Re: Dynamic vs. Fixed World Views was Re: MARCXML to Topic Maps? MODS to Topic Maps?

Richard Light <richard-wLOraGfDqaUCqOQrDF6SL1pr/1R2p/[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.text.xml.xtm.general
Message-ID <[email protected]>
In message 
<AANLkTinLeISDrIeaN8QeiCIiAXxKJOqaVfkwisTL_lCu-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>, 
Alexander Johannesen <[email protected]> writes
>
>And, for what it is worth, both Open Library and especially
>LibraryThing *do* this, and quite well. However, they are not part of
>the library world, they are external players who might or might not
>share their findings.

Surely Open Library is totally about "sharing their findings"?: it's a 
free (unlike LibraryThing) wiki-supporting framework with API etc.

Anyway, given that they aspire to provide a catalogue entry for every 
book published, surely they would count as "part of the library world" 
by most people's definition? And, given that they are actively trying to 
move in the direction of FRBR, Linked Data, etc., wouldn't they be a 
better dog to throw a Topic Maps steak to, than the MARC-using-librarian 
dog?  Their current RDF offerings[1] show the MARC legacy (not many URLs 
in there), but they look a whole lot more helpful to me than equivalent 
MARCXML.

Maybe because they are hungrier ... maybe because a Topic Map sitting 
alongside and adding value to a single, comprehensive online 
bibliographic resource could really benefit everyone. Perhaps LCSH 
(already available as Linked Data) would be a good place to start?

Richard
[1] http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6807502M.rdf
-- 
Richard Light
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