Are We Approaching the Maturation of Library Linked Data Processes? – Slaw

"It’s nice to see that the processes involved in the creation of library linked data have evolved to a point where you might say they are approaching a degree of maturity. For a while now there have been a number of technical barriers including seemingly simple things like deciding which of the many programming languages to invest your time in or which of the many applications are necessary to accomplish your linked data goals. A number of useful tools have emerged in the last couple of years and there are now enough people who have tried them with some success and sharing their experiences. One very useful contribution in this regard is Eric M. Hanson’s article, 'A Beginner’s Guide to Creating Library Linked Data: Lessons from NCSU’s Organization Name Linked Data Project.' Hanson is the Electronic Resources Librarian at North Carolina State University Libraries and this project brings authority control to their eResource management system E-Matrix. Their process draws on 'Best Practices for Publishing Linked Data' a W3C Working Group Note released as a 'work in progress' in January 2014. Although the intention of this note is to guide and facilitate the development of linked open data for open government initiatives Hanson considers this W3C paper to be, '… one of the best and most concise guides available on the subject of publishing linked data, and though it focuses on publishing government linked data, the project phases described could be applied to any type of linked data project.' He distils the ten original W3C steps [1] down to the five 'project phases' used by the NCSU project team: project definition and modelling; data clean up; data enhancement; converting data to RDF; and publishing. As Hanson notes, these phases are a “modified and reordered version of the framework described by [W3C] and more closely resembles how the NCSU ONLD project developed.” For those who may not have direct access to this Serials Review article I’ve condensed and outlined Hanson’s project phases below ..."