[open-bibliography] Library of Congress subject headings & RDF

Fri Jan 7 15:15:49 UTC 2011

Owen, I think this is the problem that LC is trying to solve by  
creating MADS in RDF.

http://www.loc.gov/standards/mads/rdf/

Note, however, that there were a number of criticisms of this draft,  
on the MODS list:
   http://listserv.loc.gov/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind1012&L=mods

And you are right that using the string with "--" loses a great deal  
of meaning, but it was done that way to fit into SKOS, which doesn't  
natively have a way to structure the subject heading fields.

I don't know of a working implementation, which is what you are  
probably looking for.

kc

Quoting Owen Stephens <owen at ostephens.com>:

> Can anyone point me at (or advise me on) examples of representing subject
> heading fields from a library catalogue record as RDF. Specifically I'm
> interested in how chained sets of subject headings are represented.
>
> E.g. a library catalogue record might have a heading:
>
> 650$$aPopular Music$$xHistory$$y20th Century
>
> Each one of these headings:
>
> Popular Music
> History
> 20th Century
>
> will have a SKOS representation on id.loc.gov, but to represent each heading
> separately as a dc:subject (or similar) would lose the context of chaining
> them together.
>
> There are some entries on id.loc.gov that represent some 'chains' (those
> that have been 'authorised') - e.g.
> http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh2008109787#concept is 'Popular
> Music--History and Criticism' - but for me this doesn't feel quite right -
> doesn't this lose some of the flexibility of the faceted scheme?
>
> I'm wondering about something similar to the way BIBO handles author lists
> (you can both represent each author, and the list of authors, including
> order)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Owen
>
> --
> Owen Stephens
> Owen Stephens Consulting
> Web: http://www.ostephens.com
> Email: owen at ostephens.com
>

-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle at kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
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m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet