HERITRACE: A User-Friendly Semantic Data Editor with Change Tracking and Provenance Management for Cultural Heritage Institutions

TL;DR

HERITRACE is an intuitive semantic data editor tailored for cultural heritage institutions, enabling non-technical users to manage RDF data with built-in provenance and change tracking, while allowing customization and future format integration.

Contribution

HERITRACE introduces a user-friendly interface for semantic data curation that maintains data integrity and provenance, specifically designed for non-technical users in cultural heritage contexts.

Findings

Effective out-of-the-box functionality for cultural heritage data management

Supports provenance and change tracking for transparent curation

Planned integration of RML for broader data format compatibility

Abstract

HERITRACE is a data editor designed for galleries, libraries, archives and museums, aimed at simplifying data curation while enabling non-technical domain experts to manage data intuitively without losing its semantic integrity. While the semantic nature of RDF can pose a barrier to data curation due to its complexity, HERITRACE conceals this intricacy while preserving the advantages of semantic representation. The system natively supports provenance management and change tracking, ensuring transparency and accountability throughout the curation process. Although HERITRACE functions effectively out of the box, it offers a straightforward customization interface for technical staff, enabling adaptation to the specific data model required by a given collection. Current applications include the ParaText project, and its adoption is already planned for OpenCitations. Future developments will focus on integrating the RDF Mapping Language (RML) to enhance compatibility with non-RDF data formats, further expanding its applicability in digital heritage management.