Artsdata Guidelines regarding Persistent Identifiers
As per the W3C’s RDF specifications for linked open data, each named entity (for example, an event, a place or a person), class and property loaded in the Artsdata triple store must be denoted by a persistent identifier, represented as a URI (see this article to learn more about persistent identifiers).
Supported and recommended persistent identifiers
Artsdata assigns its own persistent identifiers (URIs) to named entities that meet minimum requirements for ID minting. Registered users can use the “Minter” feature to link or mint a new Artsdata ID for entities that are already loaded to the knowledge graph. They can also use the “Mint using Wikidata” feature to load a Wikidata item and mint a new Artsdata ID.
Artsdata also relies on external URIs. Artsdata supports all persistent identifiers from open knowledge bases, including:
- Wikidata;
- ISNI;
- VIAF;
- Musicbrainz.
Artsdata also accepts local URIS minted by data providers (read more below).
In order to guide data providers and consumers in the adoption and implementation of persistent identifiers, here are recommended persistent identifiers according to the entity type.
| Type | Artsdata ID | Wikidata ID | ISNI | Local URI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| schema:Person | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended | Optional |
| schema:Organization schema:PerformingGroup |
Recommended | Recommended | Optional | Optional |
| schema:Place schema:CreativeWork ado:LivePerformanceWork |
Recommended | Recommended | Not a valid type for this ID | Optional |
| schema:Event | Recommended | Optional | Not a valid type for this ID | Optional |
The Artsdata ID, the Wikidata ID and the ISNI are globally-unique persistent identifiers intended to be referenced across a wide range of information systems, outside of their own web domain. This explains why they are sometimes called “global” identifiers, “bridge” identifiers or “external” identifiers. In these guidelines, they are called external URIs.
By contrast, “local” identifiers, for example database keys, are meant to be referenced internally, within the local information system. Local identifiers can also be expressed in the form of a URI within the web domain where the system – or the website – is hosted. These local URIs can be reconciled (i.e. matched) with external URIs to indicate that these URIs are identifying the same real-world entity (for example, a person, a place or an event)
In Schema structured data and in the Artsdata data model, local URIs are expected values for the @id property, whereas external URIs are expected values for the sameAs property.
How to integrate local URIs to structured data
See: Artsdata guidelines regarding the @id property and URIs
How to integrate external URIs into structured data
See: Artsdata guidelines regarding the sameAs property
How to retrieve persistent identifiers’ URIs
See : How to retrieve persistent identifiers’ URIs
How to store external URIs in a local database
Coming soon…
About the Artsdata Identifier
The Artsdata ID is a globally-unique persistent identifier for any concept or named entity in the Artsdata knowledge graph. It can be assigned to performing arts entity types for which there exists at present no good persistent identifier (for example, an event). Any entity that meets minimal requirements and that passes SHACL validation can be minted an ID.
The Artsdata ID is also an opaque identifier. It is made up of a series of a letter (the letter “k”) and numbers that have no connection with the content of the entity. The first series of digits following the letter “K” designates the source that provided the data record from which the ID was minted. For example, entities whose name begin with “K2” were minted from Wikidata. The second series of digits complements the first series to form the unique name of the entity within the Artsdata domain.
The Artsdata ID is dereferenceable: it can be resolved over the web to access the metadata describing the entity. Using content negotiation, Artsdata resources can be accessed in either HTML, JSON-LD, or Turtle format.
Third parties are welcome to contribute to assigning Artsdata IDs. Registered users may:
- Use the “Reconcile” feature, in the Artsdata resource interface, to mint or link an ID to an entity loaded to the knowledge graph;
- Use the “Batch Reconcile” tool, to reconcile and link or mint resources from an entire dataset in a semi-automated fashion;
- Use the “Reconcile with Wikidata” tool to load an entity from Wikidata and to mint or link an ID for it;
- Use the Minting API via a third-party application to assign IDs to entities that have not been loaded to Artsdata yet.
The “Reconcile” feature, in the Artsdata resource interface offers an easy means for a data steward to reconcile an entity (i.e., look into the Artsdata core graph for potential duplicates of this entity), and then to either mint a new Artsdata ID or link the entity to an existing Artsdata ID.
Specifications
- URI format:
http://kg.artsdata.ca/resource/$1 - CURI format:
adr:$1 - Regex (name only):
^K\d+-\d+$ - Sample URI:
http://kg.artsdata.ca/resource/K12-438 - Note : The URI format doesn’t use a secured “https” protocol, as is often the case for URIs with content negotiation.