LD4P2 and Rare Materials: Reports from the Field

Abstract

The Linked Data for Production projects aim to move library cataloging from a MARC-based system to a linked data environment. The first phase focused largely on developing specialized ontology extensions to BIBFRAME, the Library of Congress’s linked data model. The second phase of LD4P (“LD4P2”), spearheaded by four partner institutions (Cornell, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science), worked to build tools and workflows to implement a communal prototype linked data environment (“Sinopia”). In addition, seventeen other cohort institutions were awarded subgrants to complete their own projects and to catalog natively in Sinopia. Following up on LD4P2’s conclusion on June 30, 2020, this seminar will be a chance for the broader RBMS community to hear reports from institutions that cataloged rare materials and special collections as part of their LD4P projects. Seminar presenters will describe the scope of their projects, workflows that were developed, successes and challenges, and will take a look ahead to what they see as the viability of and needed developments for an RDF-based future for cataloging to work for the RBMS community. This seminar will also touch on the developments of the Art & Rare Materials BIBFRAME Ontology Extension (ARM), and how the LD4P participants used ARM to build more robust application profiles in the Sinopia editor.