Data standardization and integration in NFDI4Objects

DATA STANDARDIZATION AND INTEGRATION IN NFDI4OBJECTS Förderkennzeichen: 501836407 NFDI4Objects ist Teil der DHnet Jena | 29 October 2025 Anja Gerber, [email protected] NFDI4OBJECTS IN A NUTSHELL Who we are NFDI4Objects aims to meet the infrastructural needs of researchers and practitioners who work on the material remains of around three million years of human and environmental history. What brings us together The specific needs of our community stem from the connection between objects and their archaeological contexts and often complex object biographies. We are a consortium of ●Universities & Universities of Applied Sciences ●Museums & Collections ●Non-University Research Institution ●Societies & Association ●Libraries & Archives ●Authorities (State / Federal) What NFDI4Objects offers… Enrichment of humanities consortiathrough object-related scientific data Expertise and offerings in the intersection of humanities and information sciences ●Study programs: Archaeoinformatics, Digital Humanities, Computational Archaeology ●Data quality ●Data literacy ●Software, interfaces & standards ●Interoperability, in particular the development and harmonization of metadata standards for a cross-consortium group of users What needs to be done ●Bridging the ‘digital divide’ between users and specialists, including between sub-disciplines ●Integration of our work into a uniform research data management strategy ●Creation of a broad range of services that supports the entire community ●Establishment of data-adequate long-term archiving (> 50 years) ●Expansion of data-supported networking with engineering, natural sciences, life sciences and social sciences GOVERNANCE ●Provision of clearly structured and reusable metadata standards & ontologies ○e.g. through Bartoc/ Dante/ R:honovo ●Enables the seamless integration of external and internal data DANTE Schnittstelle zur Integration von Vokabularen BARTOC Register für Thesauri, Ontologien, Klassifikationen und Normdaten R:honovo Register historischer Vokabulare und Normdaten DAtendrehscheibe für Normdaten und TErminologien ●Conduct experiments, observations, measurements, simulations, etc. ●Index data with metadata ●Include external data ●Obtain consent for data use Phase 2: Data collection ●Provision/support of specific software solutions and infrastructures for archival use cases by NFDI4Objects, e.g.: ○FundLogBuch ○Survey2GIS ○iDAI.field FundLogBuch Automatized recording of archaeological finds iDAI.field Standardized documentation of archaeological excavation data Survey2GIS Open-source field surveying and excavation software ●Collect, digitize, transcribe, translate ●Check, validate, clean up, anonymize if necessary ●Describe and document ●Store and manage ●Analyze and interpret ●Obtain research results Phase 3: Processing and analyzing the data ●Provision of software solutions and database systems for specific use cases by NFDI4Objects, e.g.: ○ArboDat+ ○OssoBook ArboDat+ Database system for recording archaeobotanical finds OssoBook Database system for recording archaeozoological finds ●Collect, digitize, transcribe, translate ●Check, validate, clean up, anonymize if necessary ●Describe and document ●Store and manage ●Analyze and interpret ●Obtain research results Phase 3: Processing and analyzing the data ●IANUS is being further developed as part of NFDI4Objects: ○LZA consultation hours (contact: Juliane Watson) ○Workflows for data entry into IANUS ●Planning additional storage capacity via the NFDI Long-term archive IANUS Long-term preservation of archaeological research data LZA consultation hours & recommendations Practical support for long-term archiving ●Convert data into a suitable format for long-term archiving ●Migrate data to suitable media ●Store and back up data ●Implement and document measures for long-term archiving Phase 4: Archiving data 20 ●Development of an N4O infrastructure for publishing data ○NFDI4Objects Knowledge Graph, with automated workflows for data import and validation ○Dante/Bartoc/Cocoda ○Propylaeum (research data, publications) N4O Knowledge Graph Connected research data and contextual information Propylaeum Providing publications and research data Phase 5: Enabling data access ●Defining copyright and licensing ●Creating metadata for discoverability ●Selecting appropriate access to the data ●Sharing and publishing data ●Disseminating the data 21 ●N4O Commons: Joint development and coordination harmonize formats, standards, and processes → Enables reuse ●NFDI4Objects Open Educational Resources → Transfer of knowledge, methods, and skills N4O Commons Standards by the community for the community N4O OERs Open educational resources for research data Phase 6: Reuse of data ●Review and evaluation of previous research results ●Implementation of follow-up projects ●Use of data for teaching purposes NFDI4Objects: Services & Resources Research data infrastructure for the material remains of human and environmental history Helpdesk N4O Knowledge Graph Information Portal Commons & Incubator Shared knowledge for the community NFDI4Objects Catalogues LTA Consultation & Recommendations N4O Open Educational Resources ●different disciplinary backgrounds and prior knowledge ●different institutional frameworks ●struggling with “open science” and “cultural change” CHALLENGES: Involvement of the Community TRAILs Task Related Activities for the Implementation of Services COMMUNITY CLUSTER serve to integrate communities that are not yet part of the work program and to incorporate individual expertise, particularly from neighboring disciplines or new fields of expertise TEMPORARY WORKING GROUPS are inspired by the needs of the community and triggered by activities outlined in the work program Involvement of the Community NFDI4OBJECTS IN PRACTICE ●Supporting museums and collections in publishing their object data online ●Low-threshold communication of relevant standards (CIDOC CRM, LIDO, EDM, etc.) ●Awareness of data quality ●Facilitating the integration of standard data and controlled vocabularies ●Important use case: data exchange and data delivery to portals ●Concordances with other standards and specifications ●Provides recording tips and vocabulary recommendations ●https://wiki.