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Chapter 6. Metadata Services

Chapter 6 section titles

6.1 Metadata Services as an Infrastructure
6.2 Metadata Registries
6.2.1 Functional Requirements
6.2.2 Types
6.2.3 Essential Components
6.3 Metadata Repositories
6.3.1 Features and Approaches
6.3.2 Metadata Harvesting Model
6.3.3 Support for Multiple Description Formats in OAI-PMH
6.4 Metadata as Linked Data
6.4.1 WHAT: Linked Data Principles
6.4.2 WHY: Understanding the Situations—Metadata in Information Silos
6.4.3 WHO: Two Roles of LAMs and Information Institutions
6.4.4 WHERE: Discovering the Factors Inhibiting LAM Data’s Linkability
6.4.5 WHEN: Taking Actions in Different Steps/Phases for Different
Situations
6.4.6 HOW: Applicable Methods and Strategies
6.4.7 Moving Forward
6.5 Ensuring Optimal Metadata Discovery, Increasing Findability
6.5.1 Metadata Retrieval
6.5.2 Metadata Exposure Methods
6.6 Summary

Links to sources

Figure 6-2-1 A document about the vocabularies referring to one another and the vocabulary history (using Schema.org as an example) from Linked Open Vocabularies (LOV) registry ...... 262

Figure 6-2-2 Record for the creator element from the Open Metadata Registry...... 266

Figure 6-4-2 Front-end and back-end of the “massaged” results, using a MoMA artist “Salvador Dalí, Spanish, 1904–1989” web page as an example...... 283

  • Front end: Find the "Getty record" part or extend to "View the full Getty record".
  • Back end: View Page Source of the webpage (right-click) and locate "sameAs" section's codes.

Figure 6-4-3 A close look at the front-end of the entry for “rice” in AGROVOC....... 286

Figure 6-4-4 A close look at the back-end of the SKOS-ified entry for “rice” in AGROVOC....... 286

Figure 6-4-5 Illustration of KOS and controlled values used in a CONA record describing a painting ....... 288

Figure 6-4-6 Examples from Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST) showing its enrichment by using typed relationships....... 289

Figure 6-5-5 Demonstration of querying DBpedia using its SPARQL Query Editor (#1), obtaining the results (#2), and visualizing (#3) the results using Gephi software...... 312

Figure 6-5-6 Demonstration of querying BNB through the Flint SPARQL Editor (#1) and obtaining the results (#2) ...... 313

Figure 6-5-7 Demonstration of querying AAT through the Getty Vocabularies: LOD SPARQL editor (top), using the template (#1) provided by the dataset service, modifying the query (#2), and obtaining the results (#3)...... 315

Figure 6-5-8 Effective and code-free data exploration and analysis provided by Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE) ...... 317

CASE: Van Gogh Worldwide ...... 275
-- Using the Linked Art Data Model

CASE: AGRIS, FAO of the United Nations ...... 277-278 & Section 6.4.6.1. Figure 6-4-3 and Figure 6-4-4.
-- AGRIS platform
-- AGROVOC multilingual thesaurus | online search and browse | SPARQL endpoint
-- AGRIS Application Profile (AGRIS AP)
-- FAO's guide Linked Open Data Enabled Bibliographical Data (LODE-BD). TOC | Full PDF | Read online through Google Books

CASE: Europeana ...... 280
-- Europeana semantic enrichment (website) | Europeana Semantic Enrichment Framework document | Currently dereferences - several vocabularies

CASE: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) ...... 282
-- See also resources provided for FIGURE 6-4-2.
-- Search on the web using the ULAN 500009365
-- Learn the tool used for reconciliation: OpenRefine. Guide and tutorial | Webinar

CASE: Linked Jazz ...... 296
-- Network visualized
-- Linked Jazz and Carnegie Hall | An interactive and searchable visualization using Gephi.

Exercises

Start with these questions and prepare your answers.
1. Why are metadata services important for LAM institutions? Give three reasons. For each reason given, use a specific example or context to support your assertion and discuss the importance of metadata services in each case. Also create a row heading for reasons and a column heading of the examples. Fill in the corresponding table cells.

2. Which types of metadata services are used for different purposes? Create a table to list the types of metadata services in the row heading and list the purposes in the column heading. Fill in the types and purposes in the corresponding table cells.

3. How will you register the schema you created for the exercises in chapters 4 and 5? Create a metadata description for your own schema following the requirements listed in section 6.2.3.

4. How do metadata services facilitate information retrieval? Use a table to list the ways that metadata services facilitate information retrieval and the technical requirements involved in the process. As with exercise 1, create a row heading of the ways to facilitate and a column heading of the technical requirements and fill in the corresponding table cells.

5. What do you think about LAM data as Linked Data? What are the basic concepts and perceptions that should be addressed? Taking any metadata description or record you have created after chapter 3, highlight the entities that you think could become linkable points.

6. What are the major issues of findability of digitized materials? Identify an existing digital collection and provide a plan of three approaches that should be put into action.

Readings

Baker, Thomas, Pierre-Yves Vandenbussche, and Bernard Vatant. 2013. "Requirements for Vocabulary Preservation and Governance." Library Hi Tech 31 (4): 657-668.

Berners-Lee, Tim. 2006. "Linked Data." Last modified June 6, 2009. http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html.

Deliot, Corine. 2014. “Publishing the British National Bibliography as Linked Open Data.” Paper presented at the Library Association of Ireland (LAI) 2014 Annual Seminar, “Linked Data for Libraries,” Dublin, Ireland, November 6, 2014. http://www.bl.uk/bibliographic/pdfs/publishing_bnb_as_lod.pdf.

Freire, Nuno, Antoine Isaac, Glen Robson, John Brooks Howard, and Hugo Manguinhas. 2017. “A Survey of Web Technology for Metadata Aggregation in Cultural Heritage.” Information Services and Use 37 (4): 425–36. https:// doi.org/10.3233/ISU-170859.

ISO/IEC 11179-1:2015 Information technology—Metadata registries (MDR)—
Part 1: Framework. 3rd ed. Geneva: International Standards Organization (ISO). https://www.iso.org/standard/61932.html.

W3C. 2017. Data on the Web Best Practices. W3C Recommendation 31 January
2017. https://www.w3.org/TR/dwbp/.

W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group. 2011. “Library Linked Data Incubator Group Final Report." W3C Incubator Group Report 25 October 2011. https://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/XGR-lld-20111025/

Takeaways

1. Metadata services encompass
metadata registries,
repositories,
&
development and production services.

 

2. Linked Data is about using the WWW to connect
related data that were not previously linked.
Linked Data is also about
linking data that is currently linked, but
through methods other than hyperlinking.

 

3. LAMs act as both contributors and consumers of data.
Turning metadata into Linked Data will
reveal hidden entities,
connect the silos,
and enable discovery
through the knowledge network.

 

4. Maximizing metadata discoverability is a new dimension of metadata services.
Metadata services should engage all interested parties, embrace Semantic Web technologies, and rise from data silos to four- or five-star data services.