ResourceBlog Article: For Libraries and Researchers: British Library Announces It Will Share 14 About Million Bibliographic Records for Free

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Tuesday, 24th August 2010

For Libraries and Researchers: British Library Announces It Will Share 14 About Million Bibliographic Records for Free

From the Announcement:

The British Library is to make its extensive collections of bibliographic records available for free to researchers and other libraries: www.bl.uk/bibliographic/datafree.html

The UK national library has around 14 million catalogue records comprising a wealth of bibliographic data. The initiative announced today will help expose this vast dataset to users worldwide, allowing researchers and other libraries to access and retrieve bibliographic records for publications dating back centuries and relating to every conceivable subject area.

The new free service will operate in parallel to the British Library's priced bulk MARC data supply activity which is used extensively by large commercial customers.

“By making the British Library’s bibliographic data available in new ways for wider, non-commercial use we want to encourage users beyond the traditional library world to explore and use this important international resource,” said Neil Wilson, the British Library’s Head of Metadata Services. “For libraries, free access to these records will help reduce the effort involved in cataloguing their holdings. For the wider research community, they are a valuable source of data to help advance knowledge.”

In some instances researchers may use the Library’s records for purposes very different from those for which they were originally created. The Library recently provided the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) with some eight million bibliographic records – allowing the IPO to conduct research into publishing trends dating as far back as 1650, and to plot these patterns against the course of changes in IP legislation.

“We believe this vast dataset of bibliographic records – created and compiled by the British Library over many decades – has a range of applications far beyond its original purpose, its going to be exciting to find out the new uses that organisations and individuals can make of this data” added Neil Wilson. “As developments such as the semantic web create new and more effective opportunities for researchers to find, manipulate and link information, the availability of good quality data from a trusted source such as the British Library will become increasingly important.”

How To Access the Data

Via Z39.59

Access to either the British Library's full Integrated Catalogue or the British National Bibliography in MARC 21. Users are required to register for the service and agree that any usage will be strictly for non-commercial purposes, such as:

+ Resource discovery

+ Learning, teaching, academic and scientific research or private study

+ Cataloguing or acquisition

+ Provision of information solely about the registered library’s holdings for inclusion in a union catalogue or library inter-lending database

+ Verification of bibliographic information and/or identification of materials for order via interlibrary loan, from document vendors or from other sources from which materials identified may be purchased or otherwise acquired

Once registered, connection details will be supplied including a username and password.

As part of its work to open its metadata to wider use beyond the traditional library community, the British Library is making copies of its main catalogue and British National Bibliography datasets available for research purposes. Files are initially being made available in XML and structured in an RDF/DC format (see sample). Files are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The British Library is currently investigating options for structuring its catalogue information as linked data and is collaborating with a number of organisations in examining the issues associated with making bibliographic metadata available in this way.

Please contact metadata@bl.uk for further information.
Tel: +44 (0) 1937 546548
Fax: +44 (0) 1937 546586

Source: British Library

UPDATE: We simply want to note a tweet by Tim Spalding, Founder/Developer of LibraryThing.

He Tweets:

BL releasing its records is a BIG deal for data freedom. It's still non-commercial, but OCLC's restrictions go way beyond that.

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