OCLC's Linked Data Initiative: Using Schema.org to Make Library Data Relevant on the Web

The Schema.org initiative -- made up of Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex -- provides a core ontology for search engines and other web crawlers to directly make use of this library data. OCLC observed this development in the search engine industry and realized that it could be an important tool to more effectively represent the collective collections of libraries on the Open Web. At the same time, OCLC's internal experiments with linked data were maturing, and the opportunity to combine this new method for exposing data on the Web with the value of library linked data seemed ideal. OCLC's interest in providing structured data suitable for wide consumption goes back to the Dublin Core initiative in 1995 when OCLC hosted a meeting of international experts at its headquarters in Dublin, OH to develop a core vocabulary for the description of resources. Like all experiments, this project is the basis for further iterations of work, based upon results, to further enhance linked data capabilities in WorldCat data.