Beyond the Looking Glass Real World Linked Data — What Does It Take to Make It Work? Friday, June 26, 2015, 8:30 am – 4:30pm Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco
Current discussion puts undue emphasis on the philosophy and technology of linked data. Yes, it's cool and demands to be played with. And yes, the library community is late to the party. But what is required for success besides an interesting idea? This preconference is intended for non-IT library staff, that have a general understanding of linked data, and are ready to engage further in learning and applying data modeling concepts that are central to using/creating linked data in a production environment. Some knowledge of XML and HTML will be assumed (although not required). 8:30–8:45 Introduction, Announcements, & Attendees’ Desired Take Aways Moderator: Laura Dawson, ISNI; with attendee participation. 8:45–9:45 Designing the Garden: Getting Grounded in Linked Data Presenter: Jenn Riley, McGill University Library Re-envisioning library metadata as Linked Data will require far more than data migration and implementation of new technical tools. Our community must re-design itself--working towards a shared understanding of what systems and people working with library metadata do, what success looks like, and how we work with other communities. This presentation will lay the groundwork for the remaining preconference speakers through discussion of high level functions for library metadata staff in a Linked Data environment, metadata pipelines within the library community and with external communities, and the value that cultural heritage organizations can bring to information both digital and analog. 9:45–10:00 Attendee Thoughts & Questions On Jenn’s presentation, as well as how this impacts desired take aways. Hopefully, these Q&A periods at the end of each presentation will help us create a conversation throughout the day, that is summed up and connected in the final take away session. 10:00–10:15 Break Refreshments provided by ALA. 10:15–11:15 An OCLC Perspective on What It Takes to Make Linked Data Work Presenter: Karen Smith Yoshimura with assistance from Jean Godby, OCLC >From OCLC’s experiences in data mining WorldCat to identify entities that can >be exposed to the semantic Web, we’ve learned there’s a lot of data that can >be parsed easily and made into “statements” — and sadly, a lot that cannot be >without much more effort. Karen and Jean offer some examples from OCLC >Research’s multilingual bibliographic structure and performers extraction >adventures of what metadata specialists can do now to make it easier to >transform text strings in MARC data into the entity-“things” we later expose >as linked data that others can consume. 11:15–11:30 Questions On Karen’s presentation, as well as how this impacts desired take aways. Hopefully, these Q&A periods at the end of each presentation will help us create a conversation throughout the day, that is summed up and connected in the final take away session. 11:30–1:00 Lunch Break 1:00–2:00 Modeling, Money, & Metrics Or How to NOT Re-Invent the Wheel Presenters: Nannette Naught, Information Management Team (IMT), Inc; with Laura Dawson, ISNI Are you wondering what the business case for linked data looks like? Are you asking yourself where to look for working models? Are you uncomfortable justifying modeling activities? Or explaining the real world benefits of this total change in approach? You are not alone. These questions are on Library’s mind today. As experienced resource developers and product managers, Nannette and Laura have learned to answer similar questions in the publishing, standards, and knowledge management worlds. They will share their their thoughts about how to answer questions simply in a way that speaks across discipline and skill level. They will introduce some experience-driven best practices to take back to your institution. 2:00–2:15 Questions On Nannette and Laura’s presentation, as well as how this impacts desired take aways. Hopefully, these Q&A periods at the end of each presentation will help us createconversation throughout the day, that is summed up and connected in the final take away session. 2:15–2:45 Break Refreshments provided by ALA. 2:45–3:45 Lessons Learned from a Greenhorn Ontologist, Or How I Couldn't Have Given This Presentation a Year Ago Presenter: Steven Folsom, Cornell University Are you a library technical services professional and ever felt uncomfortable about writing to the BIBFRAME list (or other linked data conversation) with a question? This presenter has too. As a member of the Linked Data for Libraries project (LD4L, a Mellon funded grant between Cornell, Stanford, and Harvard) Steven has had to quickly develop a command of linked data principles and ontology best practices. He will introduce core ontology concepts and recommend strategies for skills building in order for library technical service professionals to participate comfortably in the development and use of ontologies. 3:45–4:00 Questions On Steven’s presentation, as well as how this impacts desired take aways. Hopefully, these Q&A periods at the end of each presentation will help us create conversation throughout the day, that is summed up and connected in the final take away session. 4:00–4:30 The Take Aways Moderator: Laura Dawson. Group discussion with attendee and panelist participation. Register through the ALA Annual Conference web site <http://alaac15.ala.org/register-now> . Add the preconference to your conference registration, or register for the preconference alone. The price of this full-day preconference is: $219 for ALCTS members (use special code ALCTS2015); $269 ALA for members, $319 for non-members. Event Code: ALC1 See the ALCTS conference website <http://www.ala.org/alcts/events/ac> for information about other ALCTS events, including preconferences on best practices for cataloging videos, real world linked data, coding for efficiencies for cataloging and metadata, and challenges with managing streaming media for academic libraries. This preconference is sponsored by the ALCTS Cataloging and Metadata Management Section’s (CaMMS) Continuing Education Committee. ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association. Thank you for your consideration, Steven Folsom Discovery Metadata Librarian Cornell University Library
