As we announced earlier in the month, we have been communicating and collaborating with the Library of Congress over our different approaches to library linked data.
The Library of Congress is developing BIBFRAME, which is slated to eventually replace MARC by providing the added benefits that will accrue to using a linked data solution for our library metadata. Meanwhile, we here at OCLC have a different set of use cases, largely around syndicating library data to the wider web, and we have chosen to base our efforts on the metadata standard most widely adopted by web search engines, Schema.org.
We feel that these approaches are not in competition and by better understanding our different approaches we can all learn about how best to make our data assets available on the web as linked data. The first major step in this process is a whitepaper, currently in collaborative development by OCLC and LC staff, that will compare and contrast our different approaches. The goal is to publish this in time for ALA Midwinter at the end of January 2015, so watch for it!
Roy Tennant works on projects related to improving the technological infrastructure of libraries, museums, and archives.