Linked Data Service Research Articles

The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH): A Crosspoint and Knowledge Broker for FAIR and Linked Biodiversity Data

The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH) is a web platform acting as an integration point and broker of an open, FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and interlinked corpora of biodiversity data, services and knowledge. It serves the entire biodiversity research cycle, from specimens and observations to sequences, taxon names and finally to scientific publications. The strategic aim of the BKH is to support a functional and integrated biodiversity knowledge graph and an emerging new community of users. The BKH is aimed at biodiversity researchers in the widest sense, research infrastructures and publishers (Fig. 1). The BKH is the key product of the EU-funded Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL) project (Penev et al. 2022). The four goals of BiCIKL and the BKH are: Improved access to open and FAIR biodiversity data; Establishing of bi-directional data linkages between infrastructures; Development of new methods and workflows for semantic publishing, harvesting, liberating, linking, accessing and re-using of data in literature (specimens, material citations, samples, sequences, taxonomic names, taxonomic treatments, figures, tables); Testing and implementation of services through use cases and open call projects for researchers outside the project. Improved access to open and FAIR biodiversity data; Establishing of bi-directional data linkages between infrastructures; Development of new methods and workflows for semantic publishing, harvesting, liberating, linking, accessing and re-using of data in literature (specimens, material citations, samples, sequences, taxonomic names, taxonomic treatments, figures, tables); Testing and implementation of services through use cases and open call projects for researchers outside the project. The BKH consists of several modules, such as the Home page that presents the main user groups and the benefits that the BKH provides to them. It has guidelines and protocols, such as various documents on the policies, functions, and recommendations for the users. And it has relevant projects, that use linked FAIR biodiversity data. In the core of the BKH is the FAIR Data Place (FDP), which presents novel services and tools developed over the course of BiCIKL. In the future, the FDP will also accept services for linked data provided by new contributors. The FDP consists of three sub-modules: Infrastructures and organisations: Lists the contributing organisations and research infrastructures with short descriptions and links to their data, tools and services. Research infrastructures are sorted by the main type of biodiversity data they aggregate and serve: specimens, sequences, taxon names and literature. Linked data services: A catalogue of novel services that deliver FAIR data linked between the participating research infrastructures. Examples of such services are: ChecklistBank, LifeBlock, OpenBiodiv, TreatmentBank, SIBiLS “BiodiversityPMC”, eBioDiv, SynoSpecies, PlutoF Curation Tool and others. Become a contributor application form: A formal questionnaire which serves as a basis to check the suitability of an organisation or research infrastructure to join the BKH. Part of the application form is a FAIR data checklist. Infrastructures and organisations: Lists the contributing organisations and research infrastructures with short descriptions and links to their data, tools and services. Research infrastructures are sorted by the main type of biodiversity data they aggregate and serve: specimens, sequences, taxon names and literature. Linked data services: A catalogue of novel services that deliver FAIR data linked between the participating research infrastructures. Examples of such services are: ChecklistBank, LifeBlock, OpenBiodiv, TreatmentBank, SIBiLS “BiodiversityPMC”, eBioDiv, SynoSpecies, PlutoF Curation Tool and others. Become a contributor application form: A formal questionnaire which serves as a basis to check the suitability of an organisation or research infrastructure to join the BKH. Part of the application form is a FAIR data checklist. The BKH serves as a navigation system in a universe of interconnected biodiversity research infrastructures and is open to new contributors and collaborators in accessing open data and knowledge by anybody, anywhere, at any time.

