1. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Architecting a Cross-Disciplinary Thesaurus for the Semantic Web W. Davenport Robertson National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA Jane Greenberg School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications (DC-2004), Shanghai, China, 14 October 2004

2. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences The Department of Health and Human Services The National Institutes of Health

3. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/cehp 选择有针对性的最新、最前沿的环境健 康新闻、政策及研究综述 以季刊形式发行，发行量 37,000 份 向读者提供中文简体和繁体两种版本 提供印刷本或上网浏览两种阅读形式

4. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

5. http://www.ils.unc.edu/mrc/mrg.index

6. Previous Findings on Metadata Need for subject metadataNeed for subject metadata Need for authority list of termsNeed for authority list of terms Authors want guidance for subject metadataAuthors want guidance for subject metadata Authors would like cataloger assistanceAuthors would like cataloger assistance Searchers dissatisfied with surrogatesSearchers dissatisfied with surrogates

7. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Needs Assessment for an Environmental Health Thesaurus “Environmental health” is cross-disciplinary“Environmental health” is cross-disciplinary Environmental health information is crucial for our well-being.Environmental health information is crucial for our well-being. A controlled vocabulary is necessary for retrieving accurate informationA controlled vocabulary is necessary for retrieving accurate information No thesaurus adequately covers environmental health todayNo thesaurus adequately covers environmental health today Recommendation: combine parts of existing thesauriRecommendation: combine parts of existing thesauri

8. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Thesaurus A, Server 1 Thesaurus B, Server 2 Thesaurus C, Server 3 Thesaurus D, Server 4 Thesaurus E, Server 5 Thesaurus F, Server 6 Metathesaurus Ontology Server (Local) Figure 1. Decentralized Cross-Disciplinary Metathesaurus

9. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Decentralized Semantics Approach for a Metathesaurus Applied examplesApplied examples –Metadata author –Web site searcher W3C interoperability principles for shared ontologies (OWL Web Ontology Language)W3C interoperability principles for shared ontologies (OWL Web Ontology Language) Advantages of inter-disciplinary modelAdvantages of inter-disciplinary model –Integral to the Semantic Web –Distributed resources reduce load on individual components –Individual components can maintain their independence –Components can be re-used in other metathesauri

10. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Decentralized Semantics Requirements Semantic Web thesaurus standards under development (http://www.w3.org/2004/03/thes-tf/mission)Semantic Web thesaurus standards under development (http://www.w3.org/2004/03/thes-tf/mission) Open Biological Ontologies example of a consolidated registry (http://obo.sourceforge.net/)Open Biological Ontologies example of a consolidated registry (http://obo.sourceforge.net/) SWOOP example of software that integrates multiple ontologies for searching (http://www.mindswap.org/)SWOOP example of software that integrates multiple ontologies for searching (http://www.mindswap.org/)

11. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Decentralized Metathesaurus Requirements Components must be open, preferably open sourceComponents must be open, preferably open source Component ontologies must be listed in an ontology registryComponent ontologies must be listed in an ontology registry Components must use Semantic Web standardsComponents must use Semantic Web standards –Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) –RDF, RDFS, XML –OWL Web Ontology Language

12. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Conclusion Standards and tools are still under developmentStandards and tools are still under development Appropriate domain components for an environmental health metathesaurus have to be selected (EPA, NCI, MeSH, etc.)Appropriate domain components for an environmental health metathesaurus have to be selected (EPA, NCI, MeSH, etc.) Organizations have to be convinced of valueOrganizations have to be convinced of value Thesauri have to be converted to Semantic Web ontologiesThesauri have to be converted to Semantic Web ontologies This model can be applied to other cross-disciplinary fieldsThis model can be applied to other cross-disciplinary fields