Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Linked Open Data prototype at the German National Library

From: Adrian Pohl <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:04:08 +0200

Karen,

I am not working at the DNB but maybe I can answer your question
anyway. I think the reason why the DNB used their GND-properties is
their special way of cataloging names and parts of names. See
https://wiki.d-nb.de/download/attachments/34963694/Namesentitaeten.PNG
for the way the DNB modelled name representation in RDF. Object of the
properties gnd:preferredNameForThePerson and
gnd:variantNameForThePerson isn't a literal but a blank node. That may
explain the DNB's choice of new properties.

I will ask if somebody from the DNB to joins list for unfortunately
there seems nobody reading this.

Adrian

>>> Karen Coyle  16.04.10 20.40 Uhr >>>
Adrian, thanks for sharing this. I hope some folks do interesting  
things with it.

Meanwhile, looking at the data, I see properties like:

gnd:variantNameForThePerson

There is a "Variant name for the person" in RDA, and it has a  
registered RDF form (with identifier). Have you considered using the  
RDA form? or registering your properties with a "same as" link?

kc

Quoting Adrian Pohl :

> Hallo,
>
> the German National Library (DNB) has made public its Linked Data
> prototype for authority data. It uses RDA, FOAF, the relationship
> vocabulary and some DNB-made properties (GND-vocabulary) for person
> authority data. For subject headings it uses SKOS, Dublin Core as well
> as some newly minted GND-properties. It already contains links to
> Wikipedia, DBpedia and viaf.org.
>
> A documentation is available (only in German) here:
> https://wiki.d-nb.de/display/LDS
>
> Here is the RDF/XML-representation of the authority data about Johann
> Wolfgang von Goethe: http://devel.d-nb.de/linked/gnd/118540238/about
> And the corresponding HTML-representation:
> http://devel.d-nb.de/linked/gnd/118540238/
>
> The data is also available as Open Data (actually I can't find a
> licence) in N-Triple format:
>
http://datendienst.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/mabit.pl?cmd=fetch&userID=testdat&pass=testdat&mabheft=tdbdump_gnd.zip
> (320 MB)
>
> Because it's just a prototype and the underlying data is still subject
> to changes you shouldn't link to it yet. The DNB wishes that the data
> shouldn't be used in live systems.
> Some problems need to be resolved before leaving the prototype status,
> for example: Until now the identifier for a person also is the
> identifier for a HTML representation of the corresponding authority
data
> which conflicts Linked Data conventions. (See the URI of Johann
Wolfgang
> von Goethe for instance: http://d-nb.info/gnd/118540238)
>
> It's great that the German National Library is taking action in the
> Linked Data field and has realized - in contrast to other library
> organizations - that it needs to change its business model away from
> taking money for data!
>
> Regards
> Adrian
>
>>>> "Binz, Vera"  16.04.2010 14:01 >>>
> *** Mehrfachempfang bitten wir zu entschuldigen ***
>
> Liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen,
>
> seit kurzem steht der Linked Data Service der Deutschen
> Nationalbibliothek als Prototyp online zur Verfügung. Aktuell werden
> etwa 1,8 Mio. Personen (aus der PND) und ca. 164.000 Sachschlagworte
> (aus der SWD) dargestellt.
>
> Wir möchten Sie einladen, den Service zu testen. Die Dokumentation,
die
> auch unsere Überlegungen bzgl. technischer Umsetzung und Modellierung
> der Daten enthält, finden Sie unter:
>
>     https://wiki.d-nb.de/display/LDS
>
> Ansprechpartner: Dr. Jan Hannemann, [email-masked], Tel.
> 069-1525-1769
>
> Wir freuen uns über Feedback, um dies bei der weiteren Umsetzung des
> Linked Data Service berücksichtigen zu können.
>
> Viele Grüße
> Vera Binz
>
> --
> Vera Binz
> Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
> Informationstechnik
> Adickesallee 1
> D-60322 Frankfurt am Main
> Telefon: +49-69-1525-1771
> Telefax: +49-69-1525-1799
> mailto:[email-masked]
> http://www.d-nb.de
> --
> http://www.inetbib.de
>

-- 
Karen Coyle
[email-masked] http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet

---

From: Bernhard Eversberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:16:04 +0200

> https://wiki.d-nb.de/display/LDS

Just to show that something can be done with it, and what the content
really looks like, I have set up a database for browsing and searching:

   http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/db/a30/gnd.htm

This is an experiment. 1.9 million name and subject authority records of
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt have been indexed. Most of the
records are for personal names, only 163.800 are subject headings.
There are links to the DNB catalog and, in the case of personal names, 
to VIAF.

The database does not reflect the complete and unabridged content of the
production version at DNB and is to be considered a prototype, not to
be used in production environments. Several data fields are not
included. Not all special characters are correctly encoded.

Whereas name authorities are more or less relatable to the names used
in other languages (that's what VIAF does), the German subject headings
are a different story altogether. One cannot find one LCSH term for each
German subject heading or vice versa. The entire approach is very
different.

Not all of the user interface is English (experiment, not production
version!), but enough to make it usable.

B.Eversberg