Presentation given at the BL Labs event in NLW on the 3rd of March by Glen Robson and Owain Roberts

1. NLW Datasets
National Library of Wales
Owain Roberts @owainrr
Glen Robson @glenrobson

2. Background
• NLW has been digitising since late 90s
• Digitised material tends to be static material – the
digtised stuff don’t change with time!
• Datasets and databases treated outside the collections
systems
• Infrastructre gap identified for dealing with datasets
• Move to dealing with born-digital material and
datasets

3. Datasets / Derived Content
PHYSICAL
COLLECTIONS
PHYSICAL
COLLECTIONS
DIGITISED
COLLECTIONS
DIGITISED
COLLECTIONS
Digitisation
DERIVED
CONTENT
DERIVED
CONTENT
Transcription
Automation /
Crowdsourcing
DERIVED
CONTENT
DERIVED
CONTENT
PHYSICAL
COLLECTIONS
PHYSICAL
COLLECTIONS
DIGITAL
COLLECTIONS
DIGITAL
COLLECTIONS
DERIVED
CONTENT
DERIVED
CONTENT
Automation /
Crowdsourcing

4. The Storage Problem
Where do we put these?
• Datasets derived from physical collections
• Data derived from digital collections

5. What is linked data?
 A way of connecting silos of data
 A way of enhancing existing data
 A way of structuring data (like a database or XML)
 A standard way of sharing data (like an API)

6. Triples
Subject Predicate Object
•Person hasName Owain
•Person hasAge 24
•Person worksIn NLW – literal
•Person worksIn NlW - literal
•Person worksIn http://www.llgc.org.uk/ - URI

7. Aberystwyth Shipping Records
Transcribed as part of NLW Volunteer Programme
544 Ships covering period 1856-1914
An example…

9. Cynefin Tithe
Maps
1838 - 1947
Cynefin Tithe
Maps
1838 - 1947
Cymru 1914.org
and Wales at War
1914-1918
Cymru 1914.org
and Wales at War
1914-1918
Shipping Records
1856 - 1914
Shipping Records
1856 - 1914
Crime and
Punishment
Database
1730 - 1830
Crime and
Punishment
Database
1730 - 1830
Welsh Biography
Online
0 - 1970
Welsh Biography
Online
0 - 1970
Welsh Newspapers
Online
1804 - 1919
Welsh Newspapers
Online
1804 - 1919
EXTERNAL
DATASETS
EXTERNAL
DATASETS
EXTERNAL
DATASET
EXTERNAL
DATASET
EXTERNAL
DATASET
EXTERNAL
DATASET
Cymru 1900
~ 1900
Cymru 1900
~ 1900

10. Aberystwyth Observer
23 March 1905

11. Aberystwyth Observer
23 April 1905

12. Events

13. Cynefin Tithe
Maps
1838 - 1947
Cynefin Tithe
Maps
1838 - 1947
Cymru 1914.org
and Wales at War
1914-1918
Cymru 1914.org
and Wales at War
1914-1918
Shipping Records
1856 - 1914
Shipping Records
1856 - 1914
Crime and
Punishment
Database
1730 - 1830
Crime and
Punishment
Database
1730 - 1830
Welsh Biography
Online
0 - 1970
Welsh Biography
Online
0 - 1970
Welsh Newspapers
Online
1804 - 1919
Welsh Newspapers
Online
1804 - 1919
EXTERNAL
DATASETS
EXTERNAL
DATASETS
EXTERNAL
DATASET
EXTERNAL
DATASET
EXTERNAL
DATASET
EXTERNAL
DATASET
Cymru 1900
~ 1900
Cymru 1900
~ 1900

15. New Developments
• IIIF
• Linked Open Data

16. Community
National Libraries
• Austria
• British Library
• France
• Denmark
• Egypt
• Israel
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Serbia
• Vatican
• Wales
http://www.slideshare.net/azaroth42/introduction-to-iiif
Research Institutions
• C2RMF (France)
• Cornell University
• Johns Hopkins Univ.
• Harvard University
• Oxford University
• Princeton University
• Stanford University
• Wellcome Library
• Yale University
• plus several more
Museums
• YCBA
• British Museum
Aggregators
• Artstor
• DPLA
• Europeana
Projects
• Biblissima
• e-codices
• TPEN
• TextGrid

17. What can I do with it?
National Library
of Wales
Repository
National Library
of Wales
Repository
British Library
Digital Library
British Library
Digital Library
National Library
of Norway
Repository
National Library
of Norway
Repository
BnF
Repository
BnF
Repository
Image APIImage APIPresentation APIPresentation API
Mirador
IIIF Viewer
Mirador
IIIF Viewer
Wellcome/Universal
Viewer
IIIF Viewer
Wellcome/Universal
Viewer
IIIF Viewer

18. Mirador
http://stanford.io/1PW789d

21. Linked Open Data
• “A method of publishing structured data so
that it can be interlinked and become more
useful through semantic queries”
• Tim Berners-Lee coined the term in a 2006
design note about the Semantic Web project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_data
• Turing the web into data rather than
documents

22. Benefits for Research
• Queryable: SPARQL
• Open Data
– Not limited by website
– Not limited to an API
– Keys to the database
• Linkable to other datasets
– Wikipedia
– Geonames
• Built to be added to

23. Book of Remembrance
• Once transcribed it will be a complete dataset
of the Welsh fallen
– Query by rank, location, service
• Linkable
– Geonames – county/area
– Wales at War - http://www.walesatwar.org

24. Shipping Registers
• 544 merchant vessels registered at the port of
Aberystwyth
• 1856-1914
• Crew lists – name, position, birth date, reason
for leaving, location
• Transcribed by volunteers
• Modelled in Linked Open Data

26. Top 4 Places Visited

27. Top Visits

28. Problems
• Linking out
– Places -> Geonames, Cynefin
– Ships -> Wikipedia
– Ships -> Newspapers?
• Disambiguation
– Between people
• In Shipping Records
• Across resources e.g. Newspapers
– Between resources
– Dutch Shipping to Newspaper linking:
http://bit.ly/1Talish/

29. Going forward
• Release more datasets as LOD
• Crowd sourcing to create data
• Working with researchers on enhancing
datasets.
• Can we turn the Newspapers into a Queryable
dataset?
– Name Entity Recognition
– Crowd
– Research Projects
• Can we link our digital resources together?