When the web moves from strings to things libraries can leverage on their authority data to improve the navigation in their catalogues and thus to help improve the user experience. In this presentation held at a workshop organised by the URBS library community in Rome on November 18, 2013, I try to give theoretical and practical examples of how this can be implemented.

1. Lars G. Svensson
Authority control and semantic
interoperability in cooperative library
systems
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| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013

2. The World Wide Web is transforming
from strings to things
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| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013

3. Picture by DonkeyHotey (CC BY):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143808815/
The authority data librarians curate are
about things (people, places, …)
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Photo by Shannon Kringen (CC BY-SA):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonkringen/6190281544/
Collage by Fiona Henderson (CC BY):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fifikins/3372920140/

4. A discovery system revolving around
authorities is one way of achieving this
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| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013

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| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Helene_Paris_David.jpg
Photo by J. Stephen Conn (CC-BY-NC):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jstephenconn/4224322884/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Photo by karlnorling (CC-BY):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlnorling/4206727580/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Instead, they could give information on
documents about things

6. A discovery system revolving around
authorities is one way of achieving this
Filter to literature about:
Paris (France)
Paris (Texas)
Paris (Prince of Troy)
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| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013

7. In the German speaking world, all
authorities are collected in the GND
GND
PND
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SWD
GKD
| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013
EST

8. The GND uses an entity-based model
•
•
Conference or Event
•
Subject Heading
•
Work
•
Place or Geographic Name
•
Family
•
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Corporate Body
Person
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| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013
Graphic by Adrian Pohl: https://wiki1.hbz-nrw.de/display/SEM/2013/05/23/The+GND+ontology%27s+class+hierarchy+-+an+overview
The GND Ontology is a formalisation of
that entity-based model in OWL

10. In the DNB linked data service, we use
GNDO to build authority representations
<gnd:DifferentiatedPerson rdf:about="http://d-nb.info/gnd/118508288">
<gnd:publication>Grand Concerto pour le Piano forte. - s.a.</gnd:publication>
<gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson rdf:parseType="Resource">
<gnd:forename>...</gnd:forename>
<gnd:surname>Beethofen</gnd:surname>
</gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson>
<gnd:professionOrOccupation rdf:resource="http://d-nb.info/gnd/4032009-1"/>
<gnd:placeOfActivity rdf:resource="http://d-nb.info/gnd/4007666-0"/>
<gnd:publication>Werke. - s. a. abgeschlossen 1865</gnd:publication>
<gnd:geographicAreaCode rdf:resource="http://d-nb.info/standards/vocab/gnd/geographic-area<gnd:oldAuthorityNumber>(DE-101c)127037454</gnd:oldAuthorityNumber>
<gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson rdf:parseType="Resource">
<gnd:prefix>van</gnd:prefix>
<gnd:forename>Ludovicus</gnd:forename>
<gnd:surname>Beethoven</gnd:surname>
</gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson>
<gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson rdf:parseType="Resource">
<gnd:prefix>van</gnd:prefix>
<gnd:forename>Ludwig</gnd:forename>
<gnd:surname>Bethoven</gnd:surname>
</gnd:variantNameEntityForThePerson>
[…]
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Projekt „Multimediale Bibliotheksplattform“, Hochschule Darmstadt, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek TU Darmstadt,
media transfer AG, Software AG, nterra GmbH, House of IT. Gefördert durch das Land Hessen (LOEWE)
The RDF/OWL model has triggered
interesting re-use

12. http://personendatenbank.germania-sacra.de/index/browse
Germania Sacra builds links to GND via
SRU queries
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13. http://zbw.eu/beta/econ-ws/examples/suggest2.html
ZBW employs data from the GND in a
lookup service for persons
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14. http://www.museum-digital.de/thue/index.php?t=objekt&oges=477
museum-digital uses GND data to
provide contextual information
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15. Libraries can leverage those structures to
build entity-centric discovery
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16. Topical search can revolve around
subject headings
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17. We can also explore networks of
persons
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18. Through vocabulary interlinking we can
achieve (almost) true multilinguality
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Photo by Nico Kaiser (CC-BY): http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicokaiser/4667377944/sizes/z/in/photostream/
So is the use of semantic networks a
cure-all for navigation in libraries?

20. We often focus too much on books and
forget the authorities (people, places, …)
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| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013

21. I see some
far-reaching
opportunities!
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| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013
Photo by Ian T. Edwards (CC BY-NC-SA): http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanuman/239311523/a
A discovery system revolving around
authorities can add new perspectives

22. Search engine integration of authorities
linked to bibliographic information can
drive traffic to libraries
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Tim_Berners-Lee_CP_2_head_crop.jpg
Photo by Mary Harrsch (CC BY-NC-SA) http://www.flickr.com/photos/mharrsch/2522112120/
The Giant Global Graph: Where
Callimachus meets Tim Berners-Lee
| Authority control and semantic interoperability | November 18, 2013