Application of linked data technologies in digital libraries: a review of literature
| Date | 07 May 2019 |
| Pages | 9-12 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-10-2018-0067 |
| Published date | 07 May 2019 |
| Author | Zahid Raza,Khalid Mahmood,Nosheen Fatima Warraich |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Application of linked data technologies in digital
libraries: a review of literature
Zahid Raza, Khalid Mahmood and Nosheen Fatima Warraich
Introduction
Digital libraries are on the way to
link their data on the Web to serve their
users. Unfortunately, digital libraries
are lagging behind to publish their
quality resources on the Web for wider
community usage. Many libraries are
succeeding in efforts to introduce
modern Web standards in the form of
Semantic Web using linked data
technologies. Web 1.0 had information
characteristics, Web 2.0 was interactive
and now Web 3.0 provides a machine
readable Web, or the Web of Data, or a
Semantic Web. It allows machines to
better understand, interpret and reuse
the meaning of the content just like
humans. Semantic Web has been
created using structured data that allow
computers to understand and interpret
the relationships between entities of
data. Semantic evolution of Web was
also due to the extensive usage of linked
data technologies (Byrne and Goddard,
2010).
Haslhofer and Isaac (2011) described
that linked data was a data publishing
technique used on the World Wide Web
to connect related data for the purpose
of accessibility on the Web. Linked data
are based on hypertext transfer protocol
(HTTP), uniform resource identifiers
(URI) and using Semantic Web
standards such as the resource
description framework (RDF) which
allows related data to be connected with
each other and with other related
resources as well. Guerrini (2013)
described that “linked data is a set of
best practices required for publishing
and connecting structured data on the
Web for use by a machine”. Machine
will be capable just like humans to read,
interpret and reuse information using
URIs on the Web to facilitate access.
Linked Open Data (LOD) integrates
open data sets on the Web for wider
usage of the community.
The concept of linked data is closely
relatedtotheSemanticWeb,andlinked
data are considered as a brain child of the
Sematic Web. Berners-Lee et al. (2001)
described the Semantic Web as: “an
extension of the current Web in which
information is given well-defined
meaning, better enabling computers and
people to work in cooperation”. The basic
principle of the Semantic Web is to enable
machines to understand and interpret data
on the Web which can be shared and
processed by automatic tools as well as
humans. Machines will not only be able to
display data but also be able to use data for
integration and reuse it for various
applications (Sure and Studer, 2005).
Berners-Lee et al. (2001) described
four rules for the creation of linked data
on the Web:
1. use URIs as names for things;
2. use HTTP URIs so that people
can look up those names;
3. when someone looks up a URI,
provide useful information using
the standards (RDF, SPARQL);
and
4. include links to other URIs so that
they can discover more things.
Guerrini (2013) described that five star
principles of Tim Berners-Lee should
be opted to expose the data on the Web.
These five stars principles describe the
ascending order of publishing data on
the Web, and the last star was the
ultimate aim of open linked data. These
principles are:
1. one’s own data being available
on the Web (in whatever format);
2. the material put on the Web is
available as structured data (e.g.
in excel instead of as a scanned
image of a table);
3. having chosen nonproprietary
formats (e.g., in csw\instead of
excel);
4. having used URL to identify the
objects, so that users can point to
these objects; and
5. one’s own data are linked to data
produced by others so as to define
a context.
This review article presents several key
issues for policy makers, software
developers, decision makers and library
administrators about linked data
technologies and its implementations in
digital libraries. Search engines will
also achieve their longstanding goal to
exploit the quality resources of the
libraries for users to make their Web
appearance more credible and
trustworthy.
Change in the digital library
collections in linked data
environment
Traditionally libraries were working
as storehouses of books, journals,
manuscripts, audiovisual material and
other sources of information. On the
emergence of digital and Information
communication technologies (ICT),
libraries also became information
providers without the requirement of
buildings. Digital library and virtual
libraries were the advanced forms of
library services for remote users
(Encyclopedia Britannica Online
Britannica, 2007). In a traditional
library, the catalog is used to locate
conventional library material. With the
existence of electronic information on
the Web, librarians are bound now to
follow the relationship between
libraries and computers. The ICT
revolution is curtailing the traditional
roles of the librarians and libraries
(Ogunsola, 2011).
Sure and Studer (2005) described
that traditional libraries are
transforming into digital libraries.
Digital libraries are developed with the
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 3 2019, pp. 9-12, V
CEmerald Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-10-2018-0067 9
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