Digital humanities on the Semantic Web: Sampo model and portal series

Cultural heritage (CH) contents are typically strongly interlinked, but published in heterogeneous, distributed local data silos, making it difficult to utilize the data on a global level. Furthermore, the content is usually available only for humans to read, and not as data for Digital Humanities (DH) analyses and application development. This application report addresses these problems by presenting a collaborative publication model for CH Linked Data and six design principles for creating shared data services and semantic portals for DH research and applications. This Sampo model has evolved gradually in 2002–2021 through lessons learned when developing the Sampo series of linked data services and semantic portals in use, including MuseumFinland (2004), CultureSampo (2009), BookSampo (2011), WarSampo (2015), Norssit Alumni (2017), U.S. Congress Prosopographer (2018), NameSampo (2019), BiographySampo (2019), WarVictimSampo 1914–1922 (2019), MMM (2020), AcademySampo (2021), FindSampo (2021), WarMemoirSampo (2021), and LetterSampo (2022). These Semantic Web applications surveyed in this paper cover a wide range of application domains in CH and have attracted up to millions of users on the Semantic Web, suggesting feasibility of the proposed Sampo model. This work shows a shift of focus in research on CH semantic portals from data aggregation and exploration systems (1. generation systems) to systems supporting DH research (2. generation systems) with data analytic tools, and finally to automatic knowledge discovery and Artificial Intelligence (3. generation systems).

Semi-Automated Methods for BIBFRAME Work Entity Description

This paper reports an investigation of machine learning methods for the semi-automated creation of a BIBFRAME Work entity description within the RDF linked data editor Sinopia (https://sinopia.io). The automated subject indexing software Annif was configured with the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) vocabulary from the Linked Data Service at https://id.loc.gov/. The training corpus was comprised of 9.3 million titles and LCSH linked data references from the IvyPlus POD project (https://pod.stanford.edu/) and from Share-VDE (https://wiki.share-vde.org). Semi-automated processes were explored to support and extend, not replace, professional expertise.

Name and Subject Heading Reconciliation to Linked Open Data Authorities using Virtual International Authority File and Library of Congress Linked Data Service APIs: A Case Study featuring Emblematica Online

Libraries are actively exploring ways to use Linked Open Data (LOD) services to enhance discovery and facilitate the use of collections. Emblematica Online, which provides integrated discovery of digitized emblem books, incorporates LOD in its design. As an implementation prerequisite, the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) and Library of Congress (LC) Linked Data Service APIs were used to reconcile name and subject strings from legacy catalog records with global authoritative links from LOD resources. This case study reports on the automated reconciliation process used and examines the efficacy of the APIs in reconciling name and subject heading entities. While a majority of strings were successfully reconciled, analysis suggests that data cleanup, rigorously consistent formatting of metadata strings, and addressing challenges in existing LOD resources and services could improve results for this corpus.

Linked Open Data Infrastructure for Digital Humanities in Finland

This paper presents and overviews Linked Open Data Infrastructure for Digital Humanities in Finland (LODI4DH), a joint initiative of Aalto University, Department of Computer Science, and University of Helsinki (UH), Helsinki Centre for Digital Humanities (HELDIG), for creating a national data infrastructure and Linked Data services for open science. The data and services enable publication and utilization of datasets for data-intensive Digital Humanities (DH) research in structured, standardized formats via open interfaces. LODI4DH is based on a large national collaboration network and software created during a long line of national projects in DH between UH and Aalto since 2003. This work has created several in-use infrastructure prototypes, such as the ONKI and Finto ontology service now at the National Library of Finland, the Linked Data Finland data publishing platform LDF.fi, and the “Sampo” series of semantic portals testing and demonstrating the usability of the approach in practical applications. Thus far, these systems have had millions of end-users on the Web suggesting a high potential of utilizing the technology and Linked Data infrastructure in DH.

A Study on the Effectiveness of Donation Campaign Broadcasting linked Data Service on Donation Intention Improvement

우리나라는 지속적인 경제발전으로 평균적인 생활 수준이 꾸준히 향상됐지만, 근래 기부 참여율은 오히려 계속 감소하는 추세에 있다. 기존 연구에 의하면 기부에 참여하지 않는 이유로 기부단체의 신뢰성 문제가 큰 비중을 차지하며 수혜자의 감성적 스토리텔링이 기부 의도 향상에 긍정적임을 알 수 있다. 이 연구는 기부캠페인 방송 시청자의 기부 의도를 높이기 위해 기부단체의 신뢰성 정보와 수혜자의 스토리텔링을 제공하는 기부캠페인 방송 연동형 데이터 서비스를 제안하였다. 구체적으로, 기부캠페인 방송과 적절히 연동된 사용자 시나리오와 TV 플랫폼의 특성을 반영한 사용자인터페이스를 설계하고, 국제 데이터방송 표준인 MHP 기반의 데이터 서비스 저작도구를 활용하여 프로토타입을 개발하였다. 또한, 설문조사를 통해 이 데이터 서비스 활용이 시청자의 기부단체 신뢰도, 캠페인 호감도, 캠페인 참여 의사, 기부금 지불 의향 등에 통계적으로 유의미하게 긍정적 영향을 미침을 밝혔다.

