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Application of linked data technologies in digital libraries: a review of literature

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The digital humanities have witnessed a clear development in recent years due partly to their adoption of Semantic Web and linked data technologies and the creation of knowledge bases. In this work, we target the creation of an ontology and knowledge base for literature data representation based on the IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM). IFLA LRM is the main model for book-related data, allowing for a fine representation of the various layers that constitute a book. However, by design, it doesn’t deal with some aspects usually available in literature databases, such as information about authors, literary awards or book themes. As a result, LRM requires some extensions to be able to represent ancillary data. Another challenge is the querying of IFLA LRM knowledge bases, with a performance cost that comes with the fine-grained expressivity of the LRM model, which creates longer and therefore typically slower SPARQL queries. In this work, we propose an extension to the IFLA LRM ontology called IFLA LRM* that targets these limitations including a connection to the vocabulary Schema.org and to the taxonomies Thema and Dewey Decimal, and the representation of literary awards. We also present a practical case study on using our extended model to create a Quebec literature knowledge base, discussing the interest of our extensions.
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This paper discusses about the concept of the semantic web, technology, web content writing, and the necessity for the development of web 3.0. The various components of semantic web technology such as HTTP, URI, RDF, XML, Ontology, W3C, and other components specified as W3C standards are touched upon briefly. The benefits of implementing the semantic web in the Library functions to provide effective information services and for optimum use of the Library, collection is illustrated here.
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Connecting to friends, colleagues, customers, and others on the internet is an everyday experience for most people these days. We use email, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking systems quickly and easily when there is wifi or an internet service provider that reaches our geographic location – even as we move around. This change in our communication systems even extends sometimes to replacing phone calls with communications like Skype or Facetime. A former phone communication can now be a multi-media experience where you not only talk but also see each other (or groups of people), share pictures or videos or documents quickly and easily all at the same time. Where are libraries in this world?
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Why a Linked data Seminar? Linked data provides a new language in the world of global communication: from the public administration, banks, insurance companies, to archives, libraries and museums. Global communication via Linked Data is about using the Web to connect related data that wasn't previously linked, or using the Web to lower the barriers to linking data currently linked using other methods.
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The Semantic Web encourages institutions, including libraries, to collect, link and share their data across the Web in order to ease its processing by machines to get better queries and results. Linked Data technologies enable us to connect related data on the Web using the principles outlined by Tim Berners-Lee in 2006. Digital libraries have great potential to exchange and disseminate data linked to external resources using Linked Data. In this paper, a study about the current uses of Linked Data in digital libraries, including the most important implementations around the world, is presented. The study focuses on selected vocabularies and ontologies, benefits and problems encountered in implementing Linked Data in digital libraries. In addition, it also identifies and discusses specific challenges that digital libraries face, offering suggestions for ways in which libraries can contribute to the Semantic Web. The study uses an adapted methodology for literature review, to find data available to answer research questions. It is based on the information found in the library websites recommended by W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group in 2011, and scientific publications from Google Scholar, Scopus, ACM and Springer from the last 5 years. The selected libraries for the study are the National Library of France, the Europeana Library, the Library of Congress of the USA, the British Library and the National Library of Spain. In this paper, we outline the best practices found in each experience and identify gaps and future trends.
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The ideas behind Linked Data and the Semantic Web have recently gained ground and shown the potential to redefine the world of the web. Linked Data could conceivably create a huge database out of the Internet linked by relationships understandable by both humans and machines. The benefits of Linked Data to libraries and their users are potentially great, but so are the many challenges to its implementation. The BIBFRAME Initiative provides the possible framework that will link library resources with the web, bringing them out of their information silos and making them accessible to all users.
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The European Library and Europeana have both an extensive experience in aggregating metadata for bibliographical records or digital resources from the cultural heritage institutions of Europe. For both of them bypassing the challenges offered by multilingual and heterogeneous data is an ongoing effort. The growth of the Semantic Web and the more generalised publication of knowledge organisation systems as linked open data offer the possibility to make these services truly multilingual. This paper shows how The European Library and Europeana exploit the semantic relations and translations offered by knowledge organisations systems in order to solve the problem of data integration at a European scale. It also demonstrates the potential of Linked Open vocabularies for enabling multilingual search and retrieval services.
