Ethics in Linked Data

Ethics in Linked Data is the first in the Series on Critical Information Organization in LIS from Litwin Books and Library Juice Press. The edited volume builds from the work of the LD4 Ethics in Linked Data Affinity Group and includes contributions from a wide variety of GLAM perspectives, personal and professional identities, and areas of practice. The volume comes at a critical moment as the GLAM fields are exploring ways to enhance the linked data stores that drive AI and wrestle with the historical harm or erasure of communities through reparative cataloging practices. Heavily influenced by Jane Sandberg's (2019) Ethical Questions in Name Authority Control, also published by Litwin, the volume is centered on developing ethical frameworks for information organization and description by closely examining the values and biases embedded in the tools and standards used across the GLAM fields. The introduction acknowledges that this text is written for an audience with some familiarity with the principles of linked data. The first few pages offer an array of resources for those who may need a primer in the technology that include approachable journal articles and texts from across the GLAM disciplines, including Linked Data for the Perplexed Librarian (2020). Though not overly technical, familiarity with standards such as RDF, common ontologies, and projects like BIBFRAME and DBpedia should provide sufficient context to engage fully with the text. Much like the early days of the Internet and the development of HTML, Berners Lee's concept of linked open data, driving the sematic web, is steeped in the utopian ideals of an open, accessible, and ungoverned technology. Linked data, like other markup languages, is written in plain text, and seeks to connect vast stores of data across the open web to freely share ideas and knowledge; however, this volume sets aside this idealistic view, "examining the darker implications or harmful consequences" of linked data (p. 5). The authors examine the values embedded in the design of the standards and ontologies used, the commercial influence on the development of linked data technologies, and call into question the ethics of representation with a specific focus on those communities historically excluded from participation in this space. However, while examining this "darker side," the authors raise thoughtful