Linked open data and Open data. Its impact in the field of libraries and information science

We show the first steps of the initiatives Open data and Linked open data as sources of innovation in the field of information management. As the Open Access movement (OA) and the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) implied some years ago, these two initiatives constitute a shock that reverberated in technological innovation and the structure of the Web. We present a global overview of Open data and national projects related to government data. Four Spanish local or regional administrations have already begun to release their data: in chronological order, Asturias, Euskadi, Zaragoza and Catalonia. In the case of Linked open data we also provide a global picture, with 203 registered projects. We describe in more detail the work that the W3C is currently carrying out in the field of libraries. Finally we present the consecuences these new developments can have for librarianship and information science.