=== Name === NLL Digitized Map Archive === Owner === Uldis Bojars === Background and Current Practice === The digital version of the Cartographic Collection of the National Library of Latvia (NLL) contains scans of historical maps from the 16th to the 18th century. Currently maps are presented as HTML index pages pointing to PDFs of scanned maps. Index pages contain semi-structured textual information about these maps: title, author, location in a publication, catalogue number, geographic info (scale, cooradinate system) and a transcription of notes on the map. A new project is planned to digitize ~5000 maps in NLL's collection. These maps will be georeferenced and structured metadata will be associated with maps. A place name (toponym) database will be developed as a part of the project and maps will be annotated with place name information. Existing database of current place names in Latvia will act as a foundation for toponym database, but it will need to be enriched with historical place names used on older maps. === Goal === 1) allow users to retrieve metadata about digitized maps, enabling users to find and interrelate maps independent of any particular user interface. 2) enable enrichment of map metadata (e.g., with information about places located on the map). 3) to give each map a URI so that they can referred to from other datasets and applications. === Target Audience === Scholars, general public, map curators, computer programs. ''The main audience of your case. For example scholars, the general public, service providers, archivists, computer programs...'' === Use Case Scenario === Visitors to the map archive retrieve map metadata and use them it to find related resources (e.g. other maps from the same publication) or to browse the collection in a novel way. Their work is assisted by applications (e.g., browser extensions) that help in browsing maps and may "mash-up" maps with other information available on the Web (e.g., photos of places). Map curators or volunteers from general public may annotate maps or regions within maps with additional information (e.g., transcribe text notes or link map locations to place names). Developers create software programs that access the map archive and provide new services to users. These applications may integrate map information and data from other sources. ''The use case scenario itself, described as a story in which actors interact with systems. This section should focus on the user needs in this scenario. Do not mention technical aspects and/or the use of linked data.'' === Application of linked data for the given use case === Maps and other objects that the system contains information about (e.g., areas on a map) are given HTTP URIs so that they can be globally referred to. Map metadata can be made available as linked data by using RDFa or by using HTTP 303 redirects to point to various representations of resources and their metadata. Maps are linked to other related resources (e.g. place names or authority data about persons) which may also be expressed as linked data. Users can annotate maps by publishing RDF statements on their site or by adding annotations directly into map metadata (provided the system allows 3rd parties to update its information). The toponym (place name) database has a supporting role for this use case. Benefits of making this data available as linked data are: * The map archive can refer to placenames using linked data principles. This achieves loose coupling between the applications and each can be developed independent of the other. * The toponym database can be enriched by adding relations between entities (e.g., that one entity is contained within another) that could not be expressed if place names were just a simple list of entities inside an application. Data can be further enriched by adding [limited] inference (e.g., over transitional properties). * If the system provides URIs that identify geographical locations, anyone can use these URIs in their data and applications. This facilitates information integration. ''This section describes how linked data technology could be used to support the use case above. Try to focus on linked data on an abstract level, without mentioning concrete applications and/or vocabularies. Hint: Nothing library domain specific.'' === Existing Work (optional) === David Rumsey Map Collection has over 22'000 historical maps and images online. Map browsing system displays and allows search by metadata. To my knowledge, the site does not provide linked data. * http://www.davidrumsey.com/ ''This section is used to refer to existing technologies or approaches which achieve the use case (Hint: Specific approaches in the library domain). It may especially refer to running prototypes or applications.'' === Related Vocabularies (optional) === * Dublin Core * SKOS (for place name, person thesaurus) * W3C Geo vocabulary Vocabularies for other infromation may need to be located or created: * dimensions of maps * geographic information (geo coordinates, map projection, scale, [historical] units of measurement) Related datasets that the system could link to: * GeoNames * authority data ''Here you can list and clarify the use of vocabularies (element sets and value vocabularies) which can be helpful and applied within this context.'' === Problems and Limitations (optional) === Vocabularies for describing map-specific metadata will need to be identified. New vocabularies may need to be created if some data can not be expressed using existing ones. Historical maps use place names that may have changed or disappeared since. This will create difficulties relating locations on the map to a geographical name taxonomy. Such a taxonomy would need to be enriched with historical names and their locations. The area covered by a particular place may have changed as well. Depending on applicability of OCR to recognizing place names and notes on maps, significant manual annotation work may be involved. How to handle annotations from users? Shall users be able to change map metadata? If users are allowed to add annotations, an API for adding annotations would be need to be provided. ''This section lists reasons why this scenario is or may be difficult to achieve, including pre-requisites which may not be met, technological obstacles etc. Please explicitly list here the technical challenges made apparent by this use case. This will aid in creating a roadmap to overcome those challenges.'' === Related Use Cases and Unanticipated Uses (optional) === Although maps have their specifics, a framework developed for publishing maps as linked data could be reused for publishing other kinds of digital objects (e.g., scanned posters). In a generic case, the same system would be used for publishing any kind of scanned information and map-specific information could be added as RDF annotations using appropriate vocabularies. [[Use Case NDNP]] (National Digital Newspaper Program) is related to this use case as it publishes a scanned and OCRed newspaper archive as linked data. ''The scenario above describes a particular case of using linked data. However, by allowing this scenario to take place, the likely solution allows for other use cases. This section captures unanticipated uses of the same system apparent in the use case scenario.'' === References (optional) === Electronic version of the Cartographic Collection of the National Library of Latvia, created in 2002: * http://data.lnb.lv/nba05/kartes/frame_anglu.htm The Digital Library of the National Library of Latvia: * http://lnb.lv/en/digital-library ''This section is used to refer to cited literature and quoted websites.''