Iowa State University Library Vocabularies
Linked data vocabularies for local resource description
Contents: Summary | Contact us | User guide | Maintenance and future development | Metadata elements (properties) | Acknowledgments | References and further reading | Tech
Summary
The Iowa State University Library Vocabularies (ISULV) are curated lists of preferred subject headings, genre terms, names, and other concepts used to describe resources created by and about the Iowa State University community. Each term has a structured authority record containing a uniform resource identifier (URI) and contextual information, including links to related concepts if applicable.
These records are published as linked data on the open web. Specifically, the vocabularies and each of their constituent concepts are available as HTML and JSON-LD. They are accessible and usable by humans and machines at Iowa State and beyond.
Contact us
Learn more about Metadata Services at Iowa State University Library at our department page.
To suggest additions or corrections, email metadata@iastate.edu.
User guide
Metadata creators can use this site to select concepts for use in metadata for digital collections, finding aid descriptions, and bibliographic records. Researchers and writers can discover and use preferred subject terms and names for people and groups. Anyone can explore concepts and resources associated with the Iowa State community.
Items
Find information about each term on individual item pages—for example, 4-H clubs.
On these pages, linked values point to related terms in ISULV, external authority records, or related resources.
To aid your selection of a term, review the definition, usage notes, related terms, and other information on the page. Be advised that some usage notes recommend the assignment of multiple related terms.
For details about each property, see the Metadata elements (properties) section.
Menus
| Browse | Explore all terms in all vocabularies or filter to search by keyword. |
|---|---|
| Data | View vocabulary metadata in a table or download it as a CSV or Excel file. |
| Locations | Browse locations associated with vocabulary terms. |
| Terms | Peruse an A–Z list of all vocabulary terms. |
| Vocabularies | See all vocabularies included in the collection. Individual vocabulary pages contain a description of the vocabulary and lists of constituent terms. |
Maintenance and development
This open collection of linked data vocabularies is a project of the Iowa State University Library.
The Metadata Services department maintains the vocabularies included on this site. Staff periodically review terms, update and enhance metadata, and add new terms and vocabularies.
Olivia Wikle, head of Digital Scholarship and Initiatives, developed this website. For technical information, see the Technical Credits—CollectionBuilder section. The Library IT department supports the static server that hosts this site.
Vocabularies in progress:
- Names associated with the Iowa State University community, including department names
- Rights statements used in digital collections
- Supplemental or alternative subject terms to improve discovery
- Genres used to categorize materials in Special Collections and University Archives
Additional development efforts:
- ISULV-reconcile, a reconciliation service for use with OpenRefine
- Interlinking with Wikidata and ORCID
- Wikidata property for ISULV identifiers
Metadata elements (properties)
Each preferred term in the Iowa State vocabularies is described by metadata elements, or properties, following the Resource Description Framework (RDF) model for linked data. RDF is used to publish and interlink data on the open web. RDF allows us to make statements that express relationships between resources or concepts, such as vocabulary terms. These statements are structured as triples made up of a subject, a predicate, and an object:
- Subject—what the concept is
- Predicate—how the subject relates to the object
- Object—a value that describes the subject
Subjects, predicates, and objects are ideally expressed as URIs (Uniform Resource Identifier) or IRIs (International Resource Identifier). Objects also can be a literal value (e.g., a string of text). Multiple triples interlinking together form a knowledge graph.
In the Iowa State vocabularies, each term can be described by triples made up of a subject (the term itself), a predicate (property), and an object (value). This table lists our selected properties and their possible values. To facilitate interlinking among concepts within the vocabularies and on the open web, properties were chosen from several linked data schemas, including Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Terms, Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), and Metadata Authority Description Schema in RDF (MADS/RDF).
| Property label | Property URI | Value |
|---|---|---|
| URI | http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier | Uniform resource identifier (URI) for the preferred term. |
| Preferred form | http://purl.org/dc/terms/title | Form of the term recommended for use by Iowa State metadata creators. |
| Alternative forms | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#altLabel | Variant forms of the term provided for discovery. |
| Term type | http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type | Type of term (all are an instance of the MADS/RDF Authority class, plus Topic, GenreForm, or Name, as applicable). |
| Vocabulary | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#inScheme | Title of the source vocabulary, or scheme of terms to which the term belongs. |
| Language of term | http://www.loc.gov/mads/rdf/v1#associatedLanguage | Language of origin of the term. |
| Local rights statement | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#example | Text to be entered in the Iowa State University Library Digital Collections rights element. |
| Standard rights statement URI | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#exactMatch | URI for the standard rights statement that corresponds to the local rights statement. |
| Start date | http://www.loc.gov/mads/rdf/v1#establishDate | Year when the entity represented by the term was established. |
| End date | http://www.loc.gov/mads/rdf/v1#terminateDate | Year when the entity represented by the term was terminated. |
| Birth date | http://www.loc.gov/mads/rdf/v1#birthDate | Year when the person represented by the term was born. |
| Death date | http://www.loc.gov/mads/rdf/v1#deathDate | Year when the person represented by the term died. |
| Definition | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#definition | Explanatory or contextual information about the term. |
| Usage | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#scopeNote | Notes on how and when the term should be applied. |
| History | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#historyNote | Outreach and approval status and dates, or other notes about changes made to the term. |
| Associated locations | http://www.loc.gov/mads/rdf/v1#associatedLocale | Geographic locations associated with the term. |
