Research habits have changed. It’s no longer enough for libraries to simply maintain information resources for users to access. They now have to make the information visible to seekers where they begin their research. WorldCat provides libraries with an opportunity to display their holdings on websites beyond library catalogs in a format that search engines, citation management systems, campus platforms, research portals, and other information websites can read and repurpose.

Creating library linked data with Wikibase

OCLC's ten-month Project Passage pilot let librarians from 16 US institutions create linked data describing library and archival resources in a Wikibase sandbox. The librarians worked with OCLC on a framework for reconciling, evaluating, and managing traditional metadata as linked data entities and relationships. This opportunity revealed the potential of linked data in library catalogs as well as the gaps to address before fully adopting machine-readable semantic data can be fully adopted.

Connecting people with unique digital resources

Our OCLC Research report Transforming metadata into linked data to improve digital collection discoverability shares findings from our CONTENTdm linked data pilot project. We partnered with institutions that manage their digital collections with OCLC’s CONTENTdm service to investigate methods for—and the feasibility of—transforming metadata into linked data to improve the discoverability and management of digitized cultural materials and their descriptions. The OCLC Research webinar, "On the way to library linked data," offers further thoughts on this work.

Download the report

Improving the interoperability of digital materials

As a founding member of IIIF (the International Image Interoperability Framework), OCLC is leading the effort to create new standards for sharing structural metadata about digital images, audio, and video with the library community.

Learn more about support for IIIF in CONTENTdm

Linked data as a cooperative effort

OCLC works closely with other organizations, such as the Library of Congress, to ensure that library data are included on the web. We believe that linked data representations will eventually replace MARC. By cooperating with other data standards groups and making WorldCat data available to them, we both enhance the value of WorldCat and ensure that libraries have a voice in the future of information management.

BIBFRAME

OCLC remains committed to working with the Library of Congress and the library community to help finalize the BIBFRAME standard, an evolving model to share and connect bibliographic data. As multiple variants continue to evolve, we will continue to evaluate BIBFRAME data to help inform our linked data planning activities with a goal to allow all OCLC members to continue to register their collections in WorldCat.

Program for Cooperative Cataloging

OCLC is actively engaged with libraries within the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) to explore standards, policies, and best practices as library metadata transitions from MARC to linked data. OCLC participates in several committees and tasks forces including the Standard Committee on Standards, the Standard Committee on Training, and the Linked Data Advisory Group.