Presentation given to "Data publication and linked data in the humanities" workshop at National Library of Wales, 12 November 2012. This presentation has developed from previous as it explains how and why the Library modelled its database structure in to RDF rather than use pre-existing schemas

1. unlocking doors
recent initiatives in open and linked data at
National Library of Scotland
Gill Hamilton
Digital Access Manager
g.hamilton@nls.uk

2. about

3. widening access to knowledge
"we will make
digital resources accessible
through
communications media
which are effective in
promoting the use and discovery
of our collections."

4. widening access to knowledge
"we will improve
access to our collections
by finding
new ways
for our users to
interact with us
and
others."

5. social media services
Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/nlscotland
• 2,500 images
• 1,500 views per day
• 1.8 million views in total
• 10% have comments

6. social media services
Flickr
52,000 views
114 favorited
20 comments
"It is a Lee Enfield gun .."
"I'm doing a presentation,
may I use the image?"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlscotland/3012796098/

7. social media services
You Tube
102 videos
300,000 views
186 comments
"Fab wee motor."
"My parents had one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9l01vy7y3w
of these"

8. social media services
Licensing, copyright and rights
• out of copyright and/or copyright owner
• to gain benefits you must give away
some or all control
• Flickr The Commons

9. social media services
Lessons learned....
• minimal investment for improved access
• taster of the Library's collections
• the world is full of knowledgeable people
• to gain benefits you have to give something up
• findability beyond the Library website
• open ... but not open enough

10. open data
is the concept that data
is made available
so others can use
and re-use it
without restrictions
of copyright
or control mechanisms

11. open data
if you created the metadata
then you can license it as you wish
if you create or own the resource
then you can license it as you wish

12. open stuff we’ve been doing
CC.0

13. open data
The 5 easy steps to open data
1. licensed
2. structured
3. documented
4. published
5. publicised
"Give us raw data
and give it to us NOW!"

14. open data
http://thedatahub.org/dataset/nls-forthbridge

15. linked open data and us
What we don't have .... experience
skills
resources
What we do have ... great data
lots of enthusiasm
friends to help

16. linked open data
What we did until April 2012
stop ... start ... stop ... start ... stop ... start
• went to school to learn RDF
• tried mapping our data to DC Terms
• tried to discover URIs
• created RDF for a single resource
• wondered what to do next
• wondered if it was worth our while

17. linked open data
And then we spoke to our friends:
freeYourMetadata.org
"you should use Google Refine to discover URIs"
Open Knowledge Foundation
"use theDataHub.org for publishing & use CC.0"
Metadata Management Associates
"let us help you model your data because we
have a theory ..."

18. our 1st attempt
local & closed global & open
X
DOD
S LOD in
data
L DC
T
structure
tDescription.title
tKeyword.keyword
tWho.who

19. linked open data

20. linked open data

21. linked open data

22. we modelled the database
http://metadataregistry.org/schema/show/id/64.html

23. linked open data
local global & open
structure
& closed tDescription.title
tKeyword.keyword
tWho.who
DOD
data DOD in
LOD

24. linked open data
local global & open
schema
& closed structure
tDescription.title
R
.org
tKeyword.keyword
tWho.who
D MARC
DOD F
data DOD in
DC
m
LOD a EDM
p

25. linked open data graph

26. some things lots of strings

27. things and strings
and vocabularies ……
• Arts & Architecture Thesaurus
• Thesaurus for Geographic Names
• LC Subject Headings
• LC Name Authority
• Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

28. how to turn strings into things
thisThing
hasSubject
“Cantilever bridges”
thisThing
hasSubject
nlsURI9876
nlsURI9876
hasLabel
“Cantilever bridges”

29. turn nlsThings in to otherThings
thisThing hasSubject nlsURI9876
nlsURI9876 hasLabel Cantilever bridges
nlsURI9876 skosExactMatch sh85016866
nlsURI9876 skosExactMatch 624.219
thisThing hasPlace nlsURI123
nlsURI123 hasLabel Forth Bridge
nlsUR123 skosExactMatch 6695705

30. skos-ifying vocabularies
AAT label LCSH Dewey TGM
Cantilever bridges sh85016866 624.219 not found
Cantilever bridges Cantilever bridges
skos:exactMatch skos:exactMatch
Construction sh99005337 624 tgm002475
(assembling) construction Civil engineering construction
skos:broadMatch skos:relatedMatch skos:broadMatch
Railroad bridges sh85110864 385.312 tgm008548
Railroad bridges The way Railroad bridges
skos:exactMatch skos:closeMatch skos:exactMatch
TGN label GeoNames Dewey
Forth Bridge 6695705 388.132094134
Forth Bridge Bridges—Edinburgh
skos:exactMatch skos:broadMatch
Forth, Firth of 2649175 551.483094131
Firth of Forth Stirling etc
skos:exactMatch skos:relatedMatch
SKOS mapping properties
http://www.w3.org.TR/2009/REC-skos-20090818/#mapping

31. finding things from strings
• By hand by Gill
• By the hands of students
• By Google Refine
• By some clever algorithmic cleverness

32. where are we right now?
• PHP script that makes TTL triples
• a triple store
• the crudest interface in the world
ALL ON A LAPTOP
• basic linking outside the NLS domain
• a workshop on Wednesday

33. where are we right now?

34. where are we right now?

35. linked open data
• think about URIs
• think about infrastructure
• think about the vocabularies we use
• publish Forth & Haig as DOD LOD
• try to link internally
• Haig and
• WWI (Zeppelin?) maps
• and diaries
• perhaps build a service

36. Thank you ....
References Me
• NLS at Flickr & YouTube Gill Hamilton
o http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlscotland/
g.hamilton@nls.uk
o http://www.youtube.com/user/NLofScotland
• NLS at thedatahub
o http://thedatahub.org/dataset/nls-forthbridge
• NLS DOD at The Open Metadata Registry
o http://metadataregistry.org/schemaprop/list/schema_id/64.html
• Open Knowledge Foundation
o http://okfn.org/
• Metadata Management Associates
o http://managemetadata.com/
• freeyourmetadata.org
• thedatahub.org