Tasmanian Data Linkage Unit: Supporting innovative research, planning and policy formulation in Australia through the provision of high-quality linked-data services.

As a member of the Population Health Research Network Australia, being an Australian collaboration established to support the use of linked data for research and other purposes, the Tasmanian Data Linkage Unit [TDLU) provides linked-data services in Australia’s smallest state, and as part of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the state’s only University, the University of Tasmania. The TDLU works in close collaboration with the Tasmanian Government Department of Health and other key stakeholders both in Tasmania and Australia representing government, education, research, and the community sector. The TDLU is one of the newest data linkage services in Australia, and the smallest node of the PHRN having operated for almost nine years by less than three full time equivalent staff. However, despite its size and relative maturity as a provider of linked-data services, the TDLU continues to grow the number of datasets linked on a routine and ad-hoc basis, the number of projects completed, the size of its Master Linkage Map and number of ‘keys’ stored in this Map. The TDLU places high-emphasis on security, privacy preservation, innovation, quality assurance, stakeholder engagement and providing responsive and exemplary services to users of linked-data.

Unleashing The Power of Your Master Linkage Map – Is There A Role For Business Intelligence Tools In Supporting Data Linkage?

Background with rationaleBusiness Intelligence (BI) software applications collect and process large amounts of data from one or more sources, and for a variety of purposes. These can include generating operational or sales reports, developing dashboards and data visualisations, and for ad-hoc analysis and querying of enterprise databases.
 Main AimBusiness Intelligence (BI) software applications collect and process large amounts of data from one or more sources, and for a variety of purposes. These can include generating operational or sales reports, developing dashboards and data visualisations, and for ad-hoc analysis and querying of enterprise databases.
 Methods/ApproachIn deciding to develop a series of dashboards to visually represent data stored in its MLM, the TDLU identified routine requests for these data and critically examined existing techniques for extracting data from its MLM. Traditionally Structured Query Language (SQL) queries were developed and used for a single purpose. By critically analysing limitations with this approach, the TDLU identified the power of BI tools and ease of use for both technical and non-technical staff.
 ResultsImplementing a BI tool is enabling quick and accurate production of a comprehensive array of information. Such information assists with cohort size estimation, producing data for routine and ad-hoc reporting, identifying data quality issues, and to answer questions from prospective users of linked data services including instantly producing estimates of links stored across disparate datasets.
 Conclusion BI tools are not traditionally considered integral to the operations of data linkage units. However, the TDLU has successfully applied the use of a BI tool to enable a rich set of data locked in its MLM to be quickly made available in multiple, easy to use formats and by technical and non-technical staff.

Library Metadata Standards and Linked Data Services: An Introduction to Arab and International Organizations

This article aims to give an overview of Arab and international organizations that promulgate library metadata standards and linked data services—ranging from those whose sole purpose is the setting of standards and linked data technology, to those that develop standards and provide linked data as subsidiary services.

SinoPedia-A Linked Data Services platform for decentralized knowledge base.

Knowledge bases are largely developed and utilized in academic and industrial fields, such as DBPedia, VIAF, LoC, Getty, and which are published in the Linked Data format. However, if you want to view different resources on these knowledge bases, you have to switch between different web pages from these resources. Therefore, we proposed a decentralized data hub named SinoPedia, which consists of several linked data services and can re-publish these RDF data in one platform. Firstly, these different Linked Data services include: Linked Data Transformation Service (LDTS), Linked Data Query Service (LDQS), Linked Data Publishing Service (LDPS) and Linked Data Knowledge Service (LDKS). The resource URI is the basis and core of the linked data, thus we will focus on the resource forwarding mechanism in LDPS service which can rewrite resource URI using a global and standard format among knowledge bases. Some knowledge bases were configured in SinoPedia platform in this paper. In addition to the above services, Linked Data Reasoning Service (LDRS) and Linked Data Intelligence Service (LDIS) will be added to the platform in the future. In short, all of these Linked Data Services will form the core framework in order to providing a good linked data application ecosystem.

