Defining a semantic mapping of VRA Core 4.0 to the CIDOC conceptual reference model

Abstract

In the recent decades, we have witnessed a tremendous proliferation of metadata schemas, particularly in the cultural heritage domain. As a consequence, cultural heritage communities face a growing need to integrate these schemas as they encounter a number of problems, mainly concerning interoperability issues and loss of implicit knowledge. In this paper, we present a semantic mapping of VRA Core 4.0, a cultural heritage metadata schema describing visual resources, to CIDOC CRM. The mapping rules are expressed formally using a path-based mapping language called Mapping Description Language (MDL). More specifically, each element of the schema (along with its subelements and attributes) is mapped to the equivalent CRM path (represented as a sequence of classes and properties). In case an attribute is assigned to an element/subelement, this is also mapped to equivalent CRM paths, expanding the semantic correspondences between the two schemas. This work is part of a semantic integration scenario, where CIDOC CRM acts as a mediation schema.