Abstract

This article describes the processes carried out by archives, libraries, and museums to semantically enrich authority records with the aim of improving their usability while building new functionalities for search and retrieval. The tasks that are usually included within the term semantic enrichment are: data cleaning, data reconciliation to external linked open data resources, extraction of additional data, and data publication. However, reconciliation and enrichment of large volumes of data can only be done by automatic means; for example, the semantic enrichment of polymath authority records by the Spanish Polymath Virtual Library. Finally, we analyze the role that Wikidata has as one of the most widely used linked open data resources and authority file for all Wikimedia projects.

Abstract

ISIS –the popular software developed at UNESCO– is a classic tool for database management. Nonetheless, in some cases the fact that it is freeware has made it seem less desireable than commercial alternatives. Although not designed as open software (despite being distributed free of charge), some modules and additional applications, such as the IsisMarc editor, have been developed using open code. IsisMarc provides an interface that is easily adapted to various MARC formats for catalog management, incorporates a Z39.50 client, and permits authority control. It can be integrated with other ISIS tools to publish databases to the web. ISIS also provides the foundation for various open software programs for library management (Catalis and OpenMarcoPolo).

Abstract

Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, is the first project to have been born specifically from and for the web and which has developed an authority control system for access to their information. Here, the different elements, procedures and principles which make up the Wikipedia authority control system is analysed, and a critical analogy is traced between them and those that meet the traditional authority control applied to bibliographical catalogues. From the critical comparison of both models, one wonders up to what point the authority control, constrained by the weight of tradition and by its hopeless adaptation to technology, has been surpassed by developments such as Wikipedia which are based on a philosophy of flexibility and common sense and where the rules are decided by and for the user. The enormous potential and reach of the Wikipedia authority model make it a true contender to become the normal system of access to the Semantic Web