Changes in Cataloguing and Related Standards in the Light of Development of the Semantic Web

Abstract

Bibliographic source description has changed under the influence of the Semantic Web development. The sudden increase in the amount of information and different types of content and media, as well as the need for semantically information processing and connecting, have encouraged the redefinition and development of national and international cataloguing standards. First of all, these are the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) and the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR), which, trying to involve the before-mentioned changes in its planned third version, has appeared under the name Resource Description and Access (RDA). On the other hand, it should be mentioned that library systems for the organization of knowledge are important resources for realization of the principles and guidelines of the Semantic Web because they contain rich and well-structured data. In addition to a brief overview of semantic web development and its basis characteristics, the paper analyzes the changes in ISBD and RDA standards, as well as in bibliographic metadata schemes, influenced by this direction of web development. The examples of application of semantic web technology in the national libraries of France and Germany, which implement projects related to linked data, are presented.