RDA and the Semantic Web, Linked Data Environment

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by  Barbara Tillett

RDA and the Semantic Web, Linked
Data Environment
BarbaraTillett
Connectingtofriends,colleagues,customers,andothersontheIn-
ternet is an everyday experience for most people these days. We
useemail,Twitter,Facebook,andothersocialnetworkingsystems
quicklyandeasilywhenthereiswifioranInternetserviceprovider
thatreachesourgeographiclocation–evenaswemovearound.This
changeinourcommunicationsystemsevenextendssometimesto
replacingphonecallswithcommunicationslikeSkypeorFacetime.
Aformerphonecommunicationcannowbeamulti-mediaexperi-
encewhereyounotonlytalkbutalsoseeeachother(orgroupsof
people),sharepicturesorvideosordocumentsquicklyandeasily
allatthesametime. Wherearelibrariesinthisworld?
Ourcollectionsarebeingdigitizedandinformationaboutourtradi-
tionalanddigitalcollectionsisbeingmadeaccessiblethroughthe
Web. Ourbibliographicdescriptionsandtheinformationthatwe
provide about the people, families, and corporate bodies used in
ourdescriptionsisavailableforre-use. Thishasbeendemonstrated
throughthepopularVirtualInternationalAuthorityFile(VIAF)and
variouslinkeddataprojects,suchastheLibraryofCongresspost-
ingoftheLibraryofCongressSubjectHeadings(LCSH)andother
controlledvocabulariesontheWebatid.loc.gov. Theseprojectsalso
have shown that the data libraries provide can be very useful in
JLIS.it.Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).
DOI:10.4403/jlis.it-6303
B.Tillett,RDAandtheSemanticWeb
a linked data environment for mashups and pathways to related
information that may be of interest to the Web searcher – either
throughshowingthemaddedfacetstheymaywishtoconsiderto
refinetheirsearchorsuggestingnewdirectionsorrelatedresources
they may also like to see. Library data about our resources is no
longerjustmeanttobestoredincatalogdrawersastheinventory
tooltoaccessanindividuallibrary’scollections. Itcannowbemade
availabletoanyone,anywhereintheworld,atanytime.
Libraries share data because they find they collect similar things
andcanre-usethedescriptionsofthemanifestationscollectedby
otherlibrariesorre-usetheauthoritydataaboutaperson,family,or
corporatebodytheyalsohaverepresentedintheircollections. But
unlikethestartofsharingbibliographicandauthoritydataamong
libraries(mostlybyexchangingMARCformattedrecordsorbefore
that through buying catalog cards for the new acquisitions), the
datacanbesharedgloballyratherthan“exchanged”forredundant
storage locally. That is, it can be made available in a linked data
environment,solibrariesdonotneedtoreplicatethesamedataover
andover, butinsteadshareitmutuallywitheachotherandwith
othersusingtheWeb. Thisenvironmenthelpsreducethelibrary
costs and expands the accessibility of information. Library data
neednotbejustintheformofacitationinabibliographyorother
linearlisting,butthedescriptiveandauthoritydatacanbere-used
andpackagedincreativenewwaysthatcanbecontext-appropriate
toauser’sneeds.
