Milner Library is pleased to announce that Associate Professor Eric Willey has been selected to serve on the LD4 Steering Committee. Per their webpage, “LD4 is a community that works together to advance library and archival practices. [They] focus on linking and using data on the web to advance the mission, goals and objectives of libraries and archives. Participation in the LD4 Community is open to anyone—individual or institution; non-profit, government or commercial. Through direct participation, and through its various channels, projects and events, LD4 brings together thousands of individuals worldwide.”
“The Steering Committee administers LD4 Community communication channels, guides LD4 Community development, and delegates responsibilities to chartered committees and other groups.” The Steering Committee is comprised of members from such institutions as Harvard, Cornell, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and others.
The LD4 Steering Committee arose from the work of the LD4P (Linked Data for Production) research partners, which worked extensively on methods to produce metadata as linked open data. “Metadata is information about another resource (for example, a catalog record describing a book is metadata) and producing our metadata as linked data will allow our partners to explore relationships between resources and facilitate their research,” Willey said.
The huge amount and wide variety of materials and metadata make this a gargantuan undertaking, which is why the LD4 Affinity Groups were created. There are currently eight affinity groups dealing with issues such as metadata for rare materials, serials, creating linked data ethically, and more. The LD4 Steering Committee supports these groups.
The LD4 Steering Committee also holds the annual LD4 Conference. Since 2019, this conference has explored linked data theory and practice, allowing practitioners from around the world to present their work to attendees. The conference will continue this year from July 10-14, and those interested in learning more about linked data should keep an eye on the conference web page or check out past conference presentations.
