Share Family Bulletin - n. 3 October 2021



Announcements

The new version Share-VDE 2.0 is live at https://svde.org with an enhanced Entity Discovery Portal and Linked Data Management System. The previous version at https://share-vde.org/ will be active in parallel to Share-VDE 2.0 until the migration of libraries’ data on the new system will be completed. The load of Share-VDE libraries’ data is being done progressively and currently the new web portal hosts a subset of the data available on the previous version.

If you want to discover the advanced functions of Share-VDE 2.0, the web portal at https://svde.org is the place to go.

To provide feedback on the new version, report bugs and suggestions reach out through the forum https://forum.svde.org/.

This news has also been published in a dedicated Share-VDE press release.

An important aspect to underline is that the Share-VDE and Share Family components are supported by the LOD Platform technology framework. Among these components, it’s relevant to mention the services for the authority control, that we have developed based on the analysis carried on by the Share-VDE working groups, and the Share Family tenant infrastructure that allows configurability and flexibility of the data grouped and presented according to each specific library or library consortia domain needs.

The Share-VDE Statement has been distributed widely to give context on Share-VDE position in the linked data ecosystem. In light of the work that Share-VDE is carrying on and of its involvement in several international initiatives, the SVDE Advisory Council has approved and published an official statement that is the explanation of position of the initiative in the broader context of Library Linked Open Data.

Overview of major developments

As far as the frontend infrastructure, the new SVDE 2.0 portal (www.svde.org) has been completed and its design was enhanced by the activities around the JCricket Cluster Knowledge Base editor, the requirements for the University of Pennsylvania localisation and for the Kubikat-LOD parallel pilot project. Based on this enhanced prototype, SVDE IT team has connected the new components of the frontend of the SVDE platform with the backend infrastructure. The same is being done for the ad hoc localisation for the University of Pennsylvania. The other skin portals foreseen are being prepared.

A complex diagram of the frontend development project has been created and will be used to generate and display SVDE portal and the connected skin portals. The naming of the infrastructure components in the diagram are arbitrary and respond to the metaphor of a big forest: it’s a way to avoid ambiguity within the various development teams working on SVDE. The names of the skins and tenants for users outside the development teams will reflect the names of the institutions. Please note that it’s a work in progress populated with a few placeholder data for demonstrative purposes; for this reason it might be unstable, it reflects the search and navigation functions though.

As far as the backend layer, the enhancements of the new user interface increased the dependencies between the features specific to each localisation of the SVDE frontend (i.e. SVDE general interface, Penn localisation, JCricket module, Kubikat-LOD pilot project etc.) and the underlying system components common to all of them, for example the search logic. This implied a deep revision of the SVDE backend layer that is now supported by a complex set of APIs.

Moreover, the Cluster Knowledge Base and the clustering module are being enhanced with new attributes and new controlled vocabularies as a result of the UI design, the revision of the backend infrastructure and the continuous work of the SEI - Sapientia Entity Identification working group.

Initial ideas for the implementation of the tenant infrastructure are being exchanged. Data from libraries of the Share Family would be grouped by similar domains or characteristics in ad hoc tenants of the software architecture. This would enable each tenant to manage the data independently, allowing in the same time an infrastructure for potential data exchange services.

Parallel work was done on the pilot Kubikat-LOD localisation of art libraries, supporting Kubikat-specific features. Kubikat-LOD pilot has been released on February 1st 2022 in its beta version. It represents the linked open data entity discovery platform containing the whole catalogues of the libraries belonging to the following four art history institutions:

  • Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, Max-Planck-Institut (www.khi.fi.it)
  • Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich (www.zikg.eu), funded by the Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Bildung und Kultus, Wissenschaft und Kunst
  • Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte / Centre allemand d'histoire de l'art in Paris (dfk-paris.org), funded by Max Weber Stiftung - Foundation of German Humanities Institutes Abroad
  • Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte in Rome (www.biblhertz.it)

This is the result of the joint work of the Kubikat group of libraries that are envisaging a new tool for scholars, researchers and end users as well as for librarians to manage bibliographic resources.

SVDE team has been working on the procedure to fully automate the workflow for receiving updated MARC data from all SVDE member institutions. After the initial import of the MARC full catalogues of SVDE libraries done in 2019, the procedures for the ingestion in SVDE of subsequent regular updates of MARC data have been created and constantly refined for processing, enrichment and clustering in SVDE. However, the recent changes to the infrastructure of the system imposed to re-design the module managing delta updates, that will soon be completed.

