Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) in the Semantic Web: A Multi-Dimensional Review

Since the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) specification and its SKOS eXtension for Labels (SKOS-XL) became formal W3C recommendations in 2009 a significant number of conventional knowledge organization systems (KOS) (including thesauri, classification schemes, name authorities, and lists of codes and terms, produced before the arrival of the ontology-wave) have made their journeys to join the Semantic Web mainstream. This paper uses "LOD KOS" as an umbrella term to refer to all of the value vocabularies and lightweight ontologies within the Semantic Web framework. The paper provides an overview of what the LOD KOS movement has brought to various communities and users. These are not limited to the colonies of the value vocabulary constructors and providers, nor the catalogers and indexers who have a long history of applying the vocabularies to their products. The LOD dataset producers and LOD service providers, the information architects and interface designers, and researchers in sciences and humanities, are also direct beneficiaries of LOD KOS. The paper examines a set of the collected cases (experimental or in real applications) and aims to find the usages of LOD KOS in order to share the practices and ideas among communities and users. Through the viewpoints of a number of different user groups, the functions of LOD KOS are examined from multiple dimensions. This paper focuses on the LOD dataset producers, vocabulary producers, and researchers (as end-users of KOS).Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, accepted paper in International Journal on Digital Librarie

Comparative views and the prospects for transatlantic cooperation : German resources in African studies ; paper for the 6th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium: "GNARP und wie sie die Welt sieht: Aussichten transatlantischer Partnerschaft im digitalen Zeitalter", "The World according to GNARP: Prospects for Transatlantic Library Partnership in the Digital Age", 5.10.2006 - 7.10.2006

The paper presents an overview about some of the international relevant projects of digital resources in Germany. Online presentations of primary sources, e.g. photographic material, and bibliographic tools supporting research, such as cross searching, will be presented as potential partners of resource sharing with North America. Not only the possibility of cooperation will be sketched, but also necessary preliminary work and some obstacles will be outlined. This report is accompanied by a short characterization of African studies in Germany and the status quo of Open Access-initiatives

Breaking the browsing barrier for historic search of newspaper texts

Traditionally, to find information in a newspaper collection it has been necessary to painstakingly browse through the individual issues hoping that relevant words will catch your eye. Researchers of New Zealand’s encounter history received a boost when, in 1996, the Alexander Turnbull Library produced a collection on microfiche totaling almost 18,000 pages and covering a printing period from 1842 to 1933. While having all the newspapers in a single collection was a large step forward, browsing or searching for information in this microfiche collection was still time consuming. By incorporating the collection into a digital library with an Internet interface, and by enabling full-text search, we have broken this browsing barrier. Making the information available this way is even more significant as the majority of the collection is written in the Māori language; we have created a Māori language resource that is sorely needed by education and research institutes, and one that provides quick and accurate access to the previously obscure source. The process involved in developing this unique digital library collection, the advantages of traditional newspaper stored in this medium, and the possibilities that we intend to investigate in the future, will be discussed in this paper

Publishing Linked Data - There is no One-Size-Fits-All Formula

Publishing Linked Data is a process that involves several design decisions and technologies. Although some initial guidelines have been already provided by Linked Data publishers, these are still far from covering all the steps that are necessary (from data source selection to publication) or giving enough details about all these steps, technologies, intermediate products, etc. Furthermore, given the variety of data sources from which Linked Data can be generated, we believe that it is possible to have a single and uni�ed method for publishing Linked Data, but we should rely on di�erent techniques, technologies and tools for particular datasets of a given domain. In this paper we present a general method for publishing Linked Data and the application of the method to cover di�erent sources from di�erent domains

Thesauri on the Web: current developments and trends

This article provides an overview of recent developments relating to the application of thesauri in information organisation and retrieval on the World Wide Web. It describes some recent thesaurus projects undertaken to facilitate resource description and discovery and access to wide-ranging information resources on the Internet. Types of thesauri available on the Web, thesauri integrated in databases and information retrieval systems, and multiple-thesaurus systems for cross-database searching are also discussed. Collective efforts and events in addressing the standardisation and novel applications of thesauri are briefly reviewed

Delivering the Maori-language newspapers on the Internet

Although any collection of historical newspapers provides a particularly rich and valuable record of events and social and political commentary, the content tends to be difficult to access and extremely time-consuming to browse or search. The advent of digital libraries has meant that for electronically stored text, full-text searching is now a tool readily available for researchers, or indeed anyone wishing to have asscess to specific information in text. Text in this form can be readily distributed via CD-ROM or the Internet, with a significant impact on accessibility over traditional microfiche or hard-copy distribution. For the majority of text being generated de nouveau, availability in electronic form is standard, and hence the increasing use of full-text search facilities. However, for legacy text available only in printed form, the provision of these electronic search tools is dependent on the prior electronic capture of digital facsimile images of the printed text, followed by the conversion of these images to electronic text through the process of optical character recognition (OCR). This article describes a project undertaken at the University of Waikato over the period 1999 to 2001 to produce a full-text searchable version of the Niupepa or Maori- language newspaper collection for delivery over the Internet

Thesauri Design to improve access to Cartographic Heritage in the context of the Spatial Data Infrastructures

Tecnologías de la Información Geográfica, ontologías, Información Geográfica, interoperabilidad. The access of historians and document management specialists to documentary funds and old cartography is at times arduous due to the scattering of maps throughout different map libraries. Thus, it would be of interest to be able to access all available information remotely, following the Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) guidelines. DIGMAP is a cooperative project between six European countries that proposes to develop a solution for indexing, searching and browsing, through a thesaurus, in the European collections of digitized historical maps. It will be possible to match them with the geographic areas covered by each map in the collection and to find it on them, based on standard and open data models. These results will be useful for local digital map libraries, especially if it is of historical – cultural importance, or as interoperable components for wider and distributed systems. This project takes advantage of thesauri technologies to develop three major subsystems: On one hand, the gazetteer for managing and providing access to multilingual information relating to geographic features like geographic coordinates, names of places or areas and historical events related with the geographic points, places or areas (with dates or time intervals); The authority file to maintain and provide easy access to the author’s information and identification and disambiguating from similar and duplicate authors; and on the other hand, the map services for providing access to map information in raster and vector formats. The paper presents an early overview on the DIGMAP project, particularly focusing on the multilingual Thesauri aspects with the aim of providing solutions for the cartographic heritage framework, applying the main Spatial Data Infrastructures guidelines. ISO 19112 (Spatial Reference by Geographic Identifiers) will also be considered and its geographic identifiers issues

Semantic enrichment for enhancing LAM data and supporting digital humanities. Review article

With the rapid development of the digital humanities (DH) field, demands for historical and cultural heritage data have generated deep interest in the data provided by libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs). In order to enhance LAM data’s quality and discoverability while enabling a self-sustaining ecosystem, “semantic enrichment” becomes a strategy increasingly used by LAMs during recent years. This article introduces a number of semantic enrichment methods and efforts that can be applied to LAM data at various levels, aiming to support deeper and wider exploration and use of LAM data in DH research. The real cases, research projects, experiments, and pilot studies shared in this article demonstrate endless potential for LAM data, whether they are structured, semi-structured, or unstructured, regardless of what types of original artifacts carry the data. Following their roadmaps would encourage more effective initiatives and strengthen this effort to maximize LAM data’s discoverability, use- and reuse-ability, and their value in the mainstream of DH and Semantic Web