Data in Context

The Semantic Web is an appealing notion: it has the potential to build beneath the surface web a fabulous underlying structure of interrelated data and context meaningful to both users and machines. However, for all the recent buzz, it's still not entirely clear how we will get there from the current web. So we start small, with baby steps toward the Semantic Web, linking bits of data here and there as we are able, working with what we've got.

In this issue of netConnect, three library data experts discuss exactly how Linked Data will help librarians, academics, and all the users of our libraries realize much of the Semantic Web's promise. Karen Coyle fills us in on the development of well-formed Linked Data sets, while Fiona Bradley writes about current Linked Data efforts that can be tapped by libraries to bolster the utility of discovery tools. Taking a new look at reference transactions and the rich contextual data they might provide, R. David Lankes describes the concept behind the forthcoming Reference Extract project.

Finally, special thanks here to Roy Tennant, who has been a frequent champion of the very shift in focus from Semantic Web to Linked Data that you'll find in the pages that follow.

—Josh Hadro, Associate Editor, LJ netConnect/Technology