Share Family - Linked Data Ecosystem for Libraries

The Share Family is a global community built on collaboration that brings together libraries, archives, museums, consortia and Library Service Platforms (LSP) and joins their knowledge in an ever-widening network of interconnected bibliographic data.

The Share Family creates connections across the bibliographic catalogues and authority files of libraries with similar characteristics and focus areas in shared discovery environments that are tailored to each specific domain or discipline, in order to accommodate distinct systems, habits and cataloguing traditions.

The concept behind the Share Family originates in Share-VDE, the practical continuation of an initial pilot project which began in October 2016. Thanks to the active involvement and collaboration of a group of prominent North American, Asian and European national and research libraries, Share-VDE has evolved from a Research and Development pilot project to become a real and effective environment for library linked data, with an advanced, collaborative entity management system and entity discovery portal. Its role in linked open data for libraries is outlined in detail in the Share-VDE Executive Summary. Share-VDE also adopts an Open Metadata Policy, approved by its Advisory Council. Furthermore, the Share Family Executive Summary for Consortia offers additional insights into how the Share Family can assist consortia in transitioning to linked open data, providing valuable strategies and support.

• Share-VDE: Virtual Discovery Environment in Linked Open Data
  The collective Linked Open Data (LOD) catalogue of a growing number of leading academic and national libraries from across Europe and North America.

• Share-Catalogue: Scholarly Heritage and Access to Research
  The joint LOD platform for a network of Italian university libraries.

• Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Catalogue in Linked Open Data
  The open pool of PCC-quality BIBFRAME data.

• National Bibliographies in Linked Open Data
  The aggregation of data from National Bibliographies in a shared entity discovery environment; the first of these is the British National Bibliography, soon to go into production.

• Parsifal: Integrated Catalogue in Linked Open Data
  The LOD portal of the URBE consortium (Roman Union of Ecclesiastical Libraries).

• LILLIT: portal for Italian illustrated books 1501-1800
  Linked Open Data descriptions and illustrations of Italian editions printed in the 16th-18th centuries.

• Kubikat: Linked Open Data pilot project
  The LOD portal for the catalogues of Kubikat Art History libraries.

• Share-Art, Share-Music and Share MIA
  Three pilot projects for shared environments in the domains of Art, Music and Manuscripts, Incunabula and Ancient books, respectively.

The Share Family supports National Bibliographies in adapting to changing technologies, connecting catalogues to create open borders for wider access to knowledge and promote greater equality of access to knowledge for the enrichment of the global research community.

Members contribute to a collective, inclusive and global catalogue, enriched through the mutual sharing of quality data and representation of diverse descriptions, original languages, alphabets and writing systems. Early adopters from Europe include the British Library and the National Libraries of Norway and Finland. 

By offering authoritative, openly available data, National Bibliographies help build a trusted global knowledge network, empowering users everywhere to connect, reuse, and share information. Here are just some of the ways the Share Family can help to strengthen interoperability, expand access, and support a sustainable open bibliographic ecosystem for diverse communities in a shared cultural space.

• Enhancing Data, Expanding Connections

  Partnering with the Share Family enables National Bibliographies to enrich their data with URIs, adopt web standards such as BIBFRAME and RDA, and contribute to shared, interoperable data structures. The Share infrastructure and ontology enable dialogue and reconcile data between IFLA LRM, RDA and BIBFRAME.

• From Data to Discovery

  The Share Family provides tools to transform flat records into entity-based models aligned with BIBFRAME and the IFLA Library Reference Model (RDA). By creating connections across collections, we can transcend national borders while celebrating local traditions and traits, making data widely available and accessible while ensuring each national bibliography retains its autonomy, singularity and identity.

• Collaboration that Builds Value

  The Share Family provides a cost-effective, collaborative framework, uniting libraries and bibliographic agencies with expertise in linked data, in which National Bibliographies work together to co-develop data models, workflows, and discovery tools that benefit the whole community. The JCricket co-operative data curation tool enables shared cataloguing and representations of diverse descriptions, original languages and writing systems. 

The technology behind the Share Family is the LOD Platform, an innovative framework developed specifically for the conversion, structuring and re-use of bibliographic data in linked open data, according to the BIBFRAME data model .

Interoperable across library types and LSPs, the LOD Platform offers a range of services, applications and technology, which can be used to:

• convert library catalogues from MARC to linked open data
• enrich original MARC data
• reconcile and clusterize entities created through entity resolution processes
• guarantee the quality and authoritativeness of data also through new forms of collaborative endeavour
• deliver converted and enriched data for reuse in local or external systems
• publish library records in linked open data on an advanced entity discovery platform
• facilitate the interoperability among different data models and data pools

Each institution receives the information corresponding to its own catalogue in linked open data; this may be re-used according to local requirements and with no restrictions.

Library consortia and Library Service Providers may also benefit from integration with new-generation functions and tools and interoperability with the Share Family, without sacrificing control of their own metadata.

Discover more about each individual component of the LOD Platform in the chart below.

Becoming part of the global Share Family of libraries, museums and archives means embracing the opportunity to be involved in a growing international community, creating dialogue, participation and partnership.

The Share Family opens the door to a flexible, sustainable, interoperable and co-operative approach to bibliographic data, with time, expertise and costs shared across the community for the benefit of all members.

By working together, Share Family member institutions and consortia organizations are actively involved in shaping the future of the emerging ecosystem of bibliographic data in linked data, facilitating the re-use of enriched and structured data and serving the research community with a new generation tool to access knowledge.

Contact us to find out more about the opportunities, options and advantages available and to get involved!

Vision

Developed and driven by libraries, for libraries, the ShareFamily is guided by the international library communitythrough a constant exchange of ideas and principles that,together, define the vision, aims and progress of eachenvironment and its tools.The Share Family collaborates on the application andunderstanding of linked data with the Linked Data forProduction (LD4P) initiative, the Program for CooperativeCataloging (PCC) and several international networks acrossthe cultural heritage sector.

Advocacy

The Share Family and opportunities for collaborationwith the Share Family are promoted by internationalbibliographic agency and leading library supplier, CasaliniLibri.

Development

The LOD platform is developed and maintained by @Cult,ILS provider and software house specialising in the designand creation of solutions for information management andknowledge sharing.

Evolution

As members of the Share Family, participating institutionsplay an active and collaborative role in defining anddesigning the tools that will be used in their own libraries,from theory to implementation.