Ed,
I would agree that JSON-LD seems like a reasonably useful publication
format for BIBFRAME data. And also using URLs (persistent ones!) for things
like books, people, and subjects is also a good thing. I was never really
involved with JSON, but I know that it underlies a ton of useful
implementations, which means there are tools available for doing useful
work with it. So I simply say, rock on!
Roy
On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 6:38 AM Ed Summers <ehs_at_pobox.com> wrote:
> Hi Roy,
>
> Thanks for this synopsis, I think many of us can relate to your story in
> different ways. In the end everything must die, including MARC, so you
> shouldn’t feel so bad, eh? You should also feel really good about your
> contributions to the library community over the years. It’s good to see you
> posting here again :-)
>
> I think Linked Data has meant many things to different people: a way to
> model data, a pattern for data publishing, an infrastructure for storing
> and querying data. As a result, a lot of how it has been talked about has
> been difficult to understand and put into practice.
>
> But in answer to your humble suggestion, what do you think about this
> chunk of JSON for describing a book?
>
> ```
> {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/resources/works/3949714",
> "@type": [
> "Work",
> "Text",
> "Monograph"
> ],
> "title": {
> "@type": "Title",
> "mainTitle": "Crossing the Internet threshold"
> },
> "contribution": [
> {
> "@type": [
> "Contribution",
> "PrimaryContribution"
> ],
> "agent": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/rwo/agents/no92024789",
> "@type": [
> "Agent",
> "Person"
> ],
> "rdfs:label": "Tennant, Roy"
> },
> "role": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ctb",
> "@type": "Role",
> "code": "ctb",
> "rdfs:label": "contributor"
> }
> },
> {
> "@type": "Contribution",
> "agent": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/rwo/agents/no92024790",
> "@type": [
> "Agent",
> "Person"
> ],
> "rdfs:label": "Ober, John"
> },
> "role": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ctb",
> "@type": "Role",
> "code": "ctb",
> "rdfs:label": "contributor"
> }
> },
> {
> "@type": "Contribution",
> "agent": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/rwo/agents/n83126571",
> "@type": [
> "Agent",
> "Person"
> ],
> "rdfs:label": "Lipow, Anne Grodzins, 1935-"
> },
> "role": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ctb",
> "@type": "Role",
> "code": "ctb",
> "rdfs:label": "contributor"
> }
> }
> ],
> "genreForm": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026109",
> "@type": "GenreForm",
> "rdfs:label": {
> "@language": "en",
> "@value": "Handbooks and manuals"
> }
> },
> "illustrativeContent": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/millus/ill",
> "@type": "Illustration",
> "code": "ill",
> "rdfs:label": "illustrations"
> },
> "language": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/languages/eng",
> "@type": "Language",
> "code": {
> "@type": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string",
> "@value": "eng"
> },
> "rdfs:label": {
> "@language": "en",
> "@value": "English"
> }
> },
> "subject": {
> "@id": "http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008104855",
> "@type": "Topic",
> "rdfs:label": {
> "@language": "en",
> "@value": "Internet--Handbooks, manuals, etc."
> }
> },
> "@context": {
> "@vocab": "http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe/",
> "rdfs": "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"
> }
> }
> ```
>
> This is some (admittedly abridged for brevity) JSON-LD created from RDF
> that is published on the web by the Library of Congress using the Bibframe
> vocabulary.
>
> I think part of the bum rap that Linked Data has gotten is that we haven’t
> always made it easy to use. I would argue that Bibframe data published as
> JSON-LD, and using URLs for things like books, people, and subjects are
> actually pretty useful things to do. Your work, and others’, helping us get
> to this place are appreciated!
>
> //Ed
Received on Thu Oct 23 2025 - 22:14:50 EDT