What if you could work with other libraries to enhance your catalogue, improve the visibility of your collections and provide a better user experience for your patrons?

The Share - Linked Data Environment is a global family built on collaboration that brings libraries, archives and museums together with a common goal and joins their knowledge in an ever-widening network of inter-connected bibliographic data.
Libraries, archives and museums hold a vast quantity of data and resources that, until now, have often remained hidden from sight in catalogues and archives. By implementing the BIBFRAME data model, Share - Linked Data Environment transforms bibliographic information into Linked Data, revealing it to a wider audience and encouraging greater engagement with library, archive and museum collections.

Linking bibliographic data and resources from a network of libraries increases the dissemination and discoverability of research knowledge and allows patrons to search in the data of a range of libraries at once.

Share - Linked Data Environment...

  • supports libraries, archives and museums in the transition from traditional cataloguing environments to innovative models based on linked data
  • harnesses the potential of linked data to connect and present library information in dynamic formats
  • enhances the visibility of all library resources, including those that may previously have remained undetected in a traditional catalogue

Thanks to innovative technology, the Share - Linked Data Environment can:
  • convert your library catalogues from MARC to linked data
  • enrich your original MARC data and records converted into linked data
  • reconcile and clusterize entities created through the conversion of library data
  • guarantee the quality and authority of the data
  • deliver converted and enriched data for reuse in your systems
  • publish library records in linked data on an advanced discovery platform
The benefits for your library?
Enriched library data deliver wider-ranging and more detailed search results to patrons, while the advanced discovery interface improves the user experience.

You remain in control of your own data: each individual library receives the information corresponding to its own catalogue in linked data and this may be re-used according to local requirements and with no restrictions.

Developed in close collaboration with, and still guided by, the international library community, Share opens the door to a flexible, sustainable and co-operative approach to library data.
We collaborate with the Linked Data for Production (LD4P) initiative and the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) on the application and understanding of linked data.

The Share Family...

  • creates connections based on the focus areas of libraries' bibliographic data, enhancing and extending networks of information
  • provides librarians and information professionals with advanced tools that allow direct interaction with bibliographic data
  • enables libraries, archives and museums to keep pace with web technology as it evolves

The concept behind the Share family originates in Share-VDE, the practical continuation of an initial pilot project which began in October 2016. Thanks to the active involvement and collaboration of a group of prestigious North American and European national and research libraries, Share-VDE has evolved from a Research and Development project to become a real and effective environment that puts linked data for libraries into practice.
The role of Share-VDE in linked open data for libraries is outlined in detail in the Share-VDE Statement.
Share-VDE 2.0, which includes an advanced linked data management system and entity discovery portal, will be launched in stages, with the first official launch in September 2021.

Building on the approach defined within Share-VDE, the Share family brings together the bibliographic catalogues and authority files of libraries with similar scope in shared discovery environments; its principles are tailored to specific domains or disciplines to accommodate their distinct characteristics, systems, habits and cataloguing traditions.
The Share family currently comprises:
  • Share-Virtual Discovery Environment
    A growing number of leading academic and national libraries from across North America and Europe
  • Share-Catalogue
    A network of Italian university libraries
  • Share-Art
    Designed to support specialist art libraries. Parallel to Share-Art is the Kubikat-LOD project, which also involves the Art History libraries of the Max Planck Institut
  • Share-Music
    A pilot project
The options for your library?
Share - Linked Data Environment provides a number of services, applications and technology, all based on the LOD Platform, an innovative framework developed specifically for the conversion, structuring and re-use of bibliographic data in linked data, according to the BIBFRAME data model. You choose: discover more about each individual component in the chart below.

The technology behind the Share family is developed and maintained by @Cult, ILS provider and software house specialising in the design and creation of solutions for information management and knowledge sharing.
Expand AllClose All
technology

Advanced API Layer 

GraphQL technology with advanced architecture and search API layer

Advanced Entity Model 

Advanced 4-layered entity model, based on BIBFRAME 2.0 and interoperable with multiple schemes (BIBFRAME, IFLA-LRM etc.)

Tenant Infrastructure 

  • Data of member libraries are grouped by domain or similar characteristics in ad hoc tenants
  • Suitable for library consortia willing to renovate their union catalogue
services

Triple store indexing 

Linked data detailss created from the original MARC records and the clusters of entities in the CKB are published on a triple store and can be queried through SPARQL endpoint

Integration with other systems 

Development of APIs for interoperability and cooperation with third parties (e.g. LD4P - Linked Data for Production)

Authority services 

  • New generation of services for authority control
  • Combination of automated and manual checks of data quality
  • Creation of authority records
applications

J.Cricket Editor 

J.Cricket editor for updating and modifying linked data entities

Discovery Portal 1.0 

Interface for the standard discovery system

Discovery Portal 2.0 

  • Advanced entity discovery system based on BIBFRAME
  • Customised UI (skin)
  • Integration with local APIs
  • Site mapping with additional meta-tagging
  • Data conversion to Schema.org
data

Deliverable D1 

  • The library catalogue is converted according to BIBFRAME 2.0 (including additional vocabularies and ontologies as needed)
  • The linked data detailss created in the conversion are reconciled and linked to original Share URIs, and published on the discovery portal

Deliverable D2 

  • The library receives the file from the Cluster Knowledge Base with the clusters of linked data entities including original Share URIs, URIs from external sources and variant forms
  • The data from the Cluster Knowledge Base is published on the discovery portal and on the triple store

Deliverable D3 

The original library records are converted to BIBFRAME 2.0 (including other vocabularies and ontologies as needed), enriched with URIs from external sources and delivered to the library

Deliverable D4 

The MARC records from the library catalogue are enriched with original Share URIs and URIs from external sources, and published on the discovery portal

Get involved!
Becoming part of the global Share family of libraries, museums and archives means sharing data and co-operating with the greater international library community.
The family continues to expand as more and more libraries worldwide embrace the opportunity to be involved in an international network of information, creating dialogue, participation and partnership, working together for the future of bibliographic data.
The Share family and opportunities for collaboration with the Share family are promoted by bibliographic agency and library supplier, Casalini Libri, software house and developer of knowledge sharing solutions, @Cult, and the Share-VDE Advisory Council and its working groups.

Get in touch with us to find out more about how the Share family can help your library.