Implementing PIDs for the Cultural Heritage in Flanders: The Ups and Downs PIDapalooza 24.01.2018 by: Alina Saenko

1. Implementing PIDs
for the Cultural Heritage
in Flanders
The Ups and Downs
PIDapalooza 24.01.2018
Alina Saenko
alina@packed.be
@PACKEDvzw

2. • Non-profit
• 2006 - 2010: Platform for Archiving and Conservation of Art on Electronic and Digital Media
• 2011 - 2018: Centre of Expertise Digital Heritage
• from 2019: A department in VIAA - Flemish Institute for Audiovisual Archiving
• Flemish, Belgian and European projects
• Support for ICT-processes at heritage and arts organisations (o.a. creating, storage,
cataloguing, online access, exchange and reuse) and policy thereof
• Central concern: sustainability (digital heritage is vulnerable)
www.packed.be | www.viaa.be | www.projectcest.be | www.scart.be | www.projecttracks.be | www.scoremodel.org ...

3. Memory institute as an online knowledge source
- access to trustworthy and up-to-date
information via a permanent and a stable
channel
- Problem 1: Aggregators and Linkrot (duh!)
- Problem 2: Unambiguous identification of
things online
Solution: Persistent URI

5. Conditions
- small/medium art collections
- different partners collect data
on the same objects
- no IT knowledge in the
institutions
- different old collection
management systems managed
on the state level
- no PID service on the
regional/national level
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonid_Pasternak_-_The_Passion_of_creation_(1).jpg

6. Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-36092-0002 / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Challenges and choices made

7. Centralized or decentralized approach?
“Museums are the sole authority … for establishing globally unique and persistent identities
(URIs) for each of the objects in their collections”
> Statement on Linked Data identifiers for museum objects, CIDOC, 2012.
- No centralized PID service provider in Flanders
- No one who would want to take up that responsibility
- Some big institutions (universities, libraries, aggregators) have their own PID-service as a part of their
registration system. Some examples:
- Information Flanders has PIDs for the government
- University of Antwerp Brocade: http://anet.be/isadtree/kmska/opackmskaisad/isad:kmska:223
- University of Ghent Library catalogue https://lib.ugent.be/catalog/rug01:000351700
- Erfgoedplus heritage aggregator: http://www.erfgoedplus.be/details/24062A51.priref.103
- ...

8. What needs to be identified with PIDs?
Principle 1. Differentiate between identification of real-life objects and
identification of data about them.

9. What needs to be identified with PIDs?
Principle 2. Identify objects in your collection yourself and reuse
existing PIDs to identify (refer) to things outside of your collection

10. Syntax of the persistent URI’s?
http(s):// {domain} / {type object} / {type resource} / {identification number} / {parameter}
https://museum.be/work/id/BK3758/xml
- http(s):// protocol
- human readable - not just some ‘IT thing’
- domain of the museum - trustworthy source of information, brand
- reuse existing inventory numbers - recognizable and stable
> 10 rules for persistent identifiers in the ISA study for the European Commission (2012)
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/2013-02/D7.1.3%20-%20Study%20on%20persistent%20URIs.pdf
> CIDOC CRM / EDM Cultural heritage ontology http://www.cidoc-crm.org/Version/version-6.2.3
http://smak.be/collection/work/data/3385

11. A tool for managing PIDs?
> decentralized approach
> no tool/service to manage the PIDs
> our own open source tool for small/medium
institutions (version 1: 2014 - 2017)
Resolver
https://github.com/PACKED-vzw/resolver
- resolves from persistent URI to an
existing webadres or other
- spreadsheet import/export option
- statistics
- not supported anymore

12. A PIDs manager in the institution?
What will ensure the persistency?
- managing persistent URI’s: a job for collection
managers (with support of IT)
- PIDs should be registered in the collection
mgmt systems
- workshops to explain Resolver to collection
managers

13. Distribution of PIDs online
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Flemish_art_collections,_Wikidata_and_Linked_Open_Data

14. Distribution of PIDs online
https://arthub.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/nl

15. 2017: soul searching
- Persistent URI’s are there and they are working
But…
- No digital mindset in the partner-institutions
- The PIDs story is ‘too technical’
- Project funds until 2016 > no more updates and bugs fixing for the Resolver
- Persistency is seriously at stake
New chapter:
- Need of an even more simple story and tool
- Need of a new technical approach for the tool
- Need for a new governance model and a bigger community around the open source tool

16. What is cultURIze?
Culturize is a tool for museum administrators to gather and share
information about their collection in a sustainable way.
Who needs CultURIze?
Registrars, curators and managers of small or medium cultural heritage
collections.
https://github.com/PACKED-vzw/CultURIze
https://github.com/PACKED-vzw/CultURIze/wiki
- prototype developed during Open Summer of code 2018 in Belgium
- inspired by W3id on Github

17. How does it work?
CultURIze is four-step process to create a persistent URI for a collection
item on the web:
- Record persistent URI's and the corresponding webresources in a
spreadsheet
- Turn the spreadsheet in a server configuration file
- Upload the file to a code sharing platform
- Periodically update your webserver to activate the persistent
URI's.
CSV-file
cultURIze app
Github repo
Webserver

18. Where do I start?
> Define the domain and numbering scheme for your persistent URIs.
> Set up a webserver.
> Set up a code repository and link it to your webserver.
> Record the persistent URI’s in a spreadsheet.
> Download and install the desktop application and use it to turn your
spreadsheet in an server configuration file and push it to your Github
repository.
> The repo will automatically update the URI’s on the webserver.
> Repeat step 4 and 5 every time you add a persistent URI or change a
URL.

19. Governance and contribution
- An open-source project
- How to generate financial means and create a community of
developers around the CultURIze?
> 2019: Research on a sustainable governance model for
the CultURIze project < input is very welkom!

20. PIDs in the cultural heritage sector:
- Heritage institutions are responsible for identification of their collections online
- Decentralized buttom-up approach in a specific context
- Identification of artworks vs. identification of data about them
- Human readable syntax for persistent URI’s
- Persistency of the URI’s is dependent on the engagement of the museum
- Open source tool for persistent URI’s needs a good governance model (HELP!)

21. More information
ProjectCEST.be:
https://www.projectcest.be/wiki/Publicatie:Project_Persistente_identificatie
https://www.projectcest.be/wiki/Publicatie:Persistente_identificatie_en_open_cultuur_data
Wikidata:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Flemish_art_collections,_Wikidata_and_Linked_Open_Data
Github:
https://github.com/PACKED-vzw/resolver
https://github.com/PACKED-vzw/CultURIze/wiki
https://packed.be/ / @PACKEDvzw
Questions? Feedback? Advice?

22. Thank you!
Alina Saenko
alina@packed.be
@PACKEDvzw