Cultural Heritage Information Retrieval: Past, Present, and Future Trends

Abstract

Knowledge organization and development of better information retrieval techniques were of great importance from a very early time period in human history. The need has grown high for such systems with the advent of digitization and the web era. Computer systems and web have offered easier retrieval of information in almost no time. However, as the amount of data increased, these systems were not able to work well in terms of accuracy and precision of retrieval. Semantic Web concept was introduced to overcome the issue by converting the web of documents to a web of data. Semantic Web technologies makes data machine-understandable so that information retrieval can be more precise and accurate. The Cultural Heritage (CH) community, with the goal of preserving and dissemination of the historical information to people and society, is one of the first domains to adopt Semantic Web recommendations and technologies, which can provide interoperability between various organizations by creating a shared understanding in the community. The data in the CH domain differs widely with types and formats. Also, a lot of organizations and experts from various fields interact through different processes within this community. Due to the mentioned needs, the CH community employed Semantic Web technologies step by step along its evolution process for better knowledge management and a uniform understanding among the community. In this study, we present a comprehensive conceptual framework that spans cultural heritage, information modeling, and information retrieval. Our model addresses early solutions in knowledge organization systems, highlighting the evolution from classification systems and controlled vocabularies to the significance of metadata schemas. We delve into the limitations of traditional knowledge organization systems and the necessity of formal ontologies, particularly in the cultural heritage domain. The comparative analysis of CRM vs. EDM, ontology-based metadata interoperability, and ontology technologies elucidate our contributions to the field. This paper outlines the process from the initial steps of adopting Semantic Web technologies in the CH domain to the latest developments in CH information retrieval. In this paper, we also reviewed intelligent applications and services developed in the CH domain after establishing semantic data models and Knowledge Organization Systems. Finally, challenges and possible future research directions are discussed. The findings revealed that GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) are excellent and comprehensive sources of CH information. The CH community has put in a lot of time and effort to develop data models and knowledge organization tools; now it's time to use this valuable resource to construct smart applications that are still in their early phases. This could benefit the CH industry even more.