1. Studying the Book Arts in the 21st Century:
Using Linked Data to Enhance Knowledge and Context
(a case study)
Allison Jai O’Dell
University of Miami Libraries
a.odell@miami.edu
Twitter: @AllisonJaiODell
Instagram: @um_spec_coll
Tumblr: umscc.tumblr.com
Presented at the 2014 RBMS Preconference

2. Linked Data
“The term Linked Data refers to a set of best practices for
publishing and interlinking structured data on the Web ...
1. Use URIs as names for things.
2. Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.
3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful
information, using the standards (RDF, SPARQL)
4. Include links to other URIs, so they can discover more
things.”
Tom Heath and Christian Bizer, Linked Data: Evolving the Web into a Global Data Space
(San Rafael, CA: Morgan & Claypool, 2011), 7

3. FollowYourNose
“In the context of determining the meaning of a
discovered URI, ‘Follow Your Nose’ is an informal
way to say FollowLinksForMoreInformation.”
W3C, “FollowYourNose,” http://www.w3.org/wiki/FollowYourNose

4. Resource Description Framework (RDF)
Subject: Allison
Predicate: lives in
Object: Miami
World Wide Web Consortium, “Resource Description
Framework (RDF),” W3C Semantic Web:
http://www.w3.org/RDF/
Things vs. Strings
“use URIs as names for things”
“The most basic unit of
Linked Data value is the
hyperlink. The most
powerful aspect of
hyperlinks is their ability
deliver combined
denotation (naming) and
access (de-reference)
services for data objects
that represent entities
(real-world, web, and
other realms).” Kingsley Idehen,
“Linked Data’s Follow-Your-Nose Pattern”

5. User Task: Just Browse
“We contend that the current
state of the discussion around
browsing in libraries requires a
complete reassessment of what
we mean by browsing and how it
can be applied in an electronic
context. We believe that
“discovery” is best understood as
a complex interplay between
both searching and browsing.”
Kate M. Joranson, Steve VanTuyl, and Nina Clements,
“E-Browsing: Serendipity and Questions of Access and
Discovery,” Charleston Library Conference (Purdue
University: Purdue e-Pubs, 2013)

6. BIBFRAME: Linked Open Data FTW
Image from Coyle’s InFormation:
http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2013/05/bibframe-authorities.html
Annotation is defined as:
“a resource that decorates
other BIBFRAME resources
with additional information.”
Eric Miller et al., “Bibliographic Framework
as a Web of Data: Linked Data Model
and Supporting Services” (Washington,
DC: Library of Congress, November 21,
2012), 8.

7. Creator Metadata
• “The Creator element identifies the individual, group of
individuals, corporate body, cultural group, or other entity that
contributed to creating, designing, producing, manufacturing, or
altering the work.” Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO)
Libraries call this “provenance.”
• Book collecting has always been saturated with “methods of
recording provenance information.” Sarah A. Buchanan, “Special Collections and Archives
Code (SPAC): Preserving Provenance in a Bibliographic Catalog,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 49, no. 5 (2011): 350

8. Provenance
• “To better understand the meaning, function, and importance” of artifacts.
Lauren Lessing, “Problems in Provenance Research,” Art Documentation 19, no. 2 (2000): 49
• “Documents (i.e., library resources) are knowledge artifacts that reflect the
cultural milieu in which they arose.” Richard P. Smiraglia, “Rethinking What We Catalog: Documents as
Cultural Artifacts,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 43, no. 3 (2008): 30
• “The context in which [materials] are created endows [them] with their
essential meaning and value.” Michelle Light, “Moving Beyond the Name: Defining Corporate Entities to
Support Provenance-Based Access,” Journal of Archival Organization 5, nos. 1-2 (2007): 53
• Provenance is “the sine qua non of historical research. Without it historians
are unable to understand or interpret [what] they are examining.” Wendy M. Duff
and Catherine A. Johnson, “Accidentally Found on Purpose: Information-Seeking Behavior of Historians in Archives,” The Library
Quarterly 72, no. 4 (2002): 486
• “Who were these books made for, and why? How were they used?” Jos van
Heel, “Some Notes on Research into the Provenance of Medieval Books,” Quaerendo 41 (2011): 258

