Libraries are at risk. Generally, circulation across the country is decreasing, even with the rise of ebooks and downloads, and there is a continual barrage of competitive interests for our patrons’ attention, often from the Web. But the Web is not the enemy of the Library; instead, it is its most powerful potential partner, and perhaps its most necessary. The Libhub Initiative aims to help make libraries and library data both visible and understandable to the Web, with the intended result of driving traffic back to the Library’s PAC or Discovery Layer, and to enriching and broadening patrons’ library experiences.

Partners of the Libhub Initiative commit to making the transition from MARC to BIBFRAME, enabling them to code their collections into a format the Web can readily process and which permits linking between resources. We are then sharing them in a central repository, allowing for connections between other library resources, and increasing the relevance and credibility ranking of resources, making them more visible and trusted on the Web.

Our goal is to increase the breadth and depth of patron connection and service by revealing more of our collections into the Web and using Web technologies to make collections more easy to find and subsequently use. The specific collections we have targeted for exposure include an extensive collection of Spanish language DVDs and a new live local-music streaming service. It’s our hope that digital resources such as these will drive additional traffic to our library, both online and in person, and that we will have data to substantiate both the increased exposure and use of these resources.