A Semantic Model for Content Description in the Sapienza Digital Library

In this paper is presented the semantic model defined for descriptive metadata of resources, managed by the Sapienza Digital Library. The semantic model is derived from the Metadata Object Descriptive Schema, a digital library descriptive standard, for library applications. The semantic model can be used as top level conceptual reference model, in order to support the implementation of semantic web technologies for digital library’s descriptive metadata. The semantic model is intended to be agnostic about the technology system to be adopted. The creation of resources’ connections toward the linked data cloud, as well as the opportunity of exploiting the potential of services based on the ontology use, will rely on a well-defined semantic model, which has been widely tested by the implementation of a descriptive metadata profile.