UseCases

SKOS Analyzer Use Cases

Illustrative Example

The following example are simplified concepts taken from the UK Archival Thesaurus. We use the Turtle syntax for RDF as serialization format.

We use these URI abbreviations used throughout the example

@prefix skos:   <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix rdf:    <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix rdfs:   <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix ukat:   <http://www.ukat.org.uk/thesaurus/concept/> .

The central concept we are focusing on in our example. It defines the concept of "weapons" (prefLabel = preferred label) with two alternative labels (altLabel) "Armaments" and "Arms". It provides pointers to one broader concept (ukat:5060) and two narrower concepts (ukat:18874 and ukat:7630).

ukat:859 rdf:type skos:Concept;
    skos:prefLabel "Weapons";
    skos:altLabel "Armaments";
    skos:altLabel "Arms";
    skos:broader ukat:5060;
    skos:narrower ukat:18874;
    skos:narrower ukat:7630.

The definition of the concept "military equipment", which is a broader concept of the previously introduced concept "weapons". It defines the alternative labels "defense equipment and supplies" and "ordnance".

ukat:5060 rdf:type skos:Concept;
    skos:prefLabel "Military equipment";
    skos:altLabel "Defense equipment and supplies";
    skos:altLabel "Ordnance".

Two narrower concepts of "weapons".

ukat:18874 rdf:type skos:Concept;
    skos:prefLabel "Ammunition".


ukat:7630 rdf:type skos:Concept;
    skos:prefLabel "Artillery".

UC1: URI-based term expansion

For a given Lucene document that contains references (URIs) to SKOS concepts in one or more of it fields, it should be possible to expand these URIs by the concept's labels at indexing time. The following example taken from Europeana.eu (http://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/09405/3BD58C2F3A21C68B9FC9C520D68018C704810507.html) illustrates that kind of expansion:

Before the analysis:

• Title: Spearhead
• Description: Roman iron spearhead. The spearhead was attached to one end of a wooden shaft...The spear was mainly a thrusting weapon, but could also be thrown. It was the principal weapon of the auxiliary soldier... (second - fourth century, Arbeia Roman Fort).
• Subject: http://www.ukat.org.uk/thesaurus/concept/859

After the analysis:

• Title: Spearhead
• Description: Roman iron spearhead. The spearhead was attached to one end of a wooden shaft...The spear was mainly a thrusting weapon, but could also be thrown. It was the principal weapon of the auxiliary soldier... (second - fourth century, Arbeia Roman Fort).
• Subject: weapons armaments arms

For each type of SKOS property (prefLabel, altLabel, broader, narrower, etc) it should be possible to define whether it should be considered in the expansion process.

UC2: Label-based term expansion

For a given Lucene document it should be possible to expand the terms in given lucene fields by terms defined in a given SKOS vocabulary. In order to enable phrase queries the expanded terms must consider the position of the original terms.

The following example taken from Europeana.eu illustrates that kind of expansion:

Before the analysis:

• Title: Spearhead
• Description: Roman iron spearhead. The spearhead was attached to one end of a wooden shaft...The spear was mainly a thrusting weapon, but could also be thrown. It was the principal weapon of the auxiliary soldier... (second - fourth century, Arbeia Roman Fort).
• Subject: Weapons

After the analysis:

• Title: Spearhead
• Description: Roman iron spearhead. The spearhead was attached to one end of a wooden shaft...The spear was mainly a thrusting weapon, but could also be thrown. It was the principal weapon of the auxiliary soldier... (second - fourth century, Arbeia Roman Fort).
• Subject: armaments arms Weapons

For each type of SKOS property (prefLabel, altLabel, broader, narrower, etc) it should be possible to define whether it should be considered in the expansion process.