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Robert Baxter Senior Archivist Cumbria Archive Service

‘ From A2A to Web 3.0 ’ : local authority archives and the challenges in working across sectors in the light of the JISC Step change Linked Data project. Robert Baxter Senior Archivist Cumbria Archive Service. Where are we? Step change project Pointers for the future.

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Robert Baxter Senior Archivist Cumbria Archive Service

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  1. ‘From A2A to Web 3.0’: local authority archives and the challenges in working across sectors in the light of the JISC Step change Linked Data project Robert Baxter Senior Archivist Cumbria Archive Service

  2. Where are we? • Step change project • Pointers for the future

  3. 1. Local government archives, their catalogues and other online content - a brief overview of the environment • A traditional sector in decline? The challenges: isolation, ICT support, workforce • Models of change: corporate integration/online integration/aggregation/standalone • Open data/siloed data/data behind the paywall • Sharing data – why bother?

  4. Definitions “describes a method of publishing structured data so that it can be interlinked and become more useful. It builds upon standard Web technologies such as HTTP and URIs, but rather than using them to serve web pages for human readers, it extends them to share information in a way that can be read automatically by computers. This enables data from different sources to be connected and queried” (wikipedia)

  5. Basic principles: Sir TBL Use URIs to identify things. Use HTTP URIs so that these things can be referred to and looked up ("dereferenced"). Provide useful information about the thing when its URI is dereferenced, using standard formats such as RDF/XML. Include links to other, related URIs in the exposed data to improve discovery of other related information on the Web.

  6. Meaning... To embed the knowledge of an archivist to make statements about entities – things and their relationships online - searchable in a machine-readable way Unlocking more data than is described currently with HTML and applying structure to it: archivists are good at structure and categorisation...so potentially we have the expertise to help evolve Linked Data...

  7. The benefits Discoverability, bringing metadata out of the silo, exposure to search engines To create new types of query and richer searches beyond text search and retrieval To bring together archive, library and museum descriptions or content created by different parts of same local authority/locality To machine process links between same/similar material held by different repositories To combine archive content with other types, eg. Maps, audio-visual

  8. 2. JISC Step change project, 2012 • Partners: AIM25 (King’s College London), ULCC, Historypin, Axiell, Cumbria Archive Service • Turning the UK Archival Thesaurus into a Linked Data version and live service • Development of ‘ALICAT’ AIM25 workflow tool for processing, validating and approving Linked Data ‘entities’ • Implementing Linked Data functionality in CALM • Tool to connect archive descriptions with the Historypin mapping service

  9. JISC Step Change – Calm package • Use of Calm in UK • Allow archive repositories to consume and reuse linked open data locally • Complement work of aggregation services (AIM25, Archives Hub, TNA etc)

  10. JISC Step Change – CALM package ‘Using easily understood data models’ =ISAD(G) in a CALM environment ‘Establishing data relationships by re-using authoritative identifiers’: linking local CALM records to national name/place/subject authorities ‘Optimising data for re-use’: locally created data enhanced with LOD access points for re-use by other aggregation services

  11. JISC Step Change – CALM package –next steps Linked data utility will be released as part of version 10 upgrade later this year Latest CalmView release will incorporate means to display links Much more work required to develop and render links in CalmView for intelligent and instinctive use by researchers Ongoing development and testing by ourselves, main CALM User Group and regional CALM User Groups Planned testing of front ends by local archive user focus groups

  12. What changes do libraries, museums and archives need to be made to support better resource discovery and do we still need to aggregate? • We need to revisit the idea of "put it out there and it'll happen" and be strategic about putting it where users are. • Are aggregations effective? So should we not just leave aggregation to Google etc and work at helping people to publish/expose their data. • But why do we aggregate? Is it to increase audiences, to provide resources for specific projects or to enable users to discover what we hold? Google doesn’t do that and existing aggregators are imperfect: there are too many, none holds ‘all’ the data and users don’t know which to choose. • Aggregate content or metadata? This should not be about creating web portals but creating resources for other developers to do useful things

  13. 3. ‘From A2A to Web 3.0’: a future data environment for local government archives? • National/international leads, particularly from Library Sector • Crosswalks from these to other authorities (VIAF model) • Need for proper LD authority services for UK archives (NRA, UKAT, MDR etc) • Involve aggregation services (AIM25, Archives Hub, TNA) in development of linked data utilities for archivists to ensure accurate and appropriate reuse for wider LD transformation and exposure • Cooperation and partners: local authority peers, TNA, HE sector • Opportunities – commercial publishers/aggregators/HE led projects • Embedding data sharing as part of the job

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