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/space s/DFD/pages/218628097/English+Translation+Mi nimum+Record+Recommendation+for+Museums+ and+Collections+v1.0.1 Minimum Record Recommendation www.minimaldatensatz.de Minimum Record Recommendation Working Group LIDO for Archaeology ●Formulating the needs and requirements within the consortium, consistent with the development of object biographies based on CIDOC CRM in NFDI4Objects ○Involving all stakeholders in the consortium in order to be able to represent the archaeological perspective appropriately ○e.g., conservation and restoration in Task Area 4 ●2024 close coordination with LIDOde working group ●establishment of a sub-working group, as the University of Munich Library has similar requirements ●Work with initial use cases to formulate the roadmap Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Direktion Museen Working Group LIDO for Archaeology Link to the project: https://discover.ub.uni-muenchen.de/palenque Link to the project: https://anneherz.github.io/ProM/ Working Group LIDO for Archaeology ●Official launch of the working group in July 2025 ●Coordination by Andreas Frech (Munich University Library) and Anja Gerber (NFDI4Objects, KSW) ●Inclusion of various disciplines ●Creation of a roadmap → Goals ○Formulation of use cases ○Application of these use cases to the current LIDO version ○Consideration of previous application profiles ○Formulation of desiderata ○Development of proposals ○Discussion of these with the LIDOde AG ●Step-by-step creation of guidelines with the aim of creating an application profile and a manual Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Direktion Museen Example of a current discussion: Transition from actor to natural object (“thing”) → How do you describe the person as an actor, how do you describe that person's bones? How do you deal with multiple entries? Actor during his/her lifetime commissioner of his/her own grave dies and is buried Find context Bones biologica l object humanmade object Iconography Representation as Tomb Inscription multiple occupancy Burial Objects is discovered Conservation Example of a current discussion: Transition from actor to natural object (“thing”) → How do you describe the person as an actor, how do you describe that person's bones? How do you deal with multiple entries? Actor during his/her lifetime commissioner of his/her own grave dies and is buried Find context Bones biological object Conservation humanmade object Iconography Representation as Tomb Inscription multiple occupancy Burial Objects is discovered Buried often unknown not always a building The transition has to be marked Burials did not always represent Who commissions and builds the tomb? Statements about use Dating, what happened in what order Uncertainty Vagueness Assumptions Have their own object biographies Screenshot of mapping a grave in CIDOC CRM, Anja Gerber, Andreas Frech, CC BY 4.0 Working Group LIDO2RDF ●UAG was founded in July 2024 by Angela Kailus (NFDI4Culture, German Documentation Center for Art History – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, Philipps University of Marburg) and Anja Gerber (NFDI4Objects, Klassik Stiftung Weimar) ●Involvement of all relevant actors who map LIDO-XML to RDF. ○NFDI4Objects ○NFDI4Culture ○University of Munich ○DigiCult ●Currently coordinated by Anja Gerber and Andreas Frech (University Library of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) ●Consideration of preliminary work being already done Working Group LIDO2RDF ●Objective: Mapping of LIDO XML to CIDOC CRM triples (subject - predicate - object) for the translation of statements ○LIDO 1.0 and LIDO 1.1 ○CIDOC CRM 7.1.3. (ISO 21127:2023) ○for use in knowledge graphs and other semantic web applications ●initially based on the Minimum Record Recommendation for Museums and Collections of the AG Minimaldatensatz ○www.minimaldatensatz.de ●Exchange about mapping in the working group ●Further development of the X3ML mapper by the Verbundzentrale Göttingen Material Heritage Crosswalk) Ontology (MaCHeCO) ●Workflow: Development of a Material Heritage Crosswalk Ontology to map interdisciplinary ontologies to CIDOC CRM classes using crosswalks. ●Result: Pre-alpha version of a MaCHeCO as OWL for mapping between, for example, CIDOC CRM, BFO, NFDI Core. ●Potential: Generation of NFDI-compliant (meta)data for the integration of NFDI4Objects data into the NFDI4Objects Knowledge Graph and also the NFDI federated Knowledge Graph. Florian Thiery, CC BY 4.0 Martin Doerr, via “The CIDOC CRM - an Ontological Approach to Semantic Interoperability of Metadata” (2003). THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION #nfdi4objects nfdi4objects.net