Arabesques n°112

"Talking with Authorities" is the theme of ADBU's instruction manual for librarians arriving in infodoc in 2023! Many will be delighted by the theme of this issue of Arabesques. A previous dossier in 2017 already highlighted the importance of identifiers, the uses ofIdRef outsideAbes, and the complementarity between man and machine in the task of linking documentary resources to authority records. In 2023, in listing the 6 strong points ofAbes, the Hcéres evaluation praised "the quality and relevance of the service offering, in particular the repositories, including IdRef ".

In fact, thanks to a policy of alignment between identifiers and resource aggregation, IdRef is at the heart of an interoperable knowledge graph, whose boundaries are extensive and extensible. This graph can be exploited by establishments to feed their own local information systems with valid, controlled data. And, of course, it can be opened and reused by researchers to make their data sets FAIR.

Describing today's Higher Education and Research in IdRef through scientific production means contributing to the international promotion of France, in line with the Ministry's strategy for data, algorithms and source code, based on ORCID and ROR, two international identifiers compatible with open science.

However, reference data isn't just about people or structures! As the dynamism of Geonames shows, the description of place names is not the prerogative of librarians. Finally, let's not forget Rameau indexing. While syntax is tending to simplify, the richness of vocabulary is a challenge for machines to take up and exploit, with a view to assisting humans.

This issue of Arabesques closes with a portrait of an Authorities correspondent. Through him,Abes would like to thank all the colleagues who produce and enrich IdRef on a daily basis. You are the tireless artisans of an essential common good. We thank you all!