Moving Library Metadata Toward Linked Data: Opportunities Provided by the eXtensible Catalog

Moving Library Metadata toward Linked Data: Opportunities Provided by the eXtensible Catalog
Jennifer Bowen, University of Rochester
DC-2010 Conference
October 20, 2010, Pittsburgh, PA

About me…
Currently:
Librarian
Technical services administrator
Software development team co-leader
Formerly:
Cataloger (MARC)
Standards developer (RDA)
Maybe someday…Linked Data Expert?
2

My Topics Today
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Is it feasible to turn legacy library MARC metadata into Linked Data in an automated environment,
and,
How can eXtensible Catalog (XC) software play a role in that process?
Image source: www.blog.kdl.org

Semantic Web and Linked Data
Semantic Web: a set of technologies that allow computers to understand the meaning of information on the web
Linked Data: a mechanism for exposing, sharing and connecting data on the web, using identifiers and relationships
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Linked Data “Expectations of Behavior”
Use URIs as names for things
Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.
When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information, using the standards (RDF*, SPARQL)
Include links to other URIs so that they can discover more things.
Tim Berners-Lee, “Design issues”, 2006
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html
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Linked Data: RDF triple
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Subject
Object
Predicate
Jennifer Bowen
This presentation
has creator

A Reality Check
“Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and AnjaJentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net/”
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Teaching MARC metadata new tricks?
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Image source: http://www.englishcafe.com/node/2337

Turning legacy data into Linked Data…
How do we even get started?
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Getting Started
To create Linked Data, we need:
Software to transform legacy data
Analysis: mapping of legacy metadata to Linked Data properties
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The software…
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eXtensible Catalog (XC) is open source, user-centered, next generation software for libraries.
XC provides a discovery system and a set of tools for libraries to manage metadata and build applications.

XC Software Components
User Interface
Website on Drupal CMS
XC User Interface
Metadata Processing
Metadata Services Toolkit
NCIPToolkit
Connectivity tools
OAI Toolkit
Integrated Library System
Repository
12

XC’s original metadata goals
Aggregate MARC and other metadata for use in new applications
Define a FRBR-based metadata schema to support XC’s user-interface functionality
Create a software application to process batches of metadata through a set of services
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Software development:
a moving target!
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XC and Linked Data
How can XC help move legacy library metadata closer to Linked Data?
NOT among XC’s original goals
However, XC software creates an opportunity to contribute to this effort and provides important “lessons learned”
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Converting MARC to Linked Data
What XC software can do:
Convert MARC codes to vocabulary values
Remove extraneous data
Normalize inconsistencies
Map most MARC fields/subfields and parse to appropriate FRBR Group 1 entity records
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Converting MARC to Linked Data
Problematic areas:
Some MARC fields/subfields are difficult to map to appropriate FRBR entities
Tracking relationships between FRBR entity records: How many relationships can we support with XC software?
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MARC to XC Schema Transformation
XC Work
MARCXML Bibliographic
XC Expression
XC Manifestation
Parses MARCXML records into linked FRBR-based records
Maps MARCXML data elements to Linked-Data-Compatible elements in the XC Schema.

Managing Relationships
XC Work
XC Expression
XC Manifestation

Managing Relationships
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XC Work
XC Expression
XC Manifestation

Issue: Managing Multiple Relationships
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MARC bibliographic records can refer to multiple FRBR entities of the same type (analytics that represent multiple works/expressions, e.g. tracks on a CD)
XC Work
XC Work
XC Expression
XC Expression
XC Manifestation

Issue: Beyond FRBR Group 1 Entities
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MARC “Alternate Graphic Representation” (880 fields) can contain data that belong in records for Group 2 and Group 3 entities
Contributor:
700 1 ‡6 880-08 ‡a Vasil’ev, Maksim.
880 1 ‡6 700-08 ‡a Васильев, Максим.
Subject:
600 10 ‡6 880-06 ‡a Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, ‡d 1952-
880 10 ‡6 600-06 ‡a Путин, Владимир Владимирович, ‡d 1952-

If we were to parse this 880 data correctly:
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Contributor
Contributor in Cyrillic characters
Contributor in Roman characters
Subject
Subject in Cyrillic characters
Subject in Roman characters
XC Work
XC Expression
Alternative script of name from 880
Alternative script of subject from 880
XC Manifestation

Issue: Related Group 1 Entities
Language attribute for a related expression
041 1 ‡a eng ‡h ita
100 0 ‡a Dante Alighieri, ‡d 1265-1321.
240 10 ‡a Divina commedia. ‡l English
245 14 ‡a The divine comedy / ‡c Dante ; a new verse translation by C.H. Sisson.
500 ‡a Translation of: Divina commedia.
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If we were to parse 041 ‡h data…
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Contributor
Subject
XC Work
Original language from 041‡h
XC Expression
Based on (Expression)
XC Manifestation

Contributor
Managing Relationships Between Entities
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Subject
Original language from 041 $h
Based on (Expression)
XC Work
XC Expression
XC Manifestation

Maintaining links between separate FRBR entity records in a production environment monopolizes system resources and may not be scalable.
new records
changed records
deleted records
changed relationships
What we are learning from XC
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XC Work
XC Expression
XC Manifestation

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But wait…
What does this emphasis on FRBR have to do with Linked Data?
If we can map a MARC data element to a FRBR entity, we can probably convert it to Linked Data.
FRBR Group 1 Entities

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But do we have to?
Do we have to be able to map MARC elements to a FRBR entity in order to create Linked Data?
Would managing RDF triples be more scalable than managing FRBR-based records and the relationships between those records?