SVDE participates to Linked Data for Production 3 project with two major tasks:

  1. build two-ways flow APIs to connect SVDE and Sinopia BIBFRAME cataloguing module. The first step has been done, i.e. the Sinopia team has built an API pipeline that pulls records built by Sinopia and the functioning has been tested by the SVDE team. Moreover, SVDE has analysed Sinopia documentation on the structure of records output from Sinopia: this will be the basis for SVDE to build the connector to import Sinopia records in SVDE. The initial sketch of how SVDE is envisaging to close the loop is available;
  2. provide the conversion and housing of PCC data in an ad hoc PCC data pool working as autonomous tenant, with a separated enriched CKB and ad hoc PCC URIs with dedicated namespace. SVDE has delivered PCC records converted in BIBFRAME for the initial load of approx 4.5 million MARC bibliographic records created by PCC libraries; regular updates are ongoing, on a monthly basis, for the duration of LD4P3.

The SVDE team is working on the development of the authority services, based on the analysis carried on by the working groups. The initial release of the authority control features has been delivered to Stanford University Libraries.

Members' activities with the Share team

The list of SVDE members can be consulted at Share-VDE institutions.

The continuous cooperation between the SVDE IT team and the working groups of SVDE libraries brought several important results.

In the context of the SVDE AIMS-CKB working groups, SVDE has prepared the ground for JCricket Cluster Knowledge Base Editor and authority services developments: the design of the editor module has been completed as far as functions for user interaction with the module itself (see an example of the function merging two author clusters in one). SVDE IT team is currently working on a detailed analysis of authentication and permission functions. This is key for JCricket editing functions (e.g. definition of roles for users and actions that they can perform), but it’s also functional to SVDE in general as far as interaction with other skin portals/tenants is concerned.

Also, the analysis of authority services has been completed within the AIMS working group and SVDE team is analysing the integration with Wikidata and ISNI. Connected to authority services and interaction between SVDE and external sources, the PCC has launched the PCC Wikidata pilot. This pilot can be beneficial to SVDE interaction and data exchange with Wikidata, and Casalini Libri is taking part in the pilot with reference to SVDE, see the project page on Wikidata Casalini Libri. SVDE-Wikidata Interaction.

The revision of the entity model with the Sapientia Entity Identification (SEI) working group is a major achievement: SVDE model is a four layered adaptation of BIBFRAME comprising the entities svde:Opus | svde:Work | svde:Instance | svde:Item. This structure ensures interoperability with other environments using LRM-based models or pure BIBFRAME models.

Among the Share Family of library driven initiatives a new working group has started dedicated to the practical cooperation among the National Bibliographies. Considering the important presence of several National Libraries in the Share-VDE community and in the broader network of institutions that follow the progress of this initiative and of other Linked Open Data projects, this working group has been launched in order to study and address the needs of National Libraries and institutions that hold National Bibliographies in the framework of a shared entity discovery environment such as the Share Family of initiatives. Read the Executive summary of the National Bibliographies initiative.

Latest events

Several events over the last weeks have marked significant steps for Share-VDE and for knowledge sharing in the library community:

  • the NLN – National Libraries Now 2021 conference on 16th – 17th September was a fruitful event where Tiziana Possemato delivered a speech about Experience of International Cooperation: Towards a Collective and Global Catalog of National Bibliographies.
  • On the subject of national libraries, a new working group has been formed in Share-VDE and in the Share Family of initiatives dedicated to practical cooperation among institutions managing National Bibliographies. Considering the important presence of several National Libraries in the Share-VDE community and in the broader network of institutions that follow the progress of this initiative and of other Linked Open Data projects, this working group has been launched in order to study and address the needs of National Libraries and institutions that hold National Bibliographies in the framework of a shared entity discovery environment such as the Share Family of initiatives.

If you are interested in this new group, don’t hesitate to contact us at [[1]]. The materials of the first meeting are available: agenda and notes https://bit.ly/SVDE_National-Bib-WG_2021-Sep-01 and meeting recording National_bibliographies_WG_2021-09-01.mp4.

  • The BIBFRAME Workshop in Europe from September 21st to 23rd engaged a large community of BIBFRAME adopters and professionals working in the transition from MARC to Linked Data using the BIBFRAME model. The first afternoon was focused on implementations (including Share-VDE), the second afternoon on new developments, and the third one on a vast data exchange topic including a panel on RDA/RDF. The presentations and links to the recordings of the sessions are available at https://2021.bfwe.eu/.
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