CLAVAS: A CLARIN Vocabulary and Alignment Service

The CLARIN Vocabulary and Alignment Service (CLAVAS) project started as an attempt to address problems that occurred with the use of the CLARIN ISOcat repository to deal with vocabularies used for value ranges in CMDI metadata elements and attributes. CLAVAS objectives were easier maintenance of vocabularies and new ways to exploit these vocabularies in end user tools; the underlying aims were the improvement of metadata quality and the reduction of concept proliferation in the ISOcat repository.

Also, during the project three specific vocabularies were processed and made available via the newly created CLAVAS service platform.We present and evaluate CLAVAS in relation to the family of semantic registries that together played a role in CLARIN: ISOcat, OpenSKOS and the CLARIN Concept Registry.  We discuss developments that occurred after the end of the CLAVAS project period, especially the discontinuation of ISOcat as a CLARIN service and the subsequent roles of OpenSKOS and CLAVAS.