An openly licensed up-to-date database of all Canadian libraries that includes locations, opening hours, contact and event information would be a valuable resource for building community maps, applications, and increasing the visibility of libraries in search engines. dialled.ca automates the process of generating and refreshing such a database by harvesting data from each library’s own website, relying on Web standards such as sitemaps and the schema.org vocabulary. The project is developing openly licensed templates for popular content management systems such as Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress that libraries can adopt directly or adapt to their own websites. This session offers guidance in publishing the necessary information or adopting the freely available templates to support the library data commons. We also compare this project’s approach to previous efforts such as the Royal Society of Canada’s 2014 commissioned map of Canada’s libraries and archives and the OCLC WorldCat Registry.
Learning Outcomes
Attendees will learn the basics of sitemaps and schema.org for publishing machine-readable data
Attendees will learn how to publish library metadata such as location, opening hours, and event information by adopting freely available templates for their website
Attendees will gain awareness of the open library data available from dialled.ca and learn how to make their own library data available.