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Traditionally, in most digital library environments, the discovery of resources takes place mostly through the harvesting and indexing of the metadata content. Such search and retrieval services provide very effective ways for persons to find items of interest but lacks the ability to lead users looking for potential related resources or to make more complex queries. In contrast, modern web information management techniques related to Semantic Web, a new form of the Web, encourages institutions, including libraries, to collect, link and share their data across the web in order to ease its processing by machines and humans offering better queries and results increasing the visibility and interoperability of the data. Linked Data technologies enable connecting related data across the Web using the principles and recommendations set out by Tim Berners-Lee in 2006, resulting on the use of URIs (Uniform Resource Identifier) as identifiers for objects, and the use of RDF (Resource Description Framework) for links representation. Today, libraries are giving increasing importance to the Semantic Web in a variety of ways like creating metadata models and publishing Linked Data from authority files, bibliographic catalogs, digital projects information or crowdsourced information from another projects like Wikipedia. This paper reports a process for publishing library metadata on the Web using Linked Data technologies. The proposed process was applied for extracting metadata from a university library, representing them in RDF format and publishing them using a Sparql endpoint (an interface to a knowledge database). The library metadata from a subject were linked to external sources such us another libraries and then related to the bibliography from syllabus of the courses in order to discover missing subjects and new or out of date bibliography. In this process, the use of open standards facilitates the exploitation of knowledge from libraries.
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In this paper, I describe the challenges in creating a Resource Description Framework (RDF) knowledge base for undertaking phonological typology. RDF is a model for data interchange that encodes representations of knowledge in a graph data structure by using sets of statements that link resource nodes via predicates that can be logically marked-up (Lassila and Swick, 1999). The model I describe uses Linked Data to combine data from disparate segment inventory databases. Once the data in these legacy databases have been made interoperable at the linguistic and computational levels, I show how additional knowledge about distinctive features is linked to the knowledge base. I call this resource the Phonetics Information Base and Lexicon (PHOIBLE) 1 and it allows users to query segment inventories from a large number of languages at both the segment and distinctive feature levels (Moran, 2012). I then show how the knowledge base is useful for investigating questions of descriptive phonological universals, e.g. "do all languages have coronals?" and "does every phonological system have at least one front vowel or the palatal glide /j/?" (Hyman, 2008).
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Purpose Research in the area of technology‐enhanced learning (TEL) throughout the last decade has largely focused on sharing and reusing educational resources and data. This effort has led to a fragmented landscape of competing metadata schemas, or interface mechanisms. More recently, semantic technologies were taken into account to improve interoperability. The linked data approach has emerged as the de facto standard for sharing data on the web. To this end, it is obvious that the application of linked data principles offers a large potential to solve interoperability issues in the field of TEL. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, approaches are surveyed that are aimed towards a vision of linked education, i.e. education which exploits educational web data. It particularly considers the exploitation of the wealth of already existing TEL data on the web by allowing its exposure as linked data and by taking into account automated enrichment and interlinking techniques to provide rich and well‐interlinked data for the educational domain. Findings So far web‐scale integration of educational resources is not facilitated, mainly due to the lack of take‐up of shared principles, datasets and schemas. However, linked data principles increasingly are recognized by the TEL community. The paper provides a structured assessment and classification of existing challenges and approaches, serving as potential guideline for researchers and practitioners in the field. Originality/value Being one of the first comprehensive surveys on the topic of linked data for education, the paper has the potential to become a widely recognized reference publication in the area.
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The First Semantic Web/Linked Data Conference of German libraries took place in Cologne on 24 and 25 November 2009 and revealed much interest in advancing from a web of documents to a web of data. The contributions covered advanced applications at the Library of Congress and the Swedish National library as well as advocacy for linked data approaches and the use of semantic web tools in the library and cultural heritage domain. The German National Library announced the publication of their authority files as linked open data, with first prototypes to become available in mid-2010, and this constituted a highlight of the conference. Discussions about ontologies to be used, application examples and a summary of practical experiences completed the event.
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Today researchers search for books in various ways. Once discovered, a variety of Web technologies can be used to link to related resources and/or associate context with a book. This environment creates an opportunity for libraries. The linked open data (LOD) model of the Web offers a potential foundation for innovative user services and the wider dissemination of bibliographic metadata. However, best practices for transforming library catalog records into LOD are still evolving. The practical utility on the Semantic Web of library metadata transformed from MARC remains unclear. Using a test set of MARC21 records describing 30,000 retrospectively digitized books, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Library explored options for adding links, transforming into non-library specific LOD-friendly semantics, and deploying as RDF to maximize the utility of these records. This paper highlights lessons learned during this process, discusses findings to date, and suggests possible avenues for further work and experimentation.