Library Linked Data Models: Library Data in the Semantic Web

This exploratory study examined Linked Data (LD) schemas/ontologies and data models proposed or in use by libraries around the world using MAchine Readable Cataloging (MARC) as a basis for comparison of the scope and extensibility of these potential new standards. The researchers selected 14 libraries from national libraries, academic libraries, government libraries, public libraries, multi-national libraries, and cultural heritage centers currently developing Library Linked Data (LLD) schemas. The choices of models, schemas, and elements used in each library's LD can create interoperability issues for LD services because of substantial differences between schemas and data models evolving via local decisions. The researchers observed that a wide variety of vocabularies and ontologies were used for LLD including common web schemas such as Dublin Core (DC)/DCTerms, Schema.org and Resource Description Framework (RDF), as well as deprecated schemas such as MarcOnt and rdagroup1elements. A sharp divide existed as well between LLD schemas using variations of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) data model and those with different data models or even with no listed data model. Libraries worldwide are not using the same elements or even the same ontologies, schemas and data models to describe the same materials using the same general concepts.

LC/NACO Authority File in the Library of Congress BIBFRAME Pilots

The LC/NACO Authority File is a large cooperatively-maintained authority file that also functions as the Library of Congress local name authority file. In the Library of Congress BIBFRAME Pilots, catalogers access the LC/NACO Authority File as Linked Data in MADS/RDF serialization, through the Library of Congress Linked Data Service and the BIBFRAME Editor. This article explores the steps that enable BIBFRAME Pilot participants to complete authority work in a Linked Data environment. It also addresses the limitations, opportunities, and successes encountered by BIBFRAME Pilot participants as they interact with name authority data as Linked Data.

Modeling and representation of intangible cultural heritage knowledge using linked data and ontology

ABSTRACTIntangible cultural heritage (ICH) contains rich knowledge, and the effective organization and management of ICH knowledge is the foundation for the protection and inheritance of ICH. The development of semantic Web technology changes the way of knowledge representation and expression and provides new ideas and methods for the organizing and sharing of ICH knowledge. This paper describes a research project: to model and manage the ICH knowledge by publishing the knowledge as linked data. Firstly, a knowledge ontology was designed to reveal and standardize the concept, attribute and relationship of ICH knowledge elements. Then, we converted the knowledge to RDF data basted on the knowledge ontology and linked the entities with DBpedia and GeoNames. Finally, taking the ICH in Hubei province as an example, the methodology was used to create an RDF dataset which published as linked open data, and develop a knowledge service platform based on the linked data service. The research has promoted the standardization of knowledge management of ICH in China, which is of great significance for the protection and dissemination of ICH.

The ACORN-SAT linked climate dataset

In 2012 the Australian Bureau of Meteorology published a dataset, ACORN-SAT, containing the homogenised daily temperature observations of 112 locations throughout Australia for the last 100 years. The dataset employs the latest analysis techniques and takes advantage of newly digitised observational data to monitor climate variability and change in Australia. The observations in ACORN-SAT were initially published only as comma separated values, whereas the metadata was published in a PDF report. In 2013 we converted the metadata and the observation data into RDF and published the result as Linked Open Data, accessible online via a pilot government linked data service built on the Linked Data API. In this article we describe the process of transforming the original tabular data into a Linked Sensor Data Cube (in: Proc. of the 5th International Workshop on Semantic Sensor Networks, SSN12, CEUR-WS.org, 2012, pp. 1-16) based on the W3C Semantic Sensor Network ontology (Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web 17 (2012), 25-32) and the W3C RDF Data Cube vocabulary (The RDF Data Cube Vocabulary, W3C Recommendation, 16 January 2014). We further discuss how the dataset has since been used and interlinked with near-real time weather observations for the 112 sensing locations of the ACORN-SAT that are published by the Bureau of Meteorology. Both the original ACORN-SAT dataset and the weather observation data are accessible online at lab.environment.data.gov.au.

