EMu Online Data Sources Brad Lickman For Taxonomy and Geolocation (and Vocabulary Control)

Basically, any data discoverable via the Internet. For example: UNdata – 60 million data sets showing economic development country by country National Statistical Agencies – Demographic information Online museum collections searches Essentially, these are web interfaces that allow searching on various data sets. Online Data Sources

Museum specific data sources exist, and are available online: Taxonomy Integrated Taxonomic Information System World Register of Marine Species Catalogue of life Geolocation Google Maps GeoNames GEOLocate Vocabulary Control Getty vocabularies (AAT, ULAN, TGN, CONA) Applicable Online Data Sources

These various resources are helpful to expand our research and cataloguing data and knowledge, validate and verify our data, and to establish standards by which we record these data. Applicable Online Data Sources

Manually…somewhat? Typically, a snapshot of the data source is loaded onto the EMu server. How do we use these in EMu?

KE can load various thesauri into the Thesaurus module Load a snapshot of data.

KE can load various thesauri into the Thesaurus module Load a snapshot of data.

KE can load the ITIS dataset into the Taxonomy module Load a snapshot of data.

KE could load the Gazetteer module with…something. I’m not aware of this happening very frequently. Does anyone even use the Gazetteer module? Load a snapshot of data.

Problems: Scripts to load the data must be maintained and updated as new data sets are released. Just a snapshot. How do we get updates? How do we know if our snapshot is out of date? Time consuming process to re-load the entire data set. What happens to records that reference old terms/names? No one uses the Gazetteer module? Load a snapshot of data.

EMu Resources Tool The most common use of Resources is to extract data from the current record, insert it into a formatted url and launch a browser.

Resources Tool - ULAN

Resources Tool - ITIS

Resources Tool – Google Maps

Resources Tool – Georeferencing

A step in the right direction. We can now take advantage of online data sets using a more stream-lined method. Integration achieved by populating URLs with record terms. Resources Tool.

No two-way communication – bringing data from online data sources back into a record is done by hand (copy/paste at best). Resources tool can be tricky to configure – not everyone has the resources to use Resources. Resources Tool

By consulting online data sources, we can present results within the EMu client, pull selected data back, and use the results to enhance EMu records. Use of Open Data

Example: GEOLocate Web application Batch processing (csv) Web services (JSON, SOAP) Use of Open Data

GEOLocate Web Application

Example: Getty Thesauri Linked Open Data URIs point to terms, concepts, relationship, scope notes, etc. Use of Open Data

Advantages: No more copy/paste – more seamless integration No configuration of EMu Registry to use Resources We can be notified of changes – the process of updating is easier Take advantage of collaborative work Use of Open Data

Disadvantages: Connection to all online resources must be maintained in-house If connection protocols change, museums must keep up Use of APIs

Possible solution: A KE server can manage all connections to various online data sources Client sites simply contact KE server with the same requests Use of APIs

Advantages: KE manages all connections. If/when the communication protocols changes, there is no impact on clients. Use of APIs

Would the ability to seamlessly consult online data sources from within the EMu client improve how we use it? How? Questions/discussion

Which online data sources are we interested in? Questions/discussion

How do we want to use these data sources? ie. Should they be used as a reference, or be the ultimate authority? Questions/discussion

Should updates be automatically trusted? Questions/discussion