Linked Data

The bibliographic metadata found in Alma contains a rich set of information and objects that can be represented in linked data.

The Alma linked open data provides access to the institution’s bibliographic information using Linked Data Principles and made available in several places, including the Alma UI and APIs.

The general workflow for exposing linked open data is described in the following diagram:

Following is detailed description of each step:

The bibliographic information is enriched with URIs in the public domain. These URIs are a key piece of information that might be used in order to retrieve new information from related entities. In a Linked Data context, ideally one would simply follow the links and crawl from one data description to another.

Alma adds the following URIs (when relevant):

1. Library of Congress subjects

For example: http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh1234

2. Library of congress names

For example: http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n1234

3. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

For example: http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/1234

4. German National library headings (GND)

For example: https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=idn=1234

5. Virtual International Authority File (VIAF®)

For example: http://viaf.org/viaf/sourceID/LC|no1234
http://viaf.org/viaf/sourceID/DNB|1234

Note that VIAF links are added only for library of congress and GND authorized fields.

6. FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology)

For example: http://id.worldcat.org/fast/111/

7. LCGFT (Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms)

For example: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2011026005

8. Hong Kong Chinese Authority Name (HKCAN)

For example: http://hkcan.julac.org/authorities/names/9811125217303406

9. BARE (Norwegian Authority System) – BIBSYS Authority Registry

For example: https://authority.bibsys.no/authority/rest/authorities/v2/123

10. National Library of Israel (NLI)

For example: https://open-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/972NNL_INST/authorities/987007375772605171

11. Traditional Chinese Authority

For example: https://ld.ncl.edu.tw/subject/88293 https://ld.ncl.edu.tw/authority/19936 https://ld.ncl.edu.tw/classification/150408

Some of the above URIs depend on the Alma authorities control mechanism, i.e. will be added to authorized fields according to institution’s defined vocabularies.

Linked data can be exposed in several formats. Alma supports the following LD formats:

• BIBFRAME
• JSON-LD
• RDA-RDF

Each format defines the structure of the information and the entities in which it will be exposed. The pages in this section describe each LD format in more details, including the places in Alma in which it is exposed.

The Linked Data functionality is opt-in. In order to activate it, an integration profile should be defined in Alma. See OLH for more details about defining the “Linked Data” integration profile.