MADS/RDF (Metadata Authority Description Schema in RDF)
This document describes the MADS/RDF (Metadata Authority Description Schema in RDF) vocabulary, a data model for authority and vocabulary data used within the library and information science (LIS) community, which is inclusive of museums, archives, and other cultural institutions. It is presented as an OWL ontology. MADS/RDF is a knowledge organization system (KOS) designed for use with controlled values for names (personal, corporate, geographic, etc.), thesauri, taxonomies, subject heading systems, and other controlled value lists. It is closely related to SKOS, the Simple Knowledge Organization System and a widely supported and adopted RDF vocabulary. Given the close relationship between the aim of MADS/RDF and the aim of SKOS, the MADS ontology has been fully mapped to SKOS. Unlike SKOS, however, which is very broad in its application, MADS/RDF is designed specifically to support authority data as used by and needed in the LIS community and its technology systems. For example, MADS/RDF provides a means to record data from the Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) Authorities format in RDF for use in semantic applications and Linked Data projects. MADS/RDF is designed to support the description of cultural and bibliographic resources. Data described using MADS/RDF, therefore, assists with identifying and annotating bibliographic and cultural resources. MADS/RDF is not focused on the description of Real World Objects. Although a MADS/RDF description may contain information specific to the Real World Object associated with the MADS/RDF authoritative label, the MADS/RDF ontology distinguishes between these two entities – the RWO and the Authority. This document is intended for those designing and implementing LIS technology systems. It is assumed the reader is familiar with MADS/XML, Resource Description Framework (RDF) for information modeling, and the SKOS/RDF vocabulary. Comments are encouraged and welcome. The MODS listserv ( http://listserv.loc.gov/listarch/mods.html ), which is a public listserv with publicly available archives managed by LC, is the preferred forum for feedback. MADS/XML is maintained as part of the community work on MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema) ( http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/ ) and coordinated by the MODS Editorial Committee. This document is preceded by one dated 19 November 2010. Changes include, but are not limited to: Clarification of the role and intent of MADS/RDF. Greater clarification between terminology used in the present document Slight reorganization of document sections. Discussion of new class, madsrdf:DeprecatedAuthority, and related properties. Discussion of new owl:Class, madsrdf:RWO, and related properties. Status: Final Public Review Document Updated: 23 March 2011
Describes a resource whose label represents an occcupation.
Occupation Type
A resource that represents the alternate form of an Authority or Deprecated Authority. A Variant comes from the MARC Authority 4xx field.
Variant
Describes a resource whose label is an area that has the status of a jurisdiction, usually incorporating more than one first level jurisdiction.
Region Type
Describes a resource whose label is a smaller unit within a populated place, e.g., a neighborhood, park, or street.
City Section Type
Describes a resource whose label represents a time-based notion.
Temporal Type
Authority
Describes a resource whose label is a genre or form term. Genre terms for textual materials designate specific kinds of materials distinguished by the style or technique of their intellectual contents; for example, biographies, catechisms, essays, hymns, or reviews. Form terms designate historically and functionally specific kinds of materials as distinguished by an examination of their physical character, characteristics of their intellectual content, or the order of information within them; for example, daybooks, diaries, directories, journals, memoranda, questionnaires, syllabi, or time sheets. In the context of graphic materials, genre headings denote categories of material distinguished by vantage point, intended purpose, characteristics of the creator, publication status, or method of representation.
Genre/Form Type
Describes a resource whose label is an inhabited place incorporated as a city, town, etc.
City Type
A madsrdf:Identifier resource describes an identifier by associating the identifier value with its type. To be used to record identifiers for a resource in the absence of URIs.
Geographic Element
madsrdf:Element types describe the various parts of labels.
Element
Title Element
The part of a name label containing dates associated with the RWO.
Describes a resource whose label is a first order political division, e.g. Montana, within a country, e.g. U.S.
State Type
Describes a resource whose label is the name of a corporate entity, which may include political or ecclesiastical entities.
Corporate Name Type
Describes a resource whose label is the largest local administrative unit, e.g. Warwickshire, in a country, e.g. England.
County Type
Describes a resource whose label represents a topic.
Topic Type
Used to distinguish the primary title of an object from it's sub-title or other title parts.
