OWL-DSP Specification

Overview

OWL-DSP (Description Set Profile Definition Language) is a meta-language for expressing metadata description rules using OWL (Web Ontology Language). It encodes:

• Record description rules (Description Templates) as OWL classes
• Item description rules (Statement Templates) as OWL class restrictions

By expressing metadata as instances of Description Template classes, OWL reasoners can perform consistency validation on metadata records.

Ontology namespace: http://purl.org/metainfo/terms/dsp#

Version: 0.30 (created 2010-12-20, modified 2011-02-13)

Classes

dsp:DescriptionTemplate

A metaclass representing a record description rule.

dsp:DescriptionTemplate rdfs:subClassOf owl:Class .

A Description Template D is expressed as an OWL class (e.g. ex:CD). Metadata written according to D (e.g. ex:MD) becomes an instance of ex:CD. That is:

ex:CD a owl:Class .    # or: ex:CD a dsp:DescriptionTemplate .
ex:MD a ex:CD .        # metadata instance conforming to the template

To make it explicit that ex:CD is a Description Template rather than a plain OWL class, it may be expressed as an instance of dsp:DescriptionTemplate.

Statement Templates are linked to Description Templates via rdfs:subClassOf relationships.

dsp:StatementTemplate

A metaclass representing an item description rule (property constraint).

dsp:StatementTemplate rdfs:subClassOf owl:Restriction .

A Statement Template S is expressed as an OWL class restriction (e.g. ex:RS). The Description Template D that contains S has ex:CD rdfs:subClassOf ex:RS. If D1 has Statement Templates S1, S2, S3:

ex:CD1 rdfs:subClassOf ex:RS1, ex:RS2, ex:RS3 .

Metadata conforming to D1 must satisfy all constraints S1, S2, S3 (the intersection of the restrictions).

Each Statement Template must define exactly one target property (owl:onProperty).

Properties

dsp:valueURIOccurrence (DatatypeProperty)

Indicates whether records may be blank nodes.

• Domain: dsp:DescriptionTemplate
• Range: {"mandatory", "optional", "disallowed"}

dsp:inScheme (ObjectProperty)

Indicates that members of the class are composed of concepts from a vocabulary (thesaurus, etc.) identified by the object.

For example, to constrain dc:subject values to NDLSH terms:

[dsp:StatementTemplate ;
   owl:onProperty dc:subject ;
   owl:onClass [dsp:inScheme ndlsh:]] .

For multiple vocabularies, use owl:unionOf:

owl:onClass [owl:unionOf(
   [dsp:inScheme ndlsh:]
   [dsp:inScheme bsh:]
)] .

The inference rule is: {ex:CR dsp:inScheme ndlsh:} implies {ex:CR owl:onProperty skos:inScheme; owl:allValuesFrom ndlsh:}.

Comparable to DCMI-DSP’s vocabularyEncodingScheme.

• Domain: rdfs:Class
• Range: skos:ConceptScheme

dsp:resourceClass (ObjectProperty)

Specifies the RDF class that metadata instances described by this Description Template will be members of. Equivalent to DCMI-DSP’s resourceClass.

• Domain: dsp:DescriptionTemplate
• Range: rdfs:Class

dsp:cardinalityNote (DatatypeProperty)

Records non-numeric occurrence constraints such as “recommended” (推奨) or “mandatory if present” (あれば必須). When this property is present, owl:minCardinality is interpreted as 1.

• Domain: dsp:StatementTemplate

dsp:langTagOccurrence (DatatypeProperty)

For Statement Templates whose value constraint is a plain literal, indicates whether a language tag is mandatory, optional, or disallowed. Using this property on a non-plain-literal Statement Template is an error.

• Domain: dsp:StatementTemplate
• Range: {"mandatory", "optional", "disallowed"}

dsp:perLangMaxCardinality (DatatypeProperty)

Constrains the maximum number of occurrences per language tag. Useful when property values include readings (pronunciations) expressed via language tags — setting this to 1 guarantees a 1:1 correspondence between value strings and readings. Using this on a non-plain-literal Statement Template is an error.

• Domain: dsp:StatementTemplate
• Range: xsd:nonNegativeInteger

dsp:propertyMapping (ObjectProperty)

Associates a Statement Template’s property P with a general-purpose upper property Q for “dumb-down” (simplification) purposes. Normally P rdfs:subPropertyOf Qp would be used, but this property is needed when:

• A different property mapping than subPropertyOf is desired
• P is from an external vocabulary and cannot have subPropertyOf added

The implication is: {[a dsp:StatementTemplate; owl:onProperty any:P; dsp:propertyMapping ex:Q]} implies {any:P rdfs:subPropertyOf ex:Q}.

• Domain: dsp:StatementTemplate
• Range: rdf:Property

Class and Property Summary

Worked Example (Section 6.3)

The following shows the SimpleDSP example from section 6.2.5 converted to OWL-DSP with registry metadata. This demonstrates how a tabular SimpleDSP file maps to the OWL-DSP ontology.

