Shu-jiun Chen

Mapping multilingual lexical semantics for knowledge organization systems

Purpose – The study aims to investigate, through mapping analysis, the operation of knowledge organization systems (KOS) in different languages (English and Chinese), the types of term equivalence and the degree of similarity between different conceptual structures, and issues related thereto.Design/methodology/approach – Terms are selected from the Art & Architecture Thesaurus developed by Getty Research Institute in the USA (source language) and the National Palace Museum in Taiwan participating in Taiwan e‐Learning and Digital Archives Program (target language). In respect of data analysis, mapping analysis and content analysis are both adopted.Findings – Among the six types of term equivalence, “exact equivalence” appears most frequently. The degree of similarity between different conceptual structures can be divided into four types: similar structure, transferring part of the structure of source language into the system of target language by modeling; similar structure, but the structure of source la...

A case study in designing Chinese metadata

Metadata are fundamental in establishing a digital library and museum while domain communities describe, interpret and manage different digital objects. Although many metadata formats and sets have been developed, it is difficult to choose an appropriate format and conversion is problematical, especially for the Chinese materials. This paper is a progress report from the Metadata Taskforce Group designing Chinese metadata for the digital library and museum project (DLMP) at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. The group’s top priority is to construct goals, principles and procedures while designing the metadata format for Chinese contents. Not only does the Metadata Taskforce Group present the analysis of content attributes of Formosan Plain indigenous people, but also several marked achievements and findings are suggested, such as the metadata record structure and criteria of selecting and evaluating the current metadata formats.

Alignment of conceptual structures in controlled vocabularies in the domain of Chinese art: a discussion of issues and patterns

In any effort that involves multilingual KOS, the language and cultural variants bring a great degree of complexity, especially when perspectives of different cultures need to be integrated. This paper attempts to explore, within the domain of Chinese art, the interoperability of multilingual/multi-cultural vocabularies by analyzing the issues of aligning the conceptual structures of Chinese and English terminology in the controlled vocabularies observed in our Chinese AAT-Taiwan Project (2010-present). The paper addresses the issues related to the conceptual structures of the concepts for Chinese art in the National Palace Museum (NPM) Vocabulary and Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT). The paper presents four patterns found in the effort of achieving semantic interoperability and shares a set of models that have been used to handle various situations. The findings help the understanding of the semantic interoperability of multilingual KOS, especially when dealing with cultural-related concepts that cannot be exactly aligned in vocabularies due to discrepancies in the conceptual structures.

AAT-Taiwan: toward a multilingual access to cultural objects

This paper reports on current collaborative work between Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program (TELDAP) and Getty Research Institute (GRI) in developing the Chinese-language Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT-Taiwan) which supports the unification of terminology used by various archiving institutions for describing identical concepts. This work aims to establish a conceptual framework for the digital library by providing controlled vocabularies to index and catalogue the collection. With its multilingual nature, AAT Taiwan is able to bridge Western and Eastern culture in an integrated framework, and make our resources accessible worldwide. With its hierarchical structure, it also enhances the effectiveness and comprehensiveness of information retrieval in digital libraries.

Metadata for K9 e-learning in Taiwan: an application profile approach

The study aims to develop a core set of metadata elements for K9 e-learning resources based on a case study of education to e-learning project under auspice of the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. Eventually, a set of 53 metadata elements has been developed as a LOM-based application profile for Taiwan K9 e-learning resources, and two guidelines are also produced for metadata system implementation and cataloguing. Furthermore, three findings are presented as follows. (1) The LOMAP implied the LOM has attained a high acceptance in Taiwan K9 e-learning community. (2) The Taiwan K9 LOMAP covers functional requirements of element attributes, such as mandatory or optional, for system development. (3) A challenge in controlled vocabulary for interoperability among different LOMAPs emerges. Finally, this study suggests that the Taiwan K9 LOMAP would be a ground to further include more samples and domains, in order to become a Taiwan LOM Core.

An Application Practice of the IFLA FRBR Model: A Metadata Case Study for the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

In 1998, the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model which is composed of four entities (work, expression, manifestation and item) and their associative relationships (primary, responsibility and subject), was proposed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The FRBR model can be deployed as a logical framework for proceeding content-based analysis and developing metadata format. This paper presents a case study of the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taipei to examine the feasibility of the FRBR model. Based on the examination of case study at the NPM, the FRBR model is proven to be a useful and fundamental framework for content-based analysis and metadata implementation. We find that the FRBR model is helpful in identifying proper metadata elements organization and their distribution over the FRBR entities. Basically, this model is more suitable for media-centric and association-rich contents. However, in order to refine the FRBR model as a common framework for metadata, it would also require supportive mechanisms for management responsibility relationships for the workflow consideration and functionality elements for preservation purpose.

User tagging for digital archives: the case of commercial keywords from the grand secretariat

To make digital archives more accessible to industries, this study used tags given by cultural creative industries to items in digital archives to analyze the differences between the terms used by commercial users and scholars from the archive agency. We analyzed the self-created commercial tags (60%) and the tags adopted from academic terms (40%). The results showed that terms provided by the archive agency were still more likely to be based on domain knowledge. In comparison, the superordinate terms are more likely to be needed by the commercial users. This study suggests that the research findings of six types of semantic relationship and eight types of linked properties could be further transformed into metadata best practices for the digital archive agency, thus bridging the divide between the commercial tags and academic terms.

A case study for multilingual support: applying the AAT-thesaurus to TELDAP's multilingual project

The translation of cultural-laden words has been a formidable project. This paper discusses how AAT-Thesaurus, with its classification of semantic equivalence and carefully structured terms, helps the Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program (TELDAP) conquer the difficulty of untranslatability.

Methodologies for multilingual information integration in the domain of Chinese art

In this paper, we report on methodologies through the two multilingualized research projects. We discuss a proposed methodological framework for Chinese-English interoperability between the respective thesauri, including four main modules: Translation, Mapping, Localization, and Creation. We also discuss four steps involved in building English metadata: Mapping, Selection, Translation, and Control Vocabulary. In addition, the paper also looks into key issues faced by the two projects, including the varying degrees of semantic equivalence between Chinese and English terms, metadata translation, and metadata quality.