An Introduction to the LIPARM Project Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries Conference

1. An Introduction to the LIPARM Project Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries Conference 24 September 2012

2. The Parliamentary Record in the UK Eight centuries of the Parliamentary record, most of which has been digitized

3. The need for integrated metadata Cross-searching these collections is time-consuming and hit-and-miss Some problems:- • Inconsistent approaches to metadata, and particularly naming conventions • Identifying the same person, in different resources, different names etc • Inconsistency of naming: Bills, Acts etc • Different methods for identifying the same person, Bill, Act, session etc in different collections • No methods for linking across collections, so bringing the parliamentary record together

4. What an integrated metadata strategy would allow.. • Tracing an individual's career in-depth across the entire record:- • All speeches and contributions to debates • Every vote cast • Membership of all committees • Links back to the context in which each of these contributions takes place • The passage of all legislation and all contributions to it at all stages • The ability to analyse all divisions and other votes across the entire record • Linking all of these components to any other bibliographic information, for instance subject indexes, allowing automated analyses of the content of speeches etc.

5. XML Schema (PML) Controlled Vocabularies

6. Referred to as:Lieut. Col. James CraigCapt. CraigCol. CraigSir James CraigViscount Craigavon UK Parliament 1906-21MP for Down East 1906-18MP for Down Mid 1918-21 Stormont Parliament 1921-40MP for County Down 1921-29MP for North Down 1929-1940 Offices at Stormont Prime Minister of Northern Ireland 1921-40 Offices at Westminster Treasurer of the Royal Household 1916 - 1918 Parliamentary Secretary 1919 - 1920 Parliamentary Secretary 1920 - 1921 1441 contributions to debates at Westminster 1163 contributions to debates at Stormont For example... Sir James Craig

7. Some questions PML records can answer.. • What is the voting record for a given MP? • What contributions did an MP make throughout his/her career? • To what Bills/Acts? • What form of contributions? • What committees did he/she serve on? • What offices did he/she hold? • What proceedings led to a given Act? • What Bills were debated in a given session? • How often was an MP interrupted during speeches in his/her career?

8. The major project components • An XML schema to link components of the record • Controlled vocabularies, with unique URIs to support the schema • Two collections converted to the schema • A prototype union catalogue for these collections, with links to the originals

9. The schema and controlled vocabularies

11. Controlled vocabularies <mads> <authority> <topic valueURI="http://liparm.ac.uk/id/proceedingsoutcometype/primarylegislation/actofparliament/publicgeneralact" >Public General Act</topic> </authority> <related type="broader"> <topic>Primary legislation</topic> </related> <related type="broader"> <topic>Act of Parliament</topic> </related> <note type="effectiveDraft">Effective</note> <note type="jurisdiction">UK</note> <note type="issuingAuthority">UK Parliament</note> </mads> MADS=Metadata Authority Description Schema http://liparm.ac.uk/id/proceedingsoutcometype/primarylegislation/actofparliament/publicgeneralact

12. Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) http://liparm.ac.uk/id/proceedingsoutcometype/primarylegislation/actofparliament/publicgeneralact URIs have been specified for every item in controlled vocabularies, including:- • Persons • Administrative units (eg. House of Commons) • Types of administrative unit (eg. 'chamber', 'committee') • Roles/functions (eg. 'Prime Minister') • Outcomes of proceedings (eg. Acts, Bills etc) • Votes (ie. divisions)

13. The PML (Parliamentary Metadata Language) file Units House of Commons, Treasury Select Committee, Standing Committee Functions Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Member of Parliament Calendar Objects Parliament 1979-1983, Session 1/9/79-1/6/80, Sitting 15/1/80 Persons James Callaghan, 1912-2005 Proceedings Groups European Communities Act (Amendment) Act Proceedings Objects Preamble, Debates, Readings of bills Vote Events Divisions

14. The PML (Parliamentary Metadata Language) file Units Type "chamber" TypeURI "http://liparm.ac.uk/unittypes/chambers" Label "House of Commons" RegURI "http://liparm.ac.uk/units/houseOfCommons" ID "hh-1980015-units-001"

15. House of Commons Unit Standing Committee Parliamentary Secretary 1919 - 1920 Function MP 1906-1921 Proceedings Object Military Service Bill debate 10 April 1918 "That the Question be now put." Division on Military Service Bill 10 April 1918 - aye Vote Event Some sample linkages - persons Person Sir James Craig

16. The PRIME MINISTER: Certainly, and that control, I think, is exercised very judiciously. But, after all, we cannot take from these duly elected boards a duty which has been carried out? Links between records Colonel Sir JAMES CRAIG I listened with the greatest possible regret to the speech of the hon. Member for Mayo (Mr. Dillon) both yesterday and to-day and I did so because I hoped that when the mantle of the leadership of the Nationalist party fell upon him it would be possible for him to take rather a different view than he had done in the past with regard to Ireland's share in the War. Westminster Hansard http://liparm.ac.uk/id/person/person/craigavonjamescraigviscount1871-1940 Stormont Hansard

17. Source Label HC Deb 15 January 1980 vol 976 cc1437 SourceRef SourceType URL http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1980/jan/15/european-communities-act-amendment#column_1437 Links to sources Contributions Persons Proceedings Objects Vote Events

18. Project webpage http://liparm.cerch.kcl.ac.uk richard.gartner@kcl.ac.uk