DonLodLam: through ontologies and windmills

[PAINTING] Don Chisciotte combatte contro i mulini a vento, Giuseppe Bonito

 

http://www.culturaitalia.it/opencms/opencms/system/modules/com.culturaitalia_stage.liberologico/templates/museid/viewItem.jsp?language=it&id=oai%3Aculturaitalia.it%3Amuseiditalia-work_27740

By browsing the website of CulturaItalia we found many interesting results related to Don Quixote. We decided to choose Giuseppe Bonito’s painting because it depicts one of the most famous episodes of Cervantes’ masterpiece, i.e. Don Quixote fighting against the windmills which looked like giants to his insane eyes.

 

This item is used to describe the person (character) rather than the concept. In fact, the first concept which this image could entail is concerned with the mental insanity which led Don Quixote to make this absurd action. As a matter of fact, when launching himself towards these “giants”, the knight of the sorrowful figure is not thinking about fighting for the justice, but he simply wants to act as one of the heroes who populated the stories he has been reading for his entire life.

 

CulturaItalia displays metadata which anyone can visualize:

Metadata Standard

 

The metadata standards which is used by CulturaItalia so as to describe its object is Pico.

 

PICO is the Dublin Core Application Profile used for harvesting descriptive metadata.

 

The Pico tree to describe this item can be seen here: http://www.culturaitalia.it/opencms/MetadataExport?id=oai%3Aculturaitalia.it%3Amuseiditalia-work_27740

 

The standards related to the Pico schema can be viewed here: http://www.culturaitalia.it/opencms/export/sites/culturaitalia/attachments/documenti/picoap/picoap1.0.xml

CulturaItalia provides an additional schema to describe the metadata of this object, namely the METS schema. The METS schema is a standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library, expressed using the XML schema language.

 

The tree can be seen here: http://194.242.241.163/fedora/objects/work:27740/datastreams/export/content

The standards related to the Mets schema can be viewed here: http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/mets.xsd

[SONG] Don Chisciotte, Francesco Guccini

Another important item which came to our mind when thinking about Don Quixote is the famous song written and sung by the Italian songwriter Francesco Guccini. The lyrics of this song is extremely rich and detailed, therefore this music could be used to express features related to both the main character of our project, i.e. Don Quixote, and the concept around which our idea develops, i.e. the journey for the justice which leads Don Quixote and his loyal and pragmatic companion Sancho Panza through incredible (dis)adventures.
Coming back to the song, we found useful and interesting metadata by examining the website “MusicBrainz”.

https://musicbrainz.org/recording/dbd11e86-b6aa-4ad7-8978-861911e50e6a

MusicBrainz is an open music encyclopedia which collects music metadata and makes them available to the public.
Like Wikipedia, MusicBrainz is maintained by a global community of users and everyone can participate and contribute.

By typing “Don Chisciotte” in the search bar, we found the information we were looking for.

There are two official recordings. The first one is taken from the album “Stagioni”, while the second one is taken from a CD which collects Guccini’s most famous songs, which is why some information which is marked with question marks cannot be derived.
By clicking on “Stagioni”, one is redirected to a list which includes all the songs that are part of the Album. The number “7” (i.e. 1.7) points out that “Don Chisciotte” is the seventh song of the album.

The fingerprint includes two links to AcoustID, a big database for audio fingerprints. Here we can find more data which are referred to the MusicBrainz metadata identifiers.

By clicking on Aliases (alternate name for an entity. They typically contain common misspellings or variations of the name and are also used to improve search results) and Tags we could not find any result.

Instead, interesting and useful information can be derived by the Details section.

Interestingly enough, we noticed that the MBID is included in the second line of the XML tree: Right after, we got more information concerning the title and the length of the song and more information about the songwriter who wrote this piece of music.

The original title given by Guccini is followed by the MBID (MusicBrainz Identifier), a 36 character Universally Unique Identifier that is permanently assigned to each entity in the database.

