Developing an ontology for the access to the contents of an archival fonds: the case of the Catasto Gregoriano

TL;DR

This paper presents an ontology for accessing and linking archival data from the Catasto Gregoriano, enhancing data usability and integration within the Linked Open Data framework.

Contribution

It develops an ontology tailored for archival fonds, extending relational and contextual data representation, aligned with the MODEUS project’s open data and linked data principles.

Findings

Ontology effectively models archival data and relationships.

Enhances data accessibility and interoperability.

Supports Linked Open Data integration.

Abstract

The research was proposed to exploit and extend the relational and contextual nature of the information assets of the Catasto Gregoriano, kept at the Archivio di Stato in Rome. Developed within the MODEUS project (Making Open Data Effectively Usable), this study originates from the following key ideas of MODEUS: to require Open Data to be expressed in terms of an ontology, and to include such an ontology as a documentation of the data themselves. Thus, Open Data are naturally linked by means of the ontology, which meets the requirements of the Linked Open Data vision.