Combining the Best of Both Worlds: A Semantic Web Book Mashup as a Linked Data Service Over CMS Infrastructure

We propose a proof-of-concept of how the best of the Web world (RESTful services, Semantic technologies, and CMSs) can be successfully incorporated in the form of a semantic mashup. This mashup enriches data from various Web APIs with semantics to produce personalized book recommendations and to make them available as Linked Data. It is shown that this approach not only leaves reasoning expressiveness and effective ontology management uncompromised but comes to their benefit. It also bears potential applications for libraries and cataloguing services that can take advantage of mashup merging, semantic personalization, and ranking of book records and reviews.

Updates on Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Linked Data Task Groups

ABSTRACTThe Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) has set up two task groups to work on issues related to making PCC-produced metadata useful in linked data services. The PCC Task Group on URIs in MARC is exploring issues surrounding the addition of machine actionable identifiers to legacy MARC records. The CONSER (Cooperative Online Serials Program) BIBFRAME Task Group is discussing BIBFRAME and other vocabularies in the context of continuing resources. The PCC URI Task Group and the CONSER BIBFRAME Task Group represent efforts by the PCC to lay the groundwork for further developments in providing linked data services with its metadata.

Managing Serials Data as a Community: Partnering With the Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb)

The Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) is a project to develop and maintain a freely available repository of metadata that describes electronic journals and books using a community-managed approach. In preparation for GOKb's public preview at the end of 2014, the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries launched a pilot to create a partnership model for participating libraries. Based on a presentation at the 2015 North Carolina Serials Conference, Eric Hanson, Xiaoyan Song, and Kristen Wilson from NCSU Libraries share their experiences partnering with GOKb, including the workflows and tools that NCSU has established for contributing to GOKb, opportunities for library and vendor partners, and GOKb's linked data service.

Panel: Knowledge organization systems (KOS) as linked data services

Knowledge organization systems (KOS) are the key elements for interlinking the values of Linked Data datasets. Existing KOS products (including well-known thesauri and classification systems) need to be transformed into the constructs of Linked Data services, much more beyond what a traditional thesaurus or classification were/are developed, but how? What can these Linked Data KOS bring to various information services? The panelists will share their experiences and lessons learned. The presentation starts from the processes that have been developed to build, maintain, and publish a newly derived taxonomy using W3C SKOS standard, to make it extensible and scalable to support new information services in scholarly publishing workflow. The next presentation will share experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of a platform built for publishing and distribution of multiple KOS and for automatic indexing using these KOS. The third case is a Linked Data bibliographic service, a RDF-aware system and a mash up application which relies on the use of a multilingual thesaurus that has been published and maintained as a Linked Data dataset, and has been mapped to more than ten KOS. For the datasets that have not used standardized KOS, the panel will present methods that can be applied when generating or deriving project-focused micro-thesauri from the Linked Data KOS and give an overview of the use cases of Linked Data KOS in information services.

Evaluation of Mappings from MARC to Linked Data

The purpose of this study is to assess the quality and compatibility of library linked data (LLD) schemas in use or proposed for library resources. Linked Data (LD) has the potential to provide high quality metadata on the web with the ability to incorporate existing structured data from MARC via a mapping. Researchers selected representative libraries such as Harvard University Library, LC BIBFRAME (Library of Congress Bibliographic Framework), OCLC (Online Computer Library Canter) WorldCat, and National Library of Spain. For LD frameworks, four resources are matched into specific categories with MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) tags so that it could be retrieved in both OCLC LD and BIBFRAME with the conversion tool at bibframe.org: (1) Classic, ebook, and fiction, (2) multiple authors and part of a series, and non-fiction, (3) varying title, translation, and fiction, and (4) sub title, non-fiction. This study revealed that the choices and elements of each library made in local decisions might bring interoperability issues for LD services due to the quality metadata creation issues.

Legislation.gov.uk – Essential for the Law Business

AbstractLegislation on the Web gives rise to a unique set of challenges. The content has strict rules governing its structure and typographic layout. One piece of legislation can change others, often in complex ways. The text may or may not be in force and may or may not extend to a particular jurisdiction. This unique linked data service and its value proposition is discussed by Carol Tullo. This is a data source that underpins and drives the UK legislation publishing processes and the validation of secondary legislation, providing a streamlined end to end set of online legal tools for all to use.