Zheng (John) Wang
Director, Digital Assets Strategies and Associate Director, Content Division, Library
Emory University
Laura Akerman
Technology and Metadata Librarian
Emory University
This session will include a presentation of Emory University Library’s first-hand experience in interlinking Civil War-related materials and other online resources by leveraging open linked data principles. The library has been actively evaluating linked data’s potential to replace current library processes and services (bibliographic services, finding aids, cataloging, and metadata work) as a more efficient and sustainable means, and one that could bring greater benefit to end users for research and learning. The Library’s initial focus was on workforce education and hands-on learning through real-time experiments: the Connections project was begun to prepare staff to work with linked data, a process that has culminated in a 3-month hands-on pilot to build and convert some data. The pilot introduced the concept to a wide range of staff, including subject liaisons, archivists, metadata librarians, and programmers. Emory’s “silos” of data were interlinked with other open data sources as a way to enhance user discovery and use of library materials on a very limited scale.
The presentation will include an assessment on the readiness of the entire linked open data ecosystem for libraries to cross-link disciplines, and the possible roles of libraries in a linked world. Suggestions for staff involvement in this new paradigm of information curation and dissemination will also be discussed.
https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/connections/
Presentation Slides
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