Best Practices for Linked Data
By attempting to follow best practices in XC for Linked Data, we hope to facilitate eventual output of XC metadata in RDF.
Unique identifiers for XC metadata records
Data elements from registered schemas
Registered vocabularies
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RDF Triple
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Subject
Object
Predicate
Poets, American
This resource
has subject
URIs for each?

RDF Triple – Record identifiers
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Subject
Object
Predicate
oai:mst.rochester.edu: MST/
MARCToXCTransformation/
10081
This resource
has subject
Poets, American

Identifiers for XC Schema records
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xc:frbrxmlns:xc="http://www.extensiblecatalog.info/Elements" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:rdvocab="http://rdvocab.info/Elements" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:rdarole="http://rdvocab.info/roles"><xc:entity type="work" id="oai:mst.rochester.edu:MST/MARCToXCTransformation/10081"><dcterms:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:LCC">PS3505.U334</dcterms:subject><dcterms:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:DDC">811/.52</dcterms:subject><dcterms:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:DDC">B</dcterms:subject><rdarole:author>Sawyer-Lauc<U+0327>anno, Christopher, 1951-</rdarole:author><rdvocab:titleOfTheWork>E.E. Cummings :</rdvocab:titleOfTheWork><xc:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:LCSH">Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962.</xc:subject><xc:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:LCSH">Poets, American-20th century-Biography.</xc:subject></xc:entity></xc:frbr>
A persistent, globally unique identifier for each XC Schema record

RDF Triple - Registered Data Elements
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Subject
Object
Predicate
10081
This resource
has subject
Poets, American
http://www.
extensiblecatalog.info/Elements/subject

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DCMI

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RDA

XC Schema “work” record: data elements
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xc:frbrxmlns:xc="http://www.extensiblecatalog.info/Elements" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:rdvocab="http://rdvocab.info/Elements" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:rdarole="http://rdvocab.info/roles"><xc:entity type="work" id="oai:mst.rochester.edu:MST/MARCToXCTransformation/10081"><dcterms:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:LCC">PS3505.U334</dcterms:subject><dcterms:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:DDC">811/.52</dcterms:subject><dcterms:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:DDC">B</dcterms:subject><rdarole:author>Sawyer-Lauc<U+0327>anno, Christopher, 1951-</rdarole:author><rdvocab:titleOfTheWork>E.E. Cummings :</rdvocab:titleOfTheWork><xc:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:LCSH">Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962.</xc:subject><xc:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:LCSH">Poets, American-20th century-Biography.</xc:subject></xc:entity></xc:frbr>
Data elements from registered namespaces for DC terms, RDA roles and vocab, and XC

RDF Triple - Registered Vocabularies
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Subject
Object
Predicate
10081
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh85103735#concept
This resource
has subject
Poets, American
http://www.

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XC Work record with embedded URI for LCSH “Poets, American”
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xc:frbrxmlns:xc="http://www.extensiblecatalog.info/Elements" … xmlns:subjid=“id.loc.gov/authorities”>
<xc:entity type="work" id="oai:mst.rochester.edu:MST/MARCToXCTransformation/10081">…<xc:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:LCSH">Poets, American-20th century-Biography.</xc:subject>
<xc:subjectxsi:type="dcterms:LCSH” subjid=“sh85103735#concept”>Poets, American</xc:subject>
<xc:temporal>20th century</xc:temporal>
<xc:type>Biography</xc:type>
</xc:entity>…

RDF Triple
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Subject
Object
Predicate
10081
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh85103735#concept
This resource
has subject
Poets, American
http://www.

Experimenting with Linked Data
Within a MARC or MARCXML environment?
Possible to give each record a URI
MARC elements themselves don’t have URIs
How to embed multiple URIs for registered vocabularies in MARC?
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XC enables experimentation outside of a MARC environment with data that originated as MARC

Making Linked Data a Priority for XC
Balancing goals
Time/funding constraints
What’s our use case?
Output of Linked Data from XC vs.
Using Linked Data within XC?
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XC Linked Data Accomplishments
XC has set the stage for Linked Data by:
Providing a platform for creating Linked Data using XC software
Ensuring that XC Schema records can be converted to RDF triples as easily as possible
Enabling others to build upon what we have accomplished done so far.
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Next Steps
Monitor RDA implementations
Develop XC authority control service
Enable RDF output of XC Schema metadata
Encourage libraries to use XC software and contribute to the XC user community
Seek funding for additional software development
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Thank you! Questions?
www.eXtensiblecatalog.org
Jennifer Bowen
jbowen@library.rochester.edu

Moving Library Metadata Toward Linked Data: Opportunities Provided by the eXtensible Catalog

by Jennifer Bowen

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Moving Library Metadata Toward Linked Data: Opportunities Provided by the eXtensible Catalog Presentation Transcript