CHICAGO -  “Libraries, Linked Data and the Semantic Web: Positioning Our Catalogs to Participate in the 21st Century Global Information Marketplace,” the ALCTS Midwinter Symposium, brings together the leading experts in the fields of linked library data and the Semantic Web from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20.  The Web is evolving from a global information space for storing individual documents into a highly diverse information network in which pieces of data interlink and work synergistically together to create meaning. Librarians, developers of Web applications, information architects and others interested in the basic concept of the Semantic Web, Linked Data and how libraries can take a leadership role in creating Linked Data solutions.

Peter Brantley is the director of the BookServer Project at the Internet Archive. He is the co-founder of the Open Book Alliance and is currently a contributing editor for Publishers Weekly, authoring a blog covering library-publisher relations.  He was previously the director of the Digital Library Federation and has worked in senior information technology management roles for academic digital libraries.

Karen Coyle consults in a variety of areas relating to digital libraries, metadata development and technology planning. She has published dozens of articles and reports, most available on her website, kcoyle.net.  She has served on standards committees, including the MARC standards group (MARBI), NISO Committee AX for the OpenURL Standard, and was an ALA representative to the e-book standards development that led to the ePub standard.   She is currently investigating the possibilities offered by the Semantic Web and Linked Data technology.

Corey A. Harper is the metadata services librarian at New York University Libraries.  Prior to that, he was a metadata librarian and a digital library developer at the University of Oregon. He has been actively involved in the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) since 2002 and has focused his professional work on discussing Semantic Web technologies and Linked Open Data principles with librarians in a variety of venues.  Along with Karen Coyle, he is the founder of the ALCTS Linked Library Data Interest Group.

Eric Miller is the co-founder and president of Zepheira, which provides solutions to effectively integrate, navigate and manage information across boundaries of person, group and enterprise.  Until 2007, he led the Semantic Web Initiative for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at MIT. During his work at the W3C, his responsibilities included the architectural and technical leadership in the design and evolution of the Semantic Web.

Ross Singer is the interoperability and open standards champion at Talis. Previously, he was an application developer at Georgia Tech’s library, Emory University libraries and the University of Tennessee libraries.  While at Georgia Tech he founded MALTA (the Metro Atlanta Library Technology Association).

You can register for this important symposium through the ALA Midwinter Meeting registration site, www.alamidwinter.org.  Registration is $219 for ALCTS members, $269 for ALA members, $319 for non-members, and $99 for student and retired members.  For more information please visit the Events and Conferences section of the ALCTS website at www.ala.org/alcts.  You may also contact Julie Reese, ALCTS Continuing Education Manager, jreese@ala.org.

ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.

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