Diskursiv friktion mellan öppenhet och auktoritet : en arkeologisk undersökning av bibliotekspolicyer för delning av bibliografiska data på den semantiska webben
(2014) ABMM54 20141Division of ALM and Digital Cultures
- Abstract
- In the last few years, we have seen an emerging activity among library institutions to release their catalogue data under the terms that are often referred to as “linked, open data”. The linked, open data concept brings some new features to the practice of bibliographic data exchange: It is done in a linked data environment following the technical principles of what is called the “semantic web”. It is also done through the explicit waiving of copyright over the data, through the invocation of “open” licenses that encourage free reuse with few or no restrictions.
Since the body of literature within LIS that deals with cataloguing and metadata has been dominated by research from a technical or practice-oriented perspective, this study... (More) - In the last few years, we have seen an emerging activity among library institutions to release their catalogue data under the terms that are often referred to as “linked, open data”. The linked, open data concept brings some new features to the practice of bibliographic data exchange: It is done in a linked data environment following the technical principles of what is called the “semantic web”. It is also done through the explicit waiving of copyright over the data, through the invocation of “open” licenses that encourage free reuse with few or no restrictions.
Since the body of literature within LIS that deals with cataloguing and metadata has been dominated by research from a technical or practice-oriented perspective, this study sets out to investigate the phenomenon of linked, open bibliographic data from a more socially or critically focused point of view. With inspiration from previous studies in classification and knowledge organisation, the theoretical and methodological framework of Michel Foucault is used to analyse policy documents from five national libraries and three large aggregated catalogues. The analysis also draws on the concepts of cognitive and institutional authority developed by Patrick Wilson.
The study finds some discursive regularities that in a way “govern” the general discourse on linked, open bibliographic data, as well as the presence of friction between some rather contradictory discourses that exist side by side in the material. On the one hand, there is a strong “openness discourse”, framing the sharing practice as a social, ethical, and political issue as well as a question of technical access. On the other hand, there is a strong “authority discourse”, which underlines the quality of the data and the institution’s metadata production, and thus argues for some control or regulation over how the data can be used, usually in the form of requesting attribution. The release/regulation practices are carried out with reference to either a “goodwill discourse” or a “legal discourse”. Additionally, discourses of provenance, community and development are important regularities in the policy documents.
The study calls for an understanding of these recent releases of bibliographic data that regards them neither as simple altruistic actions for the benefit of us all, nor mere technical adjustments of the cataloguing departments to the growing semantic web. The study points to another important aspect, namely that library institutions can use linked, open data not only to distribute bibliographic information, but to position themselves as knowledge authorities or main nodes in a global, network society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4460755
- author
- Persson, Martin LU
- supervisor
-
- Olof Sundin LU
- organization
- course
- ABMM54 20141
- year
- 2014
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- library and information studies, knowledge organisation, bibliographic data, cooperative cataloguing, linked data, open data, semantic web, library policies, discourse analysis, Michel Foucault
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 4460755
- date added to LUP
- 2014-06-17 13:55:16
- date last changed
- 2015-09-21 12:05:15
@misc{4460755,
abstract = {{In the last few years, we have seen an emerging activity among library institutions to release their catalogue data under the terms that are often referred to as “linked, open data”. The linked, open data concept brings some new features to the practice of bibliographic data exchange: It is done in a linked data environment following the technical principles of what is called the “semantic web”. It is also done through the explicit waiving of copyright over the data, through the invocation of “open” licenses that encourage free reuse with few or no restrictions.
Since the body of literature within LIS that deals with cataloguing and metadata has been dominated by research from a technical or practice-oriented perspective, this study sets out to investigate the phenomenon of linked, open bibliographic data from a more socially or critically focused point of view. With inspiration from previous studies in classification and knowledge organisation, the theoretical and methodological framework of Michel Foucault is used to analyse policy documents from five national libraries and three large aggregated catalogues. The analysis also draws on the concepts of cognitive and institutional authority developed by Patrick Wilson.
The study finds some discursive regularities that in a way “govern” the general discourse on linked, open bibliographic data, as well as the presence of friction between some rather contradictory discourses that exist side by side in the material. On the one hand, there is a strong “openness discourse”, framing the sharing practice as a social, ethical, and political issue as well as a question of technical access. On the other hand, there is a strong “authority discourse”, which underlines the quality of the data and the institution’s metadata production, and thus argues for some control or regulation over how the data can be used, usually in the form of requesting attribution. The release/regulation practices are carried out with reference to either a “goodwill discourse” or a “legal discourse”. Additionally, discourses of provenance, community and development are important regularities in the policy documents.
The study calls for an understanding of these recent releases of bibliographic data that regards them neither as simple altruistic actions for the benefit of us all, nor mere technical adjustments of the cataloguing departments to the growing semantic web. The study points to another important aspect, namely that library institutions can use linked, open data not only to distribute bibliographic information, but to position themselves as knowledge authorities or main nodes in a global, network society.}},
author = {{Persson, Martin}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Diskursiv friktion mellan öppenhet och auktoritet : en arkeologisk undersökning av bibliotekspolicyer för delning av bibliografiska data på den semantiska webben}},
year = {{2014}},
}