Povezav

Povezav is a theoretical construct in information science and knowledge engineering describing a structured network of connections between data objects, ideas, persons, events, or other entities. It focuses on the creation, management, and querying of links to enable discovery, integration, and reasoning across heterogeneous datasets. The term derives from Slovenian "povezava" meaning link or connection, with the suffix "-av" forming a noun that denotes a system or collection.

Characteristic features of povezav include the directionality of links (one-way versus bidirectional), the multiplicity of relationships, and the inclusion of metadata such as provenance, confidence, timestamps, and schema. Povezav emphasizes the consistency and interoperability of links across datasets, enabling reasoning over relationships and the aggregation of related records.

In practice, povezav concepts appear in knowledge graphs, metadata registries, and link data architectures. Examples include connecting authors to publications, topics to documents, or customers to orders in a way that supports complex queries and semantic analysis. In bibliographic databases, for instance, a povezav can model citations, co-authorship, and subject classifications as distinct but interrelated link types.

The term is more common in Slovenian-language discussions of data organization and is not a standard term in English-language literature. It is used to discuss general principles of linking and integration rather than to denote a single formal standard. See also: knowledge graph, semantic web, data provenance, link analysis.