This document discusses how archives can repurpose metadata by linking archival descriptions to related resources on the web. It argues that archives have inherently been linking and relating descriptions through hierarchical descriptions and relationships between records and their creators. The document advocates for using web-friendly URIs, providing information about resources at those URIs, and including links to other related URIs, in order to turn archival metadata into linked open data that can be more freely used and repurposed. This allows archives to focus repurposing outward by enriching and linking their data to other open datasets.

1. Learning to Take,
Learning to Give
Linking as Repurposing Metadata
Mark A. Matienzo
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library
New England Archivists
March 20, 2010

2. Disclaimer
The following presentation expresses
opinions of my own and not of my
employer, my coworkers, etc.

3. The nature of
repurposing

4. Repurposing has
been focused inward

5. How can we focus
repurposing outward?

6. Rethinking paradigms
of repurposing

7. Archives & The Web

8. http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?S1=archives

9. http://web.archive.org/web/19961119070640/http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/

10. Web-based archival
description isn’t new.

11. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingAids/EAD/bfap.html

12. http://web.archive.org/web/19990203012659/lcweb.loc.gov/ead/

13. The Web, at its essence,
is about links.

14. http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.kramer

15. http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.kramer

16. http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/

17. http://orbis.library.yale.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=8162389

18. http://orbis.library.yale.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=8162389

19. http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?
AuthRecID=3149218&v1=1&HC=1&SEQ=20100215230533&PID=WDylbKSrUCFkfajYc1AuU2p6DcKh

20. Further down the
rabbit hole.

21. http://nypl.org/search/nypl_archivalcollection/%22act%20up%22

22. http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=su%3AACT+UP+%28Organization%29&dblist=638&fq=dt%3Amix&qt=facet_dt%3A

23. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_Coalition_to_Unleash_Power

24. http://www.actuporalhistory.org/index1.html

25. Links become implicit.

26. These access points don’t link to anything!

27. http://www.archimuse.com/publishing/AMInewsletters/AMInewsletter1994_8-1.pdf

28. Linked data

29. (blame this guy)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanaka/3212373419/

30. Linked data is a way
to link better.
Dan Chudnov, Better Living Through Linking.
http://onebiglibrary.net/story/tcdl-2009-talk-better-living-through-linking

31. Linked data is a way to
repurpose metadata!

32. Design Principles
1. Use URIs for names of things
2. Use web URIs so people can look up
those names
3. Provide useful information when you
retrieve those URIs
4. Include links to other URIs so people
can discover more things
Tim Berners-Lee, Linked Data - Design Issues. http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

33. Naming things with
URIs tells us what to call
them unambiguously.

34. Using web URIs tells us
how and where to find
these things.

35. Providing useful
information describes
what that thing is.

36. Added links say what
the relationships are.

37. Links between things
act as cross-references.

38. http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2009-07-14_colored.png

39. Linked data is not a new
concept in archives.

40. If the series becomes the primary level of
classification, and the item the secondary
level, a) items are kept in their
administrative context and original order by
physical allocation to their appropriate
series, and b) series are no longer kept in
any original physical order in a record or
shelf group (if there is any such order) but
simply have their administrative context and
associations recorded on paper.
Peter J. Scott, “The Record Group Concept: A Case For Abandonment,” American Archivist 29(4), 1966.

41. Peter J. Scott, “The Record Group Concept: A Case For Abandonment,” American Archivist 29(4), 1966.

42. Peter J. Scott, “The Record Group Concept: A Case For Abandonment,” American Archivist 29(4), 1966.

43. Archival description is
inherently multi-level
and relational.

44. Functions
ar
e
do
cu
rm
me
fo
nt
r
pe
ed
in
create/manage
Agents Records
are used by

45. Chris Hurley, “Relationships in Records,” originally published in New Zealand Archivist, 2001-2004.

46. Linking out is
repurposing metadata

47. Types of sources
Other
General Obscure/Esoteric National
Dictionary Sources Union
Catalog
Books Historical
Foreign in Print Versions
Language of All of This
Dictionary
Merck
Card Catalog
Manual AMA
Directory
Foreign Language
Medical Dictionary General
Encyclopedia
Harrison's
Hospital
Directory Medical
Medical Encyclopedia
PDR White
Dictionary Pages
Serials
Directory Campus
Yellow Directory
Ulrich's Pages
Dan Chudnov, Better Living Through Linking.
http://onebiglibrary.net/story/tcdl-2009-talk-better-living-through-linking

48. Library Catalogs
http://libris.kb.se/bib/6501121
http://lccn.loc.gov/95189623

49. Vocabularies
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh85002541
http://mdrive.lib.byu.edu/tematres/
http://lccn.loc.gov/95189623

50. Reference Sources
http://dbpedia.org/resource/Yale_University
http://www.freebase.com/view/en/aids_coalition_to_unleash_power

51. Potential (re)uses

52. Practical strategies
for sharing

53. Letting people link in
allows repurposing

54. Use “cool URIs”

55. Provide alternate
formats (EAD, RDFa)

56. Future directions

57. EAD revision

58. EAC implementation

59. Rethinking archival
description

60. Thank You
mark@matienzo.org
http://matienzo.org/
http://twitter.com/anarchivist
http://groups.google.com/group/semantic-archives