KU - Viden i verdensklasse KB

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The Royal Library, Denmark
Topic Maps as a means to subject search across
multiple catalogues
Henrik Laursen, research librarian The
University Library Dept. hhl_at_kb.dk
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The Library

• - Copenhagen University Library since 1482
• - The Kings Library since 1660
• - National Deposit Library since 1697
• - Public Library since 1793
• - 150 kilometres printed matters
• electronic databases and periodicals
• electronic Deposit Library since 2005
• 500 employees

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The incentive

• Subject catalogues from many merged libraries
• Subject catalogues from many periods
• Some subject catalogues are also shelf lists -
• with 3 sub-catalogues for different formats
• Historical knowledge is a prerequisite
• The project deals with 6 catalogues
• Foreign books catalogue from 1486 1950 (RL)
• Foreign books catalogue from 1950 1995 (RL)
• Foreign books catalogue from 1995 ? (RL)
• Foreign books catalogue from 1486 -1990 (UL1)
• Danish books catalogue ? 1959 (RL)
  
• Danish books catalogue 1960 ?
  (RL)
• Science books catalogue ? 2006
  (UL2)

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Why now?

• Digitalisation of old catalogues
• The foreign books catalogue from 1486 1950 is
  under digitalisation. The books are searchable by
  author, title and shelf number. But not by
  subject. The catalogue covers 400.000 books.
• Merging with yet another library
• The library has recently been merged with a
  science library and the merging of 3
  universities including their libraries will take
  place in 2007

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The means

• Topic maps
• Topic is in our case the subject classification.
  The topics are scoped in Danish, English,
  alternative name, alternative spelling and
  classification code .
• Occurrence is a search-string in the online
  library base for books with the specific
  classification. Other occurrences could be
  references to online reference works.
• Associations are in the project limited to two
  types
• Super-subclass and Search also

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The conversion process

• OCR of the typewritten catalogues using
  FineReader in count spaces-mode
• proofreading, esp. correcting indentation
• running a perlscript that catches the
  hierarchical structure of the catalogues and
  prints a XML file
• the resulting topicmap conforms to the ISO
  standard following the XTM1.dtd, the XML
  interchange syntax for ISO 13250 Topic Maps

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The 3-format catalogue
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Topic example

• lttopic id"YAC-SK2"gt
• ltbaseNamegt
• ltscopegtlttopicRef xlinkhref"da"/gtlt/scopegt
• ltbaseNameStringgtHjælpefag, hjælpemidler og
  metoderlt/baseNameStringgt
• lt/baseNamegt
• ltbaseNamegt
• ltscopegtlttopicRef xlinkhref"en"/gtlt/scopegt
• ltbaseNameStringgtMethods and aidslt/baseNameStringgt
• lt/baseNamegt
• ltbaseNamegt
• ltscopegtlttopicRef xlinkhref"signatur"/gtlt/scopegt
• ltbaseNameStringgtYAClt/baseNameStringgt
• lt/baseNamegt
• ltoccurrencegt
• ltresourceRef xlinkhref"https//rex.kb.dk/F?func
  find-camplocal_basekgl01ampccl_termwklYAC"/
  gt
• lt/occurrencegtlt/topicgt

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Association example 1

• ltassociationgt
• ltinstanceOfgtlttopicRef xlinkhref"superclass-subc
  lass"/gt
• lt/instanceOfgt
• ltmembergtltroleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"superclass"/gt
• lt/roleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"YA-SK2"/gt
• lt/membergt
• ltmembergtltroleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"subclass"/gt
• lt/roleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"YAC-SK2"/gt
• lt/membergt
• lt/associationgt

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Association example 2

• ltassociation id"BCL-IKI-SK2"gt
• ltinstanceOfgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"see-also"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/instanceOfgt
• ltmembergt
• ltroleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"referred-from"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/roleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"BCL-SK2"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/membergt
• ltmembergt
• ltroleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"referred-to"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/roleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"IKI-SK2"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/membergt
• lt/associationgt

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Conclusions 1

• TM creates coherence within the catalogues
• TMs are scalable 1 new catalogues can be
  included
• TMs are scalable 2 new associations ad libitum
• User friendliness limit your search to a single
  subject in one catalogue or extend it to more
  subjects in more catalogues.
• TMs are scalable 3 subject specific thesauri can
  be added

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Conclusions 2

• Off spin without a topicmaps engine
• subject hierarchy added to the online database
• subject search through different formats
• searchable catalogues as html-pages

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