ATLA 2015 - Introduction to BIBFRAME

Linked Data in Libraries

Linked Data is about representing information in statements called RDF Triples i.e. subject-predicate-object. Libraries standards are shifting to Linked-Data vocabularies like BIBFRAME and Schema.org. RDA and MARC can also be reformulated into Linked Data triples as well.

RDF Triple <subject> <predicate> <object>

Linked data is a general term for connecting one or more publishers of RDF (Resource Description Framework) statements called triples that express a relationship between two resources. and are in the following format:

Subject Predicate Object

Together, one or more triples make a Graph.


MARC & RDA Triples

Building particularly on the work Gordon Dunsire and Diane Hillmann, both MARC fields and subfields can be represented as RDF triples. As they relate, going from a record-centric to a triple-centric as the cataloging unit of record (MARC21 vs. triple) requires a significant shift in our how we organize our work-flows as it both vastly increases the cataloging units while gives us much more granular level of sharing and focus.


Subject
Predicate
Object

IRI

International Resource Identifier identifies a resource with URLs being the most common form of an IRI.

Blank Node

A Blank node is a placeholder variable that cannot be dereferenced outside of the graph, i.e. the node doesn't exist in external source but is only valid within the context of the graph.

What is a Subject?

A subject resource can be:
  • IRI
  • Blank Node
These are all examples of subjects:

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79032879

http://library.hds.harvard.edu/

http://id.lib.harvard.edu/aleph/003923555/catalog

What is a Predicate?

A relationship between the <subject> and <object> is called a property.

A predicate must be an IRI. Here are a couple of example objects:

http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label

http://bibframe.org/vocab/creator

http://bibframe.org/vocab/instanceOf

What is a Object?

An object resource can be
  • IRI
  • Blank Node
  • Literal

Some objects examples:

https://schema.org/Library

Blank Node [003923555instance1]

"Austen, Jane, 1775-1871"