Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Case Study: Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Main building by kimjoarr, some rights reserved

At a glance:

• Talis provided a shared understanding of concepts and terminology
• NTNU received experienced Linked Data mentoring
• Talis helped NTNU formalise their data model and develop their ontology
• NTNU were introduced to a wider best practice community

The Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority (ABM-utvikling) funded “Rådata nå!” (“Raw Data Now!”), a joint project between NTNU and BIBSYS, publishing a ‘Linked Open Data’ version of the BIBSYS personal name authority file. The personal name authority file is a shared, curated resource that libraries use to record alternate versions of personal names used in bibliographic records.

Both BIBSYS and NTNU University Library are interested in Linked Data through a common interest in using semantic technologies, and a belief that Linked Library Data is an appropriate way to represent bibliographic metadata. They see that making library metadata relevant, and preserving its value in the current technological landscape, means using open and reusable publishing methods.

Both institutions saw that modernisation and cost-efficiency could be easily gained using a Linked Data approach. The rich nature of semantic metadata, combined with the number of developers working with Linked Open Data pointed to a fertile area for those working with bibliographic data to explore.

NTNU and BIBSYS needed to train the development team in Linked Data best practice. A classroom based course was required so that project related questions could be asked of an experienced Linked Data and Semantic Web practitioner. The Introduction to the web of data training course, was delivered in Trondheim by Keith Alexander, Technical Consultant at Talis.

Rurik Greenall, Research Librarian at NTNU, observed that “Keith’s help got us on the right track, and made sure that we could work constructively with linked data, allowing us to proceed with our project at a much faster pace than otherwise would have been the case.”

With their newly acquired working knowledge of Linked Data, the team could now concentrate on moving the project forward through a series of workshop sessions. The team were able to look at their data with fresh eyes and see where Linked Data Design principles could be applied.

There were three areas where the team used Talis experience to inform the outcome: Data Modelling – Talis helped the team to describe the relationships within the data; Ontology Development – Talis suggested the best vocabularies to formally describe the relationships contained in the data; Linked Data Publishing – where Talis outlined various methods for making the data available for other organisations to reuse.

Rurik describes the value of the workshops: “The help we got during the sessions got the three team members working on modelling data in a less library specific way, making it more widely usable. We achieved this very quickly with Keith’s help”. He goes on to say that the workshops had a side effect of reassuring his colleagues that the methods Rurik had used in previous work were valid and “it helped make the project seem feasible and explain the key ideas in layman’s terms”.

“Working with Talis has been a valuable experience because we have learnt a lot in a very short space of time, and we have achieved project goals in a timeframe that would previously have seemed unreasonable. Our processes were sped up by working with experts within Linked Data, and we are achieving a level of expertise here too.”

Rurik Greenall,
Research Librarian,
NTNU

In order to succeed, a project requires more than just training and workshops. Talis provided mentoring to the NTNU team, being available to answer queries as the project progressed. Rurik says: “The help we have received post-workshop, in the form of answering questions related to the work done in the workshops, has been invaluable”.

NTNU found that working with Talis enabled them to look at a bigger picture when working with their data. “We were made more keenly aware of just how domain-specific some of our ideas are, and that this makes our data less interesting and usable (even for us). Learning this has changed our attitudes. We see the importance of playing by rules that make sense independent of our context”, says Rurik. NTNU see this to be a very important and valuable aspect of publishing Linked Open Data.

By working with Talis, NTNU have become involved in the wider Linked Data community that looks to promote and foster best practice, and have published four datasets that can be seen in the Linked Open Data Cloud diagram.

NTNU have already used their learnings from this project in new Linked Data projects. They haven’t had to start from scratch, because the “Rådata Nå!” project provides data that can be easily referenced and reused. NTNU are experiencing the benefits of a Linked Data approach that both makes project delivery quicker, but also allows future projects to build on existing work, providing a shorter, incremental delivery mechanism for larger projects.

NTNU continue to adopt linked data techniques for their projects and the value of their incremental investment grows. Talis have been able to play a part in these additional projects by providing workshop sessions covering Linked Data application development tools and patterns. These workshops push a project forward into its delivery phase by targeting specific needs within the project scope.

“Working with Talis has been a valuable experience because we have learnt a lot in a very short space of time, and we have achieved project goals in a timeframe that would previously have seemed unreasonable. Our processes were sped up by working with experts within Linked Data, and we are achieving a level of expertise here too.”