Linked Data and Archival Description: Confluences, Contingencies, and Conflicts
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The document discusses the intersection of linked data and archival description, highlighting the historical context and the evolution of archival practices. It emphasizes the importance of using URIs and RDF for improved relationships and metadata within archival systems. The author critiques the limitations of existing standards like EAD and promotes the necessity for a more dynamic and flexible framework in archival work.
![I have a dream for the Web [in which
computers] become capable of analyzing
all the data on the Web – the content, links,
and transactions between people and
computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should
make this possible, has yet to emerge, but
when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of
trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will
be handled by mac hines talking to
machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people
have touted for ages will finally materialize.
Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving The Web.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/eadrt-linkeddataarchdesc-090813073543-phpapp01/85/Linked-Data-and-Archival-Description-Confluences-Contingencies-and-Conflicts-48-320.jpg)
![[W]hat should be done with series which
begin under one Administration and End
under another? ... It seems quite clear that
the Archivist’s only plan in such a case if he
wishes to avoid confusion is to class the
Archives separately under the
Administrations which actually created
them ... a proper system of cross-reference
will leave no doubt as to what has occurred.
Hilary Jenkinson, Manual of Archive Administration. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922. p. 86.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/eadrt-linkeddataarchdesc-090813073543-phpapp01/85/Linked-Data-and-Archival-Description-Confluences-Contingencies-and-Conflicts-51-320.jpg)
Linked Data and Archival Description: Confluences, Contingencies, and Conflicts
- 1. Linked Data and Archival Description Confluences, Contingencies, and Conflicts Mark A. Matienzo The New York Public Library SAA Encoded Archival Description Roundtable August 12, 2009
- 2. Disclaimer The following presentation expresses opinions of my own and not of my employer, my coworkers, etc.
- 3. Archives & The Web
- 4. The Web isn’t new, even to archivists.
- 14. The Web, at its essence, is about links.
- 15. We take links for granted in our work.
- 26. Links go beyond the easily accessible sort.
- 31. http://catalog.nypl.org/search~S1?/dNew+York+World%27s+Fair+%281939-1940%29/dnew+york+worlds+fair +1939+1940/1%2C20%2C118%2CB/exact&FF=dnew+york+worlds+fair+1939+1940&1%2C81%2C
- 34. Further down the rabbit hole.
- 36. http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=su%3ANew+York+World%27s+Fair+%281939-1940%29&dblist=638&fq=dt %3Amix&qt=facet_dt%3A
- 37. http://catalog.dalnet.lib.mi.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1J4S505034402.430&profile=henryford&source=~! merge&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100033~!563601~! 0&ri=1&aspect=subtab318&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=world's +fair&index=.BFGW&uindex=&aspect=subtab318&menu=search&ri=1
- 42. Computers don’t “do” implicit links.
- 43. Humans must correlate data on both ends.
- 46. Linked Data
- 47. (blame this guy) http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanaka/3212373419/
- 48. I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by mac hines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize. Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving The Web.
- 49. 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
- 50. Linked data is not a new concept in archives.
- 51. [W]hat should be done with series which begin under one Administration and End under another? ... It seems quite clear that the Archivist’s only plan in such a case if he wishes to avoid confusion is to class the Archives separately under the Administrations which actually created them ... a proper system of cross-reference will leave no doubt as to what has occurred. Hilary Jenkinson, Manual of Archive Administration. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922. p. 86.
- 52. 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.
- 53. Peter J. Scott, “The Record Group Concept: A Case For Abandonment,” American Archivist 29(4), 1966.
- 54. Peter J. Scott, “The Record Group Concept: A Case For Abandonment,” American Archivist 29(4), 1966.
- 55. All these interrelationships are not fixed one-to-one linkages, as in most archival descriptive approaches (despite some cross- referencing), but rather exist as many-to- one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships ... In effect, Scott shifted the entire archival description enterprise from a static cataloguing mode to a dynamic system of multiple interrelationships. Terry Cook, “What is Past is Prologue,” Archivaria 43 (1997).
- 56. I would argue that, as we explore the facets of multiple-provenance more deeply, the greatest danger to be avoided is any confusion between linkages (relationships) which are established to show provenance and others which are designed to retrieve on the basis of different ideas (e.g. subject). Chris Hurley, “Problems with Provenance,” Archives and Manuscripts 23(2) (November 1995).
- 57. Design Principles 1. Use URIs for names of things 2. Use HTTP URIs so people can look up those names 3. Provide useful information in standard formats* at 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
- 58. Naming things with URIs tells us what to call them unambiguously.
- 59. Using HTTP URIs tells us how and where to find these things.
- 60. Providing data in standard formats* tells us what that thing is.
- 61. *EAD is not a standard format in this sense.
- 62. RDF 1. Resource Description Framework 2. Presents relationships in a simple data structure 3. We can draw graphs of those relationships 4. We can represent those relationships in multiple formats for computers Tim Berners-Lee, Linked Data - Design Issues. http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html
- 63. In RDF, we say some thing has a property with a certain value.
- 64. This three-part concept is called an RDF triple.
- 65. The thing in a triple is that triple’s subject.
- 66. The property in a triple is that triple’s predicate.
- 67. The value in a triple is that triple’s object.
- 69. <http://matienzo.org/#me> foaf:firstName “Mark”. thing (Me) property value
- 70. <http://matienzo.org/#me> foaf:firstName “Mark”. thing (Me) property value subject predicate object
- 71. An RDF Graph foaf:firstName “Mark” http://matienzo.org/#me
- 72. An RDF Graph foaf:firstName “Mark” foaf:surname “Matienzo” foaf:based_near http://dbpedia.org/resource/Brooklyn http://matienzo.org/#me
- 73. An RDF Graph foaf:firstName “Mark” foaf:surname “Matienzo” foaf:based_near http://dbpedia.org/resource/Brooklyn foaf:depiction http://matienzo.org/#me rdf:type owl:sameAs dbpedia-owl:Place http://www.geonames.org/5110302/
- 74. Simply linking to things is not enough.
- 75. RDF graphs show why we link to other things.
- 76. These links say what the relationships are.
- 77. Links between things become crossreferences.
- 80. Precision improves with exposed links to detailed metadata.
- 82. Recall improves traversing relationships in “reverse.”
- 86. @prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> . @prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> . @prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> . @prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> . @prefix libris: <http://libris.kb.se/vocabulary/experimental#> . @prefix bibo: <http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> rdfs:isDefinedBy <http://libris.kb.se/data/bib/1379487> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> rdf:type bibo:Book . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> dc:title "Swedish arts and crafts : Swedish modern - a movement towards sanity in design"@en . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> dc:type "text" . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> dc:publisher "Slöjdfören" . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> dc:date "1939" . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> dc:description "Utställning, New York world's fair,1939"@en . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> dc:subject "Konsthantverk" . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> libris:held_by <http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/Arkm> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> libris:held_by <http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/Ko> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> libris:held_by <http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/L> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> libris:held_by <http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/S> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> libris:held_by <http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/Lkul> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> libris:held_by <http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/M> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> libris:held_by <http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/N> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> libris:held_by <http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/F> . <http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487> libris:held_by <http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/Ghdk> . http://libris.kb.se/data/bib/1379487?format=text%2Frdf%2Bn3
- 87. <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/" xmlns:owl="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:libris="http://libris.kb.se/vocabulary/experimental#" xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#" > <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/1379487"> <dc:subject>Konsthantverk</dc:subject> <dc:date>1939</dc:date> <libris:held_by rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/Ko"/> <dc:title xml:lang="en"> Swedish arts and crafts : Swedish modern - a movement towards sanity in design </dc:title> <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/data/bib/1379487"/> <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/Book"/> <libris:held_by rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/S"/> <dc:publisher>Slöjdfören</dc:publisher> <libris:held_by rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/N"/> <libris:held_by rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/Ghdk"/> <libris:held_by rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/L"/> <libris:held_by rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/Arkm"/> <libris:held_by rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/Lkul"/> <dc:type>text</dc:type> <libris:held_by rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/F"/> <libris:held_by rdf:resource="http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/M"/> <dc:description xml:lang="en">Utställning, New York world's fair,1939</dc:description> </rdf:Description> </rdf:RDF> http://libris.kb.se/data/bib/1379487?format=application%2Frdf%2Bxml
- 91. NSDL Registry http://metadataregistry.org/
- 93. UK Archival Thesaurus http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-20050510/
- 94. Archives de France “Thesaurus W” http://www.archivesdefrance.culture.gouv.fr/gerer/classement/normes-outils/thesaurus/
- 96. Linked, Encoded Archival Description
- 97. It’s an easy concept.
- 98. It’s not necessarily easy to execute.
- 99. EAD isn’t up for the task.
- 100. EAD is document-centric standard, not a data-centric standard.
- 101. EAD is both too flexible and too unforgiving.
- 102. EAD doesn’t allow elements from other namespaces.
- 103. Attributes like @authfilenumber and @encodinganalog are totally insufficient.
- 104. Linking Elements in EAD with @href •<archref> •<extrefloc> •<bibref> •<ptr> •<dao> •<ptrloc> •<daoloc> •<ref> •<extptr> •<refloc> •<extref> •<title>
- 105. None of those linking elements describe why we make links in a machine-friendly way.
- 106. What about linked archival description?
- 107. Here be dragons. http://www.flickr.com/photos/versageek/2059145960/
- 108. Archival description contains lots of implicit information.
- 109. “Inheritance” of data in multi-level description is highly implicit.
- 110. Archival inheritance is entirely different from what “inheritance” is in other data models.
- 111. In object-oriented programming, inheritance is a way to form new classes (instances of which are called objects) using classes that have already been defined. The new classes, known as derived classes, take over (or inherit) attributes and behavior of the pre-existing classes, which are referred to as base classes (or ancestor classes). It is intended to help reuse existing code with little or no modification. "Inheritance (computer science)," Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_(computer_science).
- 112. Bearman/Hurley: Terminological Control Physical Inheritance
- 113. Bearman/Hurley: Contextual Control Associational Inheritance
- 114. How does a descriptive system inherit data across descriptive levels?
- 115. ISAD(G) § 2.4 NON-REPETITION OF INFORMATION Purpose: To avoid redundancy of information in hierarchically related archival descriptions. Rule: At the highest appropriate level, give information that is common to the component parts. Do not repeat information at a lower level of description that has already been given at a higher level.
- 116. This should be resolved in descriptive output, not the underlying data.
- 117. Humans can benefit with non-redundant data.
- 118. Computers need that extra redundancy.
- 119. Archival description, in its current state, is not computer-friendly.
- 120. Archival description, in its current state, is not Linked Data-friendly.
- 121. We can do some things in the meantime.
- 122. Expose data in public descriptive systems as best we can (e.g. RDFa).
- 123. Build out meaningful links from online descriptive apparatuses.
- 124. Revise our descriptive standards to allow better recombination of metadata.
- 125. Follow the lead of our library and museum colleagues and develop conceptual models of archival description.
- 126. Thank You mark@matienzo.org http://matienzo.org/ http://twitter.com/anarchivist