The document discusses the significance of linked open data (LOD) in cultural heritage, particularly highlighting its application in the field of bookbinding descriptions. It outlines the process of publishing databases as LOD and emphasizes the importance of structured data, appropriate semantic connections, and utilizing established ontologies and thesauri. The text also illustrates the challenges of using free text and the need for systematic data organization to improve information sharing and accessibility.

2. Linked Open Data
for cultural heritage
With examples from bookbinding descriptions
Athanasios Velios

3. 1
Why should I care
about Linked Open
Data?

4. Development of knowledge
● Observations

5. Development of knowledge
● Observations
● Summary

6. Development of knowledge
● Observations
● Summary
● Rules

7. Development of knowledge
● Observations
● Summary
● Rules
● New observations

8. Development of knowledge
● Observations
● Summary
● Rules
● New observations
● Revised rules

9. Development of knowledge
● Observations
● Summary
● Rules
● New observations
● Revised rules

10. Professor Nicholas Pickwoad

13. Slow development
● Observations take time
– Few researchers have representative knowledge

14. Slow development
● Observations take time
– Few researchers have representative knowledge
● Publications are difficult to produce

15. Slow development
● Observations take time
– Few researchers have representative knowledge
● Publications are difficult to produce/consume
– They hardly ever contain data

16. Linked Open Data
● Sharing observations
– More representative samples

17. Linked Open Data
● Sharing observations
● Automated summaries
– Still scope to publish commentary

18. Linked Open Data
● Sharing observations
● Automated summaries
● Automated rules
– As reasonable conclusions from summaries

19. Linked Open Data
● Sharing observations
● Automated summaries
● Automated rules
● Automated revisions of rules

23. Linked Open Data
Data is used in applications, but it
was not originally designed for
them

24. http://mes-semantics.com/DBpediaMobile/

32. Linked data example
{ "head": { "link": [], "vars": ["Lat", "Long"] },
"results": { "distinct": false, "ordered": true, "bindings":
[
{ "Lat": { "type": "typed-literal", "datatype":
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#float", "value":
"46.0516" } , "Long": { "type": "typed-literal", "datatype":
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#float", "value":
"14.5004" }} ] } }

33. Linked data example
{ "head": { "link": [], "vars": ["Lat", "Long"] },
"results": { "distinct": false, "ordered": true, "bindings":
[
{ "Lat": { "type": "typed-literal", "datatype":
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#float", "value":
"46.0516" } , "Long": { "type": "typed-literal", "datatype":
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#float", "value":
"14.5004" }} ] } }

35. 2
How do I publish
my database as
Linked Open Data?

36. World Wide Web Consortium
Tim Berners-Lee (Photograph: Rick Friedman, The Guardian)
Resource Description Framework

39. Resource Description
Framework - RDF
Simplest way to share

40. RDF
Subject
(what do we describe?)

41. RDF
Subject
(what do we describe?)
Predicate
(which property of subject?)

42. RDF
Predicate
(which property of subject?)
Object
(what value of property?)
Subject
(what do we describe?)

43. RDF
has material
(which property of subject?)
Wood
(what value of property?)
MS Arabic 450
(what do we describe?)

44. RDF
has material
(which property of subject?)
Wood
(what value of property?)
MS Arabic 450
(what do we describe?)
ambiguous
labels
label

46. RDF
www.cidoc-crm.org/rdfs/
...#
P45.consists_of
vocab.getty.edu/
aat/300011914
www.ligatus.org.uk/
stcatherines/ms/438
ambiguous
explicit
labels
label

47. RDF
www.cidoc-crm.org/rdfs/
...#
P45.consists_of
vocab.getty.edu/
aat/300011914
www.ligatus.org.uk/
stcatherines/ms/438
identifiers
ambiguous
label
URIs

49. RDF
www.cidoc-crm.org/rdfs/
...#
P45.consists_of
vocab.getty.edu/
aat/300011914
www.ligatus.org.uk/
stcatherines/ms/438
Ligatus
website

51. RDF
www.cidoc-crm.org/rdfs/
...#
P45.consists_of
vocab.getty.edu/
aat/300011914
www.ligatus.org.uk/
stcatherines/ms/438
Getty
website

52. RDF
www.cidoc-crm.org/rdfs/
...#
P45.consists_of
vocab.getty.edu/
aat/300011914
www.ligatus.org.uk/
stcatherines/ms/438
?

