The aggregation of heterogeneous metadata in web-based cultural heritage collections: a case study

In this paper we discuss some issues related to digital libraries that are born as aggregators of cultural heritage resources harvested from different distributed digital repositories. Whenever such aggregations fall short of providing a real service to users, most of the time this is due to the inadequacy of the data (or conceptual) model proposed for the mapping and exposed to the final user. Our aim is to enhance the formal representation of cultural heritage materials, reasoning about some key concepts to improve the quality of the description of digital resources by refining the conceptual model. The relation between original object and the medium used for its digital representation, the stratification of levels in the description of the object, and the separation between the description of the involved individuals and their roles, are some concepts about which we have reflected in order to propose a new approach to the description of resources. Correctly approaching these three issues, often misunderstood by aggregation platforms, may help in a systemic refinement of the data model of the relevant ontologies, improving the usefulness of the information made available by the aggregation framework. Additionally, even the technologies used to make records of digital libraries available to the public may require a reflection, since it is easy to overlook subtle points in important technologies such as Linked Open Data on the Web when used as one of the publication