Describes a resource whose label is a country, i.e. a political entity considered a country.
Country Type
Address
Describes a resource whose label is a geographical area belonging to or under the jurisdiction of a governmental authority.
Territory Type
A madsrdf:Collection is an organizational unit, members of which will have some form of intellectually unifying theme but not to the extent that it defines an independent knowledge organization system. It aggregates madsrdf:Authority descriptions or other madsrdf:MADSCollection resources.
Used to describe the title section or division, such as a chapter title or specific episode name.
Used to describe the enumeration element of a title, such as an episode number or the specific series number.
A madsrdf:HierarchicalGeographic indicates that its label is the concatenation of labels from a sequence of madsrdf:Geographic types taken from one of the madsrdf:Geographic sub-classes such as madsrdf:City, madsrdf:Country, madsrdf:State, madsrdf:Region, madsrdf:Area, etc. The madsrdf:Geographic resources that constitute the madsrdf:HierarchicalGeographic should have a broader to narrower hierarchical relationship between them.
Hierarchical Geographic Type
A resource that describes an individual's affiliation with an organization or group, such as the nature of the affiliation and the active dates.
Affiliation
A madsrdf:RWO is an abstract entity and identifies a Real World Object (RWO) identified by the label of a madsrdf:Authority or madsrdf:DeprecatedAuthority.
Used for the surname used to identify members of the same family.
Describes a resource whose label represents a family name.
Family Name Type
Describes a resource whose label is one of seven large landmasses on Earth. These are: Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica.
Continent Type
A title or enumeration associated with a name, such as Jr. or III.
madsrdf:ComplexType is a resource whose label is the concatenation of labels from two or more Authority descriptions or two or more Variant descriptions or some combination of Authority and Variant descriptions, each of a madsrdf:SimpleType.
Complex Type
Describes a resource whose label is a non-jurisdictional geographic entity.
Area Type
madsrdf:SimpleType is a resource with a label constituting a single word or phrase.
Simple Type
Describes a resource whose label is a tract of land surrounded by water and smaller than a continent but is not itself a separate country.
Island Type
Genre/Form Element
MADS Scheme is an organizational unit that describes a knowledge organization system. It aggregates madsrdf:Authority descriptions and/or madsrdf:MADSCollection resources included in the knowledge organization system. Including a madsrdf:MADSCollection within a madsrdf:MADSScheme should be done with care; when a madsrdf:MADSCollection is part of a madsrdf:MADSScheme, then any madsrdf:Authority within that madsrdf:MADSCollection is effectively also in the madsrdf:MADSScheme.
MADS Scheme
A resource that represents the source of information about another resource. madsrdf:Source is a type of citation.
The label of a madsrdf:NameTitle resource is the concatenation of a label of a madsrdf:Name description and the label of a madsrdf:Title description. Both description types (madsrdf:Name and madsrdf:Title) are of madsrdf:SimpleType types.
Name/Title Type
The label of a madsrdf:ComplexSubject is the concatenation of labels from two or more madsrdf:SimpleType descriptions, except that the combination of madsrdf:SimpleType labels for the madsrdf:ComplexSubject does not meet the conditions to be the label of a madsrdf:NameTitle resource or madsrdf:HierarchicalGeographic resource.
Complex Subject Type
Describes a resource whose label is any extraterrestrial entity or space, including a solar system, a galaxy, a star system, and a planet, including a geographic feature of an individual planet.
Extraterrestrial Area Type
Topic Element
Describes a resource whose label is a first order political division, e.g. Ontario, within a country, e.g. Canada.
Province Type
Describes a resource whose label represents a personal name.
Personal Name Type
Name Element
Describes a resource whose label represents a name, especially when a more precise Name type (madsrdf:ConferenceName, masdrdf:FamilyName, etc.) cannot be identified.
Name Type
Describes a resource whose label represents a geographic place or feature, especially when a more precise geographic determination (City, Country, Region, etc.) cannot be made.
Geographic Authority
Describes a resource whose label represents a title.
Title Type
Describes a resource whose label represents a conference name.
Conference Name Type
This relates an Authority or Variant to its administrative metadata, which is, minimimally, a Class defined outside of the MADS/RDF namespace. The RecordInfo Class from the RecordInfo ontology is recommended.
