“Semantically Enhancing Collections of Library and Non-Library Content”, article by James E. Powell, Linn Marks Collins and Mark L. B. Martinez, in D-Lib Magazine, Volume 16, Number 7/8, 2010.
I like the authors’ pragmatic attitude:
Although wholesale conversion of large metadata collections to semantic web data may not be a viable option yet, there’s a middle path which may open the door to more advanced user tools while at the same time increasing the relevance of digital libraries. It involves generation of semantically enhanced, focused collections of data.
Their discovery application is an example of data fusion, i.e. merging of data from various sources through mapping between formats. It integrates digital library content with external data to augment the bibliographic metadata and to create an information structure that goes beyond mere bibliography.
Another aspect that caught my eye is their visualization approach. Representing metadata in a graph model might help users navigate and encounter new connections, an option that could also offer some benefit for FRBRized representations of bibliographic data (which seems to remind me of Ron Murray’s FRBR network models of complex bibliographic relationships).
