Library Data: What's the Story?

Library Data: What’s the Story?

The Problem
UK library catalogues aren’t open
James Bridle, 2008: OCLC & the Great Library Scandal
Proprietary, old systems: Talis, Innovative Interfaces, ExLibris, Heritage, GEAC
Libraries pay to submit stock records to WorldCat… then pay to get bibliographic data back again
FOI: Hackney Libraries paid £21,438 over 7 years - for access to its own data!

More Problems
WorldCat database not great, no open API
Only 18 copies of ‘Solar’ found in the UK?
Each local library search has different UI
…no good if you’re on the border
Usability problems with library catalogues

Why Care?
Libraries pay for their own data
Libraries can’t share data…
…so are buying inefficiently
Users can’t find books
Inter-library loan availability varies
Can’t monitor what’s happening to stock – being sold off, being increased?
Libraries in decline

What We Did
First looked at scraping library catalogues…
like PlanningAlert does for planning applications
… Then learned about Talis/BBC’s RDF sample of linked, open data
Ben heroically learned SPARQL in 10 mins!
We built an idealised front-end (showing what is and is not available)

What’s Missing?
The RDF is a start, but is missing important information needed by end users:
Availability – is a book in the library?
Exact location – which library’s it in? (‘Tower Hamlets Libraries’ is no use: needs ‘Mile End Road’ branch library & geolocation)
Formats – other than RDF
And most importantly, actual data!

What Next?
Point out to Talis what’s missing in SPARQL
Libraries to allow data to be published
data.gov.uk to provide UK-wide list of library branches, locations and contact details
Scrapers to augment what’s missing

Library Data: What's the Story?

by darkgreener on Jul 20, 2010

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Library Data: What’s the Story? — Presentation Transcript