Well, that's my question.  I have the micro view of linked data, I think - it's a distribution/self-describing format. But I don't see the big picture.

In the non-techie library world, linked data is being talked about (perhaps only in listserv traffic) as if the data (bibliographic data, for instance) will reside on remote sites (as a SPARQL endpoint??? We don't know the technical implications of that), and be displayed by <your local catalog/the centralized inter-national catalog> by calling data from that remote site. But the original question was how the data on those remote sites would be <access points> - how can I start my search by searching for that remote content?  I assume there has to be a database implementation that visits that data and pre-indexes it for it to be searchable, and therefore the index has to be local (or global a la Google or OCLC or its bibliographic-linked-data equivalent). 

All of the above parenthesized or bracketed concepts are nebulous to me.

Cindy

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sarah Weissman
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2015 11:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] linked data question

> I think Code4libbers will know more about my question about 
> distributed INDEXES?  This is my rudimentary knowledge of linked data 
> - that the indexing process will have to transit the links, and build 
> a local index to the data, even if in displaying the individual 
> "records", it goes again out to the source.  But are there examples of 
> distributed systems that have distributed INDEXES?  Or Am I wrong in 
> envisioning an index as a separate entity from the data in today's technology?
>
>
I'm a little confused by what you mean by distributed index in a linked data context. I assume an index would have to be database implementation specific, while data is typically exposed for external consumption via implementation-agnostic protocols/formats, like a SPARQL endpoint or a REST API. How do you locally index something remote under these constraints?

-Sarah



> Cindy Harper
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Harper, Cynthia
> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2015 1:20 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]; 'Williams, Ann'
> Subject: RE: linked data question
>
> What I haven't read, but what I have wondered about, is whether so 
> far, linked DATA is distributed, but the INDEXES are local?  Is there 
> any example of a system with distributed INDEXES?
>
> Cindy Harper
> [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AUTOCAT [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Williams, 
> Ann
> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2015 10:26 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ACAT] linked data question
>
> I was just wondering how linked data will affect OPAC searching and 
> discovery vs. a record with text approach. For example, we have 
> various 856 links to publisher, summary and biographical information 
> in our OPAC as well as ISBNs linking to ContentCafe. But none of that 
> content is discoverable in the OPAC and it requires a further click on 
> the part of patrons (many of whom won't click).
>
> Ann Williams
> USJ
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