Presentation about controlled vocabularies at RKD at the Heritage Thesauri Course in Najéra, Spain, 18-20 november 2015.

1. Heritage Vocabularies by
RKD
RKDartists
Iconclass
and
The Dutch Art and Architecture
Thesaurus®
Reem Weda, MA. Information specialist terminologies
Heritage Thesauri Course, Nájera, Spain, 18-11-2015

2. Content
 Introduction
 The RKD
 RKD vocabularies
 RKDArtists
 Iconclass
 Dutch Art & Architecture thesaurus
 The Getty Vocabularies in LOD
 Discussion

3. RKD, Netherlands Institute for Art
History, The Hague

4. RKD Collections
• Art documentation
• Library
• Archives
• Datasets ( web portal
RKDexplore)
• Vocabularies:
RKDartists, Iconclass
and Dutch AAT

5. Controlled Vocabularies RKD
RKDartists: biographic info 250.000 persons related to the arts
Iconclass: 28.000 classifications for art subjects
Dutch AAT: 36.000 generic concepts for heritage collections

6. RKD in the ‘cloud’

7. RKDexplore www.rkd.nl

8. Why still the need for thesauri vocabs?
Identify Synonyms
• ‘salinity’ and ‘saltiness’
• ‘VHS’ and ‘Very High Frequency’
Identify Homonyms
 Mercury (planet)
 Mercury (metal)
 Mercury (automobile)
 Mercury (mythical being)

9. For describing and cataloging cultural
objects
• More effective exploration and use of collections
• People find more of what they want and what they need
• Standardised cataloging is the key to better acces to collections; it
helps people to understand and use other collections that are working
the same way.
Vocabularies neccesary :
1. For translation
2. For consistency
3. For indication of relationships
4. For labeling and browsing
5. Information retrieval

10. Las señoritas de Avignon
(five female nudes) 1907
MOMA, Public Domain US and Netherlands, but not in France and Spain?
Subjects human
figures • females •
nudes • brothel •
prostitution • fruit •
tribal art • African
mask • Iberian art •
Avignon (Provence,
France)
Style :Cubist

11. Bust of Jacobvan Reygersberg (1625 - 1675)
Image from Getty's Open Content Program.
Materials and
Techniques: marble
with extensive
drillwork
Material: • marble
Technique • carving
• drillwork

13. CCO principles (2 out of 10)
• Use controlled vocabularies
• Create local authorities that are populated with
terminology from standard published
controlled vocabularies as well as with local
terms and names.
NB: RKD does this, but we don’t follow the CCO standard.
‘It’s difficult to get institutions to adapt standards’
‘In the 21th century we must think beyond cataloging just
for our own institutions’

14. RDK artists

15. Rembrandts artist record
https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/66219

16. Artists Open Search web service
New web service for application developers e.g. collection
management systems, websites and apps
Based on:
Encoded Archival Context for Corporate Bodies, Persons,
and Families (EAC-CPF)
Search methods on a limited set of elements from
RKDartists.
Usage: authorithy file

17. Artists Open Search
Search on Paulus Potter (1625-1654)
https://rkd.nl/nl/opensearch-eac-cpf?q=part_name:(Potter,%20Paulus)

18. Artists Open Search
EAC-CPF data on Paulus Potter (1625-1654)

19. Wikipedia Authority control

20. • subject-specific classification system (iconographic)
• Alfa-numerical codes with text correlates
• Hierarchically ordered
• Alphabetical Index
• Bibliography (not online)
• Multilingual (English, German, French, Italian ,Finnish and
Portuguese, Spanish translation is being worked on by
DIBAM (Chile).
• Internationally used/free to use.
• Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) and LOD

21. Main divisions:
0 Abstract, Non-representational Art
1 Religion and Magic
2 Nature
3 Human being, Man in general
4 Society, Civilization, Culture
5 Abstract Ideas and Concepts
6 History
7 Bible
8 Literature
9 Classical Mythology and Ancient History

22. Iconclass browser

23. Iconclass: Bible
71D12 Joseph sold into slavery and taken to Egypt (Genesis 37:12-35)

24. Iconclass subjects
to index documents by themes, motifs, stories, situations, activities,
gestures, events, ideas, messages,
miracles.
For instance:
31B6222 holding one's nose closed
33A11 baring the head, lifting one's hat
31B52 drunkenness
56F2 (personifications and
symbolic representations of) Love;
'Amore (secondo Seneca)' (Ripa)

25. The Art & Architecture Thesaurus

26. AAT: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
ULAN: Union List of Artists Names
TGN: Thesaurus of Geographic Names
CONA: Cultural Object Name Authority
Getty vocabularies
They are all constructed as thesauri

