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Tag: taxonomic literature

Refining Taxonomic Literature II Linked Data

Image of Orchid "Masdevallia lindeni" from Lindenia. Iconographie des Orchidées , 1885-1906
Jean Jules Linden. Lindenia. Iconographie des Orchidées , 1885-1906

Editor’s note: Rachel is an intern from the University of Maryland’s iSchool MLS program and has been with us for the past seven weeks. Her internship is coming to a close, so we’ve asked her to write a blog post to share what she has done as part of her internship. I have posted this on her behalf.

In January, Joel wrote about our plans to present the Taxonomic Literature-2 (TL-2) dataset as Linked Open Data, allowing for greater searchability and reuse. The main focus of my internship was to identify and investigate other data elements that could be converted to Linked Open Data.

Improving Linked Data

Diagram of mine workings in book VI, "Machines for Drawing Heavy Vapours off from Tunnels"
Diagram of mine workings in book VI, “Machines for Drawing Heavy Vapours off from Tunnels”

In an earlier post in December 2011, we announced the release of the Taxonomic Literature II (TL-2) search tool that allows anyone to search and read its fifteen volumes.  One of the things we mentioned in that post was our plans to open the TL-2 dataset to searchability and reuse by providing it as Linked Open Data (LOD).

This time, we’ll discuss details of our plans for Linked Open Data, some of the data we are extracting, and the challenges in creating data for a linked open data set.

Looking for a Linked Data intern!

The Smithsonian Libraries seeks a computer science or MLS student for the Taxonomic Literature 2 Linked Data Mining internship. This is a paid internship, carrying a stipend of $500 per week (full time) or a total of $1500 (part time) to take place in January/Febuary of 2013. It may be performed in person, in the National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C. or remotely. Applications will be accepted until October 15th, 2012. Further project details are below or at http://library.si.edu/internships/taxonomic-literature-2-linked-data-mining-paid-internship.