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Aggregation Using Linked Data – LOCAH Project Experiences

23rd June 2011

OAI7, Geneva, Switzerland

Adrian Stevenson

LOCAH Project Manager

                                                             

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LOCAH Project• Linked Open Copac and Archives Hub• Funded by #JiscEXPO 2/10 ‘Expose’ call

– 1 year project. Started August 2010

• Partners & Consultants:– UKOLN – Adrian Stevenson, Julian Cheal– Mimas – Jane Stevenson, Bethan Ruddock, Yogesh

Patel– Eduserv – Pete Johnston– Talis – Leigh Dodds, Tim Hodson– OCLC - Ralph LeVan, Thom Hickey– Ed Summers

• http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/locah/ tag: #locah

                                                             

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Archives Hub and Copac• UK National Data Services based at Mimas• Archives Hub is an aggregation of archival

descriptions from archive repositories across the UK– http://archiveshub.ac.uk

• Copac provides access to the merged library catalogues of libraries throughout the UK, including all national libraries– http://copac.ac.uk

                                                             

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What is LOCAH Doing?

• Part 1: Exposing Archives Hub & Copac data as Linked Data

• Part 2: Creating a prototype visualisation

• Part 3: Reporting on opportunities and barriers

                                                             

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We’re Aggregating

• If something is identified, it can be linked to• We take items from one dataset and link

them to items from other datasets

BBCBBCVIAFVIAF

DBPediaDBPediaArchives

HubArchives

Hub

CopacCopac

GeoNamesGeoNames

                                                             

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Enhancing our data• Already have some links:

– Time - reference.data.gov.uk URIs– Location - UK Postcodes URIs and Ordnance

Survey URIs – Names - Virtual International Authority File

• Matches and links widely-used authority files - http://viaf.org/

– Names - DBPedia

• Also looking at:– Subjects - Library Congress Subject Headings and

DBPedia

http://data.archiveshub.ac.uk/

‘Aggregates’ property points to http://www.openarchives.org/ore/terms/aggregates

Visualisation Prototype• Using Timemap –

– Googlemaps and Simile

– http://code.google.com/p/timemap/

• Early stages with this• Will give location and

‘extent’ of archive.• Will link through to

Archives Hub

http://scratch.petej.net/graphite/test6/

                                                             

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BBC Music

                                                             

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APIs, Mashups and Linked Data

• Mashups work against a fixed set of data sources

• Hand crafted by humans

• Don’t integrate well

• Linked Data promises an unbound global data space

• Easy dataset integration

• Generic ‘mesh-up’ tools

                                                             

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Aggregation / Integration Challenges

                                                             

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Sustainability

• Can you rely on data sources long-term?

• Ed Summers at the Library of Congress createdhttp://lcsh.info

• Linked Data interface for LOC subject headings

• People started using it

                                                             

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Library of Congress Subject Headings

                                                             

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Scalability

• Will the Web of Data scale?

Example by Bradley Allen, Elsevier at LOD LAM Summit, SF, USA

                                                             

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Data Modelling• Complexity

– Archival description is hierarchical and multi-level

• Dirty Data

Licensing• ‘Ownership’ of data• Hard to track attribution• CC0 for Archives Hub and Copac data

                                                             

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Linked Data the Way for Aggregation?

• Enables ‘straightforward’ aggregation of wide variety of data sources

• New channels into your data services

• Researchers are more likely to discover sources

• ‘Hidden' collections of repositories become of the Web

                                                             

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Questions for Discussion

• Will using vocabularies and ontologies always be too difficult?– Or will the tools appear? – MS Access

for Linked Data?

• Will the Web of Data scale?

                                                             

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– What constitutes data worth linking to?– How to find datasets suitable for

interlinking? – How to make my dataset worth linking to?– How to encourage others to link to my

data?– What is the added value of links? – How to determine the quality of a link?

Questions if you’ve bought in

                                                             

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Attribution and CC License

• Sections of this presentation adapted from materials created by other members of the LOCAH Project

• This presentation available under creative commons Non Commercial-Share Alike:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/