Seven Lessons from LUX,

Yale University’s Linked Data Discovery Platform

Network of interconnected nodes and lines on a gradient background that transitions from a warm golden hue at the bottom to a clear blue at the top. The nodes vary in size and are connected by thin lines, creating a web-like structure. Some nodes appear as filled circles while others are outlined, and the density of the network varies across the image, with some areas more clustered and others more sparse.

Tim Thompson

Librarian for Applied Metadata Research

Yale University Library

timothy.thompson@yale.edu

www.linkedin.com/in/timathompson

@timathom@indieweb.social

 

2024 IPLC Discovery Days

Panel Discussion: “The World of Stuff”

October 30, 2024

  • Collections at Yale

  • LUX: Yale Collections Discovery

  • Seven Lessons from LUX

Overview

Collections at Yale

Interior of the Yale Center for British Art, featuring minimalist and modern decor. On the left, windows allow natural light to enter and showcase some framed artworks. In the center and to the right, a painting of a seascape hangs on the wall, with dark colors highlighting the dramatic scene of clouds and sky over a beach. The space is spacious and welcoming, with brown sofas inviting visitors to pause and contemplate the artworks. The architecture blends elements of light wood and concrete details, creating an atmosphere of tranquility and reflection.
Room of the Yale University Art Gallery, bathed in natural light filtering through tall windows. Various classical statues and busts on pedestals are observed, creating a calm and contemplative atmosphere. Each piece is accompanied by its own descriptive label, allowing visitors to learn about its history and significance. To the right, a display case contains ancient vessels, highlighted by the light entering through the window and reflecting their intricate details. The exhibition combines elements of classical architecture with a modern and accessible layout, inviting reflection and study of the pieces.
Fossil skull of a Tyrannosaurus rex on display at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. The fossil is well-preserved, showcasing the formidable jaw and sharp teeth of the dinosaur, aspects that allude to its reputation as one of the most powerful predators of the Mesozoic era. The lighting and angle of the photo emphasize the texture and shape of the skull, providing a detailed view that invites contemplation and paleontological study.
Interior of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. An extensive collection of rare books and manuscripts is stored on glass shelves that reach from floor to ceiling. The warm lighting highlights the spines of the books and creates a serene atmosphere. The architectural structure of the library, with walls of translucent marble, allows natural light to softly filter into the space, protecting the valuable materials from direct light exposure. Known for its unique design and impressive collections, the library is a point of interest for both researchers and visitors interested in the history of books and scholarship.

Yale Center for British Art, Karl Thomas Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Adam Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Yale University Art Gallery, Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Four different elements that are part of a collage. In the top left corner, there is a fish fossil found by Benjamin Silliman. In the top right corner, a handwritten letter from Silliman addressed to George Peabody Esq. is displayed with elegant and detailed script. In the bottom left corner, a delicate drawing of the portrait of Harriet Trumbull, niece of the artist John Trumbull, is seen. Finally, in the bottom right corner, a vibrant painting of a battle made by John Trumbull and his teacher, Benjamin West, is presented. Red arrows connect each of these works, illustrating the connections between different pieces in the Yale collections.

Credit: Robert Sanderson, A Launch Celebration | LUX: Yale Collections Discovery.

LUX: Yale Collections Discovery

Screenshot from the LUX discovery platform homepage with the title What Is LUX?

What Is LUX?

  • Integrated access to Yale’s collections

  • Search and discovery powered by linked open data

  • Knowledge graph of cultural heritage metadata and resources

  • Implementation of a shared semantic model (Linked Art)

  • Focal point for collaboration and innovation across the university

LUX at a Glance

  • Approximately 41 million entities (as JSON-LD).
  • Approximately 2.5 billion triples.
  • Complete library catalog (over 12 million MARC records; includes e-books, but not articles).
  • Data reconciliation and enrichment from
    • Getty: AAT, ULAN, TGN
    • Library of Congress: LCSH, LCNAF, Vocabularies
    • OCLC: FAST, VIAF
    • Wikidata.
  • Records mapped to Linked Art by contributing units and then enriched through the LUX pipeline.

