Study of library data models in the Semantic Web environment
Date Issued
November 3, 2020
Type
Διδακτορική Διατριβή
Abstract
Semantic Web (SW) technologies render data machine-understandable, and provide structure, meaning and trust to the existing World Wide Web. Linked Data (LD) is a step further enabling the linking of these machine-understandable representations. Nowadays, bibliographic entities are remodeled exploiting SW/LD technologies. Yet, there are many bibliographic data models exhibiting differences in terms of bibliographic entities and relationships. Existing library linked datasets that have exploited these models are very different to one another. Thus, even though LD technologies are used, the understanding of the data in the datasets is not ensured. This is a semantic interoperability (SI) issue that needs to be resolved to avoid the development of library linked datasets that end up isolated and unused.
To answer the thesis’ main research question “Is semantic interoperability between conceptual bibliographic data models feasible?”, four objectives are posed: 1) to study and to compare bibliographic models (i.e., FRBR and its consolidation LRM, FRBRoo, RDA, BIBFRAME, and the EDM), 2) to develop mappings between the models, 3) to assess the mappings using a testbed, and 4) to identify any possible prerequisites or good cataloging practices for better mappings.
The results of the thesis confirm that SI may be achieved under specific conditions. All the conditions, prerequisites and good practices identified in the thesis involve cataloging policy decisions. Thus, the final thesis statement advocates for better cooperation between stakeholders and the adoption of a common mindset and practices to resolve heterogeneities of the past and to prevent new ones from happening.
Subjects