1. 'Linked Data and the Step change Project: archive authorities, AIM25 and CALM’
Geoff Browell, Senior Archives Services Manager, King’s College London
Robert Baxter, Senior Archivist, Cumbria Archive Service

2. Partnerships AIM25: archive collection descriptions for London
Cumbria Archive Service: Local authority service
University of London Computer Centre (ULCC)
Axiell
Historypin

3. Step change Builds on the JISC Open Metadata Pathway project
Improve archive cataloguing and link archive repositories more effectively with external services in order to help users and make archive collections more accessible
Nov 2011-July 2012

4. Aims Make more efficient the process of indexing & cataloguing
Embed Linked Open Data in day-to-day archive workflows
Turn archive-related authority data into live services
Enhancing the research value of archive catalogues by providing links to parallel or complementary services
Demonstrate the broader value of Linked Data within organisations
Reuse of archive catalogues in new and interesting ways – mixing content with useful data

5. Objectives
Turning the UK Archival Thesaurus into a Linked Data version and live service
Development of the workflow tool from OMP – a tool for processing, validating and approving Linked Data ‘entities’
Implementing UKAT and workflow tool in CALM
Tool that connects archive descriptions about places with the Historypin mapping service

20. Challenges 1: data & technical
Place name vocabularies – different standards and inconsistencies
Moderation and editing of LOD datasets
Uri vocabularies; EAD; proprietary systems
APIs – lack of availability
Information quality – LOD exposes poor quality or ambiguous information, which means more retroconversion & re- cataloguing – how is this funded?

21. Challenges 2: other issues
Rights – for example reuse of maps out of context; re-use of datasets
Training: archivists & other information professionals
Developing different services to jigsaw and connect – dependencies
User experience – danger of information overload and visual appearance/display standards

22. Next steps
Axiell: development of tools to analyse and validate archive catalogues & related tools in CalmView (for CALM10)
Historypin: tool to show relevant archive catalogue information alongside images
AIM25: redevelopment of back-end and front end to express linking with other services
Robust user testing and roadmap (professional and end-users)

23. Related JISC projects
Trenches to Triples: World War One-related triples from the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
World War One aggregation

24. Questions? geoffrey.browell@kcl.ac.uk robert.baxter@cumbria.gov.uk