Initiatives to make standard library metadata models and structures available to the Semantic Web

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Initiatives to make standard library metadata
models and structures available to the Semantic
Web

• Gordon Dunsire, UK
• g.dunsire_at_strath.ac.uk
• Mirna Willer, HR
• mwiller_at_unizd.hr

Presented at WLIC Session 149, Sun 15 Aug 2010,
Gothenburg, Sweden
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Overview

• I Initiatives IFLA initiatives (FRBR, ISBD,
  etc.) and the relation to external initiatives
  (RDA, linked-data vocabularies like VIAF, LCSH,
  etc.).
• II Shift of focus Potential use of these
  initiatives to support the Semantic Web (parsing
  existing legacy records to create huge quantities
  of high-quality instance triples, the power of
  inferencing to create new triples, etc.), and the
  shift of cataloguing focus from record to
  statement (triple).

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IFLA initiatives Background

• IFLAs initiatives to make standard library
  metadata models, structures, and vocabularies
  developed by IFLA available to the Semantic Web,
  initially stimulated by external projects
• RDA resource description and access
• Data models meeting (London) with Dublin Core
  Metadata Initiative (DCMI), IEEE Learning Object
  Metadata (IEEE LOM), W3C Simple Knowledge
  Organization System (SKOS)

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IFLA initiatives Standards, models

• Functional Requirements family or FRBR family
  of models
• FRBR, 1998 Bibliographic Records data
• FRAD, 2009 Authority Data
• FRSAD, 2010 Subject Authority Data
• Preliminary work the FRBR Namespace Project used
  the testing area of the National Science Digital
  Library Metadata Registry (NSDL)
• Now the Open Metadata Registry
• ISBD XML in the RDF/XML environment

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IFLA initiatives Infrastructure

• 2009-2010 the IFLA Namespaces project is
  developing an administrative and technical
  infrastructure to support such initiatives and
  encourage uptake of standards by other agencies.
• Basic namespace iflastandards.info
• FRBR http//iflastandards.info/ns/fr/frbr/frbrer
  / as the basis of the uniform resource
  identifiers (URIs) of each RDF class and property
  entity relationship in the FRBR model
• /frbrer/ to distinguish from FRBRoo CIDOC CRM
• FRAD http//iflastandards.info/ns/fr/frad/

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IFLA initiatives FR family

• Representation of FRBRer model element set is
  mainly complete
• FRAD and FRSAD close behind
• Representation in Resource Description Framework
  (RDF) is informing work on combining and
  consolidating the model family
• Also supplies learning curve for Semantic Web
  environment

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IFLA initiatives ISBD RDF/XML

• FRBR is a conceptual model built on the E-R
  methodology which is intrinsically applicable to
  representation in RDF, while ISBD is a data
  standard
• Design of the RDF representation of ISBD
  involves
• the treatment of aggregated statements in a
  defined number of elements within the areas
• the treatment of mandatory and optional elements
  and areas
• the order of areas and elements within an area
• the repeatability of areas and elements
• the treatment of punctuation and its double
  function.

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Related standards RDA

• DCMI RDA Task Group has three goals
• define RDA modelling entities as an RDF
  vocabulary of properties and classes
• identify in-line value vocabularies as candidates
  for publication in RDFS or SKOS nearly
  completed
• develop a Dublin Core Application Profile for RDA
  based on FRBR and FRAD.
• Task Group is using the Open Metadata Registry to
  develop RDF representations of the RDA
  vocabularies

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Related standards Other

• The National Library of Sweden has developed a
  methodology for representing MARC21 records in
  RDF and implemented it for LIBRIS, the Swedish
  Union Catalogue
• The Vocabulary Mapping Framework (VMF) project
  funded by UK Joint Information Systems Committee
  (JISC)
• to develop a major expansion of the RDA/ONIX
  framework for resource categorization
• to create a tool to support the automated mapping
  of vocabularies from metadata standards of use to
  the JISC community, which includes research,
  teaching, and learning environments
• CIDOC CRM, FRAD, FRBR, MARC21 and RDA
  vocabularies included ISBD and UNIMARC
  represented

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Related standards Vocabularies

• Instance values from terminologies (subject
  headings, classification captions and indexes,
  and thesauri) can be represented in RDF using
  SKOS
• Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
• Faceted Application of Subject Terminology
  (FAST), Medical Subject Headings (MESH), Form and
  genre headings for fiction and drama, and
  Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM)
• French RAMEAU subject headings
• DDC Summaries
• Linked data set of best practices for
  publishing and connecting structured data on the
  Web

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Linked data initiatives

• UDC Consortium published a selection of around
  2,000 UDC classes in 16 languages online as the
  UDC summary (RDF version in development)
• Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) a
  set of linked controlled vocabularies (authority
  records of personal names) by national
  bibliographic agencies
• ISBD prescribes vocabulary control for the data
  in the Area 0 for content form and media type.
  Terms for the elements (content form, content
  qualification, and media type) are taken from
  closed lists

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Linked data from catalogue records

• Most linked data initiatives involve vocabularies
• Linked data can also represent bibliographic
  descriptions
• Huge quantities of high quality bibliographic
  metadata are locked in catalogue records
• UNIMARC, MARC21, EAD, etc.
• Use RDF models to parse the records into linked
  data

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Disaggregating the metadata record into single
statements
Record
Record ID
1234
Author
Mirna Willer
Title
UNIMARC format for authority records
Date
2004
Statements
has Author
Mirna Willer
1234
has Title
UNIMARC format for authority records
1234
has Date
2004
1234
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Representing a single statement as an RDF triple
Statement
has Title
UNIMARC format for authority records
1234
subject URI
1234
http//natlibx/
property URI
http//.../???
object literal
UNIMARC format for authority records
Triple
lthttp//.../???gt
UNIMARC ...
lthttp//natlibx/1234gt
some???
UNIMARC ...
natlibx1234
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Property URIs
has Title http//.../???
ISBDhas Title Proper
http//iflastandards.info/ns/isbd/elements/1004
FRBRhas Title of the Manifestation
http//iflastandards.info/ns/fr/frbr/frbrer/3020
FRBRhas Title of the Expression
http//iflastandards.info/ns/fr/frbr/frbrer/3008
FRBRhas Title of the Work
http//iflastandards.info/ns/fr/frbr/frbrer/3001
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Inferring new triples from existing triples
An RDF property can have a domain (the type of
thing the property is applied to) and a range
(the type of thing that can be a value of the
property)
Example FRBR property is created by (person)
(frbrer2009) has domain Work (frbrer1001) and
range Person (frbrer1005)
Therefore natliby456 is a Work, and
viaf21647077 is a Person
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Linking triples
has Author
Mirna Willer
1234
Statement
object URI
viaf29776655
some123
viaf29776655
natlibx1234
Triple
is Author of
natliby456
viaf29776655
Another
frbrer2009
viaf21647077
natliby456
and
foafname
Dunsire, Gordon
viaf21647077
and
Q Who is a co-author with Mirna Willer?
A Dunsire, Gordon
Q Are they persons?
A Yes
Q Really? A VIAF natliby say so!
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Metadata focus
Shift of focus of metadata creation, maintenance,
storage, preservation (by professionals,
amateurs, machines)
From Record
To Statement(s) triple(s)
But metadata display ...
... aggregates triples (from multiple sources) to
create records on the fly
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Thank you

• mwiller_at_unizd.hr
• gordon_at_gordondunsire.com