Abstract
Linked Data (LD) emerged as an innovation in libraries over a decade ago. It refers to a set of best practices for publishing and linking structured data using existing Semantic Web technologies. Knowledge organisation in academic libraries can use the advantages of LD technologies to increase availability of library resources on the world wide web. Existing methods of descriptive cataloguing are based on describing metadata and constructing unique authorized access points as text strings. However, this strings-based approach works well in the closed environment of a traditional library catalogue and not in an open environment where data are shared and linked. This chapter investigates the introduction of LD in the organization of knowledge in academic libraries, as literature shows that students prefer to search the internet for their information needs. Secondary literature was reviewed and analysed. Findings indicated that libraries that adopted LD increased the visibility of their products on the internet.
TopOpac Generations And Ld
Nahotko (2020) opines that the OPAC interface has developed over time and with the advancement of technology. For instance, first OPAC generation (I) was created during the 1970s and 1980s and replicated the traditional card catalogue, mainly used to search for previously known items according to a limited number of basic metadata attributes, such as author, title, and call number. Options of search transactions in OPAC generation (I) were limited to entering a strict search phrase, as it required character-by-character matching between user query and the OPAC record.
Key Terms in this Chapter
OPAC: An online catalogue that enables users to locate library materials from a remote area if connected to the internet.
Semantic Web: An extension of the existing World Wide Web, which provides software programs with machine-interpretable metadata of the published information and data. Semantic Web technologies enable people to create data stores on the Web, build vocabularies, and write rules for handling data.
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): A unique sequence of characters that identifies a logical or physical resource used by web technologies.
BIBFRAME (Bibliographic Framework): A data model for bibliographic description. It was designed to replace the MARC standards, and to use linked data principles to make bibliographic data more useful both within and outside the library community by linking library resources to the web.
Linked Data: A set of techniques that represents and connects structured data such as catalogue data using links that connects on the web
RDA: A cataloguing standard that produces well-formed, interconnected metadata for the digital environment.
Knowledge Organisation: The process of arranging library resources in a manner that will facilitate easy access and retrieval of information.
RDF: A standard model for data interchange on the web, using simple Subject-Predicate-Object (also called triple) statements.