Linking the Smithsonian American Art Museum

to the Cloud

March, 2014Georgina Goodlander

Smithsonian American Art Museum

@bathlander | ggoodlander@idahofallsarts.org

The Need

• Museum data exists in silos, is not very findable on the web• It is difficult for users to make connections across collections• Other sources often have more information than we do• Web pages are machine processable, but not machine readable

What we see:

What the computer sees:

Related data across collections

ima:SaamPerson_John_Singer_Sargent a saam:SaamPerson ; dct:date "1856-1925" ; foaf:name "John Singer Sargent" .

saam:SaamPerson_4253 a saam:SaamPerson ; saam:associatedPlace saam:SaamPlace_1357324439768t1r13950_0, saam:SaamPlace_1357324439768t1r13951_0 ; saam:constituentId "4253" ; rdaGr2:biographicalInformation “Painter. Sargent traveled …" ; rdaGr2:dateAssociatedWithThePerson "1990-10-1”, "1995-5-8" ; rdaGr2:dateOfBirth "1856-1-12" ; rdaGr2:dateOfDeath "1925-4-15" ; rdaGr2:placeOfBirth saam:SaamPlace_1357324439768t1r13952_0 ; rdaGr2:placeOfDeath saam:SaamPlace_1357324439768t1r13953_0 ; skos:altLabel "John S. Sargent" ; skos:prefLabel "John Singer Sargent" .

cb:SaamPerson_John_Singer_Sargent a saam:SaamPerson ; ont0:dateOfBirth "1879", "1885" ; ont0:dateOfDeath "1925" ; skos:prefLabel "John Singer Sargent" .

met:SaamPerson_John_Singer_Sargent a saam:SaamPerson ; ont0:placeOfResidence "North and Central America", "United States" ; foaf:name "John Singer Sargent" .

dallas:SaamPerson_John_Singer_Sargent a saam:SaamPerson ; ont0:dateOfBirth "1856" ; ont0:dateOfDeath "1925" ; foaf:name "John Singer Sargent" .

The Solution: Linked Open Data

• Linked: Links between facts from different providers• Open: Use an open license so that everyone can use the data• Data: Use W3C standards (RDF) to describe the data in triples

(<subject> <predicate> <object>)

• <js-sargent> <is-a> <person>• <person> <name> “John Singer Sargent”• <person> <born-in> <city>• <city> <name> “Florence”

RDF: Resource Description Framework

The Project

• Working with the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) and Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California to develop tools for LOD conversion

• Contribute data to the Linked Open Data cloud:• 44,000 artworks• 8,000 artists• 15,000 places

• Leverage the data to build applications for the public, scholars, and educators

• Share the tools and the process with other museums and cultural institutions

The Process

• Select LOD vocabularies and create ontology

The Process

• Map the data to RDF using USC’s data conversion tool (KARMA)

Database table

Mapping to Linked Data

The Process

• Use USC tools for linking museum data to other datasets

Tool proposes links

Human verifies them

The Process

• Publish dataset and all verified links, create web application to browse the contents of the SPARQL endpoint

• https://github.com/InformationIntegrationGroup/saam-lod/wiki

The Process

• Insert links on our website• http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/

The Dream?

• A tool for curating stories using links:• http://prezi.com/htrvh2jrcsio/curating-stories-with-linked-open-data

American Art Collaborativehttp://americanartcollaborative.org

• Smithsonian American Art Museum• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art• Dallas Museum of Art (DMA)• Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA)• Metropolitan Museum of Art• Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art• National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution• National Museum of Wildlife Art• Autry National Center• Princeton University Art Museum

ISI’s tools: http://isi.edu/integration/karma