Can I use the Network of Terms for reconciliation, for example in OpenRefine?
Yes! The Network of Terms offers a Reconciliation Service that allows you to match your data with terms. This makes it possible to convert words to URIs, for example from 'Rembrandt' to his URI in the source RKDartists, https://data.rkd.nl/artists/66219. This process is called reconciliation. With the Reconciliation Service you can make these conversions automated, for an entire dataset. That saves you a lot of time.
You can use the Reconciliation Service in OpenRefine. You will find manuals for this in the following documents:
- Verrijk je collectie met termen: Handleiding Reconciliation met OpenRefine en het Termennetwerk
- Chapter Reconciling of the OpenRefine documentation.
- Section 'Reconciliation service' in the (Dutch) Handout Workshop Open Refine (PDF; page 4).
What considerations are there when using the Network of Terms for reconciliation?
- the Network of Terms does offer the Reconciliation Service, but the actual term matching is done by the terminology resources, not the Network of Terms. So you search always in the sources themselves, so you always work with current terms. This also means that the speed at which terms are matched depends on the sources; sometimes this goes quickly, sometimes it takes a little longer. Also be wise with the amount of words on which you are looking for: the resources can be quite taxed when large numbers are involved.
- the Network of Terms can only search terminology resources in a simple way. For example, it does not know the types of terms, for example whether resources consist of 'persons', 'places' or 'events'; for the Network of Terms all terms are of type 'concept' ('skos:Concept'). This means that the Network of Terms can find more matches than you need.
- when reconciling in OpenRefine you must select the Reconcile against no particular type option.
What terminology resources can I use for reconciliation?
Below is a list of available resources. Each source has its URL listed. You need this URL, for example, to set up the source in OpenRefine as a so-called 'Standard service'.
Note: The Network of Terms does not offer a Reconciliation Service for all sources. Some sources already have such a service, such as Wikidata.