Library Linked Data Incubator Group Charter
The mission of the Library Linked Data Incubator Group is to
help increase global interoperability of library data on the Web, by bringing
together people involved in Semantic Web activities—focusing on Linked
Data—in the library community and beyond, building on existing initiatives,
and identifying collaboration tracks for the future.
The group will explore how existing building blocks of librarianship, such
as metadata models, metadata schemas, standards and protocols for building
interoperability and library systems and networked environments, encourage
libraries to bring their content, and generally re-orient their approaches to
data interoperability towards the Web, also reaching to other communities. It
will also envision these communities as a potential major provider of
authoritative datasets (persons, topics...) for the Linked Data Web. As these
evolutions raise a need for a shared standardization effort within the library
community around (Semantic) Web standards, the group will refine the knowledge
of this need, express requirements for standards and guidelines, and propose a
way forward for the library community to contribute to further Web
standardization actions.
The incubator group has been initiated by actors from national libraries,
university libraries and research units, library vendors companies and other
interested stakeholders. Its scope is however not limited to libraries as
institutions, but is meant to involve other cultural heritage institutions,
partners from the publishing industry, and other relevant domains.
| End date |
31 August 2011 |
| Confidentiality |
Proceedings are public |
| Initial Chairs |
Tom Baker, Emmanuelle Bermes, Antoine Isaac (VU) |
| Initiating Members |
|
| Usual Meeting Schedule |
Teleconferences: weekly
Face-to-face: Once Annually |
Motivation
The changing landscape of librarianship increases their need for visibility
and interoperability on the Web. In particular, the ubiquitous growth of
digital libraries has led them to broaden their practices, standards and
activities. Shared catalogues are going online on the open Web, digitized items
collections are being brought together in worldwide initiatives, digital
resources like online serials, preprints or web archives are driving the need
for re-inventing librarianship.
Digital
libraries rely deeply on existing building blocks of librarianship, such as:
- metadata schemas (MODS, MADS, METS,...)
- metadata models for libraries, which are now evolving towards the Web
(FRBR, FRAD, RDA...)
- standards and protocols for building interoperability beyond the library
domain (OAI-ORE, SKOS, SRU/CQL,...)
- (digital) library systems shifting from an integrated vision towards a
networked environment (Europeana, Worldcat, VIAF project...).
Moreover this activity is no longer isolated in the library environment.
Actors from a broader set of domains (libraries, archives, museums, publishing,
the Web) now share common issues and standards. Their capacity to jointly build
interoperable solutions is key to the development of cultural and scientific
content across the Web.
A
re-orientation in the library perspective on information interoperability is
needed, building on existing Web architecture and standards, in order to bring
this content to the Web. A lot of structured data is already available within
library systems and could be released as Linked Data, using Semantic Web
technologies. Cultural heritage institutions could be a major provider of
authoritative datasets (persons, topics...) for the Linked Data Web.
However, there are some barriers. Real adoption of the very principles of
Linked Data in these communities will require coordination. Today, a lot of
Semantic Web related projects exist in this domain, but they are scattered and
there is little communication, let alone collaboration between them. Moreover,
they are often being built at a research and development level, and moving
their results into mainstream practice seems challenging.
Scope
Activities
include:
- Gathering use cases and case studies demonstrating successful
implementation of Semantic Web technologies in libraries and related
sectors
- Fostering collaboration among actors (libraries, museums, archives,
publishers) interested in porting cultural assets to the Linked Data
Web
- Identifying relevant data models, vocabularies and ontologies and ways to
build or improve interoperability among them
- Identifying the need for the elaboration of new standards, guidelines
& best practices
- Identifying the areas of (Semantic) Web technology that could benefit
from the expertise of the communities represented in the Group
- Proposing a relevant scope and organization for work that follows on the
initial effort carried by the Group.
Success Criteria
The Library Linked Data Incubator Group will be considered successful if it
can elaborate a state of the art report on the adoption of Linked data
principles and perspective in the library domain and related sectors, leading
to a clear and agreed view regarding what further standards and guidelines
should be developed, and what organization should be set up in order to develop
them.
Out of Scope
The development or assessment of particular ontologies or vocabularies is
outside the scope of this group. The group may identify relevant vocabularies
and ontologies, but not intervene in their evolution or creation.
Deliverables
As a W3C Incubator group, our primary responsibility is to produce a final
report presenting the landscape of Linked data development in the library
domain and related sectors, and propose a way forward for these communities to
participate productively in further W3C standardization actions.
Also, a number of other deliverables may be produced by the Incubator Group,
although this work may also be subsumed into the final report, including :
- A use-case document that describes a number of real-world use cases, case
studies, outreach and dissemination initiatives targeted to the library
community and related sectors
- A document that describes relevant technology pieces, including
vocabularies and ontologies (e.g., SKOS), with the intended goal to
identify extension or interoperability requirements, and help determine
what other standards may be needed.
