Linked Data: The Conservation Approach

In this webinar Athanasios Velios, Reader in Documentation at Ligatus, University of Arts London speaks about his work with the Linked Conservation Data project: an AHRC-funded project to enable integration of conservation records. Linked Data seems to have been on the archival horizon for a very long time. The early 2010s saw a flurry of Linked Data research projects including Trenches to triples, Linking Lives and the JISC-funded Step Change which led, amongst other outcomes, to the incorporation of Linked Data functionality into CALM. And yet, as we reach the early 2020s, Linked Data still only seems to reside on the horizon linked now with the equally shadowy Records in Contexts, in development since 2012. The motivation behind holding this webinar was to help attendees to get to grips with what realising a Linked Data vision might look like and how it might be brought about. The Linked Conservation Data project and network is an attempt to realise this vision within the field of conservation and Thanasis' presentation led into an interesting discussion (not recorded) about our own Linked Archival Data vision - what it is and how it might be realised.