British Library picks TSO for linked data

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The British Library has chosen TSO to provide linked data and host the British National Bibliography (BNB). The BNB will be hosted on TSO’s OpenUp Linked Data platform at TSO’s data centres.

The BNB contains information on over three million books and journals published or distributed in the UK and Ireland since 1950 and over 90,000 new publications are added each year. It has been the standard library listing for UK titles for over 60 years.

The use of TSO's linked data platform is part of The British Library's aim to increase free public access to BNB metadata in order to encourage innovation, assist collaboration and promote knowledge creation. BNB linked open data will be made available in the ‘Resource Description Framework’ (RDF) format under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence to assist its wider re-use. The full dataset will comprise over 85M RDF triples of bibliographic metadata.

Through the British Library’s Linked Data Portal, information on authors, subjects, publication and other details will be searchable. Users and developers will be able to download and reuse the BNB RDF, mashing it together with other open data sources to create innovative new research, publishing applications and visualisations. TSO's linked data platform is already used by organisations such as The National Archives and Nature Publishing.

Neil Wilson, head of metadata services at The British Library said: 'We are delighted to be working with TSO to build the BNB into a key international resource for users of linked open data. The BL has a long history of using cutting edge technologies to improve access to both its catalogues and content and this development is very much in that tradition. We hope TSO’s platform will provide an exciting new way for users and developers to exploit this valuable resource and gain a greater understanding of the UK’s rich publishing heritage.'