Inside-Out Discovery

Linked Data, Workflow, and Reuse

Sam Popowich, Discovery Systems Librarian University of Alberta @redlibrarian

Outline

• Discovery and Access: recent thinking
• Outside-in vs. Inside-out discovery
• Flow and Workflow: where are our users?
• Reuse: data and services
• What is Linked Data?
• Linked Data for inside-out discovery
• Linked Data in our users' workflow
• Linked Data for reuse
• Microdata: RDFa, Schema.org
• Conclusion

Discovery and Access: recent thinking

• Lorcan Dempsey, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Libraries, Discovery, and the Catalog: Scale, Workflow, Attention"
• Web Scale
• Multiple Presences
• Simple Search -> Rich Results
• Integration
• In the Flow
• Discovery and Discoverability

Outside-in vs. Inside-out discovery

Flow and Workflow: where are our users?

Reuse: data and services

What is Linked Data?

Methods and technologies to allow computers to make semantic connections between pieces of data without human mediation.

OK, so...

• What methods?
• What technologies?
• Which computers?
• What does semantic mean?
• What is a connection?
• What data? In what format?
• What's "human mediation" and how can connections be made without it?

Methods

• Same methods as linking between webpages ("hyperlinks")
• Metadata methodologies
• API programming
• Data parsing

Technologies

• Data models (RDF)
• Serialization (XML, JSON, Turtle, etc)
• Index and search tools (SPARQL)
• Vocabularies / Ontologies
• Microdata (RDFa, Schema.org)
• URIs

Which Computers?

Primarily servers...

... but increasingly, any device connected to the internet...

... which means, more and more, any device.

Semantic

<h1>Ulysses</h1>
<h2>by James Joyce</h2>
<p>1922</p>
<p>English</p>
<p>Shakespeare and Company</p>

<title>Ulysses</title>
<author>James Joyce</author>
<publication_date>1922</publication_date>
<language>English</language>
<publisher>Shakespeare and Company</publisher>

<rdf:rdf xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<rdf:description rdf:about="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)">
<dc:title>Ulysses</dc:title>
<dc:creator>James Joyce</dc:creator>
<dc:date>1922</dc:date>
<dc:language>English></dc:language>
<dc:publisher>Shakespeare and Company</dc:publisher>
</rdf:description>
</rdf:rdf>

Connections

-- Wikipedia, Graph (mathematics)

A machine* creates a graph by mapping the connection from one node of a graph to another. Following a link is called "dereferencing" and is expected to lead to a resource.

* In computer science, a machine can be either a computer or a program.

Data Formats

Distinction between a data model and a serialization

Data model: MARC

Serializations:

• MARC transmission / MARC binary
• MARC text
• MARC XML

Data model: RDF

Serializations:

• RDF XML
• Turtle
• n-triples
• JSON-LD

Human Mediation

<h1>Ulysses</h1>
<h2>by James Joyce</h2>
<p>1922</p>
<p>English</p>
<p>Shakespeare and Company</p>

<h1>Dubliners</h1>
<h2>by James Joyce</h2>
<p>1914</p>
<p>English></p>
<p>Grant Richards, Ltd.</p>

A human being is required to say that these two works are by the same author.

<rdf:rdf xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<rdf:description rdf:about="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)">
<dc:title>Ulysses</dc:title>
<dc:creator>James Joyce</dc:creator>
<dc:date>1922</dc:date>
<dc:language>English></dc:language>
<dc:publisher>Shakespeare and Company</dc:publisher>
</rdf:description>
</rdf:rdf>

<rdf:rdf xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<rdf:description rdf:about="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubliners">
<dc:title>Dubliners</dc:title>
<dc:creator>James Joyce</dc:creator>
<dc:date>1914</dc:date>
<dc:language>English></dc:language>
<dc:publisher>Grant Richards, Ltd.</dc:publisher>
</rdf:description>
</rdf:rdf>

Without human mediation, a machine can draw a graph linking these two works.

Microdata: RDFa, Schema.org

Conclusion

Questions?

@redlibrarian