53. ICOM-CIDOC-CRM
P45 consists of (is incorporated in)
Domain: #_E18_Physical_Thing Physical Thing
Range: #_E57_Material Material
Scope note: This property identifies the instances of E57 Materials of
which an instance of E18 Physical Thing is composed.
All physical things consist of physical materials. P45 consists of (is
incorporated in) allows the different Materials to be recorded. P45
consists of (is incorporated in) refers here to observed Material as
opposed to the consumed raw material.
Examples: silver cup 232 (E22) consists of silver (E57)

54. RDF
www.cidoc-crm.org/rdfs/
...#
P45.consists_of
vocab.getty.edu/
aat/300011914
www.ligatus.org.uk/
stcatherines/ms/438
CIDOC
website

55. http://collection.britishmuseum.org/id/object/MCN15614
The Girdle Book

57. Man-Made
Object

58. enamel

59. gold

60. serpent

61. Solomon

62. Your data is free text

63. Your data is free text
● Bad idea: avoid free text

64. Your data is free text
● Bad idea: avoid free text
● Natural Language Processing
● Use of thesauri
● Attempt to identify concepts and relationships

65. Free-text
The binding has an unsupported sewing structure,
using four stations, with wooden boards attached
to the sewn bookblock by means of sewing thread
only; a textile spine lining extending onto the outer
face of the boards; endbands sewn to the
bookblock and the head and tail edges of the
boards; and metal bosses and triple interlaced
leather clasp-straps laced through the right board
with metal rings that fit over edge pins on the left
board.
Honey, A., and N. Pickwoad. 2010. ‘Learning from the Past: Using Original Techniques to Conserve a Twelfth-century
Illuminated Manuscript and Its Sixteenth-century Greek-style Binding at the Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai’. In Conservation
and the Eastern Mediterranean: Contributions to the Istanbul Congress 20-24 September 2010, ed. C. Rozeik, R. Ashok, and D.
Saunders, 56–61. Istanbul, Turkey: International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.

66. Free-text
The binding has an unsupported sewing structure,
using four stations, with wooden boards attached
to the sewn bookblock by means of sewing
thread only; a textile spine lining extending onto
the outer face of the boards; endbands sewn to
the bookblock and the head and tail edges of the
boards; and metal bosses and triple interlaced
leather clasp-straps laced through the right board
with metal rings that fit over edge pins on the left
board.
Honey, A., and N. Pickwoad. 2010. ‘Learning from the Past: Using Original Techniques to Conserve a Twelfth-century
Illuminated Manuscript and Its Sixteenth-century Greek-style Binding at the Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai’. In Conservation
and the Eastern Mediterranean: Contributions to the Istanbul Congress 20-24 September 2010, ed. C. Rozeik, R. Ashok, and D.
Saunders, 56–61. Istanbul, Turkey: International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.

67. Your data is in fields
● Match data with concepts from thesauri

69. Language of Bindings
Thesaurus

70. Your data is in fields
● Match data with concepts from thesauri
● Match data relationships with formal
relationships (ontologies)

73. Your data is in fields
● Match data with concepts from thesauri
● Match data relationships with formal
relationships (ontologies)
● Give unique addresses to each field online

74. Your data is in fields
● Match data with concepts from thesauri
● Match data relationships with formal
relationships (ontologies)
● Give unique addresses to each field online
● Publish online without copyright restrictions

77. Your data is in fields
● Match data with concepts from thesauri
● Match data relationships with formal
relationships (ontologies)
● Give unique addresses to each field online
● Publish online without copyright restrictions
● Existing data models can remain (but a revision
may be a good idea)

78. More problems with your data
● Compound and/or non descriptive fields

79. More problems with your data
● Compound and/or non descriptive fields
● Uncertain / inaccurate data

80. Ioannes Copus, De fructibus libri
quatuor, Paris: Christian Wechel,
1535

81. SIG

82. The time is right
● Thesauri are being published
● Mature ontologies exist
● Online systems are popular

84. Language of Bindings
Thesaurus

90. ...

91. http://lod-cloud.net/
Linking Open Data cloud diagram 2014,
by Max Schmachtenberg, Christian Bizer, Anja Jentzsch and Richard Cyganiak.

92. a.velios@gmail.com - @a_velios