Administrative Metadata
Property to associate an individual, such as a foaf:Agent, to a group or organization with which an individual is or has been affiliated.
Associates a Real World Object with its Authority description.
Associates a resource with a madsrdf:Identifier.
Records a relationship between an Authority and one to which it matches exactly but from a different MADS Scheme.
"Use [This Other Resource] Instead." Traditional "USE" reference.
Associates a Variant with an Authority or Deprecrated Authority. Unless the variant type can be more specifically identified, use 'hasVariant.'
Records a relationship between an Authority and one that is closely related from a different MADS Scheme.
Use to reference the later form of a resource. This is Related type='later' in MADS XML.
The field of activity associated with an individual.
Creates a direct relationship between an Authority and a more narrowly defined Authority from a different MADS Scheme.
A Variant whose label represents a translation of that of the authoritative label.
Denotes a relationship between an Authority and/or DeprecatedAuthority. The relationship may or may or may not be reciprocated and there is no certainty that the related resource will further illuminate the original resource.
The madsrdf:elementList property is used to organize the various parts of labels.
Creates a direct relationship between an Authority and a more broadly defined Authority from a different MADS Scheme.
Identifies an Authority that is at the top of the hierarchy of authorities within the MADS Scheme.
Creates a direct relationship between an Authority and one that is more narrowly defined.
Has Related Authority
Unless the relationship can be more specifically identified, use 'hasRelatedAuthority.'
Use for variants that are searchable, but not necessarily for display.
Has Hidden Variant
Associates a resource description with its Source.
The address of the group or organization with which an individual is associated.
Establishes a relationship between a CorporateName Authority and one of the same that is more narrowly defined.
Used to reference a resource that was an earlier form. This is Related type='earlier' in MADS XML.
Associates an Authority or Collection with a madsrdf:MADSScheme.
Establishes a relationship between a CorporateName Authority and one of the same that is more broadly defined.
madsrdf:componentList organizes the madsrdf:SimpleType resources whose labels are represented in the label of the associated madsrdf:ComplexType resource.
The date an individual established an affiliation with an organization.
Identifies a MADS Scheme in which the Authority is at the top of the hierarchy.
Records the individual's role or position in the organization with which the individual is affiliated. A "job title" might be appropriate.
The date an individual ceased to be affiliated with an organization.
A label entered for discovery purposes but not shown.
A label once considered authoritative (controlled and curated) but which is no longer.
"Use [This Resource] For." Traditional "USE FOR" reference.
Associates a Collection with a madsrdf:Authority or another madsrdf:MADSCollection.
Is Member Of MADSCollection
Associates an Authority with the Real World Object that is the subject of the authorities label.
Associates an Authority or other Collection with a madsrdf:MADSCollection.
Has MADSCollection Member
Should use a standard term - such as 'found' or 'not found' - to indicate whether the cited resource yielded information about the resource related to the madsrdf:Source.
Citation Status
A code is a string of characters associated with a the authoritative or deprecated label. It may record an historical notation once used to uniquely identify a concept.
First line of address. For second line, use madsrdf:extendedAddress.
The value of the identifier conforming to the Identifier Scheme syntax.
The lexical, variant form of an authoritative label.
Establishes a relationship between an Authority and one from a different MADS Scheme. It is reciprocal, so the relationship must be shared.
Establishes a relationship between two Authority resources. It is reciprocal, so the relationship must be shared. This is Related type='equivalent' in MADS XML.
A note pertaining to the deletion of a resource.
A note detailing a modification to an Authority or Variant.
Change Note
City
The city component of an address.
The group or organization with which an individual is associated.
The cited resource.
Citation Source
The classification code associated with a madsrdf:Authority.
Classification
A lexical string representing a controlled, curated label for the Authority.
Authoritative Label
An explanation of the meaning of an Authority, DeprecatedAuthority, or Variant description.
Definition Note
A note pertaining to the management of the label associated with the resource.
A note pertaining to the history of the resource.
A example of how the resource might be used.
A note about how the madsrdf:Source relates to the resource about which the madsrdf:Source is the information source.
Citation Note
The scheme associated with the identifier. For example, "LCCN" would be used when the Identifier Value (madsrdf:idValue) is a LC Control Number.