LOD - Linked Open Data Platform is a highly innovative technological framework, an integrated ecosystem for the management of bibliographic, archive and museum catalogues, and their conversion to linked data according to the BIBFRAME ontology version 2.0 (https://www.loc.gov/bibframe/docs/bibframe2-model.html), extensible as needed for specific purposes.
The core of the LOD Platform was designed in the EU-funded project ALIADA, with the idea of creating a scalable and configurable framework able to adapt to ontologies from different domains, capable of automating the entire process of creating and publishing linked open data, regardless of the data source format.
The aim of this framework is to open the possibilities offered by linked data to libraries, archives and museums by providing greater interoperability, visibility and availability for all types of resources.
The application of the LOD Platform obviously requires the careful analysis of the standards, formats and models used in the institution addressed; however, its coverage, based on BIBFRAME 2.0 as core ontology, can be enriched with a suite of additional ontologies, such as Schema.org, Prov-O, MADS, RDFS, LC vocabularies, RDA vocabularies and so on; it’s extremely flexible and allows for the implementation of additional ontologies, vocabularies and modelling according to specific needs.
By incorporating standards, models and technologies recognized as key elements for the creation of new processes of management and use of knowledge, the LOD Platform allows:
- the creation of a data structure based on Agent, Work, Instance, Item, Place entities, as defined by BIBFRAME, and extensible to reconcile other entities;
- data enrichment through the connection with external data sources;
- reconciliation and clusterization of entities created from the original data;
- the conversion of data according to the standard model indicated by the W3C for the LOD, RDF - Resource Description Framework;
- delivery of converted and enriched data to the target institution for reuse in their systems;
- the publication of the dataset in linked data on RDF storage (triplestore);
- the creation of a discovery portal with a web user interface based on BIBFRAME or other ontologies defined in specific projects.
