Overview
On October 30, 1920, Galicia witnessed the birth of a new magazine with the meaningful title of “Nós: boletín mensual da cultura galega” (We: monthly bulletin of Galician culture). But it was not just any publication. “Nós” became one of the references of Galician culture in the 20th century, so much so that it is impossible to imagine Galicia today without its contribution.
One hundred years later, Galiciana-Digital Library of Galicia in collaboration with AMTEGA (Agency for the Technological Modernization of Galicia) is presenting the knowledge graph of the magazine “Nós”. It aims to present in a new and visual way the data of all the people, places, institutions and historical events that surrounded this publication during its 15 years of life (1920-1935).
This representation of the “Nós” world as a connected whole will serve to better understand this fundamental milestone of our culture and this fascinating period of our history.
The knowledge graph of the magazine “Nós” is formed by the following nodes:
-magazine
-issues
-articles
-authors
-entities
-historical events
These data are analyzed and as a result of this analysis a specific semantic ontology is created to represent the world encompassed by the magazine “Nós”. In turn, the semantic ontology is fed with data that has been extracted from the catalog of Galiciana-Digital Library of Galicia. The graph comes as a novel and structured way to present the data created and hosted in traditional library catalogs. It is designed to contribute to a better understanding of “Nós” and its historical context, facilitating the search for information and citizens’ learning.
The semantic web is possible thanks to the development of ontologies that identify and link all human knowledge. People, places, organizations and subjects are related to each other in a standardized and univocal way. Libraries and all other cultural heritage institutions, the so-called GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) have been collecting standardized data on people, organizations, works and materials for centuries. This data is not always accessible to end users; that’s why libraries need to enrich semantic web ontologies with their data and thus make it more visible and accessible for the general public.
Current library catalogs present results in a linear way. Relationships between authors, works and issues, and therefore the possibility of navigation, is limited. By creating this graph on the data hosted in the Galiciana catalog, search and browsing possibilities multiply. Relationships between all entities that make up a bibliographic catalog are highlighted, in line with the conceptual model FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records), which in turn is the basis of the new international cataloging standards RDA (Resource Description and Access).
Searches in library catalogs are no alien to innovations in information retrieval on the Web. Nowadays, users are accustomed to the main web search engines. In this environment, simple, intuitive and friendly interfaces for end users must be offered, along with diverse and personalized search and browsing options. This project meets these premises and envisions how the future catalogs of the libraries of the Xunta de Galicia could be.
The knowledge network project of the magazine “Nós” is publicly accessible on its own website (revistanos.gal). The architecture of this website includes a home page, the authors section, the magazine section. Each of them with its respective search engine and a timeline that contextualizes both sections, offering the most relevant historical events that took place in Galicia during the period 1845-1936. Each author’s relationships both with other collaborators of “Nós” and with the main organizations to which he/she belonged will be shown in an easy, friendly and intuitive way through its social graph. The relationships with other authors/organisms outside the “Nós” network will be enriched through linked open data with other external sources.
“Nada mais. A todol-os que nos lean: SAÚDE E TERRA” (Nothing more. To all those who read us: Greetings and Land)