Linked data

As the volume and variety of online information—both valuable and suspect—increases, good metadata is more important than ever. Our communities and institutions need people with the knowledge and expertise to connect library resources to the wider knowledge ecosystem.

Library metadata is very good for “known item” searching and finding works based on subjects, titles, and authors. But finding unexpected and potentially valuable connections takes time, and often requires advanced knowledge. It’s not always easy to find good, new connections that can lead to powerful insights.

With linked data, libraries can pave new paths—both within and outside traditional library platforms—that lead users to unexpected discoveries. And it can bring people from other services and systems back to the unique, important materials that are often available only in libraries. 

From enhanced, library-focused discovery services to better visibility across the web, linked data will improve results for libraries and their users.

Libraries dedicate a lot of training, time, and resources to the description of their materials. Today, that metadata is created and managed primarily in MARC records and other fixed-format data resources, making it difficult to use in other environments, including across the web. Similarly, outside data that could potentially be useful to libraries and their users is hard to get into library systems. 

Imagine that your library wants to support the culture and heritage of a local community. Today, you could create a special library landing page featuring that work, add links to resource lists, or manually promote the materials to specific, interested people. But with linked data, you can automate the creation of knowledge cards that connect to outside authorities, services, data hubs, and content. Your library can build and improve a single source that showcases all the great innovations and discoveries that come from the communities you support, helping your library attract attention, exert influence, and extend reach.

Evolving library data into linked data frees the knowledge in library collections and connects it to knowledge streams that inform our everyday lives—on the web, through smart devices, and while using technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). And that’s a two-way street, because library data, while obviously vital for libraries, also provides value for other knowledge work like research, education, and cultural enrichment.

The move to linked data facilitates greater contextualization of information, makes resources more discoverable, provides opportunities to improve workflows, and supports easier integration of library data into other systems and services.

As an “industry-agnostic” metadata technology, linked data provides advantages that are difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to achieve using current methods.

Some of these benefits will require time. The data stored in MARC and other traditional record stores will need to move into linked data formats. But as OCLC develops the necessary services and processes to do so, some benefits can be realized today by connecting linked data to the great cataloging work that libraries have been doing for decades.

OCLC is uniquely positioned to provide the three things that are vital for a successful transition to library linked data:

At OCLC, we’re building the infrastructure, tools, and community-informed expertise to support libraries in this metadata evolution. 

Our approach to collaborative management of library data at scale has proven successful for 50+ years. We have researched, developed, and standardized many current best practices. And we have supported the profession’s ethics and values while advancing new technologies and services. 

This transformation will flourish through collective innovation and collaboration of many libraries, publishers, and library services organizations. We’ll continue to partner on efforts around this shared endeavor with WorldCat® as the foundation. This unique data resource allows us to translate today’s data formats into linked data, integrating their value into the workflows of thousands of libraries as opposed to one at a time.

Many in our profession believe that, eventually, libraries will all need to transition to a linked data model. But today, very few libraries are ready to move to cataloging and management systems based entirely on linked data. On the one hand, some large institutions with dedicated funding are doing ground-breaking work in this area. Other libraries are experimenting with linked data in terms of specific discovery applications. But for now, the majority are just beginning to explore what linked data might mean for them.

Our library members represent institutions of every size, type, geography, and funding. And our goal is to help each library proceed at its own pace, based on its own needs and resources. We’re committed to the long-term success of this transition, and to providing ongoing community support, training, and collaboration. With WorldCat as the foundation, our long-term strategy focuses on expertise, data, infrastructure, and tools.

Linked data provides a major new opportunity to connect the unique, powerful work done within the world’s libraries to more users, more partners, more communities.

Imagine a member of your faculty comes to you looking for information on a topic related to their research. Today, your results will largely be limited to what’s available in your library or through resource sharing options. But with linked data, you can make easy, logical connections from your collection to materials well outside the scope of “standard” library resources. Not only that, but you could point out industry events, related meetings, conferences, and webinars. With linked data, you can create dynamic bibliographies that are updated with new citations, links, and recommendations whenever new connections are established. And you can do it all based on criteria that your users find important.

Library workers create unique, detailed, accurate, and highly valuable metadata about information resources. Using linked data, libraries can showcase their value by connecting local resources to wider information streams—within the library field, between communities, and across the web. Cataloging experts can save time and focus on high-value knowledge work. And library leaders can work with partners to better promote academic publications, local resources, and other content that attracts positive attention, users, and grant opportunities. 

From an ethical standpoint, linked data can also empower and equip libraries to actively contribute to a more trustworthy, dependable, and inclusive global information ecosystem. When library metadata is more findable, indexable, and sharable it improves the overall information ecology.

Wherever you are in your personal understanding of linked data—and wherever your library is in terms of adoption and interest—we invite you to learn, experiment, practice, grow, and innovate with us. While OCLC research on linked data goes back more than a decade, we are just beginning to integrate it into library management tasks. 

We are committed to helping libraries of all types and sizes around the world make the transition smoothly, gradually, and with specific benefits at every stage. 

Suggested citation: OCLC. 2024. “Linked Data: The Future of Library Cataloging.” Dublin, OH: OCLC. https://doi.org/10.25333/71w4-vq71https://doi.org/10.25333/j4dy-9544https://doi.org/10.25333/6n6b-k936https://doi.org/10.25333/pdhq-vr53https://doi.org/10.25333/z2kd-qz68https://doi.org/10.25333/p2m2-kt18https://doi.org/10.25333/9bdk-q802https://doi.org/10.25333/h4rr-5f18https://doi.org/10.25333/vak8-cv32.

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