[open-bibliography] RWTH Aachen library opens up their catalog data

[Rufus Pollock]

On 21 June 2010 15:42, Adrian Pohl <pohl at hbz-nrw.de> wrote:
>
> Hallo,
>
> with the RWTH Aachen University Library another German library opened up its catalog under a CC-0-licence. See http://www.bth.rwth-aachen.de/offbibdat.html. (They even used a OKFN logo. I don't really know why...) Their catalog contains (at the time of the export)
> 1.230.180  records.

That's amazing and no problem with them using the OKF logo though it
might be better to suggest they use one of the open data buttons
instead:

<http://opendefinition.org/buttons/>

> The records stem from the hbz union catalog. The records' format is the MAB-based "hbz-Neutralformat" (like the foregoing exports). See http://opendata.hbz-nrw.de/projects/data-publishing/wiki/Hbz-Neutralformat for a german documentation. We aren't very happy with this format and are working on an easier to reuse format for the next update...

That would be great.

> Anyway, as we think the important first step to Linked Open Data is the legal and political step of opening up your raw data we are very happy to see that another German library has decided to join the Open Bibliographic Data initiative.

Well done to Aachen University Library and to everyone who encouraged
them in this step.

Rufus