A Method to Convert Thesauri to SKOS

Thesauri can be useful resources for indexing and retrieval on the Semantic Web, but often they are not published in RDF/OWL. To convert thesauri to RDF for use in Semantic Web applications and to ensure the quality and utility of the conversion a structured method is required. Moreover, if different thesauri are to be interoperable without complicated mappings, a standard schema for thesauri is required. This paper presents a method for conversion of thesauri to the SKOS RDF/OWL schema, which is a proposal for such a standard under development by W3Cs Semantic Web Best Practices Working Group. We apply the method to three thesauri: IPSV, GTAA and MeSH. With these case studies we evaluate our method and the applicability of SKOS for representing thesauri.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ESWS
• Authors: Mark van Assem, Véronique Malaisé, Alistair Miles, Guus Schreiber
• Keywords: ESWS 2006, Internet Technology, Semantic Web, Semantic Web Applications, Thesauri