SimpleDSP Input

[@NS]
dcndl	http://ndl.go.jp/dcndl/terms/
ndlsh	http://id.ndl.go.jp/auth/ndlsh/
bsh	http://id.ndl.go.jp/auth/bsh/
ndlbooks	http://iss.ndl.go.jp/books/
@base	http://ndl.go.jp/dcndl/dsp/biblio

[MAIN]
#項目規則名	プロパティ	最小	最大	値タイプ	値制約	説明
書誌ID	foaf:Document	1	1	ID	ndlbooks:	文書のID
タイトル	dcterms:title	1	1	構造化	#構造化タイトル	文書の表題
著者	dcterms:creator	0	1	構造化	foaf:Agent	文書の作者
発行日	dcterms:issued	1	1	文字列	xsd:date	文書の発行日
主題	dcterms:subject	0	-	参照値	ndlsh: bsh:	文書の主題

[構造化タイトル]
#項目規則名	プロパティ	最小	最大	値タイプ	値制約	説明
リテラル値	xl:literalForm	1	1	文字列		タイトル自身
読み	dcndl:transcription	0	1	文字列		タイトルの読み

OWL-DSP Output

@prefix bsh: <http://id.ndl.go.jp/auth/bsh/>.
@prefix ndlbooks: <http://iss.ndl.go.jp/books/>.
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#>.
@prefix dsp: <http://purl.org/metainfo/terms/dsp#>.
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>.
@prefix dcndl: <http://ndl.go.jp/dcndl/terms/>.
@prefix reg: <http://purl.org/metainfo/terms/registry#>.
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>.
@prefix xl: <http://www.w3.org/2008/05/skos-xl#>.
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>.
@prefix ndlsh: <http://id.ndl.go.jp/auth/ndlsh/>.
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/>.
@base <http://ndl.go.jp/dcndl/dsp/biblio>.

<> a owl:Ontology ;
   rdfs:label "National Diet Library Bibliographic Description" ;
   reg:created "2011-01-15" ;
   reg:creator ex:aRegisteredUserId ;
   reg:version "Version 1.1" .

MAIN Description Template

The [MAIN] block becomes a dsp:DescriptionTemplate with its Statement Templates as subclasses:

<#MAIN> a dsp:DescriptionTemplate ;
   dsp:valueURIOccurrence "mandatory" ;       # ID row → URI is required
   dsp:resourceClass foaf:Document ;           # ID row Property column → class
   reg:idField "書誌ID" ;                      # ID row Name column
   reg:resourceNsURI ndlbooks: ;               # ID row Constraint column
   rdfs:subClassOf <#MAIN-タイトル>, <#MAIN-著者>, <#MAIN-発行日>, <#MAIN-主題> .

Statement Templates

Each non-ID row becomes a dsp:StatementTemplate:

# タイトル → structured, references #構造化タイトル block
<#MAIN-タイトル> a dsp:StatementTemplate ;
   rdfs:label "タイトル" ;
   owl:onProperty dcterms:title ;
   owl:qualifiedCardinality 1 ;          # min=1, max=1
   owl:onClass <#構造化タイトル> ;        # structured → owl:onClass
   rdfs:comment "文書の表題" .

# 著者 → structured, class constraint foaf:Agent
<#MAIN-著者> a dsp:StatementTemplate ;
   rdfs:label "著者" ;
   owl:onProperty dcterms:creator ;
   dsp:cardinalityNote "あれば必須" ;     # min=0 with keyword → cardinalityNote
   owl:onClass foaf:Agent ;               # structured → owl:onClass
   rdfs:comment "文書の作者" .

# 発行日 → literal with xsd:date datatype
<#MAIN-発行日> a dsp:StatementTemplate ;
   rdfs:label "発行日" ;
   owl:onProperty dcterms:issued ;
   dsp:cardinalityNote "あれば必須" ;
   owl:maxQualifiedCardinality 1 ;
   owl:onDataRange xsd:date ;             # literal → owl:onDataRange
   rdfs:comment "文書の発行日" .

# 主題 → reference with vocabulary schemes ndlsh: and bsh:
<#MAIN-主題> a dsp:StatementTemplate ;
   rdfs:label "主題" ;
   owl:onProperty dcterms:subject ;
   owl:onClass [owl:unionOf(              # reference + multiple vocabs → unionOf
      [dsp:inScheme ndlsh:]               #   → dsp:inScheme
      [dsp:inScheme bsh:]
   )] ;
   rdfs:comment "文書の主題" .

Nested Description Template

The [構造化タイトル] block (referenced as #構造化タイトル) becomes its own dsp:DescriptionTemplate:

<#構造化タイトル> a dsp:DescriptionTemplate ;
   rdfs:subClassOf <#構造化タイトル-リテラル値>, <#構造化タイトル-読み> .

<#構造化タイトル-リテラル値> a dsp:StatementTemplate ;
   rdfs:label "リテラル値" ;
   owl:onProperty xl:literalForm ;
   owl:qualifiedCardinality 1 ;
   owl:onDataRange rdfs:Literal ;
   rdfs:comment "タイトル自身" .

<#構造化タイトル-読み> a dsp:StatementTemplate ;
   rdfs:label "読み" ;
   owl:onProperty dcndl:transcription ;
   owl:maxQualifiedCardinality 1 ;
   owl:onDataRange rdfs:Literal ;
   rdfs:comment "タイトルの読み" .

SimpleDSP → OWL-DSP Mapping Summary

References

• Kanzaki, M. OWL-DSP — Description Set Profile Definition Language: https://www.kanzaki.com/ns/dsp#
• OWL-DSP Ontology namespace: http://purl.org/metainfo/terms/dsp#
• Guidelines for Metadata Information Sharing (メタデータ情報共有のためのガイドライン), Metadata Information Infrastructure Initiative (MI3 — メタデータ基盤協議会)
• NDL Current Awareness-R (2011-09-21): メタデータ情報基盤構築事業で構築されたメタデータレジストリ “Meta Bridge” — https://current.ndl.go.jp/car/19135