Metadata
Metadata
Metadata structure standards used by the Authorities and Vocabularies service include:
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Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)
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Web Ontology Language (OWL)
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Resource Description Framework (RDF)
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RDF Schema (RDFS)
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Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Metadata Terms
The data model used by the Authorities and Vocabularies service is influenced entirely by SKOS. As a result, most of the metadata associated with our offerings are disseminated using properties and classes from SKOS.
Learn more about SKOS and RDF
Start with the SKOS Primer , and then have a look at the SKOS Reference . These contain a good overview of the basics of RDF, as well.
Additionally, have a look at this DevX article that nicely touches on SKOS ConceptSchemes, Concepts, and Collections.
Who else uses SKOS?
As part of the TELplus project, Antoine Isaac offers a service that uses SKOS to provide RAMEAU subject headings as Linked Data . In fact, in the spirit of Linked Data, this TELplus project and the Authorities and Vocabularies service link in kind between concepts that possess a semantic relation. This is made possible thanks to 60,000 mappings manually provided by the MACS project.
OCLC is building tools with SKOS, and the United States National Agriculture Library has released its thesaurus in SKOS. The National Science Digital Library Registry also uses SKOS as a primary metadata model.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization uses SKOS within its GeoNetwork application.
Why SKOS?
SKOS is quickly becoming a prevalent standards-based tool for representing thesaurus data, as witnessed by the user list above. Using SKOS instead of creating a custom XML Schema approach minimizes reinvention of the wheel. Implementing custom XML Schemata often requires new, custom tools to be created by each user, whereas SKOS and RDF have numerous tools to make instant use of the data.
Furthermore, the notion of dereferenceable, REST ful URIs is a strength of the Semantic Web and Linked Data community approach to data -- one which is attractive enough for us to leverage. It is not necessarily an approach that the Semantic Web community invented, nor is it something that XML is devoid of, comparatively speaking. However, centering services or content negotiation around a reusable or multi-purposed URI has not been a common design principle in most XML applications.
Lastly, the ability to see our data tied into the Linked Data world is attractive. Linked Data is heavily driven by Semantic Web and RDF technologies. This offers an exciting opportunity to bring our standards offerings to a new user community.
