Kate Davis talked to me via Skype last week as part of the the Libraryhack event around mashing up data from Australian State and National libraries.
In this little clip, I answer her questions about:
- Why is Open Data important ?
- What kinds of data should libraries be making open?
- What are the applications of mashups for libraries ?
For the applications of mashups, I talk a bit about getting data into the physical world, rather than just blending two digital sources that remain online. Examples would be pointing an iPad at a monument and seeing all of the library’s local history data about it, or pointing a smartphone at a book in a school library bookshelf and seeing how often it has been studied in classes and how previous students rated the book.
I then go on to talk about what libraries need to ensure to make our data really useful for mashing up. My points were:
- Collect enough useful information initially
- Store it in a standardised format
- Work toward a permanent URL for each data object – an authoritative “anchor point” for further remix
- Ensure useful reuse rights
- Endeavour to complement and complete the collection of data to make it comprehensive
- Provide easy access for those who want to contribute data
- Provide an alternative open platform to closed publishing sources
- Allow live API access to data if at all possible
- Actively insert mass batches of data outside the library website (eg. SLQ photos in Wikipedia) but work out how to ensure funders know this service is happening
- Anticipate possible future use cases
And …. here it is , LibraryHack interview with Kathryn Greenhill .
If you like open data (and open library data) then you might like the work that we have done at the open university in the uk. data.open.ac.uk makes data from across the ou available as linked open data. OUr data sets include our library resources related to courses. an example of library data is at http://data.open.ac.uk/page/library/406973