'Linked Data and the Step change Project: archive authorities, AIM25 and CALM’ Geoff Browell, Senior Archives Services Manager, King’s College London Robert Baxter, Senior Archivist, Cumbria Archive Service
Partnerships AIM25: archive collection descriptions for London Cumbria Archive Service: Local authority service University of London Computer Centre (ULCC) Axiell Historypin
Step change Builds on the JISC Open Metadata Pathway project Improve archive cataloguing and link archive repositories more effectively with external services in order to help users and make archive collections more accessible Nov 2011-July 2012
Aims Make more efficient the process of indexing & cataloguing Embed Linked Open Data in day-to-day archive workflows Turn archive-related authority data into live services Enhancing the research value of archive catalogues by providing links to parallel or complementary services Demonstrate the broader value of Linked Data within organisations Reuse of archive catalogues in new and interesting ways – mixing content with useful data
Objectives Turning the UK Archival Thesaurus into a Linked Data version and live service Development of the workflow tool from OMP – a tool for processing, validating and approving Linked Data ‘entities’ Implementing UKAT and workflow tool in CALM Tool that connects archive descriptions about places with the Historypin mapping service
Challenges 1: data & technical Place name vocabularies – different standards and inconsistencies Moderation and editing of LOD datasets Uri vocabularies; EAD; proprietary systems APIs – lack of availability Information quality – LOD exposes poor quality or ambiguous information, which means more retroconversion & re- cataloguing – how is this funded?
Challenges 2: other issues Rights – for example reuse of maps out of context; re-use of datasets Training: archivists & other information professionals Developing different services to jigsaw and connect – dependencies User experience – danger of information overload and visual appearance/display standards
Next steps Axiell: development of tools to analyse and validate archive catalogues & related tools in CalmView (for CALM10) Historypin: tool to show relevant archive catalogue information alongside images AIM25: redevelopment of back-end and front end to express linking with other services Robust user testing and roadmap (professional and end-users)
Related JISC projects Trenches to Triples: World War One-related triples from the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives World War One aggregation
Questions? geoffrey.browell@kcl.ac.uk robert.baxter@cumbria.gov.uk http://openmetadatapathway.blogspot.co.uk/