On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 08:51:17AM +0100, Karen Coyle wrote:
> I'm drawing a blank on how to use the vocabulary encoding schemes in
> DC. Does anyone have (or can mock up) an example or two of usage?
Sure - here's a simple one:
:X dcterms:subject :Y
:Y rdf:value "Textile design--China--History"
:Y dcam:memberOf <http://purl.org/dc/terms/LCSH>
It says: "Resource X has the topic: 'Textile design--China--History'. This
topic is a member of the Vocabulary Encoding Scheme 'Library of Congress Subject
Headings'."
The Vocabulary Encoding Scheme "dcterms:LCSH" was originally published in 2000.
Note that in the meantime -- in this particular case -- the Library of Congress
Subject Headings have been "semanticized", such that each subject heading now has
its own URI. Today, therefore, one might simply use the following in metadata:
:X dcterms:subject <http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85134312>
The Vocabulary Encoding Scheme, in other words, is designed to put text values
such as "Textile design--China--History" into a context that is citable by URI.
The context for dcterms:LCSH at the time it was coined in 2000 was a stack of
large red volumes near the Reference Desk in the library. Now that LCSH terms
have URIs which themselves provide that sort of context, providing additional
context with a Vocabulary Encoding Scheme is (in most cases) unnecessarily
redundant.
While still open for discussion, there is arguably no difference between a
Vocabulary Encoding Scheme and a SKOS Concept Scheme.
Tom
--
Tom Baker <[log in to unmask]>