Librarydataisdynamic. Itcanactuallystartwiththedescriptive
dataandidentifyinginformationthatthecreatorofaworkprovides,
augmentedbyinformationfromarightsmanagementorganization,
apublisherormanufacturerordistributor,furtherenhancedbya
cataloger to provide a classification and/or subject terms to help
findthatresource,whileothersmayaddmorecontentinformation
JLIS.it. Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).Art.#6303 p.140
JLIS.it.Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013)
orexpandtherelationships,andmaybeevenlaterthedatacanbe
enhancedbyascholarwithsomespecialexpertiseorknowledge
about the resource or the topic it covers. Many other related re-
sourcescanbeconnectedtothedescriptionandpathwaysemerge
inthebibliographicuniverse. Theroleoflibrariesinthischainof
descriptionandaccessisanimportantonetohelporganizeinforma-
tionandtoconnectuserstotheinformationtheyarelookingfor. We
arepartoftheinformationnetworkandhaveatremendouslegacy
tocontribute. Sincethelate1990’s,thelibraryworldhasworked
towardsincreasedsharingbasedonagreedinternationalprinciples
(IFLA’sInternationalCataloguingPrinciples(ICP)),internationally
acceptedconceptualmodelswiththeirusertasksandrecommended
mandatorydataelements(IFLA’sFRBR(FRBR)andFRAD(FRAD))
as the foundation for how we are re-visualizing our descriptions
ofourresources. Thesechangescausedustore-examineourcata-
logingstandards,likeISBD(ISBD),andourcatalogingcodes,like
theAnglo-AmericanCataloguingRules(AACR)andledtochanges
topositionlibrariesforthefuture. Certainlythereconceptualization
oftheAACRwasahugemilestonetomovelibrariestowardsseeing
theirdescriptionsasmorethancitationsintendedonlyforalibrary
catalog. The move to Resource Description & Access (RDA) is a
movetowardsaninternationallysharedvisionandinternationally
maintainedcontentcodeintendedforthedigitalenvironmentthat
wenowfindourselvesin.
Resource Description & Access (RDA)
Building on the foundations for the IFLA conceptual models, es-
peciallyoftheFunctionalRequirementsforBibliographicRecords
(FRBR) user tasks, national level bibliographic record mandatory
elements, and the entity-relationship conceptual model, and the
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B.Tillett,RDAandtheSemanticWeb
FunctionalRequirementsforAutorityData(FRAD)expansionof
thatmodel,RDAinstructsushowtobuildwell-formedmetadata
thatcanbere-usedformultiplepurposes. RDAisalsobuiltonthe
foundationsoftheStatementofInternationalCataloguingPrinci-
ples(ICP),andworkcontinuestoaligntheinstructionsintocloser
harmony with those principles through discussions with various
communities, like the music library world, to adjust the Anglo-
AmericanCataloguingRules,2ndedition(AACR2)rulesthatwere
carriedforwardintoRDAintotrulyFRBR/ICPprinciple-basedin-
structions, rather than case law of the past. This new cataloging
codeisamajorshiftinperspectivetomakeourbibliographicand
authoritydatamoreusefulintoday’slinkeddataenvironmentand
beyond. Unlike codes of the past, RDA ties the description and
accesstotheusertasksandthespecificentitiesthatwearedescrib-
ing. RDA enables us to identify the resource no matter what its
format–book,soundrecording,score,motionpicture,game,map,
photograph,datafile,whatever. Allresourcessharesomebasiciden-
tifyinginformation,andwecanaddmoreidentifyingcharacteristics
andrelationshipsasneeded. YetRDAhastieswiththecodesofthe
pastintheobjectivestocollocatealltheworksofacreator,allthe
expressionsofawork,allthemanifestationsofanexpression,all
theitemsheld. RDAenablesustoindicateotherrelatedresources
andinformation,toidentifythepersons,families,corporatebodies,
and places, so we can collocate things by or about those entities.
It enables us to link to other information about those entities on
theweb. Suchinformationcanthenbeusedformultiplepurposes,
like creating mashups, as shown with VIAF, Library Thing, and
several other services; providing users with useful groupings of
informationandlinkstorelatedthingsofinterest. RDAmovesus
beyondthevocabularyofcatalogcards(mainentry,headings,see
referencesetc.) tomoreclearlylabeltheidentifyingcharacteristicsof
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JLIS.it.Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013)
andrelationshipsamongentitiestoprovidepathwaysforusersand
machines. Itusescontrolledvocabulariesandmakesthemavailable
inalinkeddataenvironment(throughtheOpenMetadataRegistry),
sotheUniformResourceIdentifier(URI)foreachtermcanbeused
andidentifiedwiththevariouslanguageversionsofthetermfor
thevaluebeinglabeled.