External Groups
- CIDOC
- Documentation committee for the museums.
- Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
- This group maintains the Dublin Core metadata terms, a major metadata
vocabulary for the libraries and cultural heritage sector. Other task
groups, such as DCMI/NKOS are also relevant.
- EDItEUR
- Group that coordinates the development of standards for the publishing
industry
- IFLA
- The International Federation of Library Associations is responsible for
the development of library standards internationally.
- ISO
TC37/SC4
- The Technical Committee 37 / SC4 of ISO is responsible for Language
resource management standards within ISO.
- ISO
TC46
- The Technical Committee 46 of ISO is responsible for Information and
documentation standards within ISO. Standards like ISO 25964 (Thesauri and
Interoperability with other Vocabularies) are particularly
relevant.
- Open Archives Initiative
- Responsible for the development of interoperability standards for the
cultural heritage and academic community, including OAI-ORE.
- Resource Description and Access (RDA)
Joint Steering Committee
- Developed by the Joint Steering Committee for the development of RDA,
this ongoing initiative is considered as the major standard shift for
cataloguing rules in the forthcoming years.
- Semuse
- Semuse is an open and collaborative community based project to work on
the Semantic Museum.
- SKOS
- As one of the major semantic Web standards used today within the
library community, a close contact with the SKOS community is
expected.
Participation
Professionals from Libraries, Cultural heritage institutions, Library
software companies, Publishing sector companies, relevant standardization
organizations, Universities, Documentation organizations and research units are
welcome to participate in this incubator group. Members should be expected to
introduce themselves and participate over the public mailing-list.
Participants must be willing to attend the majority of the group's
teleconferences and face-to-face meetings, and actively participate to the
elaboration of deliverables.
Communication
This group primarily conducts its work on the public mailing-list
[email protected] (archive).
The mailing lists will be a primary part of the communication both
internally and externally. If needed, a wiki able to be
accessible and editable by all can also be maintained, and a blog could be
maintained in order to let others be easily informed about the progress of the
group.
The group's Member-only list is [email protected] (archive).
Information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face
meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Library Linked Data Incubator Group home page.
Decision Policy
As explained in the Process Document (section 3.3), this group will seek to make decisions when
there is consensus. When the Chair puts a question and observes dissent, after
due consideration of different opinions, the Chair should record a decision
(possibly after a formal vote) and any objections, and move on.
- When deciding a substantive technical issue, the Chair may put a question
before the group. The Chair must only do so during a group meeting. When the Chair conducts a formal vote to reach a decision on a substantive technical
issue, eligible voters may vote on a proposal one of three ways: for a
proposal, against a proposal, or abstain. For the proposal to pass there
must be more votes for the proposal than against. In case of a tie, the
Chair will decide the outcome of the proposal.
- This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the W3C Process Document and
includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document
requires.
Patent Policy
This Incubator Group provides an opportunity to share perspectives on the
topic addressed by this charter. W3C reminds Incubator Group participants of
their obligation to comply with patent disclosure obligations as set out in Section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy. While the Incubator Group
does not produce Recommendation-track documents, when Incubator Group
participants review Recommendation-track specifications from Working Groups,
the patent disclosure obligations do apply.
Incubator Groups have as a goal to produce work that can be implemented on a
Royalty Free basis, as defined in the W3C Patent
Policy.
Participants agree to offer patent licenses according to the W3C
Royalty-Free licensing requirements described in Section 5 of the W3C Patent Policy for any portions of the XG
Reports produced by this XG that are subsequently incorporated into a W3C
Recommendation produced by a Working Group which is chartered to take the XG
Report as an input. This licensing commitment may not be revoked but may be
modified through the Exclusion process defined in Section 4 of the Patent Policy.
Participants in this Incubator Group wishing to exclude essential patent claims from the licensing commitment must
join the Working Group created to work on the XG Report and follow the normal
exclusion procedures defined by the Patent Policy. The W3C Team is responsible
for notifying all Participants in this Incubator Group in the event that a new
Working Group is proposed to develop a Recommendation that takes the XG Report
as an input.
For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see
the W3C Patent Policy
Implementation.
About this Charter
This charter for the Library Linked Data Incubator Group has been created
according to the Incubator Group Procedures documentation. In the event of a
conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C
Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.
Charter extension history: 12 May 2011, 3-month extension granted till 31
August 2011.
Tom Baker, Emmanuelle Bermes, Antoine Isaac
Copyright© 2010 W3C
® (MIT , ERCIM,
Keio), All Rights
Reserved.
$Date: 2011/06/08 08:55:02 $