authority control and semantic interoperability

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 20131

Authority control and semantic interoperability in cooperative library systems

Lars G. Svensson

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 20132

The World Wide Web is transforming from strings to things

The authority data librarians curate are about things (people, places, …)

3Photo by Shannon Kringen (CC BY-SA):http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonkringen/6190281544/

Pict

ure

by D

onke

yH

ote

y (

CC

BY):

htt

p:/

/ww

w.fl

ickr

.com

/photo

s/donke

yhote

y/6

143808815/

Collage by Fiona Henderson (CC BY):http://www.flickr.com/photos/fifikins/3372920140/

| 23

4

A discovery system revolving around authorities is one way of achieving this

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013

Instead, they could give information on documents about things

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 20135

Phot

o by

kar

lnor

ling

(CC-

BY):

http:

//w

ww

.flic

kr.c

om/p

hoto

s/ka

rlnor

ling/

4206

7275

80/s

izes/

m/i

n/ph

otos

trea

m/

Phot

o by

J. S

teph

en C

onn

(CC-

BY-N

C):

http:

//w

ww

.flic

kr.c

om/p

hoto

s/js

teph

enco

nn/4

2243

2288

4/si

zes/

m/i

n/ph

otos

trea

m/

http:

//co

mm

ons.

wik

imed

ia.o

rg/w

iki/

File

:Hel

ene_

Paris

_Dav

id.jp

g

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 20136

Filter to literature about:Paris (France)Paris (Texas)Paris (Prince of Troy)

A discovery system revolving around authorities is one way of achieving this

In the German speaking world, all authorities are collected in the GND

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 20137

GND

PND SWD GKD EST

The GND uses an entity-based model

• Corporate Body

• Conference or Event

• Subject Heading

• Work

• Place or Geographic Name

• Family

• Person

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 20138

The GND Ontology is a formalisation of that entity-based model in OWL

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 20139

Gra

ph

ic b

y A

dri

an

Poh

l: h

ttp

s://

wik

i1.h

bz-

nrw

.de/d

isp

lay/S

EM

/20

13

/05

/23

/Th

e+

GN

D+

on

tolo

gy%

27

s+cl

ass

+h

iera

rch

y+

-+an

+overv

iew

In the DNB linked data service, we use GNDO to build authority representations

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201310

<gnd:DifferentiatedPerson rdf:about="http://d-nb.info/gnd/118508288"><gnd:publication>Grand Concerto pour le Piano forte. - s.a.</gnd:publication><gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson rdf:parseType="Resource">

<gnd:forename>...</gnd:forename><gnd:surname>Beethofen</gnd:surname>

</gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson> <gnd:professionOrOccupation rdf:resource="http://d-nb.info/gnd/4032009-1"/> <gnd:placeOfActivity rdf:resource="http://d-nb.info/gnd/4007666-0"/> <gnd:publication>Werke. - s. a. abgeschlossen 1865</gnd:publication><gnd:geographicAreaCode rdf:resource="http://d-nb.info/standards/vocab/gnd/geographic-area-code#XA-DE"/> <gnd:oldAuthorityNumber>(DE-101c)127037454</gnd:oldAuthorityNumber> <gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson rdf:parseType="Resource">

<gnd:prefix>van</gnd:prefix> <gnd:forename>Ludovicus</gnd:forename> <gnd:surname>Beethoven</gnd:surname>

</gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson> <gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson rdf:parseType="Resource">

<gnd:prefix>van</gnd:prefix><gnd:forename>Ludwig</gnd:forename> <gnd:surname>Bethoven</gnd:surname>

</gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson>[…]

The RDF/OWL model has triggered interesting re-use

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201311 Proje

kt „

Mu

ltim

ed

iale

Bib

lioth

eks

pla

ttfo

rm“,

Hoch

sch

ule

Darm

stad

t, U

niv

ers

itäts

- u

nd

Lan

desb

iblio

thek

TU

Darm

stad

t,m

ed

ia t

ran

sfer

AG

, S

oft

ware

AG

, n

terr

a G

mb

H,

Hou

se o

f IT

. G

efö

rdert

du

rch

das

Lan

d H

ess

en

(LO

EW

E)

Germania Sacra builds links to GND via SRU queries

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201312

htt

p:/

/pers

on

en

date

nb

an

k.g

erm

an

ia-s

acr

a.d

e/in

dex/b

row

se

ZBW employs data from the GND in a lookup service for persons

13

htt

p:/

/zb

w.e

u/b

eta

/eco

n-w

s/exam

ple

s/su

gg

est

2.h

tml

| 23

museum-digital uses GND data to provide contextual information

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201314

htt

p:/

/ww

w.m

use

um

-dig

ital.d

e/t

hue/ind

ex.p

hp

?t=

ob

jekt&

og

es=

47

7

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201315

Libraries can leverage those structures to build entity-centric discovery

Topical search can revolve around subject headings

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201316

We can also explore networks of persons

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201317

Through vocabulary interlinking we can achieve (almost) true multilinguality

| 23 18

So is the use of semantic networks a cure-all for navigation in libraries?

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201319

Ph

oto

by N

ico K

ais

er

(CC

-BY):

htt

p:/

/ww

w.fl

ickr

.com

/ph

oto

s/n

icoka

iser/

46

67

37

79

44

/siz

es/

z/in

/ph

oto

stre

am

/

We often focus too much on books and forget the authorities (people, places, …)

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201320

A discovery system revolving around authorities can add new perspectives

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201321

I see some far-reaching

opportunities!

Ph

oto

by Ian

T.

Ed

ward

s (C

C B

Y-N

C-S

A):

htt

p:/

/ww

w.fl

ickr

.com

/ph

oto

s/h

an

um

an

/23

93

11

52

3/a

Search engine integration of authorities linked to bibliographic information can drive traffic to libraries

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201322

The Giant Global Graph: Where Callimachus meets Tim Berners-Lee

| 23 | Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 201323

htt

p:/

/up

load

.wik

imed

ia.o

rg/w

ikip

ed

ia/c

om

mon

s/4

/4d

/Tim

_Bern

ers

-Lee_C

P_2

_head

_cro

p.jp

g

Ph

oto

by M

ary

Harr

sch

(C

C B

Y-N

C-S

A)

htt

p:/

/ww

w.fl

ickr

.com

/ph

oto

s/m

harr

sch

/25

22

11

21

20

/