Linking the Getty Vocabularies: The Content Perspective, Including an Update on CONA

Abstract

This paper focuses on issues surrounding the rich content of the Getty vocabularies, [1] particularly as they have transitioned from more traditional data releases to become optimized for release as LOD and beyond. The Getty vocabularies have been a mainstay of cataloging, indexing, and access for art, architecture, and other cultural heritage information since the 1980s. They are compiled resources that grow through contributions from the expert user community. They are multicultural and multilingual, currently being translated in several languages. With the release of the AAT (Art & Architecture Thesaurus®), ULAN (Union List of Artist Names ®), and TGN (Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names®) as Linked Open Data (LOD), [2] the Getty vocabularies are entering a new world of seemingly limitless possibilities in digital scholarship. With the addition of new resources, CONA (Cultural Objects Name Authority®) and the Getty Iconography Authority (IA), the Getty vocabularies are poised to truly become linchpins in joining disparate resources from diverse disciplines, including art museums, special collections, libraries, archives, conservation, archaeology, visual resources, universities, and other researchers. The Getty vocabularies may serve as conduits through which data about art, architecture, and other cultural heritage are created and accessed for research and discovery. From their inception, the Getty vocabularies were designed to be linkable to each other and to the broader realm of cultural heritage information. For example, in the AAT, concepts are linked to each other through hierarchical and associative relationships with defined relationship types that inform the user that a rhyta (http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300198841) is a type of ancient drinking vessel having an animal shape and is distinguished from vessels in other cultures having a similar purpose or appearance, such as stirrup cups and sturzbechers. In ULAN, the record for a person such as Katsushika Hokusai (http://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500060426) may include various go names and aliases, and links to records for his teachers, family, and a novelist with whom he collaborated. In TGN, a geographic place record for Siena (http://vocab.getty.edu/page/tgn/7011179) may include ancient names, as well as links to multiple broader hierarchical contexts, for the modern nation of Italy as well as the ancient confederation of states, Etruria. In the IA, an Aztec character Ometecuhtli (http://vocab.getty.edu/page/ia/901002056) may be linked to named legends in which he is a character, as well as to other characters or places to which he is related. In CONA, titles/names and other information for works of art, including architecture, movable works (paintings, sculptures, textiles), and conceptual works (multiples) are linked to AAT, ULAN, TGN, IA and external sources, linking rich information from multiple sources to describe works whether extant, destroyed, or designed but never built. An example is the Old Trikuta temple (http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700002003).