| Subject area | http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/subject | Topical categories for grouping related terms. |
| Broader term | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#broader | Broader or more general terms in the vocabulary hierarchy. |
| Narrower term | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#narrower | Narrower or more specific terms in the vocabulary hierarchy. |
| Related terms | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#related | Terms in the local vocabulary that should be assigned together or reviewed to ensure the best selection. |
| Absorbed organization | http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50301 | An organization that was absorbed by the organization being described. |
| Absorbing organization | http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50302 | An organization that absorbed the organization being described. |
| Component of merger | http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50232 | An organization that merged with the organization being described to create another organization. |
| Mergee | http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50011 | An organization that merged with one or more other organizations to create the one being described. |
| Predecessor | http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50012 | An organization that preceded the one being described. |
| Predecessor of split | http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50229 | An organization that split to create the organization being described and at least one other organization. |
| Product of merger | http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50013 | An organization created when the one being described merged with one or more other organizations. |
| Product of split | http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50014 | An organization created when the one being described split into the former and one or more other organizations. |
| Successor | http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50016 | An organization that succeeded the one being described. |
| Exact match in external vocabulary | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#exactMatch | Term in an external vocabulary selected for use by local metadata creators. The form and usage of the term have not been modified. |
| Close match in external vocabulary | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#closeMatch | Terms in an external vocabulary that refer to a similar concept but have a different form or usage than the locally preferred term. |
| Related term in external vocabulary | http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#related | Terms in an external vocabulary that refer to a related concept. For example, preferred subject headings for Indigenous peoples may have related name authority records for associated tribal organizations. |
| Source | http://www.loc.gov/mads/rdf/v1#hasSource | Name or website of the source for the preferred term. |
| Publisher | http://purl.org/dc/terms/publisher | Entity responsible for making the term available. For locally preferred terms, the publisher is Iowa State University Library; for terms selected from an external vocabulary, the publisher is the agency that maintains the vocabulary. |
| Rights | http://purl.org/dc/terms/rights | Information about rights held in and over the contents of the item page, which is metadata about the vocabulary term. This website uses the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL), which allows free sharing, modification, and use of this metadata for any purpose and without any restrictions. |
Acknowledgments
The Metadata Services librarians at Iowa State University Library (Heather Campbell, Christopher Dieckman, Kelly Hyland, Sylvie Manuel, Nausicaa Rose, and Hema Thulsidhos) are grateful to all our colleagues who contributed to the development of this project. Our former department head, Harriet Wintermute, proposed the idea of a local linked data vocabulary. Olivia Wikle tapped her CollectionBuilder expertise to bring it to fruition. The ISU Thesaurus Working Group developed a local collection of subject terms, and Amy Bishop, Rosalie Gartner, and Laura Sullivan provided recommendations. Lenard Kluck launched our names vocabulary by extracting and organizing data from our digital collections. Haylee Sheppard designed a brilliant banner illustration. Nausicaa Rose built a nifty reconciliation service. Colleagues in Oklahoma (Megan Macken, Lulu Zilinskas, and Kaitlyn Palone) shared inspiration and interlinking opportunities through the Tribal Nations in Oklahoma Metadata website.
In addition, we thank the many representatives of Indigenous communities who responded to our outreach requests. Read more about this effort in our Resources and Services for Iowa Indigenous Peoples LibGuide.
References and further reading
Campbell, Heather, Christopher Dieckman, Nausicaa Rose, Hema Thulsidhos, and Harriet Wintermute. “Library Guides: Resources and Services for Iowa Indigenous Peoples.” Accessed March 8, 2024. https://instr.iastate.libguides.com/iowa-indigenous/intro.
Carlson, Scott, Cory Lampert, Darnelle Melvin, and Anne Washington. Linked Data for the Perplexed Librarian. ALCTS Monograph. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2020.
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. “DCMI Metadata Terms.” Accessed March 11, 2024. https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/.
Fox, Violet. “Thing 15. Ethics of Linked Data.” Minitex. Accessed March 8, 2024. https://minitex.umn.edu/services/digital-initiatives-metadata/23-linked-data-things/thing-15-ethics-linked-data.
Library of Congress. “MADS/RDF (Metadata Authority Description Schema in RDF).” LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies. Accessed March 8, 2024. https://id.loc.gov/ontologies/madsrdf/v1.html.
Minitex. “23 Linked Data Things.” Accessed March 8, 2024. https://minitex.umn.edu/services/digital-initiatives-metadata/23-linked-data-things.
University of Houston Libraries. “Cedar: University of Houston Libraries Vocabularies.” Accessed March 8, 2024. https://vocab.lib.uh.edu/en.html.
W3C. “RDF 1.1 Primer,” 2014. https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf11-primer/.
W3C. “SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Namespace Document–HTML Variant,” August 18, 2009. http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core.html.
“Western Name Authority File.” J. Willard Marriott Library Exhibits. Accessed March 8, 2024. https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/wnaf/page/welcome.
Technical Credits - CollectionBuilder
This digital collection is built with CollectionBuilder, an open source framework for creating digital collection and exhibit websites that is developed by faculty librarians at the University of Idaho Library following the Lib-Static methodology.
Using the CollectionBuilder-CSV template and the static website generator Jekyll, this project creates an engaging interface to explore driven by metadata.