Last year OCLC, a global library cooperative, concluded a ten-month pilot, called “Project Passage”, using a Wikibase instance to create and edit library metadata in collaboration with 16 U.S. libraries. The objective of the project was to evaluate a framework for reconciling, evaluating, and managing bibliographic and authority data as linked data entities and relationships. The participants represented a community of metadata specialists who could use the Wikibase instance as a sandbox to experiment with describing library and archival resources in a linked data environment.
The OCLC team chose to install a local instance of Wikibase, the platform for storing and managing structured data that underlies Wikidata—the structured dataset used by Wikipedias and other Wikimedia sister projects. The team developed an interface called Explorer, which created a display of related entities (such as the translations of a book). A tool to bring data, which would serve as the basis for new resource description, into the Wikibase instance called Retriever, was also developed.
In sum, Project Passage allowed participants to gain valuable insight into how to build relationships in structured, machine-readable semantic data and obtain instant feedback about their work in a discovery interface. The project was unique as it created an environment for practitioners to experience their first deep encounter with linked data concepts in their current jobs as librarians. It also allowed them to make head-to-head comparisons between current and new standards of practice while preserving the most important values of librarianship.
One of the lessons learned from the Project Passage was that the building blocks of Wikibase could create structured data with a precision exceeding current library standards. The project also underscored the need for interoperability between data sources, for both ingest and export. In addition, it highlighted the fact that the traditional distinction between authority and bibliographic data disappears in a Wikibase description.
Furthermore, the project was an opportunity for the participants to gain hands-on experience creating structured data that could be exported as linked data. Among the outcomes were hundreds of new Wikibase item entities and new tools for creating and viewing results. The experience also produced knowledge and wisdom that could be shared, as well as a multitude of concrete ideas that are already giving shape to follow up investigations.
The results of this effort will help materialize the paradigm shift that is evoked by the name of the initiative—Project Passage. The shared goal is a passage from the standards introduced in the 1960s to a 21st-century solution featuring structured semantic data that promises better connections between libraries and the world beyond.
Click here to read the article published in Hanging Together — the blog of OCLC Research .
Please give your feedback on this article or share a similar story for publishing by clicking here.
