Name and Subject Heading Reconciliation to Linked Open Data Authorities using Virtual International Authority File and Library of Congress Linked Data Service APIs: A Case Study featuring Emblematica Online

• Published in: Library resources & technical services Vol. 65; no. 4; pp. 132 - 141
• Main Authors: Tian, Cindy Tang, Cole, Timothy W., Yu, Karen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago American Library Association 01.10.2021
• Subjects: Application programming interface; Authority control; Automation; Baroque era; Bibliographic records; Case studies; Digital libraries; Digitization; Interoperability; Libraries; Library collections; Linked Data; Metadata; Metadata Object Description Schema-MODS; Ontology; Open data; Resource Description Framework-RDF; Semantic web; Semantics; Strings; Subject heading schemes; Vocabularies & taxonomies; Israel
• ISSN: 2159-9610; 0024-2527; 2159-9610
• DOI: 10.5860/lrts.65n4.132

Libraries are actively exploring ways to use Linked Open Data (LOD) services to enhance discovery and facilitate the use of collections. Emblematica Online, which provides integrated discovery of digitized emblem books, incorporates LOD in its design. As an implementation prerequisite, the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) and Library of Congress (LC) Linked Data Service APIs were used to reconcile name and subject strings from legacy catalog records with global authoritative links from LOD resources. This case study reports on the automated reconciliation process used and examines the efficacy of the APIs in reconciling name and subject heading entities. While a majority of strings were successfully reconciled, analysis suggests that data cleanup, rigorously consistent formatting of metadata strings, and addressing challenges in existing LOD resources and services could improve results for this corpus.