EAD to RiC-O Mapping

Mapping EAD to RiC-O

This is the most requested feature in the RiC community. AtoM/Heratio provides automated mapping from EAD/ISAD descriptions to RiC-O triples.

Field Mapping

Hierarchy Mapping

How AtoM/Heratio Handles This

When an archival description is created or edited in AtoM/Heratio, the RiC sync service automatically: 1. Creates RiC-O triples from the description fields 2. Links to creator agents via rico:hasCreator 3. Establishes hierarchy via rico:isPartOf 4. Syncs to the Fuseki triplestore

Integration with Other Systems

Any archival system that produces EAD or ISAD-compliant descriptions can integrate with the RiC layer. The mapping is standards-based and system-agnostic.

How Other Systems Can Integrate

Integration Approaches

1. Direct SPARQL Federation

Systems with their own triplestores can federate queries across institutions:

SELECT ?record ?title ?holder WHERE {
  SERVICE <https://other-archive.org/sparql> {
    ?record rico:title ?title .
    ?record rico:hasOrHadHolder ?holder .
  }
}

2. EAD/EAC Harvest and Convert

Export EAD XML from any system, then run through the RiC mapping pipeline:

1. Export EAD 2002 or EAD3 from the source system
2. Apply the XSLT transformation (AtoM/Heratio provides this)
3. Load resulting RiC-O triples into your Fuseki/triplestore
4. Query across all holdings via SPARQL

3. REST API Integration

AtoM/Heratio exposes RiC data via REST:

• GET /admin/ric/data?id={recordId} - graph data for a record
• GET /admin/ric/autocomplete?q={term} - search across RiC entities
• GET /admin/ric/ajax-stats - triplestore statistics

4. Linked Data Publishing

Publish your RiC triples as linked data so other institutions can discover and link to your records:

• Use content negotiation to serve RDF/XML, JSON-LD, or Turtle
• Register your SPARQL endpoint with aggregators
• Link agents to Wikidata/VIAF for cross-institutional discovery

How to Handle RiC in Your System

Minimum viable RiC implementation:

1. Model records as rico:RecordSet / rico:Record - map your hierarchy
2. Model creators as rico:Agent - link via rico:hasCreator
3. Add rico:title, rico:identifier, rico:date - core descriptive properties
4. Store in a triplestore - Fuseki for development, GraphDB/Stardog for production
5. Expose a SPARQL endpoint - enables federation and discovery

Full RiC implementation adds:

• rico:Instantiation for digital/physical carriers
• rico:Place, rico:Activity, rico:Function for contextual entities
• Provenance chains via rico:hasProvenanceOf
• Temporal modelling with rico:Date entities
• Vocabulary types (DocumentaryFormType, CarrierType, etc.)
• SHACL validation for data quality assurance