any programming expertise. So you can learn about RDF, OWL, and see examples of uses. If you program, then the book also gets you started with some of the current Semantic Web tools: Protege, Jena and Pellet.
- Semantic Web for Dummies, by Jeffrey T. Pollock. Wiley, 2009
- In this case, the "dummy" is a fairly seasoned programmer with good skills in relational databases and object-oriented programming. So if your tech skills are good, this book will give you a lot of practical information, relating it to things you already know. It also is aimed at the business world, where terms like "enterprise" are frequently used. Although that might be a bit strange for library folks, Pollock addresses issues relating to scalability, search optimization, and the types of technical skills that are essential in this new environment.
- A Semantic Web primer by G. Antoniou 2008, MIT Press
- Creating the semantic Web with RDF, by Johan Hjelm 2001, Wiley
- The Semantic Web, by Michael C Daconta 2003, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.