linked data for law libraries: an introduction
TRANSCRIPT
Linked Data for Law
Libraries: An
Introduction
Emily Dust NimsakontHead of Cataloging & Resource
ManagementSchmid Law Library, University of
Nebraska College of LawMAALL Annual Meeting
October 14, 2016Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytudut/5197551003/
What is Linked Data?
“It builds upon standard Web technologies such as HTTP and URIs, but rather than using them to serve web pages for human readers, it extends them to share information in a way that can be read automatically by computers.”“This enables data from different
sources to be connected and queried.”
“…linked data describes a method of publishing structured data so that it can be interlinked and become more useful.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_data
web of documents vs.
web of data
resourceresource
resource
resource
resource
links to
links to
links to
links to
links to
data links to
links to
links to
links to
data data
datadata
data datadata
datadata
data
datalinks to
Relationships are key
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Encoded meaning<h1>This is a heading.</h1><p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<h1>My Favorite Trees</h1><p>I like oak trees.</p>
<p>I also like maple trees.</p>
Encoded meaning<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Empire Burlesque"> <cd:artist>Bob Dylan</cd:artist> <cd:country>USA</cd:country> <cd:company>Columbia</cd:company> <cd:price>10.90</cd:price> <cd:year>1985</cd:year></rdf:Description>
http://www.w3schools.com/rdf/rdf_example.asp
Links between entities<rdf:Description rdf:about=“http://www4.wiwiss.fu-
berlin.de/bookmashup/books/0375507256”><rev:hasReview
rdf:resource=“http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bookmashup/reviews/0375507256_EditorialReview1”/>
<dc:creator rdf:resource=“http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bookmashup/persons/David+Mitchell”/>
<dc:format>Paperback</dc:format> <dc:identifier
rdf:resource=“urn:ISBN:0375507256”/> <dc:publisher>Random House Trade
Paperbacks</dc:publisher> <dc:title>Cloud Atlas: A Novel</dc:title></rdf:Description>
http://commonplace.net/2009/06/linked-data-for-libraries/
1. Data instead of documents2. Relationships are key3. Encoded meaning4. Links between entities
So what?
Linked Data
makes the Web into a database.
“Just as the traditional document Web can be crawled by following hypertext links, the Web of Data can be crawled by following RDF links. Working on the crawled data, search engines can provide sophisticated query capabilities... Because the query results themselves are structured data, not just links to HTML pages, they can be immediately processed, thus enabling a new class of applications based on the Web of Data.”
Chris Bizer, Richard Cyganiak, and Tom HeathHow to Publish Linked Data on the Web
http://linkeddata.org/docs/how-to-publish
How does Linked Data
happen?
Linked Data Principles
Tim Berners-Lee, “Linked Data-Design Issues.” http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html
Use URIs as names for things
Use HTTP URIs so people can look up these names
When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information,
using the standards
Include links to other URIs, so that they can discover more
things
URIs
Uniform Resource Identifiers = unique identifiers
http://www.example.com/thing1
RDFResource Description Framework
Describes relationships based on triples (statements):
subject-predicate-object
http://www.w3.org/RDF
RDF
subject object
A Christmas
Carol
Charles Dickens
has author
predicate
RDF
subject object
Case A Nancy Drew
has plaintiff
predicate
RDF Graph
Charles Dickens
A Christmas
Carol
has author has
publisher
Penguin
RDF Graph
Nancy Drew
Case Ahas plaintiff has
defendant
Ned Nickers
on
RDF Graph with URIs
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/
n78087607/
http://example.org/books/2002275771
http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/creator
http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/publisher
http://example.org/publishers/12345
RDF Graph with URIs
http://example.org/cases/Ahttp://
example.org/legalterms/
plaintiffhttp://example.org/
legalterms/defendantNancy Drew
Ned Nickers
on
RDF<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf=“http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”xmlns:dc=“http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1”>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=“http://example.org/books/2002275771”>
<dc:creator rdf:resource=“http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n78087607”/>
<dc:publisher ref:resource=“http://example.org/publishers/12345” />
</rdf:Description></rdf:RDF>
RDF<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf=“http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”xmlns:lex=“http://example.org/legal-terms”>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=“http://example.org/cases/A”>
<lex:plaintiff=“Nancy Drew”/><lex:defendant=“Ned Nickerson” /></rdf:Description></rdf:RDF>(“Lex” namespace inspired by “A Conversation on the Semantic
Web and Legal Information by F.Tim Knight and Sarah Sutherland, http://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/handle/10315/27526)
5 Stars of Linked Open Data★ Available on the web★★ Available as structured data★★★ Available in a non-proprietary format★★★★ Use open standards to identify things, so people can point at your stuff★★★★★ Link your data to other people’s data to provide context
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html
Why should librarians care about Linked Data?
