When Schema.org came out, a conversation about using microdata in digital collections ended before it began, because Schema.org was the product of Google, Bing, and Yahoo, and was not an agreed upon standard developed by the W3C. Forget the fact that sitemaps, also a Google creation,  were widely used. This was different. The big three were creating their own schema and sidestepping standards.

If you’re looking for an introductory article and some background on Schema.org, please read “HTML5 Microdata and Schema.org” by Jason Ronollo published in the Code4Lib Journal. Months after Ronollo’s article, the current opinion is to use RDFa Lite instead of Microdata.

Last year also saw OCLC adopt Schema.org as part of their linked data initiative, and this spring, at the Coalition for Networked Information, Will Sexton and Sean Aery from Duke University Libraries presented on “Using Schema.org and Google Site Search with Library Digital Collections.” Video of their presentation is below; the Schema.org section begins about halfway through.

Is your library using Schema.org to better display their collections and if they are, what have been the outcomes? Or, if your library is not using Schema.org, what was the context for that decision?

Further Reading and Listening

The Semantic Link Podcast – Special Guest Karen Coyle

Straw | Indroid – Ed Summers

Spoonfeeding Library Data to Search Engines |Go to Hellman – Eric Hellman

Re: schema.org and libraries – a response by Dan Brickley