Having URIs also can apply to standard phrases, like [publisher
notidentified],or[placeofpublicationnotidentified]. Onewould
hopefutureinputsystemsforcatalogingwillsuggestsuchstandard
terms through drop down menus or other devices, so catalogers
wouldnotneedtokeyinthatstandardinformation. Suchfeatures
ofRDAandtheWeb-basedvocabulariesareintendedtofacilitate
thedevelopmentoffuturesystemstomakecatalogingeasierandto
enablemultilingualdisplaysforusersaroundtheworld. RDAalso
encouragesthere-useofdescriptivedatafrompublishers,offering
us the option to transcribe, that is, take data as we see it on the
resource being described or from the data that accompanies the
resourcecomingfromthepublisher. RDAavoidsabbreviatingso
theusercanunderstandwhatwe’retryingtotellthem,inlinewith
theICP.
ThenewBibliographicFrameworkInitiativefromtheLibrary
of Congress recognizes that our past methods of communicating
bibliographicandauthoritydatathroughexchangingrecordsarein
needofanoverhaul. Withthehelpofinterestedpartiesandexperts
fromaroundtheworld,wehavestartedtheprocessofrethinkingour
approach,exploringthepossibilitiesinthisSemanticWeb,linked
dataenvironment. Asweexplorethenewpossibilitiesandbuild
an internationally shared vision, we must always keep our users
foremostinmind,astheyareourcustomers,thereasonwecollect
resources,thereasonweorganizeinformation. Wewillcontinueto
worktowardscollaborativeapproachestoreducecatalogingcosts
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B.Tillett,RDAandtheSemanticWeb
andtoenrichuserexperiencesthroughouttheworldastheyseek
informationinourbibliographicuniverse.
References
InternationalFederationofLibraryAssociationsandInstitutions.ISBDReviewGroup
andInternationalFederationofLibraryAssociationsandInstitutions.Catalogu-
ingSection.StandingCommittee.ISBDInternationalStandardBibliographicDe-
scription.Berlin:DeGruyterSaur,2011.(Cit.onp.141).
InternationalFederationofLibraryAssociationsandInstitutions.StudyGroupon
theFunctionalRequirementsforBibliographicRecords.FunctionalRequirements
forBibliographicRecords.München:Saur,1998.http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/
cataloguing/frbr/frbr_2008.pdf.(Cit.onp.141).
Patton,GlennE.,ed.Functionalrequirementsforauthoritydata:aconceptualmodel:final
reportdecember2008:approvedbytheStandingcommitteesoftheIFLAcataloguing
sectionandIFLAclassificationandindexingsection.München:Saur,2009.(Cit.on
p.141).
Tillett,BarbaraandAnaLupeCristán,eds.IFLACataloguingPrinciples:theStatementof
InternationalCataloguingPrinciples(ICP)anditsGlossaryin20languages.München:
Saur,2009.(Cit.onp.141).
JLIS.it. Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).Art.#6303 p.144
JLIS.it.Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013)
BARBARATILLETT,LibraryofCongress.
[email protected]
Tillett,B.”RDAandtheSemanticWeb,LinkedDataEnvironment”.JLIS.it.Vol.4,n.
1(Gennaio/January2013):Art:#6303.DOI:10.4403/jlis.it-6303.Web.
ABSTRACT:Connectingtofriends,colleagues,customers,andothersontheinternetis
aneverydayexperienceformostpeoplethesedays.Weuseemail,Twitter,Facebook,
andothersocialnetworkingsystemsquicklyandeasilywhenthereiswifioran
internetserviceproviderthatreachesourgeographiclocation–evenaswemove
around. Thischangeinourcommunicationsystemsevenextendssometimesto
replacingphonecallswithcommunicationslikeSkypeorFacetime.Aformerphone
communicationcannowbeamulti-mediaexperiencewhereyounotonlytalkbut
alsoseeeachother(orgroupsofpeople),sharepicturesorvideosordocuments
quicklyandeasilyallatthesametime.Wherearelibrariesinthisworld?
KEYWORDS:Semanticweb;RDF;LibraryLinkedDataProject
Submitted:2012-06-01
Accepted:2012-08-31
Published:2013-01-15
JLIS.it. Vol.4,n.1(Gennaio/January2013).Art.#6303 p.145