Open data by the German National Library of Medicine
The open library data movement in Germany has achieved a major success. In December, the German National Library of Medicine (ZB MED) announced the release of more than one Million bibliographic records into the public domain under a CC0 licence. Descriptions of the data as well as download links are available here. The data was converted to RDF using the Bibliographic Ontology (Bibo) and is now part of the Linked Open Bibliographic Data service lobid.org.
Flyer on open library data
The hbz has also published together with the Open Knowledge Foundation a German flyer on open library data which informs about the advantages of open data for libraries. The flyer was created based on feedback and discussions within the OKFN Working Group on Open Bibliographic Data. A pdf version of the flyer can be downloaded here. If interested in printed exemplars of the flyer just print your own, create a new one (it’s openly licensed) or write an email to the hbz.
A – slightly different – English version of the flyer can be viewed here.
Adrian Pohl is coordinator of the OKFN Working Group on Open Bibliographic Data and works at the North Rhine-Westphalian Library Service Center (hbz).
