Developing a Syllabus for Linked Data Education in Nigerian Library & Information Science (LIS) Schools: A Survey

Linked Data is transforming the information world to a more discoverable environment through the interconnection of various platforms of information via the semantic web. This brings about great opportunities to the LIS arena, particularly in the area of cataloguing/metadata/resource description and discoverability in terms of competitive advantage in the knowledge economy. As a result, library schools in Nigeria must begin to introduce the concept to potential librarians to prepare them for the workplace that is going to be ruled by Linked Data. This study was conducted to find out what cataloging educators and practitioners consider necessary to be included in the syllabus for linked data training in Nigeria with emphasis on course content, teaching materials and educator competence. Descriptive survey was used for the study. The population of the study comprise of six hundred and fifty (650) cataloguers (including practicing cataloguers and cataloguing educators). Simple Random Sampling technique was used to select two hundred and seventeen (217) cataloguers as sample for the study. The response rate for the study was 85.7%. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with tables and simple percentages. Findings of the study revealed that over 90% respondents agreed that the syllabus for linked data education in Nigeria should cover Linked Data concepts, cataloging relationships, and significance in libraries with entity-relationship cataloging, key RDA entities, attributes, shared library metadata schemas, Web Ontology Language application, and identifiers usage among others. Findings also revealed that the teaching materials and infrastructure for Linked Data education should comprise information resources on Linked Data principles and structures, practical tools like AACR2, RDA Toolkit, MARC21, BIBframe and library metadata schemas for demonstrations. Additionally, it should provide access to controlled vocabularies, thesauri, and facilities for practical learning of data encoding standards as well as a fully equipped laboratory with internet connectivity and steady power supply for effective learning among others.