Page 86 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 42

XIA Cuijuan, LIU Wei, CHEN Tao & ZHANG Lei / A genealogy data services platform implemented with linked data technologies 085

RDF abstract data model, we described the entities and the relationships between these entities,
and associated them with external data so as to enrich the data semantics if necessary. The data,
after encoding by the machine-readable RDF serialized format, were stored in the dedicated RDF
database. Finally, we designed the system based on the four principles of linked data published,
developed framework access operation on data by semantic technologies, utilized visualization
technologies to present data, and made use of Web 2.0 technology to support users in contributing
their knowledge in order to achieve functions of knowledge navigation, discovery and evolution.

2.1 Design of linked data model based on ontology

Ontology is the sharable and reusable conceptual model being formed after the domain knowledge
is abstracted. It is usually represented by a systematic terminology and formalized description
of the interrelations, and becomes the code system which can be recognized and processed by
machines after it is encoded by a certain machine language. Ontology endows data with semantics
and is regarded as the container of the knowledge in the data. On the basis of the ontology
design principle which emphasizes on the reuse of existing terminology as much as possible,
the genealogical ontology by the Shanghai Library is primarily based on the BIBFRAME 2.0
led by the Library of Congress, reuses parts of the terms from FOAF、Geonames、Schema.org
vocabulary lists, and customize featured properties of genealogy resources.
Genealogical ontology is designed on the basis of BIBFRAME. On the one hand, BIBFRAME,
a replacement for the traditional standard of MARC, is the new standard for bibliographic data
formats and can be used together by libraries and other memory organizations such as archives,
museums, and museums. The BIBFRAME has very good compatibility, extendibility and
openness. The BIBFRAME vocabulary can describe the features of genealogy resources very
well. On the other hand, BIBFRAME is designed as a linked bibliographic data model and its
core classes of “Work-Instance-Item” are the simplified FRBR (Functional Requirements for
Bibliographic Resources)(Library of Congress, 2015). The model can meet the requirements of
bibliographic control very well and its data model concepts including person, institution, family
and event are suitable for describing entities related to genealogy resources as well as meet the
needs of authority control.
Moreover, the genealogical ontology reuses the terminology in FOAF to describe the ancestor
or celebrity in genealogy and customizes the characteristic properties of Chinese historical
figures such as “genealogy name, courtesy name, pseudonym name, and posthumous name” as
supplements. The terms of Geonames are used to describe the places, terms from Schema.org and
W3C Organization for genealogy related collection organizations and W3C Time Ontology for
describing time information.
Some properties are self-defined and customized to describe the information of dynasties