Metadata’s Next Top Model
RDF and Its Impact on Digital Library Technology
Juliet L. Hardesty, Metadata Analyst
Digital Library Brown Bag
February 18, 2015
#dlbb @jlhardes

What makes a good model?
image
image
image
What makes a good model?
Resource Description Framework
(RDF)
What isn’t RDF?
 Linked data/Semantic Web
 XML
 Vocabularies
What is RDF?
 Conceptual Model
 Literally a framework for how to explicitly describe things
and relate them to other explicitly-described things
 RDF Primer from W3C
 Rdfabout (readable tutorial) on Github by Josh Tauberer
 RDF for Librarians by Jenn Riley – Fall 2010 DLBB
(handout)
IU’s Digital Collections, ca. 2005-present
Fedora Object
Digital File
(.mp3)
Digital File
(.mp4)
XML File
(MODS)
XML File
(Fedora DC)
Digital File
(.jpg)
Digital File
(other)
XML File
(RELS-EXT)
XML File
(other)
Sample Digital Object in Fedora 3
 Wylie House Museum photograph
 http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/images/VAC4785/VAC478
5-000793
 http://fedora.dlib.indiana.edu/fedora/objects/iudl%3A113
0465/datastreams
IU’s use of RDF
Relationships between objects in Fedora 3
Avalon Example
isPartOf
avalon:2360
avalon:2368
subject
predicate
(property)
object
IU’s use of RDF
Relationships between objects in Fedora 3
Finding Aid Example
iudl:1354092
(folder of items)
isMemberOfCollection
iudl:956830
(finding aid)
isPartOf
iudl:1354093
(199 page PDF)
isPartOf
iudl:1354094
(page 1 JPG)
Fedora 4
SPARQL
 Allows for
immediate changes
to current resource
 Other namespaces
can be added to
extend properties of
object
 Possibilities…
image
flickr
MODS RDF
 Added
modsrdf
namespace
 Changed
subjects from
DC to MODS
Structural and Descriptive RDF
 Descriptive
 PREFIX modsrdf:
<http://www.loc.gov/mods/rdf/v1#>
 Structural
 PREFIX ebucore:
<http://www.ebu.ch/metadata/ontologies/ebucore/ebucore#> ??
 PREFIX fobj:
<http://fedora.info/definitions/v4/models#> ??
 PREFIX somethingElse:
<URI> ??
So what is RDF?
Data Store
at least, that’s where we seem to be heading now…
RDF in a lunchbox
image
Questions? Comments!
 [email protected]
 @jlhardes
 Tuesdays, 10am-noon, Scholars’ Commons 157S