for Linked Open Data in Ex Libris products

The IGeLU/ELUNA LOD Working Group throughout its history has solicited customer use cases and scenarios for Linked Open Data use by libraries involving Ex Libris products. This dialogue was encouraged by Ex Libris as they sought to gauge interest and future needs of customers for the development of product features.

From 2013 to 2015 these scenarios were discussed in several online meetings per year, including a presenter, Ex Libris representatives, and members of the LOD Working Group, and being open to any interested Ex Libris customers.

Later, the “Use Case” meetings were replaced by live-streamed “Show and Tell” sessions using Google Hangouts and YouTube. Many of these presentations showcased completed or in-process projects where Ex Libris products and linked data were involved. Occasionally these have been broadened to include presentations by participants in other forward-looking projects from which Ex Libris and its customers could learn and ask questions about new possibilities for linked data and libraries.    

The LOD Working Group archive of publicly available documents includes use cases/scenarios, slides, and meeting notes for use case presentations as well as some conference presentations. For the Show and Tell sessions, YouTube recordings are openly available as well.

We’ve recently introduced a more “lightweight” way for interested customers to contribute use cases and “user stories” for specific functions that utilize linked data, within or dependent on data or features from Ex Libris products. You can use the LOD Working Group’s Linked Data User Story Collection Form to submit an idea or highlight a case you’ve worked on.   

Contributing a “user story” use case does not commit a person or institution to future action, but can give the LOD Working Group an opportunity to share customer interests in linked data features with IGeLU and ELUNA Product Working Groups, foster discussion with Ex Libris, and might lead to requests for more information and detail, public sharing of the use case, and/or inclusion in future “Show and Tell” sessions or Linked Open Data Working Group Town Hall meetings.  So we encourage your ideas and scenarios!