What would collection developers do in the absence of local collections? Collection developers partition the universe of documents, privileging selected documents for acquisition and retention. Their selections of documents, based on expected demand and perceived value, direct the actions of technical services staff. A comparable selective privileging of documents, based on demand and value, and a similar direction of a reoriented technical services activity appears needed with networked electronic resources. Collection developers will be needed for value-based privileging more than for demand-based decisions.

The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century was a renaissance period of prodigious innovation in Europe across the spectrum of arts, sciences, technology, and social sciences, including major innovations in information and communications technologies. Studies in psychology and in the physiology of perception undermined the separation of body and mind that had dominated science since Descartes. A convergence of art, psychology, and engineering emerged, notably in industrial design and graphics. The principle emerged that form should follow function by being ergonomically and aesthetically, as well as mechanically, suitable. Standardization, collaboration, efficiency, and scientific management (“Taylorism”) were central to documentation and manifest in standards (e.g. for paper sizes and office equipment), controlled documentary languages, and well-intentioned idealism. Industrial concentration, corporate research laboratories, increased social control, and more active governmental initiatives provided an environment for documentation and for the rise of totalitarian political regimes.

We describe how we are experimenting with using linked library data to connect the organizational infrastructures of libraries, archives, and special collections with those of researchers who use them. The site of this experimentation is Editors' Notes, an open-source hosted service for organizing the library and archives-based research of documentary editors. We report on an initial trial of incorporating linked data from libraries and other sources into Editors' Notes, and describe how that trial has informed our current effort to usefully exploit linked data to benefit researchers. We conclude with an overview of the potential benefits.