LD4 Community 2025 Year in Review

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Kalliopi M Mathios

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Dec 16, 2025, 3:35:30 PM (13 days ago) Dec 16
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Dear Colleagues,

As calendar year 2025 ends, the LD4 Steering Committee wants to celebrate the accomplishments of the LD4 Community. We thank each of you for being here. Whether you are an experienced Affinity Group Coordinator or a brand-new member, your participation makes this community a vibrant, diverse, and exciting place to connect with others looking to advance linked open data in libraries, museums, archives, and beyond.

2025 Year in Review

  • The 2025 LD4 Conference: Linked Data in the Real World took place 28–30 July
    • The conference included 39 sessions by 54 speakers
    • The conference had 900+ attendees from around the world
    • The conference YouTube playlist has 1,300+ views.
    • Immense thanks to the 2025 LD4 Conference Co-Chairs Kelly Davis, Mary Campany, Sasha Frizzell, and all volunteers in the LD4 Conference Program Committee and attendees!
  • Thank you to our LD4 2025 Conference sponsors—@Cult/Casalini Libri, EBSCO, Ex Libris/Clarivate, and OCLC—who made the conference possible!


  • Affinity Groups generally meet once a month and report an average of 100 active, monthly participants across groups (the below numbers and highlights are as of July 2025)
  • Arts (previously Art & Design): hosts semi-monthly calls on topics related to linked data for visual and performing arts
    • Active participants: average of 39 attendees in recent calls; 342 members in Google Group; 94 members in Slack channel
    • Call topics included: modeling traveling exhibitions in Wikidata, linked data at the O'Keeffe, Curationist’s use of Wikidata, diversity in the Getty Vocabularies, semantic search at the Nasjonalmuseet (National Museum of Norway), Artsdata, Rijksmuseum Integration Layer, Ogee Arches and Linked Art, and linked data for performing arts
  • Wikidata: hosts discussions of Wikidata-related topics with the goal of understanding how the library can contribute to and leverage Wikidata as a platform for publishing, linking, and enriching library linked data
  • PCC Sinopia: focuses on BIBFRAME cataloging in pilot and production environments
    • Active participants: 15–20 regular participants, with up to 45 attendees
    • Call topics included: workshops which are a combination of presentations and working hours
  • Discovery: discusses AI/machine learning/LLMs and approaches to linked data and/or discovery (e.g. knowledge graphs + AI, Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
    • Activate participants: 57 members in Google Group; 444 members in Slack
    • Call topics included: NLM Dataset Catalog, National Museum of Norway Semantic Search, Share-VDE discovery patterns, and linked data modeling in Sinopia

LD4 Steering Committee Actions 2025
  • The LD4 Steering Committee focused on three areas in 2025.
    • Financial:
      • Renewed relationship with CLIR for treasury/administrative support
      • Reviewed conference sponsorship levels and perks well in advance of the conference
      • Developed fundraising messaging for previous and new conference sponsors, including all LD4 Steering member institutions
    • Outreach:
      • Maintained our Google Group and Slack communication channels
      • Looked into alternative communication platforms
      • Resumed, compiled, and made annual reports from Affinity Groups and Steering more available
      • Nurtured our LinkedIn presence (follow us!) and created a framework for social engagement
      • Shared the work of the community at WOLFcon 2025
      • Kept the LD4 website and other aspects of our digital presence up to date
    • Administrative:
      • Discussed what internal Steering documentation should be created and how
      • Began drafting new strategic goals for 2026–2029
      • Began the process of developing a procedure for new award programs


2026: What to look forward to this year
LD4 Professional Development Award
  • What: In 2026, the LD4 Steering Committee is thrilled to announce that we will begin accepting applications on a rolling basis for two $500 awards to individuals with accepted conference proposals related to furthering linked data initiatives in libraries, museums, or archives and meet eligibility criteria
  • Why: Our aim is to support ongoing presentations and work around linked open data; since our conference is free of charge, we want to incentivize our community to attend conferences that have costs to help make presenting about linked data more accessible, especially if it is not directly related to their current role or position
  • How: This award is made possible by the generosity of our host organizations and conference sponsors: @Cult/Casalini Libri, EBSCO, Ex Libris/Clarivate, and OCLC

Keep an eye on our Opportunities page for more details and stay tuned for updates from LD4 Steering in 2026!

2026–2029: What strategic opportunities await
  • LD4 Steering revised our Strategic Goals for 2026–2029
  • Our Strategic Goals center on key areas that will help further LD4's mission to see the world enriched with library data; libraries enriched with the world's data 
    • Professional Education and Outreach
    • Shared Cataloging and Entity Management
    • Library Metadata for the World
    • Strengthen Communication Channels

Read more about our strategic goals on the LD4 Steering Committee page.

Warmly,
LD4 Steering Committee 2025
  • Tom Jacobson, Clarivate
  • Grace Temilolu Ikenna, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Huda Khan, Stanford University
  • Kalli Mathios, Stanford University
  • Jeff Mixter, OCLC
  • Karly Wildenhaus, The New York Public Library
  • Katie Yeo, Brigham Young University
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