AI needs context. Linked data provides.

Artificial intelligence is at the center of today’s technology conversation.  At conferences, in headlines, and across product roadmaps, AI is everywhere. At the same time, linked data, once a major focus, seems less visible.

That perception may mislead in an important way. AI is not replacing linked data. It’s highlighting how essential structured, connected data really is.

These are not competing priorities. They’re converging technologies that are evolving together and, in many cases, making each other better.

Understanding that relationship starts with how AI systems actually work.

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Making accessibility metadata work at scale

Illustration for accessibility

Digital content is evolving quickly, and so are expectations for inclusive access. Libraries are being asked to deliver e-books, audiobooks, and streaming media in ways that work for everyone. But there’s a practical challenge underneath those expectations: accessibility features are only discoverable if the metadata describing them is structured, consistent, and able to travel intact across the full metadata ecosystem.

Over the past two years, particularly as the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has increased attention on accessibility requirements for digital content, we’ve focused on a clear goal: making accessibility metadata reliable, standards-based, and scalable across WorldCat and the systems that feed it.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

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Listening to library leaders: Surveys capture real-time perspectives shaping decisions across the field

Funding and resourcing, technology, staffing, community needs and expectations—the pace of change library leaders now need to navigate and lead their organizations through is nothing short of breathtaking. Trends that took years to evolve now demand responses and strategic planning within months, or even days. Grounding those choices in rigorous, in-depth research remains essential.  

At the same time, library decision-makers benefit from collective wisdom and insights shared among peers. Knowing how others are responding to similar pressures can help leaders calibrate their strategies and avoid reinventing the wheel. When those insights are confined to personal or regional networks, the limited perspective can restrict leaders’ views of how priorities and decisions are shifting. 

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Scaling de-duplication in WorldCat: Balancing AI innovation with cataloging care

We first shared our efforts for leveraging machine learning to improve de-duplication in WorldCat in this 2023 blog post on “Machine Learning and WorldCat.”

De-duplication has always been essential to maintaining the quality of WorldCat by enhancing cataloging efficiency and streamlining quality. But with bibliographic data pouring in faster than ever, we need to address the challenge of keeping records accurate, connected, and accessible at speed. AI-powered de-duplication offers an innovative way to scale this work quickly and efficiently, but its success depends on human expertise. At OCLC, we’ve invested resources into a hybrid approach, leveraging AI to process vast amounts of data while ensuring catalogers and OCLC experts remain at the center of decision-making.

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From data to action: Leveraging insights to make more informed collection decisions

“How many books are there on Islamic law?”

This was the deceptively simple question posed by a colleague while brainstorming the potential scope of a digitization project on Islamic legal history. For non-librarians, it might seem like something one could just “look up.” But as you and I know, that kind of analysis only begins with a simple question and branches out into many more complex issues of data analysis, accounting for duplicate titles, different editions, and multiple languages, etc.

But I decided to give it a go and survey a selected number of libraries in North America using the tool Choreo Insights. I published the in-depth results of my findings in another post on the Islamic Law Blog, but today wanted to talk more about the process.

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OCLC’s role in advancing library linked data

There are times when a single organization’s decision to embrace a particular technology will have an outsized influence on everyone else in that sector. For example, with the release of “Toy Story” in 1995—the first feature-length film entirely created with CGI—Pixar set a new standard for animated movies. While CGI had been used before, the success of Pixar’s approach encouraged other studios to adopt the technology more quickly and fully.

We are at a moment like this today. The shifting of operational workflows to incorporate linked data will transform how libraries create, manage, and improve WorldCat, the largest source of library metadata in the world. OCLC’s strategy to champion this change, along with the support of its thousands of members, represents a significant event for the library profession worldwide.

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How linked data can help libraries make more of an impact online

Graphic banner for linked data blog post showing WorldCat Entities linked data text on a futuristic background

In a recent post, I introduced the topic of linked data for libraries and OCLC’s plans for moving forward. Today, let’s dig into the details on how linked data amplifies the knowledge in library collections and the tools we can use to make it happen.

This shift toward linked data isn’t just a technology upgrade, but a long-term strategy for enhancing the findability and accessibility of the important materials that libraries curate and manage. It’s a technical challenge, yes. But I also believe it’s a chance to better promote our values.

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Connecting with libraries, reaffirming our mission

Earlier this month, Columbus wasn’t just the capital of Ohio, but a center of knowledge and literacy as it welcomed public library professionals to the Public Library Association 2024 Conference. Hosting this conference was a testament to Columbus’s status as a hub of technical and educational engagement, and to the important role that public library professionals play in our country’s intellectual and civic lives. That focus continued with National Library Week 2024. This year’s theme, “Ready, Set, Library!” was such a great way to think about libraries—not only as places where learning, growth, and education happen, but as active, engaged partners in so many ways.

OCLC staff were very much involved at PLA and during National Library week. So now that things have calmed down a bit, I want to take a moment to reflect on what libraries mean to me.

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Engage faculty and students with digital collections

There are almost as many reasons for digitizing library collections as there are collections themselves. Public libraries may do so to curate and promote unique local history or culture. Museums, of course, want to make their treasures available for study and enjoyment to people who can’t visit the physical building. And while academic libraries have just as many, varied reasons for beginning a specific digitization project, there’s often a longer-term goal in mind: to promote study and learning around the collection.

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An introduction to library linked data

We recently announced a comprehensive strategy to bring linked data into mainstream library cataloging workflows. It’s a long-term approach, recognizing that most libraries will move to linked data slowly and incrementally—and we’re committed to providing tools and resources to support the transition for everyone.

Working closely with libraries around the world, we know that staff at some libraries are already educating themselves on the topic, piloting linked data services, and taking part in ongoing research. But we also know that many others have a lot of questions. In addition to technical issues, librarians are also wondering how linked data will impact and affect the work they are currently doing. To help, OCLC is rolling out linked data infrastructure and services that meet libraries where they are today and provide meaningful improvement to challenges facing libraries.

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