Successively, one can obtain the permalink, i.e. a URL which is intended to remain unchanged for many years into the future.

Metadata Standard

The metadata standard (from Wikipedia, “a metadata standard is intended to establish a common understanding of the meaning or semantics of the data, to ensure correct and proper use and interpretation of the data by its owners and users”) used by MusicBrainz is the MMD (MusicBrainz XML Metadata Format), which is an XML based document format to represent music metadata.

Indeed, the XML file which structures the metadata related to the song is available and can be read.

Interestingly enough, we noticed that the MBID is included in the second line of the XML tree:

Right after, we got more information concerning the title and the length of the song and more information about the songwriter who wrote this piece of music.

Further information can be viewed. It concerns the release of the product and other data, therefore it is not related to the artist himself, but to the specific release that is possessed and used by MusicBrainz.

The whole XML schema that was written can be viewed here https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/recording/dbd11e86-b6aa-4ad7-8978-861911e50e6a?inc=aliases%2Bartist-credits%2Breleases

Moreover, by clicking on AcousticBrainz entry one can get even additional information and data, including the link to the YouTube video of the song.

[SCURLPTURE] Don Chisciotte, Eros Pellini

https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2048011/oai_bbcc_ibc_regione_emilia_romagna_it_71561.html

The next item, found in Europeana, concerns a sculpture of Don Quixote realized by the Italian sculptor Eros Pellini (1909 - 1993)

The first metadata that are involved concern the name of the creator, the type and the subject of the creation

Additional data concerning the properties, the time, the provenance, the reference and the location of the cultural object can be viewed:

Metadata standard

The metadata standard used by Europeana is EDM (Europeana Data Model).

The first data model that was used by Europeana was ESE, but it still had gaps. These gaps are due to the fact that library, museums and archives, when digitizing their cultural heritage objects, all use different metadata standards.

EDM can go beyond the domain-specific metadata standards preserving the richness of community standards such as LIDO for museums, EAD for archives or METS of digital libraries.

Hence, EDM can be seen as a semantic web-based framework which facilitates Europeana’s participation in the Semantic Web.

EDM was developed thanks to the cooperation of technical experts from libraries, museums, archives and audio-visual collection domains. Moreover, it can arrange in a good way standards such as DC, EAD and LIDO.

EDM contributes to the creation of new knowledge, by collecting, connecting and even enriching metadata. Thanks to this metadata standard, Europeana can represent data associated to one and the same object, and can also show multiple views of the object, being it digital or physical.

Boletín de la reproducción foto-tipográfica de la primera edición de Don Quijote de la Mancha

https://www.europeana.eu/portal/it/record/2022705/lod_oai_www_bibliotecavirtualmadrid_org_8066_ent1.html?q=don+quijote#dcId=1554370159207&p=1

Europeana offers many objects related to Don Quixote. A very important one is the news bulletin published in 1871 which announced the photo-typographic reproduction of the first edition of Don Quijote de la Mancha, which dates back to 1605.

The title was derived from the head of the document. The very first metadata that Europeana displays are concerned with the creators, the type of the publication and the main subject of the article.

The other metadata concern the properties, the time, the provenance, the rights and the reference.

Metadata standard

The metadata standard used by Europeana is EDM (Europeana Data Model).

The first data model that was used by Europeana was ESE, but it still had gaps. These gaps are due to the fact that library, museums and archives, when digitizing their cultural heritage objects, all use different metadata standards.

EDM can go beyond the domain-specific metadata standards preserving the richness of community standards such as LIDO for museums, EAD for archives or METS of digital libraries.

Hence, EDM can be seen as a semantic web-based framework which facilitates Europeana’s participation in the Semantic Web.

EDM was developed thanks to the cooperation of technical experts from libraries, museums, archives and audio-visual collection domains. Moreover, it can arrange in a good way standards such as DC, EAD and LIDO.

