Title: Defining a semantic mapping of VRA Core 4.0 to the CIDOC conceptual reference model

Authors: Panorea Gaitanou; Manolis Gergatsoulis

Addresses: Database and Information Systems Group (DBIS), Laboratory on Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing, Department of Archives and Library Science, Ionian University, Corfu, GR-49100, Greece ' Database and Information Systems Group (DBIS), Laboratory on Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing, Department of Archives and Library Science, Ionian University, Corfu, GR-49100, Greece

Abstract: In the recent decades, we have witnessed a tremendous proliferation of metadata schemas, particularly in the cultural heritage domain. As a consequence, cultural heritage communities face a growing need to integrate these schemas as they encounter a number of problems, mainly concerning interoperability issues and loss of implicit knowledge. In this paper, we present a semantic mapping of VRA Core 4.0, a cultural heritage metadata schema describing visual resources, to CIDOC CRM. The mapping rules are expressed formally using a path-based mapping language called Mapping Description Language (MDL). More specifically, each element of the schema (along with its subelements and attributes) is mapped to the equivalent CRM path (represented as a sequence of classes and properties). In case an attribute is assigned to an element/subelement, this is also mapped to equivalent CRM paths, expanding the semantic correspondences between the two schemas. This work is part of a semantic integration scenario, where CIDOC CRM acts as a mediation schema.

Keywords: cultural information; metadata interoperability; ontology-based integration; mapping description language; MDL; VRA Core 4.0; CIDOC CRM; semantic mapping; cultural heritage; implicit knowledge; visual resources; semantic integration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSO.2012.050017

International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, 2012 Vol.7 No.2, pp.140 - 156

Received: 12 Dec 2011
Accepted: 15 Mar 2012

Published online: 31 Dec 2014 *

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