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RDA and the Semantic Web, Linked Data Environment BarbaraTillett Connectingtofriends,colleagues,customers,andothersontheIn- ternet is an everyday experience for most people these days. We useemail,Twitter,Facebook,andothersocialnetworkingsystems quicklyandeasilywhenthereiswifioranInternetserviceprovider thatreachesourgeographiclocation–evenaswemovearound.This changeinourcommunicationsystemsevenextendssometimesto replacingphonecallswithcommunicationslikeSkypeorFacetime. Aformerphonecommunicationcannowbeamulti-mediaexperi- encewhereyounotonlytalkbutalsoseeeachother(orgroupsof people),sharepicturesorvideosordocumentsquicklyandeasily allatthesametime. Wherearelibrariesinthisworld? Ourcollectionsarebeingdigitizedandinformationaboutourtradi- tionalanddigitalcollectionsisbeingmadeaccessiblethroughthe Web. Ourbibliographicdescriptionsandtheinformationthatwe provide about the people, families, and corporate bodies used in ourdescriptionsisavailableforre-use. Thishasbeendemonstrated throughthepopularVirtualInternationalAuthorityFile(VIAF)and variouslinkeddataprojects,suchastheLibraryofCongresspost- ingoftheLibraryofCongressSubjectHeadings(LCSH)andother controlledvocabulariesontheWebatid.loc.gov. Theseprojectsalso have shown that the data libraries provide can be very useful in JLIS.it.Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013). DOI:10.4403/jlis.it-6303 B.Tillett,RDAandtheSemanticWeb a linked data environment for mashups and pathways to related information that may be of interest to the Web searcher – either throughshowingthemaddedfacetstheymaywishtoconsiderto refinetheirsearchorsuggestingnewdirectionsorrelatedresources they may also like to see. Library data about our resources is no longerjustmeanttobestoredincatalogdrawersastheinventory tooltoaccessanindividuallibrary’scollections. Itcannowbemade availabletoanyone,anywhereintheworld,atanytime. Libraries share data because they find they collect similar things andcanre-usethedescriptionsofthemanifestationscollectedby otherlibrariesorre-usetheauthoritydataaboutaperson,family,or corporatebodytheyalsohaverepresentedintheircollections. But unlikethestartofsharingbibliographicandauthoritydataamong libraries(mostlybyexchangingMARCformattedrecordsorbefore that through buying catalog cards for the new acquisitions), the datacanbesharedgloballyratherthan“exchanged”forredundant storage locally. That is, it can be made available in a linked data environment,solibrariesdonotneedtoreplicatethesamedataover andover, butinsteadshareitmutuallywitheachotherandwith othersusingtheWeb. Thisenvironmenthelpsreducethelibrary costs and expands the accessibility of information. Library data neednotbejustintheformofacitationinabibliographyorother linearlisting,butthedescriptiveandauthoritydatacanbere-used andpackagedincreativenewwaysthatcanbecontext-appropriate toauser’sneeds. Librarydataisdynamic. Itcanactuallystartwiththedescriptive dataandidentifyinginformationthatthecreatorofaworkprovides, augmentedbyinformationfromarightsmanagementorganization, apublisherormanufacturerordistributor,furtherenhancedbya cataloger to provide a classification and/or subject terms to help findthatresource,whileothersmayaddmorecontentinformation JLIS.it. Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).Art.#6303 p.140 JLIS.it.Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013) orexpandtherelationships,andmaybeevenlaterthedatacanbe enhancedbyascholarwithsomespecialexpertiseorknowledge about the resource or the topic it covers. Many other related re- sourcescanbeconnectedtothedescriptionandpathwaysemerge inthebibliographicuniverse. Theroleoflibrariesinthischainof descriptionandaccessisanimportantonetohelporganizeinforma- tionandtoconnectuserstotheinformationtheyarelookingfor. We arepartoftheinformationnetworkandhaveatremendouslegacy tocontribute. Sincethelate1990’s,thelibraryworldhasworked towardsincreasedsharingbasedonagreedinternationalprinciples (IFLA’sInternationalCataloguingPrinciples(ICP)),internationally acceptedconceptualmodelswiththeirusertasksandrecommended mandatorydataelements(IFLA’sFRBR(FRBR)andFRAD(FRAD)) as the foundation for how we are re-visualizing our descriptions ofourresources. Thesechangescausedustore-examineourcata- logingstandards,likeISBD(ISBD),andourcatalogingcodes,like theAnglo-AmericanCataloguingRules(AACR)andledtochanges topositionlibrariesforthefuture. Certainlythereconceptualization oftheAACRwasahugemilestonetomovelibrariestowardsseeing theirdescriptionsasmorethancitationsintendedonlyforalibrary catalog. The move to Resource Description & Access (RDA) is a movetowardsaninternationallysharedvisionandinternationally maintainedcontentcodeintendedforthedigitalenvironmentthat wenowfindourselvesin. Resource Description & Access (RDA) Building on the foundations for the IFLA conceptual models, es- peciallyoftheFunctionalRequirementsforBibliographicRecords (FRBR) user tasks, national level bibliographic record mandatory elements, and the entity-relationship conceptual model, and the JLIS.it. Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).Art.#6303 p.141 B.Tillett,RDAandtheSemanticWeb FunctionalRequirementsforAutorityData(FRAD)expansionof thatmodel,RDAinstructsushowtobuildwell-formedmetadata thatcanbere-usedformultiplepurposes. RDAisalsobuiltonthe foundationsoftheStatementofInternationalCataloguingPrinci- ples(ICP),andworkcontinuestoaligntheinstructionsintocloser harmony with those principles through discussions with various communities, like the music library world, to adjust the Anglo- AmericanCataloguingRules,2ndedition(AACR2)rulesthatwere carriedforwardintoRDAintotrulyFRBR/ICPprinciple-basedin- structions, rather than case law of the past. This new cataloging codeisamajorshiftinperspectivetomakeourbibliographicand authoritydatamoreusefulintoday’slinkeddataenvironmentand beyond. Unlike codes of the past, RDA ties the description and accesstotheusertasksandthespecificentitiesthatwearedescrib- ing. RDA enables us to identify the resource no matter what its format–book,soundrecording,score,motionpicture,game,map, photograph,datafile,whatever. Allresourcessharesomebasiciden- tifyinginformation,andwecanaddmoreidentifyingcharacteristics andrelationshipsasneeded. YetRDAhastieswiththecodesofthe pastintheobjectivestocollocatealltheworksofacreator,allthe expressionsofawork,allthemanifestationsofanexpression,all theitemsheld. RDAenablesustoindicateotherrelatedresources andinformation,toidentifythepersons,families,corporatebodies, and places, so we can collocate things by or about those entities. It enables us to link to other information about those entities on theweb. Suchinformationcanthenbeusedformultiplepurposes, like creating mashups, as shown with VIAF, Library Thing, and several other services; providing users with useful groupings of informationandlinkstorelatedthingsofinterest. RDAmovesus beyondthevocabularyofcatalogcards(mainentry,headings,see referencesetc.) tomoreclearlylabeltheidentifyingcharacteristicsof JLIS.it. Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).Art.#6303 p.142 JLIS.it.Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013) andrelationshipsamongentitiestoprovidepathwaysforusersand machines. Itusescontrolledvocabulariesandmakesthemavailable inalinkeddataenvironment(throughtheOpenMetadataRegistry), sotheUniformResourceIdentifier(URI)foreachtermcanbeused andidentifiedwiththevariouslanguageversionsofthetermfor thevaluebeinglabeled. Having URIs also can apply to standard phrases, like [publisher notidentified],or[placeofpublicationnotidentified]. Onewould hopefutureinputsystemsforcatalogingwillsuggestsuchstandard terms through drop down menus or other devices, so catalogers wouldnotneedtokeyinthatstandardinformation. Suchfeatures ofRDAandtheWeb-basedvocabulariesareintendedtofacilitate thedevelopmentoffuturesystemstomakecatalogingeasierandto enablemultilingualdisplaysforusersaroundtheworld. RDAalso encouragesthere-useofdescriptivedatafrompublishers,offering us the option to transcribe, that is, take data as we see it on the resource being described or from the data that accompanies the resourcecomingfromthepublisher. RDAavoidsabbreviatingso theusercanunderstandwhatwe’retryingtotellthem,inlinewith theICP. ThenewBibliographicFrameworkInitiativefromtheLibrary of Congress recognizes that our past methods of communicating bibliographicandauthoritydatathroughexchangingrecordsarein needofanoverhaul. Withthehelpofinterestedpartiesandexperts fromaroundtheworld,wehavestartedtheprocessofrethinkingour approach,exploringthepossibilitiesinthisSemanticWeb,linked dataenvironment. Asweexplorethenewpossibilitiesandbuild an internationally shared vision, we must always keep our users foremostinmind,astheyareourcustomers,thereasonwecollect resources,thereasonweorganizeinformation. Wewillcontinueto worktowardscollaborativeapproachestoreducecatalogingcosts JLIS.it. Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).Art.#6303 p.143 B.Tillett,RDAandtheSemanticWeb andtoenrichuserexperiencesthroughouttheworldastheyseek informationinourbibliographicuniverse. References InternationalFederationofLibraryAssociationsandInstitutions.ISBDReviewGroup andInternationalFederationofLibraryAssociationsandInstitutions.Catalogu- ingSection.StandingCommittee.ISBDInternationalStandardBibliographicDe- scription.Berlin:DeGruyterSaur,2011.(Cit.onp.141). InternationalFederationofLibraryAssociationsandInstitutions.StudyGroupon theFunctionalRequirementsforBibliographicRecords.FunctionalRequirements forBibliographicRecords.München:Saur,1998.http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/ cataloguing/frbr/frbr_2008.pdf.(Cit.onp.141). Patton,GlennE.,ed.Functionalrequirementsforauthoritydata:aconceptualmodel:final reportdecember2008:approvedbytheStandingcommitteesoftheIFLAcataloguing sectionandIFLAclassificationandindexingsection.München:Saur,2009.(Cit.on p.141). Tillett,BarbaraandAnaLupeCristán,eds.IFLACataloguingPrinciples:theStatementof InternationalCataloguingPrinciples(ICP)anditsGlossaryin20languages.München: Saur,2009.(Cit.onp.141). JLIS.it. Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).Art.#6303 p.144 JLIS.it.Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013) BARBARATILLETT,LibraryofCongress. [email protected] Tillett,B.”RDAandtheSemanticWeb,LinkedDataEnvironment”.JLIS.it.Vol.4,n. 1(Gennaio/January2013):Art:#6303.DOI:10.4403/jlis.it-6303.Web. ABSTRACT:Connectingtofriends,colleagues,customers,andothersontheinternetis aneverydayexperienceformostpeoplethesedays.Weuseemail,Twitter,Facebook, andothersocialnetworkingsystemsquicklyandeasilywhenthereiswifioran internetserviceproviderthatreachesourgeographiclocation–evenaswemove around. Thischangeinourcommunicationsystemsevenextendssometimesto replacingphonecallswithcommunicationslikeSkypeorFacetime.Aformerphone communicationcannowbeamulti-mediaexperiencewhereyounotonlytalkbut alsoseeeachother(orgroupsofpeople),sharepicturesorvideosordocuments quicklyandeasilyallatthesametime.Wherearelibrariesinthisworld? KEYWORDS:Semanticweb;RDF;LibraryLinkedDataProject Submitted:2012-06-01 Accepted:2012-08-31 Published:2013-01-15 JLIS.it. Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).Art.#6303 p.145