Identifying semantic relationships in digital libraries of cultural heritage

Abstract

In this paper we deal with the interoperability of digital libraries concerned with identification of hidden or invisible relationships within various data sources. By means of semantic processing and reasoning techniques we attempt to find the answers to sophisticated questions which are sometimes difficult also for human experts. Our initial interest was to analyze data from art museums, where we have found interesting information concerning artists, their life and work. We proceeded further to the national library databases, where we have been looking for additional information about these artists and we performed further investigation. The next step was to enrich existing records by additional useful information using web services of other libraries. By analyzing these enriched data, we could identify semantic relationships among the records, which can help us understand how these artists were influenced by each other, we can find an artist that performed in the same area as the given one, etc. This paper describes our method of processing core data, identification of semantic relationships and the experiments we have performed. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.