9. Reconsidering Library Catalog Data
“Most standards development work … has focused on the
description of records or resources.”
Daniel V. Pitti, “Creator Description: Encoded Archival Context,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 38, nos. 3-4 (2004): 203
Meanwhile, the description of provenance has developed in
the research community.
David Pearson, Provenance Research in Book History: A Handbook (New Castle: Oak Knoll, 1999)
Vocabularies for Encoding Creator Metadata
• VRA Core: works of visual culture & the images that document them
• FOAF (Friend of a Friend): people, the links between them, and the things they create and do
• BIO: biographical information
• RELATIONSHIP: relationships between people
• EAC-CPF (Encoded Archival Context – Corporate bodies, Persons, and Families): entities that
are responsible for and/or associated with records

10. Data Elements for Provenance
MARC Bibliographic record:
Entity identification information:
o Main Entry fields (1xx)
o Added Entry fields (7xx)
o Subject Added Entry fields (6xx)
Role designators: Relator term subfields of
o Main Entry fields (1xx)
o Added Entry fields (7xx)
o Subject Added Entry fields (6xx)
Name, geographic, and chronological information for
publishers, printers, and other manufacturers:
o Imprint fields (260, 264)
Biographical information:
o Biographical or Historical Data field (545)
Previous owner, annotation, and reader response information:
o Immediate Source of Acquisition field (541)
o Ownership and Custodial History field (561)
Binder information:
o Binding Information field (563)
Additional notes about the activity of makers:
o General Note field (500)
o Local Notes fields (59x)
MARC Holdings record:
Some of the above fields (541, 561, 563) are duplicated in
the MARC format for Holdings Data
MARC Authority record:
Entity identification information:
o Heading fields (1xx)
Biographical information:
o Biographical or Historical Data field (678)
Geographic information:
o Associated Place field (370)
o Address field (371)
Community of practice information:
o Field of Activity field (372)
o Associated Group field (373)
o Occupation field (374)
Family:
o Family Information field (376)
Linguistic context:
o Associated Language field (377)

11. The RAMP Editor
• Converts data to the EAC-CPF format
• Converts EAC-CPF records to wiki markup for export to Wikipedia
• Matches the name entity in an EAC-CPF record against WorldCat
Identities and VIAF, letting one import information and URIs
rampeditor.info

12. EAC-CPF
MOAR EAC PROJECTS!
• Harvard Library Lab, “Connecting the Dots: Using EAC-CPF to Reunite Samuel Johnson and His Circle”
• Stanford University, “Mapping the Republic of Letters”
• “Social Networks and Archival Contexts (SNAC) Project”
• xEAC, User Interface Demo
The EAC-CPF Record:
Record control <control>
Description <cpfDescription>
 Name entity identification <identity>
 Contextual information <description>
 Relationships <relations>

13. XLink & Triples
<cpfRelation cpfRelationType="associative"
xlink:href="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80106853"
xlink:role="http://rdvocab.info/uri/schema/FRBRentitiesRDA/Person"
xlink:type="simple">
<relationEntry localType=”author”>Frankétienne</relationEntry>
</cpfRelation>
Subjects
Predicates
& Objects

14. Book Artists Unbound
Links to:
• Web portfolios
• Biographies
• Maps
• Data visualizations
• Library catalog
• Wikipedia
• Thesauri
• Linked Datasets
• WorldCat
• …More? MOAR!
eac.allisonjai.com

15. Book Artists Unbound
eac.allisonjai.com

16. More about the Book Artists Unbound project:
http://eac.allisonjai.com
Allison Jai O’Dell
University of Miami Libraries
a.odell@miami.edu
@AllisonJaiODell
[Forthcoming] “Book Artists Unbound: Providing Access to Creator
Metadata with EAC-CPF,” Art Documentation 33, no. 2 (Fall 2014)