EDM contributes to the creation of new knowledge, by collecting, connecting and even enriching metadata. Thanks to this metadata standard, Europeana can represent data associated to one and the same object, and can also show multiple views of the object, being it digital or physical.

EDM contributes to the creation of new knowledge, by collecting, connecting and even enriching metadata. Thanks to this metadata standard, Europeana can represent data associated to one and the same object, and can also show multiple views of the object, being it digital or physical.

Another big advantage that is brought by the introduction of EDM concerns the opportunity of improving existing data thanks to the links across language and domain to authoritative vocabularies such as DBpedia.

[PORTRAIT] Michel Cervantes

https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?assetId=1613261030&objectId=3764027&partId=1

The British Museum website displays a portrait of Miguel de Cervantes, the writer of the novel we took into consideration for this project on Don Quixote.

Many metadata can be viewed on the page of the website:

Despite the metadata provided are many and detailed, there is no information concerning the metadata standard which is used by the British Museum.

Therefore, we analyzed the metadata standards which are available and tried to understand which is the one implemented by the British Museum.

After the analysis, we deduced that the metadata standard here used is CONA, the Cultural Objects Name Authority. It is a structured vocabulary containing authority records for cultural works, including architecture and movable works such as paintings, sculpture, prints, etc., whether extant, destroyed, or conceptual.

[MAP]Carta Geográfica de los Viajes de don Quijote y Sitios de sus Aventuras

http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000193765

The National Library of Spain makes available a map which shows Don Quixote and Sancho Panza’s route throughout the development of the main story, with special focus on the places that the two antiheroes visited.

The main metadata can be viewed but, again, no standard schema seems to have been adopted.

The places that are involved are:

Metadata Standard

The Biblioteca Nacional de España uses six metadata standards, according to the item which is describing.

The metadata standards used by this library are Dublin Core, PREMIS, METS, MODS and MARCXML.The full documentation concerning the metadata used in this library can be read here: http://www.bne.es/gl/Inicio/Perfiles/Bibliotecarios/NormasInternacionales/Metadatos/index.html

The most used standard to describe this object is MODS. Actually, given that it is a map and not a bibliographic entry, some other standards have been used (i.e. CONA and VRA Core) so as to deal with features such as the scale type.

[BOOK] La Florida del Inca

http://tinyurl.com/y29r5qxc

An item related to the date of publication of El Quijote, namely, 1605 is represented by the book La florida del Inca, historical book written by Garcilaso de la Vega which was published the same year as Cervantes’ masterpiece. Strangely enough, both de la Vega and Cervantes died the same year.

The connection between the two Spanish writers is even stronger, as are both considered two of the main innovators of Spanish culture and style of writing.

We found this item in the OPAC SBN (Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale), a network of Italian libraries coordinated by ICCU (Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico delle biblioteche italiane e per le informazioni bibliografiche) whose aim concerns the necessary collaboration of all the Italian libraries in order to create a broad and complete catalog.

Metadata Standard

The metadata standard used here is the ISBD, International Standard Bibliographic Description. This standard is aimed at making universally and promptly available, in a form that is internationally acceptable, basic bibliographic data for all published resources in all countries.

The metadata standards are therefore organized according to the ISBD schema, whose general rules can be summarized as it follows:

Number	DEFINITION
1	Title and statement of responsibility area
2	Edition area
3	Material (or type of publication) specific area
4	Publication, distribution, etc., area
5	Physical description area
6	Series area
7	Note area
8	Standard number (or alternative) and terms of availability area

Another possible display for the metadata can be analyzed, and it follows the MARC21 schema, a standard used to represent and communicate descriptive metadata about library items.

The complete schema can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/y2opqdnx

A MARC record is a MAchine-Readable Cataloging record.To follow, a description of the tags and their meanings.

