Extended Note Properties

SKOS Core has seven built-in note properties: skos:publicNote, skos:definition, skos:example, skos:scopeNote, skos:historyNote, skos:privateNote and skos:editorialNote.

The basic use of these properties is described in [section notes]. The advanced use of these properties is described in [section advnaced notes].

These properties, as with all SKOS Core properties, can be extended to define more specific note types.

So, for example, you might want to have a specific note type for describing the move (relocation) of a concept from one part of the hierarchy to another. To do this, describe a new property e.g.:

<rdf:RDF 
  xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" 
  xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#">
  
  <rdf:Property rdf:about="http://my.example.org/knowledgebase/schema#relocationNote">
    <rdfs:comment>A note about the relocation of the concept within the hierarchy.</rdfs:comment>
    <rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#historyNote"/>
  </rdf:Property>

</rdf:RDF>

This property can now be used in exactly the same way as the built-in SKOS Core note properties.

Note that this example property is an extension of skos:historyNote, which is an appropriate choice as it represents some sort of historical information about the concept. However, the choice of which SKOS note property to extend is entirely open. Typically, you will want to extend either skos:publicNote or skos:privateNote depending on whether you want your note to be published.