New Directions in Information Organization-A Linked Data Model with BIBFRAME

XI International Conference on University LibrariesNational Autonomous University of Mexico

Mexico CityNov. 6-8, 2013

Dr. Sharon Q. Yang

Associate Professor/Systems Librarian

Rider University, NJ, USA

Many Ways and Parts to Organize Information/knowledge

• The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)• Library of Congress Classification (LCC)• Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)• Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2)• Describing Archives: A Content Standard, Second

Edition (DACS)• Visual Resource Association Core (VRA)• Resource Description and Access (RDA)• BIBFRAME• Linked Data model• More…

RDA, BIBFRAME, & Linked Data Model

• Three pieces are closely related.• RDA gets bibliographic data ready for Linked

Data/the Semantic Web.• BIBFRAME is an abbreviated name for LC

Bibliographic Framework Initiative.• BIBFRAME will be the new data presentation

standard (MARC is for displaying library data, not for linking)

• BIBFRAME is a Linked Data model.

BIBFRAME

• Zepheira headed by Eric Miller has been working with LC on the BIBFRAME project

to replace MARC.

• Eric Miller has both library and

Semantic Web experience.

• The progress can be monitored at the official website http://www.bibframe.org.

Photo from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-TD4jTWn3U

What Does BIBFRAME Do?

Data Cataloged

with RDA/FRBR

Existing MARCRecords

BIBFRAME/linked data, part of the Web

What Do We Know about BIBFRAME?

• A totally new bibliographic environment

• Robust enough to convert the past 40 years of MARC records

• Flexible enough to deal with the future information organization (New formats of information and requirements of more communities )

• Not only for libraries and other memory organizations such as archives, museums, publishers, big data, but a wider range of communities

More on BIBFRAME

• Data elements-atomistic elements, each of which contains one type of information.

• Recombinant data-assemble the data in any way a community wants (think about legos).

• Community profiles-allow any individual community to create

their data that makes sense to them.• Connect/link data among the communities.• Value added-Create new data with new meanings from existing

data, small building blocks to larger building blocks.• Data are reusable.• Part of the Web, not on the Web.

BIBFRAME Structure

• Creative work-A resource reflecting a conceptual essence of the cataloging item

• Instance-A resource reflecting an individual, material embodiment of the work

• Authority-A resource reflecting key authority concepts that have defined relationships reflected in the Work and Instance. Examples of Authority Resources include People, Places, Topics, Organizations, etc.

• Annotation-A resource that decorates other BIBFRAME resources with additional information (Library Holdings information, cover art and reviews) (http://www.loc.gov/bibframe/pdf/marcld-report-11-21-2012.pdf)

Linked Data?

“A term used to describe a recommended best practice for exposing, sharing, connecting, pieces of data, information, and knowledge on the Semantic Web using URIs and RDF.” (http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/dcmi/bibframework)

The Semantic Web is based on Linked Data. Two words are used interchangeably by us.

URI and RDF?

What Is Linked Data Model/Semantic Web?

• A vision by Tim Berners-Lee, Director

of World Wide Web Consortium, in

late 1999

• Web 3.0, the Semantic Web, Giant Global Graph, • Web of linked ata, a web of data

• An extension of current Web, not a replacement

• “A web of data that can be processed directly and indirectly by machines” –Tim Berners-Lee

*Photo of Tim Berners-Lee in 2005 from Wikipedia

Three Things to Remember about Linked Data Model/the Semantic Web

1. Machines understand/process data

2. Entity relationships (RDA is also about entity relationships)– Relationships among humans and things – properties of humans and things (attributes and values)

3. A Web of linked data vs. a Web of linked documents

A Word May Have Many Meanings…

• I love Boston-Which of the 26 Bostons in the world?• UC Berkeley –People write it in 50 different ways on the

Internet (Metaweb Inc . at http://wiki.freebase.com/wiki/Main_Page)

• A single entity• A single entity vs. text of different meanings and

spellings• A single entity is a thing, place, person, concept, object

or anything

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)

• An entity may be represented by URI in Linked Data model

• An entity is also called a resource • Examples of URI from LCSH in SKOS

– Example of URI - Shakespeare– Example of URI – 911 Terrorist attacks– Example of URI- Semantic Web

• URI is the first important building block in linking data

Resource Description Framework (RDF)-Entity Relationship Model

RDF statements are often referred to as “triples” that consist of a

subject, predicate, and object, which correspond to a resource

(subject), a property (predicate), and a property value (object).

RDF Triples

• Subject – an entity (URI)• Predicate -property or attribute (URI)• Object – a property value (can be a URI or text)• Examples:

– New York-- is place of publication of --Raintree County– Viking Penguin-- is publisher of --Raintree County– 1994-- is date of publication of-- Raintree County (Caren Koyle “Library

Data in the Web World”)

– T-shirt –color-red

• Languages: RDF/XMS, N3, Turtle, N-Triples, Json

RDF/XML

”The Secret Agent” is written by Joseph Conrad

<rdf:RDF      xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"      xmlns:lib="http://www.zvon.org/library">

 <rdf:Description about="The Secret Agent">           <lib:creator>Joseph Conrad</lib:creator>     </rdf:Description>           </rdf:RDF>

Is created by

RDF Tutorial at http://zvon.org/xxl/RDFTutorial/General/contents.html

http://library.rider.edu/books/TheSecretAgent http://www.nndb.com/

JosephConrad

Silos

MySQl MSSQL Oracle

Interoperability and Cross Domain Sharing

Shared Base Ontology and

Common Vocabulary

Database 1 Database 2 Database 3

Vocabularies and Ontologies

• Vocabulary - A collection of terms given a well-defined meaning that is consistent across contexts.

• Ontology - Allows you to define contextual relationships behind a defined vocabulary. It is the cornerstone of defining a knowledge domain. (Semantic

Modeling Tutorial at www.linkeddatatools.com)

Semantic Web Ontologies

• “An ontology is a formal specification of a shared conceptualization”1

• “the success of the semantic Web depends predominantly on the proliferation of ontologies…” 2

• Different domain has different ontology

• Ontologies are written in Web Ontology Language (OWL) and RDFS (RDF Schema) and others.

1. Tom Gruber at http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-an-ontology.html

2. Kaushal Girl “Role of Ontology in Semantic Web”

Finished Ontologies

What Do We Really Want?

1. Get all the bib data in RDF statements

2. Link them by entity relationships

3. Share vocabularies and ontologies with other communities

4. Be part of the Semantic Web, not in library silo

Examples

• LCSH in SKOS Or OCLC FAST• OCLC Worldcat• BIBFRAME • Google• Friend of a Friend (FOAF)

The Biggest Challenge

Decompose/convert the existing MARC into RDF statements

Thank You yangs@rider.edu