MARC	DEFINITION
001	it represents the control number and it is generated by the system
003	it is the Control Number Identifier (NR)
005	it is related to the date of the last transaction
008	it is referred to the “Fixed-Length Data Elements-General Information”
026	it is the fingerprint identifier, used “to assist in the identification of antiquarian books by recording information comprising groups of characters taken from specified positions on specified pages of the book, in accordance with the principles laid down in various published guidelines”
040	it is the “Cataloging Source”, which refers to the name of the organization (s) that created the original bibliographic record.
041	it is the language code, “for languages associated with an item when the language code in field 008/35-37 of the record is insufficient to convey full information”
100	it is related to the “Personal name used as a main entry in a bibliographic record” and to “the person chiefly responsible for the work."
240	it is the “Uniform Title”, given to an item “when the bibliographic description is entered under a main entry field that contains a personal (field 100), corporate (110), or meeting (111) name."
245	it is the “Title Statement”. It is related to the statement of responsibility of the bibliographic description of an item.
300	it points out the physical description of the bibliographical entry, “including its extent, dimensions, and such other physical details as a description of any accompanying materials and unit type and size”.
500	it is the General Note, which is, “general information for which a specialized 5XX note field has not been defined”
773	the host item entry, namely, “information concerning the host item for the constituent unit described in the record (vertical relationship)”

[BOOK] Vida de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=11500&recPointer=0&recCount=25&searchType=1&bibId=8302543

Another item related to the figure of the author, Miguel de Cervantes, is represented by his biography, written by Martín Fernández de Navarrete. The title of the book is intuitively Vida de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

We found useful metadata regarding this book in the Library of Congress:

The metadata are presented in the MARC Tag format as it follows:

As described in library of congress marc is MA chine-Readable Cataloging record.(https://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/um01to06.html#part1)

According to the Library of Congress this is the definition of the above data element:

MARC	DEFINITION
001	it represents the control number and it is generated by the system
005	it is related to the date of the last transaction
008	it is referred to the “Fixed-Length Data Elements-General Information”
010	Library of Congress Control Number
035	it is the System Control Number
040	Cataloging Source
050	it is related to the “Personal name used as a main entry in a bibliographic record” and to “the person chiefly responsible for the work."
100	it is related to the “Personal name used as a main entry in a bibliographic record” and to “the person chiefly responsible for the work”.
240	: it is the “Uniform Title”, given to an item “when the bibliographic description is entered under a main entry field that contains a personal (field 100), corporate (110), or meeting (111) name”.
245	it is the “Title Statement”. It is related to the statement of responsibility of the bibliographic description of an item
260	it represents the publication, distribution etc., i.e. all the information concerning the “publication, printing, distribution, issue, release, or production of a work”.
300	it points out the physical description of the bibliographical entry, “including its extent, dimensions, and such other physical details as a description of any accompanying materials and unit type and size”.
490	Electronic Location and Access
500	it is the General Note, which is, “general information for which a specialized 5XX note field has not been defined”
530	Additional Physical Form available Note
600	Subject Added Entry - Personal Name
710	Added Entry - Corporate Name
856	Electronic Location and Access

[EITCHING] Andrés es azotado por Juan Haldudo

http://qbi2005.windows.cervantesvirtual.com/wfrmMosaico.aspx?irc=1&ircID=0010

While looking for cultural institutions which analyzed artworks related to Don Quixote, the core of our project, we found the extremely rich collection of the Banco de imágenes del Quijote. Over the years, a huge amount of artworks related to this figure has been created. This initiative is aimed at gathering in only one place all these representations.

The etching depicts the desire of don quixote for the justice of all. The drawing also show the timeless message of don quixote about hope and chivalry.

Metadata standard

The metadata here do not follow any standard. This is due to the fact that the Banco de imágenes de Don Quijote does not adopt any standard to describe the huge variety of artworks which it includes. Therefore, the information which is represented here is not organized according to any standard, but it is just useful information concerning the etching.