Karen Coyle - semanticweb.com

The Future of Libraries, Linked Data and Schema.Org Extensions

Jennifer Zaino — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:00:19 +0000

Image Courtesy Flickr/ Paul Lowry

Yesterday The Semantic Link Podcast featured Karen Coyle, a consultant in library technology who’s consulted for esteemed institutions including the Library of Congress. Coyle discussed libraries’ long history with metadata, including with the MARC (machine-readable cataloging) format for nearly 50 years, and of sharing that metadata. That history helps explain why libraries, she said, are looking at semantic web technology – but also why changes to established processes are huge undertakings. “The move toward Linked Data will be the most significant change in library data in these two centuries,” she said, requiring the move from mainly textual data into using identifiers for things and data instead of strings.

Today, The Semantic Web Blog continues the discussion by sharing some perspectives on the topic from OCLC technology evangelist Richard Wallis. As noted in yesterday’s podcast, change has its challenges. “Getting the library community to get its head around Linked Data as a replacement for MARC … will be a bit of a challenge,” Wallis says. While more members of the library community are starting to “get” Linked Data, and what can be accomplished by extracting entities and linking between them, some still struggle with why change can’t just occur within the MARC format itself or its successor Resource Description and Access (RDA), that provides atomistic, machine-actionable data and machine-interpretable relationships. RDA, Wallis reminds us, took a decade from inception to publication and business model.

“The ramifications of turning into the Linked Data world are quite deep and meaningful but it will be a few years for that to be established in the library world,” Wallis says.

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The Semantic Link – February, 2013: “Libraries” with Karen Coyle

Eric Franzon — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:55:50 +0000

On Friday, February 8, a group of Semantic thought leaders from around the globe met with their host and colleague, Eric Franzon, for the latest installment of the Semantic Link, a monthly podcast covering the world of Semantic Technologies. This episode includes a discussion about libraries, an area that has seen a great deal of activity in the Linked Data space recently.

“The Linkers” were joined by a very special guest to discuss what’s been happening in the library world: Karen Coyle.
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Karen Coyle Analyzes OCLC’s Top 50 Metadata Records

Angela Guess — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:00:19 +0000

Karen Coyle recently analyzed a new release of OCLC metadata records. She writes, “OCLC recently released a file of 1.2 million metadata records for the most widely held items in its catalog. These are all items with 250 library holdings or more. I created a list on WorldCat of the top 50, mostly out of curiosity. I was quite surprised at the results, however. Here’s how it breaks down: 16 periodicals, with Time and Newsweek being numbers 1 and 2, respectively; 29 kid and YA books, four of which (and very high even in this small list) from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series; 5 adult books.”

Coyle goes on, “The five adult books are: (1) McCullough, D. G. (1992). Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster. (2) Brown, D. (2003). The Da Vinci code: A novel. New York: Doubleday. (3) Johnson, S. (1998). Who moved my cheese?: An a-mazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life. New York: Putnam. (4) Haley, A. (1976). Roots. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday. (5) Peters, T. J., & Waterman, R. H. (1982). In search of excellence: Lessons from America’s best-run companies. New York: Harper & Row. This small set gives me many ideas of things to investigate in the full set.”

Karen Coyle: Is Linked Data the Answer?

Angela Guess — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:00:41 +0000

Karen Coyle recently shared a presentation that she gave on Linked Data. Coyle writes, “I recently gave keynote talks at Dublin Core 2012 and Emtacl12 with the title Think ‘Different’. Since the slides of my talks don’t generally have much text on them, I wrote up the talk as a document. The document has a kind of appendix covering the point in my presentation where I took advantage of my position on stage to ask and answer what I think is a common question: Is linked data the answer?” continued…

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RDF, Linked Data, and the Library

Angela Guess — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:00:28 +0000

Karen Coyle recently commented on the growing number of RDF and linked data projects in the field of library data. Coyle writes, “With the newly developed enthusiasm for RDF as the basis for library bibliographic data we are seeing a number of efforts to transform library data into this modern, web-friendly format. This is a positive development in many ways, but we need to be careful to make this transition cleanly without bringing along baggage from our past. Recent efforts have focused on translating library record formats into RDF with the result that we now have: ISBD in RDF, FRBR in RDF, [and] RDA in RDF, and will soon have MODS in RDF.” continued…

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Karen Coyle on Visualizing Linked Data

Angela Guess — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:00:18 +0000

Karen Coyle, an authority on linked data in libraries whom we have recently reported on, shared her thoughts on visualizing linked data: “One of the questions I always get when talking about the Semantic Web is ‘What does it look like?’ This is kind of like asking what electricity looks like: it doesn’t so much look like anything, as it makes certain things possible. But I fully understand that people need to see something for this all to make sense, so when the webinar technology allows it I have started showing some web pages. When it doesn’t, I send people to links they can explore on their own. Since some of you may have this same question, here are a few illustrations using two sites that can present authors in a Semantic Web form.” continued…

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New Webinars and Podcasts in Semantics

Angela Guess — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:30:45 +0000

On Tuesday, March 15, Karen Coyle will be leading a webinar on Linked Data, Tools and Technologies. According to the description, “This webinar will describe some of the basic data and software standards, as well as demonstrate implementations such as existing registries and vocabularies. Some of the issues for discussion will be data and vocabulary maintenance, the question of data provenance, and techniques for metadata extension.” Coyle was recently honored by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services for her paper, “Understanding the Semantic Web: Bibliographic Data and Metadata.” continued…

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Semantics in the Library

Angela Guess — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:02:10 +0000

Karen Coyle, a librarian and consultant in the field of digital libraries recently won the Outstanding Publication Award from the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS). Coyle’s winning paper is entitled “Understanding the Semantic Web: Bibliographic Data and Metadata.”

Coyle’s paper is “an insightful articulation about how library catalogs must transition to become part of the current information environment… In this thought-provoking and transformative publication, Coyle breaks new ground while still offering practical guidelines about how to achieve the goals set out for libraries to move the catalog into the Semantic Web and transform the role of library metadata in today’s Web driven world.” continued…

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