Semantics, technology and linked data in open access repositories on agriculture and related sciences

Semantics, Technology and Linked Data in Open Access Repositories on Agriculture and Related Sciences [email_address] [email_address] IT-Enhanced Organic, Agro-Ecological and Environmental Education September 16-17, 2010 Budapest (Hungary)

About ourselves…
Imma Subirats & Sarah Dister
Information & knowledge management specialists at FAO
Actively involved in the promotion of open access in agriculture and related sciences, assuring the quality of repository content through implementing metadata standards, thesauri, and other forms of authority control

… about FAO of the UN
It is the specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger
acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy
is also a source of knowledge and information.

Semantics & Technology in Open Access Document Repositories

Short introduction about…
What linked data is and its benefits
What the authority control content model means and its benefits for the open access repositories in the agricultural domain
Overview of the current situation of the use of technology and semantics in open access repositories in agriculture

What can we say about Linked Data?

What is linked data? Data which contains URI’s as identifiers for concepts described in the data and URIs to identify the relationships between those concepts A richer linking mechanism for the web that takes us from hypertext links (document to document) to hyperdata links (across things that documents are about)… A term coined by Tim Berners-Lee

So? TALIS, 2009

Linked Data Principles Use of URIs as names for things Use of HTTP URIs Provide useful information in RDF Including RDF links to other URIs

What is RDF? Resource Description Framework RDF is the data format for linked data Describes relationships between things RDF uses URIs to name things, preferably HTTP http://www.w3.org/RDF/

Graphically TALIS, 2009 Relations Literals Resources

RDF TALIS, 2009

What data? People Documents Photographs Places Journals Corporate bodies (Institutions) Conferences Etc...

What vocabularies? FOAF Dublin Core BIBO SKOS Etc...

Benefits … just listen to him

Examples in Agriculture A I M S Not much yet http://linkeddata.org/data-sets

AGROVOC
What is AGROVOC?
Multilingual structured thesaurus for all subject fields in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and related domains
What is its purpose?
standardize the indexing process in order to make searching simpler and more efficient and to guide the user to the most relevant sources
Who uses AGROVOC?
Downloaded on average 1000 times per year, and individuals in about ninety countries regularly access AGROVOC online

More about AGROVOC
It is a concept/term based system
Around 30,000 concepts
600,000 labels in around 20 languages
A knowledge base of related concepts organized in relationships (hierarchical, associative, equivalence)
One-stop shop for terminological knowledge related to agriculture in general

AGROVOC as linked data A I M S

Concept Based Authority Control System for bibliographic data

Authority Control for Bibliographic Data Context : library information systems Used for : access points to bibliographic records Corporate bodies, Conferences, Projects, Journal titles… Definition : Technique/process of assigning a unique form of name and the use of cross-references from obsolete and related forms Scope : To bring all the works of a bibliographical entity together in one place by selecting a single form of name

Benefits FAO Food and Agriculture Organization Example Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Benefits
Efficient system searching
Exhausitive search results
It improves access dramatically by providing consistency in the forms used to identify corporate authors, conferences, place names, subjects, etc.
FAO Documents Food and agriculture Organisations of the United Nations Search

FAO Authority Control System
Why
FAO OA Repository project -> 170,000 records of legacy data managed by a flat (no cross-references) authority control system
↓
Features of new Authority Control System
Concept based
Multilingual
URIs

Example AUTHORIZED T ERMS English : Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations French : Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture Spanish : Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación Arabic : منظمة الأغذية والزراعة للأمم المتحدة Russian : Продовольственная и сельскохозяйственная организация Объединенных Наций Chinese .... ALTERNATIVE TERMS Incomplete form : Food and Agriculture Organization Acronym : F AO Dutch form : Voedsel en landbouw Organisatie C-C RELATIONSHIPS Is spatially located in : Italy Has parts : Office of Knowledge Exchange, Research and Extension

Methodology

The Authority Control Content Model It is based on a concept-based system A concept is represented by all the forms, preferred and non-preferred, in all languages, associated with it A form is a word (simple term) or a multiword expression (complex term) that designates a particular concept

Content

http://202.73.13.50:54123/agrovocdevv10/

Conclusions
Arbitrary
Politically sensitive
Expensive
Sharing
Standardization
Simplification
Consistency
Reliability
But properly implemented, the authority control provides…

Do you have any question so far?

What can we say about the current situation of open access document repositories in the agricultural domain?

OA Document Repository
Definition
A digital archive to collect, preserve and disseminate scientific information in digital form
Benefits
Immediate, universal and free access to information available.
Increase of visibility, usage and impact of work of researchers/institutions
Importance
Making knowledge accessible -> vital to ( agricultural) development

Survey
Why
Obtain a better understanding of the current situation
Identify trends and issues that need attention
How
30 questions divided in thematic groups
web based survey on CIARD ring
mail sent to 150 institutions and 9 specialized mailing lists

General
Data collection : 82 repositories compiled surveys
Type of Institution : Majority universities, minority governmental, international and Nongovernmental org
Year of foundation : Founded between 1993-2009
1993 – 2000: 1/2 repositories a year
2001≥ substantial increase of growth
↕
promotion of OA

OAI-PMH
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
Purpose: To improve interoperability of digital repositories by exposing and harvesting metadata
45% no DC as metadata set to export data
-> 55% is not OAI PMH compliant
70% not interested improving metadata
↓
Promotion of OAI PMH

Authority Control
Bibliographical concepts
62% no use of authority control
when used, especially for journal titles
50% would be interested in applying an authority control system
↓
Promotion

Software A I M S

Software Comparing with other repositories

Summary
OAI-PMH – interoperability
Authority control – accessibility
Software - standardization
CIARD Ring
Data collected added to repository profiles on CIARD Ring

Thank you for your attention [email_address] [email_address] IT-Enhanced Organic, Agro-Ecological and Environmental Education September 16-17, 2010 Budapest (Hungary)

Semantics, technology and linked data in open access repositories on agriculture and related sciences

by AIMS (Agricultural Information Management Standards) FAO of the UN on Sep 18, 2010

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Semantics, technology and linked data in open access repositories on agriculture and related sciences — Presentation Transcript