New Ways of Mapping Knowledge Organization Systems: Using a Semi-Automatic Matching Procedure for Building up Vocabulary Crosswalks

Abstract

Crosswalks between different vocabularies are an indispensable prerequisite for integrated and highquality search scenarios in distributed data environments. Offered through the web and linked with each other they act as a central link so that users could move back and forth between different data sources being online available. In the past, crosswalks between different thesauri have been primarily developed manually. In the long run the intellectual updating of such crosswalks requires huge personnel expenses. Therefore, an integration of automatic matching procedures, as for example Ontology Matching Tools, seems pretty obvious.On the basis of computergenerated correspondences between the Thesaurus for Economics (STW) and the Thesaurus for the Social Sciences (TheSoz) our contribution will explore crossborder approaches between ITassisted tools and procedures on the one hand and external quality measurements via domain experts on the other hand. Thus, we will present techniques to semiautomatically perform vocabulary crosswalks. Due to intellectually evaluated results of multiple matching tools in the forerun, quality statements concerning the reliability of further computergenerated crosswalks can be made. This way, the application of various tools and procedures gradually contributes to an increase in quality. Moreover, on the longterm it facilitates a continuous update of highquality vocabulary crosswalks.

The Role of Thesauri in an Open Web: A Case Study of the STW Thesaurus for Economics

“…In contrast to the concordance between STW and GND, the concordance between STW and TSS has regularly been updated semi-automatically as part of the library track of the Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative (OAEI) in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. After evaluating the performance of multiple matching tools against a reference set of correct mappings intellectually built up in the past, the tools were used to generate new mapping candidates to speed up the intellectual work of domain experts and to facilitate sustained updating of high-quality vocabulary crosswalks (Kempf et al 2014). Further mappings on the level of STW descriptors, which were built up automatically, are mappings to the AGROVOC thesaurus of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (verified afterwards by domain experts) and to the DBpedia, as already mentioned in section 3.…”

Towards a seamless multilingual Semantic Web: A study on constructing a cross‐lingual ontology

“…As there are no de facto protocols for building a cross-lingual ontology, various methods have been proposed by former researchers. Though each method has its distinct approach, none seems to be solely successful (Kempf, Ritze, Eckert, & Zapilko, 2014;Shvaiko & Euzenat, 2013). For example, Fu, Brennan, & O'Sullivan (2009) and Liang et al (2005) tried to map between the English and Chinese ontologies.…”

Lists, Taxonomies, Lattices, Thesauri and Ontologies: Paving a Pathway Through a Terminological Jungle

“…Our classification is intended to augment other classifications in an attempt to resolve ambiguities and to create a shared vocabulary in support of better communication and collaboration. Kempf et al (2014) point out that the development of matching systems is impeded by the different formats that are used to represent KOSs. For this reason a classification that focuses on the structure of the underlying data instead of the content or purpose, may be more suited when the aim is to integrate the disparate classificatory systems that exist in our increasingly connected environment.…”