AIMS supports institutions that wish to benefit from initiatives related to the Semantic Web and Linked Open Data. AIMS offers recommendations as Good Practices on how to produce Linked Open Data. These Good Practices include indexing content by using widely-used vocabularies like AGROVOC; encoding strategies for producing Linked Open Data; and facilitating access to datasets through the CIARD RING.

Assuring Quality in Metadata Creation

The use of meaningful metadata for bibliographic content description and the use of shared vocabularies are primary steps in facilitating interoperability. AIMS provides recommendations to facilitate this exchange of data and information sharing by providing a set of common metadata properties and encouraging the use of authority data, controlled vocabularies, and syntax encoding standards:

• The Agricultural Metadata Element Set (AgMES) namespace, was designed to standardise the description of elements and encoding schemes required for resources such as websites, documents, pictures, databases etc. AgMES elements are used by five application profiles.
• Meaningful Bibliographic Metadata (M2B) is a set of recommendations for content providers to select appropriate metadata properties for the creation, management and exchange of meaningful bibliographic information.
• The VEST registry includes namespace and application profiles developed and maintained in the AIMS community and beyond for documents, events, geospatial data, organizations, learning objects, persons/experts, project, statistics and research data.

To encourage publishing rich metadata, two tools Drupal and Dspace (to AgriDrupal and AgriOcean Dspace, respectively) have been customised with vocabularies and metadata formats guaranteeing the exposure of metadata compliant with OAI-PMH.

Linked Data

A number of initiatives related to the Semantic Web are taking place within the AIMS umbrella. These innovative experiences are meant to support those institutions that wish to consume and publish Linked Data as a means of sharing and exchange agricultural research information in the context of new challenges to agriculture. These initiatives are:

• Vocabularies published as Linked Data. AGROVOC which is linked to more than a dozen vocabularies
• Recommendations to select appropriate encoding strategies for producing bibliographic data suitable for the Linked Data environment. The Linked Open Data - Enabled Bibliographic Data (LODE-BD) Recommendations that provides encoding strategies for producing LOD-enabled bibliographical data as well as the encoding of value vocabularies used in describing agents, places, and topics in bibliographic data
• Web applications to aggregate information from different Web sources to existing data repositories. AGRIS is expanding the repository interlinking to other datasets.

A glossary of terms related to Linked Data and as well external resources are available from the get started section.

Tools Using Agricultural Information Management Standards

Information system customizations based on two open source content and digital repository management systems, Drupal and DSpace, have been created under the umbrella of AIMS. These customizations - AgriDrupal, AgriOceanDSpace and AgriMetaMaker - facilitate the publication of interoperable and re-usable metadata that describe agricultural research information.

The promotion of information management standards has shown that providing tools that implement good practices in the creation, management and exchange of metadata is a key factor to success. Providing metadata and vocabularies via Linked Open Data, Web services and file downloads is not enough. The additional customization of information management tools pre-packaged with such standards and services is fundamental to ensure interoperability among information management systems.

Which tool meets your needs?

The table provides data providers with information on what the customizations are intended for in order the facilitate the decision-process as to which tool to use. It also includes the functionalities and customization features of AgriOcean DSpace, AgriDrupal and AgriMetamaker displayed next to each other.

For a broader look at other tools, please visit the VEST Registry.