Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
However, the massive AAT is difficult to search and is
expensive to edit and update. Recognizing that a digital ver-
sion of the resource would provide many benefits, the Getty
recently began porting the AAT and associated volumes into
a database that can be electronically searched and edited over
the Web. To do so, the Getty had to first select a database
technology in which to house the information, and a DBMS for
use in searching and editing the contents.
One challenge of building an online AAT was that the var-
ious components of the resource were stored using different
proprietary technologies. The first task was to collect them
into one common technology, which required a custom-
designed system. Technicians within the Getty opted to use
Oracle databases and a product called PowerBuilder from
Sybase, Inc., for the user interface. Custom coding was done
in Perl and SQR programming languages to merge the com-
ponents into a cohesive system. The result is a system called
the Vocabulary Coordination System (VCS). The VCS is used
to collect, analyze, edit, merge, and distribute the terminology
managed by the Getty vocabularies. A special Web-based
interface was developed that made searching the volumes
easy enough for anyone to manage. You can try it yourself at
The resulting system was so impressive that it won the
Getty the Computerworld Honors Award in Media, Arts &
Entertainment for innovative use of technology. The system
makes it easy for scholars to update information in the vocab-
ularies, and for everyone from school children to professional
art historians to research and learn about art and art history.
The Getty online vocabularies are an ideal realization of
J. Paul Getty's original philosophy of promoting human
civility through cultural awareness, creativity, and aesthetic
enjoyment.
If you need a hard-to-find automobile part for a European
import, you could probably find it in a catalog published by the
ETAI Group in France. The ETAI catalog includes over 30 mil-
lion parts for over 50,000 European car models manufactured
during the past 15 years. The catalog is updated 100 times
each year to stay current with the latest models.
While maintaining an average auto parts catalog might not
seem a daunting task, this one is an exception. ETAI collects
auto parts information from nine databases provided by parts
manufacturers. Each database uses a unique design with dif-
ferent formats for parts numbers and varying amounts and
types of fields for each part record. Over many years, ETAI had
developed a system for collating the data using a variety of
programming languages and platforms. The entire process
required 15 steps and two to three weeks. It was so compli-
cated that if ETAI's database administrator were to leave, his
replacement would have a difficult time learning how the
complicated system worked.
Philippe Bobo, the director of software and information
systems at ETAI, knew it was time to improve the system. He
and his team tested products from a variety of vendors over a
five-week period, and eventually decided to work with Talend
Open Data Solutions, based in Los Altos, California. Talend
specializes in open-source database management systems
that integrate data from various types of systems into a single
target system—exactly what ETAI needed.
Talend designed a system for ETAI using a single standard
programming language that queries the nine auto parts
databases and streams the results into one data warehouse.
It then cleans the data and standardizes it for output to a cat-
alog format. The 15-step, three-week process is now reduced
to one step and two days.
Philippe likes the open-source nature of Talend's solution
because it makes it possible for his own software engineers
to work with and adjust the software over time to accommo-
date new needs in the system. Updating the DBMS has
reduced labor costs and production time, and made it possible
for ETAI to expand into other types of catalogs and service
manuals.
Discussion Questions
1.
What purpose do the Getty vocabularies serve, and how
are they supported through database technology?
2.
How does using the Web as a front end to this database
further support J. Paul Getty's vision?
Critical Thinking Questions
1.
What concerns do you think the designers of the database
had when making this valuable resource available online
to the general public?
Discussion Questions
1.
2.
Why did the database designers need to use custom-
designed code to collect the original data?
What challenges did ETAI face that made creating their
catalog a three-week-long ordeal?
2.
How did the solution provided by Talend reduce the job
time by 90 percent?
Sources:
Pratt, Mary K., “The Getty makes art accessible with online
database.” Computerworld, March 10, 2008,
www.computerworld.com/action/
“The Computerworld Honors Program: Web-Based Global Art Resources: The
Getty Vocabularies,” Computerworld, 2007,
www.cwhonors.org/
viewCaseStudy.asp?NominationID=112;
The Getty Web site,
www.getty.edu,
accessed April 1, 2008.
Critical Thinking Questions
1.
What benefits were provided by the open-source solution?
2.
Why couldn't ETAI standardize the data formats in the nine
databases?
