Features and Limitations of Ontologies for Coronavirus Data Management in Libraries

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to follow the evolution of what has occurred over time in the ontologies published in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Correctness and completeness of ontologies on the schema and instance level are important quality criteria in their selection for an application. To help both the librarians and the users, there is a need of a framework for the comparison of different semantic data sources in the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, online services and/or applications based on ontologies or SKOS-based COVID-19 thesauri are still rare. As an emerging technology in libraries, an all-integrating ontology for coronavirus disease knowledge and data refers to the continuing development of an existing technology. In spite of using ontologies in the Semantic Web, meanings of concepts and relationships are still largely unrealized in terms of obtaining accurate and timely information about COVID-19. But the nature of causal relationships on this disease is made accessible through ontologies as the material in which its main concepts are supported.