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“…the Library community’s data carrier, MARC, is ‘based on forty-year-old techniques for data management and is out of step with programming styles of today.’”
“…something new is now needed…”
“The new bibliographic framework project will be focused on…Linked Data principles and mechanisms…”
“A Bibliographic Framework for the Digital Age” http://www.loc.gov/marc/transition/news/framework-103111.html
BIBFRAMEBibliographic Framework Transition Initiative
http://bibframe.org
http://loc.gov/bibframe
OpenCat
http://files.dnb.de/svensson/UILLD2013/UILLD-submission-3-formatted-final.pdf
OpenCat
http://files.dnb.de/svensson/UILLD2013/UILLD-submission-3-formatted-final.pdf
In traditional cataloging, a record is one package.
AuthorTitle
Bibliographic Record
Bibliographic Record
Records can be exchanged, but there is no way to exchange the individual pieces of information within a record.
Bibliographic Record
Bibliographic Record
Person
Is author of
Title
Bibliographic Record
With Linked Data, a bibliographic record is made up of many pieces of data.
And the relationships between these pieces of data are defined.
Person
Is author of Title
Bibliographic RecordThe boundaries of the record can be dissolved…
Person
Is author of Title
Bibliographic Record
…and the data can interact with other information on the Web.
Web Visibility“When my community searches the web for something we have, we better show up as an option.”
Chuck Gibson, Director & CEO Worthington Public Library
“The Visible Library,” Library Journal Webcast, February 26, 2015 http://goo.gl/8NErmA
New ways of searching for library resources
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New applications for librarians’ skills
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Why should law librarians care about linked data?
“Law is chaos with an index.”
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“Publishing and using juridical information is challenging in many ways. It is produced by different parties, such as governmental bureaus,
ministries, different levels of courts, research organizations, and media. The content is heterogeneous and produced using differing tools, data
formats, and practices. The links between documents are often informal and/or not made explicit. The law in general is a dynamic, changing
entity: for example, it is important to be able to refer to different versions of a law at different points of time. These challenges can be addressed
through the use of linked data techniques.”
The Finnish Law as a Linked Data ServiceMatias Frosterus, Jouni Tuominen, Mika Wahlroos, and Eero Hyvönen
http://seco.cs.aalto.fi/publications/2013/frosterus-et-al-finnish-law-lod-poster.pdf
Are there sources of
linked library data?
LC Linked Data Service http://id.loc.gov
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org
RDA Vocabularies http://rdvocab.info/
http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/
What does Linked
Data look like?
Indigenous Law Portal
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/indigenous-law-guide/
Resources (Online)How to Publish Linked Data on the Web by Chris Bizer, Richard Cyganiak, and Tom Heathhttp://linkeddata.org/docs/how-to-publish
A Conversation on the Semantic Web and Legal Information by F. Tim Knight and Sarah Sutherlandhttp://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/handle/10315/27526
LODLAM (Linked Open Data in Libraries, Archives and Museums)http://lodlam.net/
Free Your Metadatahttp://freeyourmetadata.org/
ALA Linked Data Interest Grouphttp://connect.ala.org/node/142470
An Introduction to RDF for Librarians (of a Metadata Bent) by Ruth Kitchin Tillman http://ruthtillman.com/introduction-rdf-librarians-metadata/
Resources (Print)Linked Data for Libraries, Archives and Museums, by Seth van Hooland and Reuben Verborghhttp://book.freeyourmetadata.org/
Linked Data for Cultural Heritage, edited by Ed Jones and Michele Seikelhttp://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=11724
Thank you!Emily Dust Nimsakont
Head of Cataloging & Resource Management
Schmid Law Library, University of Nebraska College of Law
[email protected]://slideshare.net/enimsakont
http://del.icio.us/enimsakont/maall2016