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Since 1999 the W3C has been working on a set of Semantic Web standards that have the potential to revolutionize web search. Also known as Linked Data, the Machine-Readable Web, the Web of Data, or Web 3.0, the Semantic Web relies on highly structured metadata that allow computers to understand the relationships between objects. Semantic web standards are complex, and difficult to conceptualize, but they offer solutions to many of the issues that plague libraries, including precise web search, authority control, classification, data portability, and disambiguation. This article will outline some of the benefits that linked data could have for libraries, will discuss some of the non-technical obstacles that we face in moving forward, and will finally offer suggestions for practical ways in which libraries can participate in the development of the semantic web.
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This article provides a history of libraries from their founding in the ancient world through the later half of the 20th century, when both technological and political forces radically reshaped library development. According to Encyclopedia Britannica Online 2007, the paper identifies the series of technological developments with which both librarians and traditional libraries have had to contend. The impression that the global technological revolution now taking place has "murdered" traditional libraries as well as the librarians working in them was critically assessed. It was later concluded that both digital and traditional libraries will co-exist side by side and they will complement each other in the educational, economical and social development of the country concerned.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide recommendations for making a conceptual shift from current document‐centric to data‐centric metadata. The importance of adjusting current library models such as Resource Description and Access (RDA) and Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) to models based on Linked Data principles is discussed. In relation to technical formats, the paper suggests the need to leapfrog from machine readable cataloguing (MARC) to Resource Description Framework (RDF), without disrupting current library metadata operations. Design/methodology/approach This paper identified and reviewed relevant works on overarching topics that include standards‐based metadata, Web 2.0 and Linked Data. The review of these works is contextualised to inform the recommendations identified in this paper. Articles were retrieved from databases such as Emerald and D‐Lib Magazine . Books, electronic articles and relevant blog posts were also used to support the arguments put forward in this paper. Findings Contemporary library standards and models carried forward some of the constraints from the traditional card catalogue system. The resultant metadata are mainly attuned to human consumption rather than machine processing. In view of current user needs and technological development such as the interest in Linked Data, it is found important that current metadata models such as FRBR and RDA are re‐conceptualised. Practical implications This paper discusses the implications of re‐conceptualising current metadata models in light of Linked Data principles, with emphasis on metadata sharing, facilitation of serendipity, identification of Zeitgeist and emergent metadata, provision of faceted navigation, and enriching metadata with links. Originality/value Most of the literature on Linked Data for libraries focus on answering the “how to” questions of using RDF/XML and SPARQL technologies, however, this paper focuses mainly on answering “why” Linked Data questions, thus providing an underlying rationale for using Linked Data. The discussion on mixed‐metadata approaches, serendipity, Zeitgeist and emergent metadata is considered to provide an important rationale to the role of Linked Data for libraries.
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Purpose The purpose of this article is to provide an overview about the Semantic Web, its importance and history and an overview of recent Semantic Web technologies which can be used to enhance digital libraries. Design/methodology/approach The paper answers, at least partially, questions like “What is the Semantic Web?”, “How could the Semantic Web look like?”, “Why is the Semantic Web important?”, “What are ontologies?” and “Where are we now?”. Several pointers to further literature and web sites complete the overview. Findings Semantic Web technologies are valuable add‐ons for digital libraries. There already exist numerous academic and commercial tools which can be applied right now. Practical limitations/implications The overview of Semantic Web technologies cannot be complete in such an article, therefore we limit ourselves to the most prominent technologies available. However, following the pointers given readers can easily find more information. Originality/value The article is of particular value for newcomers in this area.
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An overview of the Linked Data implementation at LIBRIS, the Swedish Union Catalogue, is presented along with a rationale for for building it. A minimal API for exporting bibliographic data and relations from an ILS is also described.
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Helen Williams of the London School of Economics attended the recent Talis open day covering all things semantic and how to apply these tools and structures in a library setting. Helen has included links to all the presentations from the day that covered a wide range of topics from making library resources web3 ready and the frameworks and schemas used in the Linked Data movement.
Encyclopedia britannica online
  • E Britannica
Britannica, E. (2007), "Encyclopedia britannica online", 15 May 2010.
Linked data for libraries
  • J Hannemann
  • J Kett
Hannemann, J. and Kett, J. (2010), "Linked data for libraries", Proc of the World Library Index, Vol. 174, pp. 13-18.
Data. europeana. eu: the europeana linked open data pilot
  • B Haslhofer
  • A Isaac
Haslhofer, B. and Isaac, A. (2011), "Data. europeana. eu: the europeana linked open data pilot", in International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, pp. 94-104.
Metadata developments in libraries and other cultural heritage institutions
  • E T Mitchell
Mitchell, E.T. (2013), "Metadata developments in libraries and other cultural heritage institutions", Library Technology Reports, Vol. 49 No. 5, pp. 5-10.