This presentation provides an accessible introduction to Linked Open Data (LOD) and how LOD is modelled and made available online. The presenters will discuss several LOD projects created by libraries and archives in order to illustrate the benefits of applying LOD principles and practices. They will also demonstrate easy ways to leverage the power of LOD for archival organizations and their digital collections, with concrete examples involving WikiData, Omeka S, and the SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Context) Project.
Society of Georgia Archivists 2018 Annual Meeting
Speakers:
Josh Hogan, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
Cliff Landis, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
1. Linked Open Data
for Archives
2018-10-25 - Society of Georgia Archivists Annual Meeting
Josh Hogan & Cliff Landis
Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
4. All metadata can be described as “triples” of
SUBJECT – PREDICATE - OBJECT
SUBJECT PREDICATE OBJECT
Goat speciesName Capra aegagrus
hircus
Goat conservationStatus Domesticated
Goat numberOfBreeds 300+
Goat distribution Global
Baby goat movementStatus Handsome_pose!
Baby goat hasCutenessLevel ZOMG!!!!1!
https://pixabay.com/en/goat-kid-farm-cute-baby-adorable-2403566/ https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2934
5. The Metadata Problem: Computers are
stupid
(they don’t understand meanings or relationships)
• What we see • What the computer sees
<head></head>
<body>
<background>
<image>
<headline>Text Text Text</headline>
<tool></tool>
<text>Text Text Text</text>
</body>
7. Let’s make the Web a little smarter!
A young tree, shrub, vegetable,
or flower newly planted, or
intended for planting; a set, a
cutting, a seedling. Now chiefly
Eng. regional (midl. and south.)
and Irish English (north.): a young
cabbage plant. (from the OED)
=
Step 1: Disambiguation
10. Aiming for “5 star” Linked Open Data
● Available on the Web (whatever format) with an open license
(CC0, PD, ODC, RightsStatements.org)
● As above, but as machine-readable structured data (Excel
spreadsheets)
● As above, but in a non-proprietary format (CSV instead of
Excel)
● As above, but use URIs to denote things, so that people can
point at your stuff (persistent URIs, RDF, SPARQL)
● As above, but linking your data out to other data to provide
context (Linked Open Data)
http://5stardata.info/
11. Linked Open Data (2008-02-28)
https://lod-cloud.net/versions/2008-02-28/lod-cloud.png
12. Linked Open Data (2018-09-25)
"Linking Open Data cloud diagram 2018, by Andrejs Abele, John P. McCrae, Paul Buitelaar, Anja Jentzsch and Richard Cyganiak. http://lod-cloud.net/"
1,224 datasets with 16,113 links
13. Library of Congress Subject Headings
http://lod-cloud.net/clouds/lod-cloud.svg
18. Facts can be described with metadata
AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library has a website at https://www.auctr.edu/
19. Facts can be described with metadata
AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library has a website at https://www.auctr.edu/
AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library has a website https://www.auctr.edu/
20. Facts can be described with metadata
AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library has a website at https://www.auctr.edu/
AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library has a website https://www.auctr.edu/
SUBJECT PREDICATE OBJECT
21. Facts can be described with metadata
AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library has a website at https://www.auctr.edu/
AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library has a website https://www.auctr.edu/
SUBJECT PREDICATE OBJECT
http://dbpedia.org/page/Robert
_W._Woodruff_Library,_Atlanta
_University_Center
http://xmlns.com/
foaf/spec/#term_h
omepage
https://www.auctr.edu/
Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center Homepage URL
44. We’re sitting on a data goldmine
(but it has to be mined!)
•Converting our item-level rights statements to LOD links
(http://rightsstatements.org/)
•Unlocking tabular data from collections by publishing them as
Linked Open Data
•We can provide data we generate (statistics, analytics, door
count, etc.) as linked open data for us to mine, and for others to
mine nationally and globally
•We can use tools to generate information visualizations of our
own data and that of others
(https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Tools/External_tools)
45. ...but we’re also realists
• Linked open data is open. Once you publish data, you can’t control
how it will be used -- like walking in open spaces, you can’t control
who will incidentally photograph you
• Early adoption at large scales is often slow, difficult, and expensive
(but it’s finally starting to get easier and cheaper!)
• Managing linked open data is like any other metadata work -- it
requires work to setup, and regular maintenance to keep up
• Like all areas in the information economy, problems with quality
control and authority control (e.g. “fake news”) are migrating from
old media to new media -- requiring constant vigilance to ensure
you’re using trustworthy sources
47. Semantic Web for beginners
WATCH
• Linked Open Data – What is it? – An introduction to LOD for memory organization
workers
• Tim Berners-Lee: The Next Web – creator of the Web talks about its next stage of
evolution
• Linked Open Jazz – Using oral histories to explore relationships between artists.
BROWSE
• WikiData.org – browse to get a feel for the subject-predicate-object relationships.
• dbpedia.org – browse to get a feel for the use of LOD metadata standards.
READ
• Rubinstein, Aaron. (2017). Sharing Archival Metadata, in Putting Descriptive
Standards to Work.
• Landis, Cliff. (2019). Linked Open Data in Libraries, in New Top Technologies Every
Librarian Needs to Know.