Cynthia Haven of Stanford News reports, “The first winners of the Stanford Prize for Innovation in Research Libraries are the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France) and the Miguel de Cervantes Digital Library in Spain. The Stanford Libraries’ new annual award celebrates groundbreaking programs, projects and services for research libraries anywhere in the world. Commendations of merit went to Australia’s Griffith University and the New York Public Library. About two dozen proposals competed for the modest cash prize of $5,000, underwritten by Logitech, that went to each of the winning institutions.” Read more

The 2013 Stanford Prizes for Innovation in Research Libraries (SPIRL) were announced this week, and among the recipients and commended institutions are those where semantic web technology and Linked Data are on display.

One of the recipients is the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France), for both its Gallica and Data Digital Libraries. The discovery service, Data (data.bnf.fr), has integrated numerous BnF catalogues and finding-aids using a Semantic Web approach, so that the BnF’s collection holdings, including those of Gallica (which promotes French cultural heritage in digital form), “are visible through a single, high-tech lens,” according to the announcement of the awards.

“Together, both efforts drive a wider audience to the digital library from search engines,” the SPIRL announcement reports.

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Ellyssa Kroski of American Libraries Magazine recently shared a list of ten technology initiatives that can improve libraries. She writes, “Today’s hottest web and mobile technologies are offering libraries a new world of opportunities to engage patrons. Ultra-popular social media websites and apps combined with the availability of affordable cloud-based services and the evolution and adoption of mobile devices are enabling librarians to share and build communities, store and analyze large collections of data, create digital collections, and access information and services in ways never thought about before.” Read more

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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The OCLC has created a video entitled Linked Data for Libraries. The fourteen minute video provides an introduction to the concepts and technology behind linked data as well as how linked data works and how it is used in libraries.

According to the organization website, “OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs. Read more

OCLC has announced that WorldCat.org pages now include schema.org descriptive mark-up.

Created over the last four decades with the participation of thousands of member libraries, WorldCat is the world’s largest online registry of library collections. As the official press release states, “WorldCat.org now offers the largest set of linked bibliographic data on the Web. With the addition of Schema.org mark-up to all book, journal and other bibliographic resources in WorldCat.org, the entire publicly available version of WorldCat is now available for use by intelligent Web crawlers, like Google and Bing, that can make use of this metadata in search indexes and other applications.”

On the heels of the announcement earlier this week about Dewey Decimal Classifications also being available as Linked Data, this certainly marks an exciting week in the world of library information and the Semantic Web. However, this should also prove to be exciting for non-librarians, as these resources are now available beyond the world of library sciences.

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Michael Danzer reports that a new dataset has been added to dewey.info: “All assignable classes from DDC 23, the current full edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification, have been released as Dewey linked data. As was the case for the Abridged Edition 14 data, we define ‘assignable’ as including every schedule number that is not a span or a centered entry, bracketed or optional, with the hierarchical relationships adjusted accordingly. In short, these are numbers that you find attached to many WorldCat records as standard Dewey numbers (in 082 fields), as additional Dewey numbers (in 083 fields), or as number components (in 085 fields).” Read more

Richard Wallis recently commented on the incorporation of linked data and linked open data at libraries. Wallis writes, “Last summer, it was great to play a small part in the release of the British National Bibliography as Linked Data by the British Library – openly available via Talis and their Kasabi Platform.  Late last year the Library of Congress announced that Linked Data and RDF was on their roadmap, soon followed by the report and plan from Stanford University with Linked Data at its core.  More recently still, Europeana have opened up access to a large amount of cultural heritage, including library, data. Even more recently I note that OCLC, at their EMEA Regional Council Meeting in Birmingham this week, see Linked Data as an important topic on the library agenda.” Read more

On Monday, July 18, a group of Semantic thought leaders from around the globe met with their host and colleague, Paul Miller, for the eighth installment of the Semantic Link, a monthly podcast covering the world of Semantic Technologies. This episode includes a discussion about Google+, the recent Open Data Challenge in Europe, the British Library, BioBlitz, and more.
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A new article reports that the British Library has announced “a significant contribution to the development, application, and sharing of bibliographic data using Linked Data techniques and technologies, with a preview of a new approach to publishing the British National Bibliography. Chief Executive Dame Lynne Brindley announced the initiative in her Keynote at Linked Data and Libraries 2011, hosted by Talis at the British Library (BL) in London.” Read more