In order to retain their relevance to the wider community and stimulate the wider re-use of bibliographic metadata a number of NBAs have recently begun to offer a range of open data and linked data services. A number of factors have converged to encourage library experimentation in this area:

  • The Web has accelerated development of a collaboration culture & fostered expectations that information & content should be as freely available as the Internet itself.
  • Library metadata has gained new value from open technologies facilitating its connection & reuse in contexts outside of the traditional library domain.
  • Due to the nature of their funding national libraries may have to comply with government open data regulations for public organisations promoting transparency, economic growth and innovation
  • While library users were once lone scholars they may now include: collaborative learners, data miners and even machines automatically harvesting metadata for search engines