Subscribe to our newsletter by emailPiloting Linked Open Data for Artists' Books
The UCI Libraries recently completed a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), "Piloting Linked Open Data for Artists' Books (PLODAB)". This project introduced a new way of accessing and researching archival resources and demonstrated the Libraries' organizational capacity to provide innovative digital scholarship services through the creation of an online discovery tool. This tool utilizes Linked Open Data (LOD) technology to visualize connections among subjects, materials, techniques, and publication locations for artists' books, which are works of art in the form of a book. The pilot experimented with enhancing description and discovery of 41 selected items from the Artists' Books collection housed in the Libraries' Special Collections and Archives.
"PLODAB sparked faculty interest in integrating the collections with curricula. Equally, it enhanced our reputation on campus as people who can design and manage the 'full stack' of systems integration in a technology project," explains Laura Smart, project lead and Head, UCI Libraries' Digital Scholarship Services. "This project will continue to bring benefits to the Libraries, partners across UCI and the UC system, and academic or cultural heritage institutions worldwide. It is particularly so since an important part of the project was to create a framework that can be adopted by others," adds John Renaud, Associate University Librarian for Research Resources.
PLODAB directly supports the Libraries' new strategic plan goal of "optimizing collections, resources, and services to best meet UCI's research, teaching, and patient care related needs while contributing to the rich information resources of the system-wide UC Libraries and California Digital Library", which and aligns with Pillar 1 in the University's Strategic Plan, "Make pervasive the impact of art, culture, creative expression, and humanistic inquiry to our broader research and educational mission." For further information about the project, visit: lib.uci.edu/artists-books.
For more information please contact Emiliee Mathews at emilee.mathews@uci.edu.
For PLODAB
For more information please contact Shu Liu at shu.liu@uci.edu.