Anna: A virtual assistant to interact with puglia digital library (discussion paper)

In the last years, a huge amount of data has been released by private and public bodies as Linked Open Data. By their inner nature, these data contain rich semantic information that can be automatically processed by software agents and explored by humans via visual tools or structured SPARQL queries. Although they result useful for many tasks, these latter approaches miss the simplicity of the interfaces based on interactions via natural language implemented in modern virtual assistants. In this paper, we present a system able to assist the user in exploring the knowledge exposed by the Puglia Digital Library containing information and data associated with digital goods related to the Apulia region in Italy. We show how to interact with the Digital Library by means of a virtual assistant and how, thanks to its publication as Linked Open Data, it is possible to easily integrate it on-the-fly with external knowledge sources such as geographical ones.