LODLAM Joins the OpenGLAM Network

We are very pleased to announce that the LODLAM Network has joined the OpenGLAM Network.

LODLAM is Linked Open Data in Libraries, Archives, and Museums. LODLAM.net is an informal, borderless network of enthusiasts, technicians, professionals and any number of other people who are interested in or working with Linked Open Data pertaining to galleries, libraries, archives, and museums.

Linked refers to Linked Data, or the concept of connecting data using W3C standards. Open refers to the use of open licenses, such as the Public Domain Mark, Creative Commons Zero, Creative Commons Attribution, and Creative Commons Attribution-Alike. Data can be raw data, metadata, descriptive data, bibliographic data, etc.

LODLAM.net is designed to be a central place for sharing resources and connecting and collaborating with other interested individuals. There is also a Google Group, and the #LODLAM hashtag is used extensively on Twitter for shared news, questions, and projects regarding LODLAM.

We’re looking forward to collaborating with the LODLAM Network around the development of our tools for digital scholarship and crowdsourced data enrichment as well as working with them to further explore the potentials of Linked Open Data in the cultural heritage sector.

Jon Voss, founder of LODLAM, said:

In the last few years we’ve seen a growing convergence of communities working toward usability and discovery of openly licensed cultural heritage assets and data. Increasingly, the institutions that have for so long provided stewardship of these materials and their accompanying data are embracing and investing in new ways of providing access to this information, opening a new world of possibilities for how we celebrate our shared global history. While many industries are litigating in the face of change, galleries, libraries, archives and museums are instead increasingly playing a leading role in innovating for the common good.

The interests of and people within the LODLAM and OpenGLAM communities have so much overlap that it’s a natural fit for the two to be aligned as part of the OpenGLAM network. It’s my hope that the shared knowledge and resources of the network will continue to strengthen the collaborative culture that makes a free and open World Wide Web possible.

For more on the history of LODLAM, see the paper Radically Open Cultural Heritage Data on the Web, presented at Museums and the Web, 2012.

The LODLAM Network joins a host of other organisations including the Internet Archive, Wikimedia, Creative Commons and Europeana who we are collaborating with to help our cultural institutions reach their potential in the digital age.

If you’re an organisation working with cultural institutions and helping them to open up their holdings online and would like to join out Network email openglam@okfn.org.