27.  Developed since 1980
 43.000 concepts, and 255.000 terms
 Generic concepts for describing objects and images
 No names of persons and unique events
 ‘Cathedal’ yes, but not ‘Chartres cathedral’ (CONA)
 Strict editorial control, validation by sources
 Thesaurus construction follows ISO standard
 Multi-linguality
 international (even global) scope

28. CONA: Eiffel tower
ID: 700000116 Record Type: Built Work
Titles: Eiffel Tower (preferred,C,U,English-P,U,U)
Tour Eiffel (C,U,French,U,U)
Three-Hundred-Metre Tower
(H,U,undetermined,U,U)
Work Types: watchtower [300134522] (preferred) (AAT)
Creator Display:
architect Eiffel, Gustave (French architect and engineer,
1832-1923) [500000800] (ULAN)
Locations: Paris [7008038] V (TGN)
Display Materials:
structural iron [300011010] (AAT)
wrought iron (iron alloy) [300011012] (AAT)
exposed frame construction [300310589] (AAT)

29. Structure of the AAT
 AAT is organized for general use
FAQ: why aren't terms organised like I expect them to be. Why aren’t
communion cups and chalices narrower terms to church plate?
Broader term:
drinking vessels
Broader term:
liturgical vessels
 The AAT's organization stresses function and form over the context in
which an object is used
 The AAT links concepts to an alternate parent using polyhierarchical
relationships
Communion cups

30. Definition of ‘thesaurus’
• A semantic network of unique concepts
• Thesauri may be monolingual or multilingual
• Thesauri may have the following three relationships:
• Equivalence Relationships
• Hierarchical Relationships
• Associative Relationships
ISO 25964 – the international standard for thesauri and
interoperability with other vocabularies

31. Thesaurus relations
The Equivalence Relationship

32. Hierarchy leading to ‘hacienda’
Hierarchical Position:
Objects Facet
.... Built Environment (hierarchy name) (G)
........ Built Complexes and Districts (hierarchy name) (G)
............ complexes (buildings) (G)
................ <complexes by function> (G)
.................... agricultural complexes (G)
........................ haciendas (G)
Note: Large Spanish landed estates common to 17th century Seville
used as farms, or ranches. Also applies to Spanish-American estates
and the main building of such a complex.

33. Thesaurus relations: Associative Relationship
Example for "watercolors" paintings
Relationship Type: 2212 produced by
Related Concept: watercolor brushes (<artists' brushes by function>,
artists' brushes, ... Furnishings and Equipment)
Relationship Type: 2501 made of/require
Related Concept: watercolor (water-base paint, <paint by composition
or origin>, ... Materials)
Relationship Type: 2325 created by
Related Concept: watercolorists (<painters by technique, implement, or
material employed>, implement, ... People)

34. OBJECTS
MATERIALS
AGENTS
Associated
concepts
STYLES and
PERIODS
PHYSICAL
ATTRIBUTES
ACTIVITIES
copper alloy, bronze
knowledge, satire
Asian, Medieval
sketching, painting
Proofs (prints by function)
mirrors
armors
7 facets
green, acid-free
sculptors, musicians

35. Dutch AAT translation

36. Dutch AAT translation
• RKD handles translation of Getty AAT
• We have translated 36.0000 of the now 43.000 concepts in
the Getty AAT.
• There is a difference in content between the Dutch and the
American AAT, in number of concepts but also scope notes
and hierarchy can differ.
• Reason: work continues on both sides and we don’t have a
regular way of exchanging data yet (perhaps soon). We strive
to make the difference as small as possible. Soon we’ll work
in an updated version.
New concepts via the editorial group and then send to Getty
Vocabs.
Slow process.. But recently the 600th concept was added!

37. TESAURODE ARTE& ARQUITECTURA
www.dibam.cl www.aatespanol.cl/taa/publico/buscar.htm
http://www.aatespanol.cl

38. LOD cloud(2010)

39. Getty web service
• The base URI is http://vocab.getty.edu/
• SPARQL-endpoint
• Standard presentation is SKOS or SKOS-XL
• Mappings and ontology based on RDF/XML and Turtle
• Published versions of lookup lists e.g.,languages, roles,
nationalities, place types, and bibliographic sources)
ODC-By licence
This [title or report or article or dataset] contains information from Art & Architecture
Thesaurus (AAT)® which is made available under the ODC Attribution License

40. Europeana and AAT

41. RKDexplore (and RKDArtists) : www.rkd.nl
Website AAT-Ned: www.aat-ned-nl
Iconclass: www.iconclass.nl
Getty Vocabularies
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/index.h
tml
Spanish AAT
www.aatespanol.cl
Reem Weda
Information specialist terminologies
weda@rkd.nl
aat@rkd.nl