Session 3 Metadata & Workflow Jackie Knowles, Repository Support Officer (Organisational) RSP Project Staff - University of Wales, Aberystwyth Explain structure of session – two way split with an hour on each topic, mix of theory and practical exercises.

Metadata

Aim To gain an understanding of metadata and its purpose in a repository context To re-enforce the importance of using metadata standards within your repository to enable interoperability and harvesting To provide an opportunity to work with metadata through the completion of a practical exercise

Contents Theoretical overview (20 mins) Practical exercise (30 mins) Report back and discussion (10 mins)

Theory … What is metadata? Types of metadata Why do I need it? Setting up your metadata schema Standards Out of the box to local extensions Sources of advice

What is metadata Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. Source: NISO (2004) Understanding Metadata. Bethesda, NISO Press. Mention data about data or information about information For those among the audience from a library world – cataloguing is metadata. In a repository digital context metadata is commonly stored in the database system and is linked to the objects being described.

Types of metadata Descriptive Structural Administrative Rights management metadata Preservation metadata Descriptive – for discovery/identification (titles/authors/keywords etc) Structural – how items relate to one another for complex items – ie chapters in a book Administrative – helps manage the resource, IPR stuff and how files were created etc

Why do I need it? To facilitate discovery of your repository content To facilitate harvesting of your repository content by external systems To help you organise your repository content To supports archiving and preservation Resource discovery - through relevant criteria, identifying resources, bringing similar resources together, distinguishing dissimilar resources and giving location information.

Metadata schemas A metadata scheme is a sets of metadata elements designed for a specific purpose, such as describing a particular type of information resource. Types of content being stored – for practical purposes today we can only look at a limited schema – bibliographic research text based materials.

Current standards in use The most commonly used standard within the repository community, and the one required for interoperability and harvesting via the OAI-PMH, is Dublin Core. Others are available – MODS, METS. For practical purposes only got time to go into the basic level stuff in this session.

Simple Dublin Core – 15 elements Title Creator Subject Description Publisher Contributor Date Type Format Identifier Source Language Relation Coverage Rights http://www.dublincore.org/ All Dublin Core elements are optional and all are repeatable, can be presented in any order. But not really enough meat on the bones here ??

Qualified Dublin Core Takes the 15 Dublin Core elements and adds some further levels of detail. Two types of qualifiers used: Element refinement Encoding scheme Refer to handout. Refinements – alternative titles, description refinements (abstract, citation, TOC etc) various dates and relations Encoding schemes – LCSH in your subject field, date styles etc.

DC Tags – some examples Field label DC tag Content ‘Title’ dc:title This is the title. ‘Author’ dc: author Knowles, J. ‘Date’ dc:date 2007 ‘Abstract’ dc:description.abstract This is the abstract of my example content. Refer to handout. Refinements – alternative titles, description refinements (abstract, citation, TOC etc) various dates and relations Encoding schemes – LCSH in your subject field, date styles etc.

Scholarly works application profile Extend DC to make it richer and more functional. Provide an unambiguous method if identifying the full text. Help with version control and identification. Introduce vocabularies. Implement OpenURL and citation analysis. Work underway on this – UKOLN & Eduserv (JISC funded) Current arrangements agreed not really adequate and improvement is needed for aggregator services (search entry points) and identifying full text. The purpose of an application profile - entities being described and the key relationships between the entities. Relationships and attributes captured in metadata. Software independent. FRBR based – Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records - a work is a distinct intellectual or artistic creation. A work is an abstract entity – an expression is the intellectual or artistic realization of a work – a manifestation is the physical embodiment of an expression of a work – an item is a single exemplar of a manifestation. The entity defined as item is a concrete entity

Out of the box … local extensions Realistically most people when first establishing repositories will work with what comes out of the box … but fields can be added and schemes customised. Explore types and field structures at an early stage and set up your metadata scheme. Consider local needs such as departmental and research group structures and any local decisions needed about subject fields etc. Pre population and authority control

Sources of advice Librarians Further reading RSP! NISO (2004) Understanding Metadata. Bethesda, NISO Press. http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf Jones, R., Andrew, T., & MacColl, J. (2006) The Institutional Repository. Oxford, Chandos. RSP!

Practical exercise Show group how to fill out a slip or leave up an example in a slide?

Workflow

Aim of the workflow session To gain an understanding of workflows in a repository context To provide an opportunity to examine and discuss workflows through the completion of a practical exercise

Contents Theoretical overview (10 mins) Practical exercise (20 mins) Demonstration (20 mins) Tie up and discussion (10 mins)

Theory … What are workflows? Why do we need them? Stages in submission workflows Issues

What are workflows Workflows are a break down the administrative tasks needed within the repository. In particular they often deal with the submission process and allow the tasks involved to be assigned to individuals or groups best able to deal with them. Workflows can be wider than just submission – ie user management, authorisations etc and these elements will need to be considered but for today and for practical purposes we will concentrate on the major workflow in a repository – the content submission process. What you can do might be dependant on your software of choice – ie e-prints come with a much simpler workflow system while DSpace can be more complicated and allow multiple stages of workflows to be set up. Links to stakeholder identification. Should relate to lifecycle of the resource.

Why do we need them? Engagement – minimise effort for the academics. Embedding – allowing interested parties to become involved. Consistency and quality control.

Submission workflow stages Metadata stages - Gather metadata - Metadata quality control Copyright and license handling stage File management stage Content quality control stage Flexible and customisable capture system to allow metadata to be gathered in a flexible way Copyright and licensing – deposit license, use licence, restriction licence (embargo) – more about policy and licenses tomorrow

Issues Mediation Staff resources Author final versions Quality control Defined by content itself

Practical exercise