Kelly Davis (Getty Provenance Index)

An overview and deep dive into the practical challenges faced when re-structuring legacy metadata. Drawing from extensive experience with the Getty Provenance Index (GPI), my presentation relates to a large-scale project underway at the Getty Research Institute to convert the GPI into Linked Open Data. The following topics will be explored: project management and bug tracking as part of a clean-up workflow, collaborating with semantic architects and other non-art historians, the "information iceberg" problem (where small issues are only the tip of the problem); cases and examples will be used to illustrate my points, and finally lessons learned. The data discussed comes largely from the M. Knoedler and Co. Stock Books database, as well as the GPI’s Auction Sales Catalogs database, containing over 1 million records compiled over thirty years.

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Kelly Davis is a 2014 graduate of Pratt Institute’s dual Master’s program in Library Science and Art History. While in graduate school, she studied with Ken Soehner, Chief Librarian at the Metropolitan Museum, and interned in the archives of several museums and galleries. She has been an editor of the Getty Provenance Index, research databases sourced from archival materials such as inventories, auction catalogues and dealer stock books, since 2014. Her interests include digital humanities, metadata and the history of collecting and provenance.