I honestly think this is the best way to get the library culture to buy in to linked data implementations and the semantic web. If librarians become part owners of the process, claiming their role as information professionals, staking their interests in assisting controlled vocabulary mapping and development and improving access to patrons... then we'll make progress. You may need to frame this in terms of the Ranganathan 5 laws, modernized:
1) Information is for use.
2) Every user his/her information.
3) Every bit of information, its user.
4) Save the time of the user.
5) Information access is a growing organism.
Assisting in getting the right information in the right hands at the point of need: isn't that what librarianship is all about?
Returning to the basic focus of our profession may help to sell the change.
Difficult, but perhaps not impossible. A test implementation could be used as a basis for feedback and user testing. Measurement should be made of experienced researchers as well as undergraduate students, in comparison with the same site unmodified. If indeed we can measure improved research capabilities, speed, and discovery, we will have built a case for expanding this effort.
There appears to be a cultural prejudice against software developers in at least some segments of the library culture. Such work is seen as tasks for underlings, and hence the pay scale for programmers in libraries cannot compete with the commercial market. Those in higher ranks in the library are often expected to set aside programming work and not "get their hands dirty." Programmers may not get respect from librarians, particularly if the programmers do not also have librarian degrees. Continued cutbacks to library funding also reduces the ability to hire decent programmers. These issues combine to keep many libraries in the backwaters of technological development.
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