Semantic Library

I’ve mentioned a few initiatives and projects related to the development of Web 3.0/Semantic Web on this blog where librarians are, or could be, involved. But the big question is, how? Finding out how to get a seat at the table can sometimes be difficult. Here’s a few ways to get involved no matter your level of expertise or location:

Data Portability: Get Involved

From mailing lists to action groups, the Data Portability Project has a number of ways that you can keep up to date with news, share advice and ideas, and participate in high-level technical discussions about the project.

FOAF Developer Center

Participate on the wiki, mailing list or the busy IRC channels for the Friend of a Friend (FOAF) specification project.

Open Knowledge Foundation: Participate

Sign up to the announcements email list, or give your time to volunteering to one of OKF’s many interesting projects.

Linking Open Data Community Project

Mailing lists, meetings, projects, and lists of people interested in Open Data.

Upgrade your sites

Help spread the use of microformats, OpenID, RDF and other new standards and formats by including them in your plans to upgrade your website. The websites mentioned all have guides to getting started. For example, Microformats outlines a five-minute guide to adding your first microformat on your site. Keep an eye on DiSo (Distributed Social Networking applications), which is building plugins using these tools and others for Wordpress, Drupal, and other widely used platforms. There’s some work for me to do in adding to this website!

Over on the wiki, we’ve started putting together a very basic outline of what an online course to learn about the Semantic Web and Libraries might look like. My aim is to provide something for the middle-ground of early adopters - those who are enthusiastic about these new technologies and are keen to learn more, but who might not have gotten around to sitting down with a book on RDF yet. I hope it will be a gentle introduction, not overly code-heavy, and with plenty of examples and discussion of practical applications in libraries and research.

Watch us try to build a course from the ground up or get involved and have your say about what your want to learn, or what you might teach!

More details available on the learning program page on the Semantic Library wiki.

If you are finding your way to the blog via the Talking with Talis podcast, hello! I wanted to expand on why I am interested in the Semantic Web as I only briefly touched on this in the podcast.

eResearch and Data

A couple of years ago, I attended a conference where the theme was eResearch. Librarians described how they have responded to the challenges of managing datasets, ever-increasing amounts of raw information and data, as well as grey literature, preprints, and other publications. Several scientists also gave perspectives on how they thought libraries could assist with their research. The scientists discussed the issues with being able to collect so much data, increased complexity in manipulating it, and how so much of their work has shifted online and in some fields, to Open Access. This led me to think about how librarians can work with researchers to assist them better, beyond what we do now. How can we assist with the way data is structured and shared, and perhaps even become part of research teams, assisting with the gigabytes upon gigabytes of data that teams create, use and share.

At the same time, there was a growing focus on research metrics, quality and impact in several countries. We know how limited ISI is, so what else can we build to do this better? How can we trace data through a published presentation back to where it was created? How can we connect ideas, people and projects online to find collaborators and like-minds in a field?

The conference didn’t mention the Semantic Web as a way to assist with these issues, but to me, as I read more about the concepts behind it, it seems a logical fit for Open Data, Open Access and issues of managing gigabytes of data.

Looking to the future

Other ideas, like Next Generation Catalogues are also really interesting. What is important is a focus on the structure and quality of the data we have in the catalog. There is no point to bells and whistles presentation like tag clouds and facets without having good data to work with. There’s a growing number of librarians who are focusing on this and taking a strong interest in RDA and other projects.

Beyond these issues, I’m interested in what’s next. I think libraries are a natural fit for the Semantic Web because of its emphasis on RDF, and data and metadata. In some ways it’s a return to what we do best - organising information, provenance, databases.

I do think that it should not be just from technical staff and cataloguers and research librarians - there really does need to be involvement from all types of librarians to ensure that we are really participating in projects that meet user needs, not just in libraries but on the Internet as a whole.

Via Cataloging Futures, a post from Allan Cho about the how and when of learning new skills for digital librarianship:

I’m finding it increasingly my own initiative to get caught up in the literature and the technologies. Who really has time to learn OAI-PMH metadata standards, XML, EAD, and TEI? Many librarians keep abreast of their field — but on top of their current duties. But the problem remains that LIS schools do not to train technicians even though that is what they’re doing - their mandate is to nurture scholars. [...] That has remained the intense tension in the field of LIS since its inception.

LIS is not alone in this - most professions are constantly changing and their members are required to keep up. But while there’s a plethora of short courses, online webinars, conferences, and so on there’s not so many formal certification programs which give structure and recognition to ongoing professional development. It can sometimes be hard for librarians who are moving into, or already in, digital librarianship to work out which skills are in highest demand now and what skills are needed in the future. Add to this fragmentation and specialisation within digital librarianship (repositories, metadata, web development etc) and it becomes very complex.

When it comes to the semantic web RDF, OWL and more are core but it continues to evolve. Taking a look at the Semantic Library wiki, there’s a range of technologies, skills and tools that may be important for libraries but it’s far from definite at this stage.

As for when, it is difficult to find time to learn new things, particularly if you have no way to apply them in your current role. I learn best when I have a project I can apply my learning to, so for example, I started to use wikis in my work with library associations long before I used them in my job. Making time though, is hard, and I’ve posted elsewhere about how and when I keep up -

Lately there’s been a lot of articles advocating library 2.0 in 15 minutes a day, 23 things, and other keep-up hacks, but for me keeping up to date is something that happens through the day, every day. Most things I read come through my aggregator - blogs, links to articles, newsletters; sometimes Twitter, although I do still subscribe to a few email lists. I read them in chunks at lunch, at home and on weekends. I don’t put a time limit on it, but I probably spend a few hours every week.

Iit will always be a challenge, especially for those that Allan mentions who want to keep up with what’s happening now and what’s likely to happen in the future. Another concern is ensuring that you don’t hitch your wagon to the wrong technology - no one wants to feel that they’ve wasted their time learning about something which they’ll never use. Professional development can be as much about trusting that you’re on the right path as it is about learning!

Do you have any tips about how you learn about new trends and technology? Any ideas on how to improve frameworks for learning about the Semantic Web? Leave a comment!