Ted Lawless and Steve McCauley at Brown point out these resources for learning SPARQL:
Understanding SPARQL is important when it comes to modifying the listViewConfig files. Bob DuCharme’s “Learning SPARQL” is the go-to reference: http://www.learningsparql.com/
For understanding SPARQL, it also helps to understand how it is related to SQL, the query language for relational databases: http://www.cambridgesemantics.com/semantic-university/sparql-vs-sql-intro
But not all SPARQL techniques are efficient in practice. Brown has open-sourced their VIVO customization, where you can see some aspects of SPARQL that has worked for them:
https://github.com/Brown-University-Library/vivo/tree/master/productMods/config
This includes constructing local display properties against which they select.