Goals of LUX

  • Reveal the cultural heritage collections of Yale University to the world.
  • Provide a unified gateway to the holdings of Yale’s museums, archives, and libraries.
  • Enhance user access by providing a novel approach to engaging with both physical and digital collections at Yale.
  • Uncover relationships among items, prompting users to explore the collections more deeply.

Why Linked Data?

Two fundamental reasons for implementing a linked data approach:

  1. Information management. Organize and share bibliographic information with greater precision and efficiency.
  2. Resource discovery. Facilitate search and retrieval online, leveraging semantics to highlight relationships among resources.

Resource Discovery

  • The LUX project focused on the second motive, discovery.
  • Instead of changing our workflows, we focused on proving the value of a linked data approach for our users and our metadata.
Vintage sepia-toned photograph with the ironic staging of the saying Don't put the cart before the horse. A horse stands harnessed behind a small two-wheeled cart, rather than in front of it. The person in the cart, dressed in dark clothing and a cap, appears to be ready to drive, oblivious to the reversed setup. The background features a wide-open field, enhancing the absurdity of the scene with the horse standing still on the grassy path, under a vast sky marked by clouds.

Resource Discovery

Information Management

Image generated by Midjourney v6.0.

Thesis

  • The transition from legacy formats such as MARC 21 has been a struggle because we’ve tried to do the hardest parts first.
  • Change management requires imagination and inspiration.

  • A discovery system is a concrete reference point that benefits users directly; it can serve as a “north star” for future work.

From these...

Displays logos and graphics of different metadata standards used in the cataloging and description of collections and cultural heritage. At the top, the logo of EAD (Encoded Archival Description) is seen, followed by the logo of MARC 21 (Machine-Readable Cataloging). In the center, an image of Charles Darwin represents the Darwin Core, a standard for biodiversity information. To the right is the logo of LIDO (Lightweight Information Describing Objects), focused on the description of museum objects. At the bottom, there is a banner that says Categories for the Description of Works of Art indicating a standard for describing, cataloging, and linking works of art, architecture, and cultural heritage, accompanied by thumbnail images of different types of art and architecture. The image visually communicates the variety of standards employed to organize and present data across different domains of knowledge.

Metadata Transformations

Conceptual diagram illustrating the relationships between various concepts in the context of metadata for artworks and culture. In the center, the concept of Creation acts as the main node and is connected to Textual Work, Visual Work, Actor, TimeSpan, and Place. Creation is linked to Actor through created by and to TimeSpan through timespan. Actor is broken down into subcategories like Gender/Ethnicity. Visual Work is connected to Digital Content and Physical Object, indicating the different forms a visual work can take. Textual Work is linked to Concept and Place. The diagram uses colors to differentiate types of concepts and arrows to denote semantic relationships, providing a logical structure to understand how data are related in a linked knowledge environment.

Credit: Robert Sanderson, LUX: Illuminating the Collections of Yale’s Museums, Libraries, and Archives via Linked Open Usable Data.

Metadata Transformations

To this!

Seven Lessons from LUX

https://lux.collections.yale.edu

1. The model is the message

  • Find the Langston Hughes papers.

2. Users need signposts.

  • Find a digitized letter from the Personal Correspondence series of the Langston Hughes papers.

3. Everything is connected.

  • Find a work or object by someone from your hometown (or the closest city to where you grew up).

4. Stop speaking in code.

  • Find the record for the Voynich manuscript.

  • Find the record for Yale’s copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

5. Every person their painting.

  • Find a digital image of an oil painting produced between 1775 and 1825.
  • Find portraits of Yale scientists who discovered holotypes currently in the Yale Peabody Museum.

6. Success depends on data quality.

  • Find a specimen collected by Charles Darwin and identify where he encountered it.

7. Think globally, act locally.

  • Find books by Mexican authors who were both poets and politicians.
  • Find members of Yale who were professionally active in the field of music.

Thank You!

Questions?

Tim Thompson

Librarian for Applied Metadata Research

timothy.thompson@yale.edu

www.linkedin.com/in/timathompson

@timathom@indieweb.social

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