Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 1 Dublin Core Metadata Howard Besser UCLA School of Education & Information

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 2 Metadata for Digital Libraries -  Models for Digital Libraries  Importance of Metadata Standards  Types and Uses of Metadata  Discovery Metadata: The Dublin Core

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 3 Key problems we’re facing  Discovery  Longevity-  Interoperability-

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 4 Traditional Digital Library Model DL user search & presentation

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 5 Ideal Digital Library Model DL user search & presentation

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 6 For Interoperability Digital Libraries Need Standards  Descriptive Metadata for consistent description  Discovery Metadata for finding  Administrative Metadata for viewing and maintaining  Structural Metadata for navigation ... Terms & Conditions Metadata for controlling access...

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 7 Why are Standards and Metadata consensus important?  Managing digital files over time  Longevity  Interoperability  Veracity  Recording in a consistent manner  Will give vendors incentive to create applications that support this

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 8 Why Standards?  Why do we need standards? – To make information universally available to users – facilitate sharing and interchange of information – To preserve information (make it safe from changes in hardware and software)  Standards only work if communities widely accept them, but they’re necessary for communities to work together

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 9 Why are you Managing this Information?  Organizational mission & type  Users  Uses

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 10 Questions to Ask  What communities is this standard designed for?  What type of information is this standard designed to handle?  What functions is this standard designed to serve?  What previous standards is it built upon?  Does the standard prescribe how to create new records (or parts of records), or how to map from existing records?  How far does the standard go? Semantics: Does it define element sets? Rules? Syntax?-

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 11 What is Metadata _ Structured data describing other data used to find or help manage information resources _ Aids in interoperability _ Titles, dates, captions, cataloging and indexing data, file headers, rights info, provenance, code books, transaction logs,... _ One person’s metadata is another’s data

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 12 Sorting through the Standards Morass _ Data Structures (DC, CDWA, MARC, VRA Core, TEI, EAD, MESL data dict) _ Data Interchange (Z39.50) _ Data Values/vocabularies (LCSH, AAT, ULAN, TGN) _ Data Content/syntax (AACR2)

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 13 Semantics/Syntax/Structure _ Semantics – meaning, as defined by a community to meet their particular needs (DC) _ Syntax – a systematic arrangement of data elements for machine processing – facilitates the exchange and use of metadata among various applications (HTML, XML, RDF) _ Structure – a formal arrangement of the syntax with the goal of consistent representation of the semantics (rules defining field contents like 1/11/99)

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 14 What is Metadata Types & Uses  lots of different ways of dividing the clusters

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 15 Uses of Metadata _ Discovery & Retrieval _ Identification/Provenance _ Rights Management _ Viewing _ Integrity _ Longevity _ Content rating

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 16 Containers and Packages of Metadata Warwick, not MARC _ modular _ overlapping _ extensible _ community-based _ designed for a networked world to aid commonality btwn communities while still providing full functionality within each community

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 17 Some different schemes where Metdata is kept _ embedded withing the object (HTML tags) _ in a separate related DB maintained by same organization (OPAC, MOA II) _ in a separate DB maintained by a separate organization (Books in Print, ratings systems) _ derived on-the-fly from a different scheme (MARC-to-DC)

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 18 Collaborative Metadata Projects  Dublin Core  NSF/ERCIM Digital Collaboratory  OCLC CORC Project-  Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core  Encoded Archival Description (EAD)  Computerized Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI)-  Records Export for Art and Cultural Heritage (REACH)

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 19 Dublin Core (3/95) _ improve resource discovery _ anticipate precision problems of Web Crawler- based searching tools _ existing metadata could be “dumbed down” _ elements should be simple to understand and use, so that any individual should be able to assign terms him/herself _ software might eventually automatically generate very base-level metadata

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 20 Dublin Core  Title  Creator  Subject  Description  Publisher  Contributors  Date  Type  Format  Identifier  Source  Language  Relation  Coverage  Rights

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 21 Dublin Core  every element is both optional and repeatable  elements are cross-disciplinary  elements are extensible by organized communities  can employ a syntax such as html’s tagset for use by Spiders and Harvesters  May 2000 DLF Metadata Harvesting Project

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 22 DC Qualifiers _ allows one community to express important nuances and qualifications, while still making the basic importance available to communities with simple needs _ our community can reflect alternate title, transliterated title, and main title, yet they will all be found under a simple Web search under “title”

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 23 Discovery Metadata: Recent History _ Dublin Core (3/95) _ Warwick Framework (4/96) _ Image Metadata Workshop (9/96) _ Canberra, Helsinki,... DC (98) _ Digital Library Collaboratory (97-) _ DC-8, Frankfurt 10/99

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 24 Dublin Core--further work _ Warwick Framework – metadata packages for extensible functions – layed groundwork for RDF _ Canberra Qualifiers – refining the semantics of the element set to provide more precise info – SUBELEMENT, SCHEME, LANG _ Granularity – no hierarchical relationships w/i a given DC record; only one record per discrete object (collection or item-level), and relationship field plus qualifier links them

The Research Process and Functional Categories of Metadata _ Discovery _ Retrieval _ Collation _ Analysis _ Re-presentation

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 26 Metadata Mapping-  Crosswalks  Resource Description Framework (RDF)

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 27 Crosswalks  mapping btwn differing metadata structures  eliminate the need for monolithic, universally adopted standards  focus on flexibility and interoperatiblity  RDF-based metadata registries

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 28 Crosswalk Example

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 29 Resource Description Framework (RDF, spec released 2/99) _ W3C Metadata activity _ designed to move the Web beyond simple links to semantically-rich relationships btwn resources _ metadata application using XML as a common syntax for exchange and processing _ flexible architecture for managing diverse application- specific metadata packets that can be processed by machines _ associates resources, property types, and corresponding values _

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 30 RDF _ Resources (character strings, names, digital objects) _ Property (“is the author of”) _ Value _ resources+properties=relationships _ many different relationships can be reflected

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 31 XML-encoded RDF _ _ Howard Besser _

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 32 Should you start building with RDF today? _ Tools are primitive _ Standard still likely to evolve

Besser--Dublin Core Metadata 2/14/02 33 Metadata for Digital Libraries Howard Besser UCLA School of Education & Information Baca, Murtha (ed). Introduction to Metadata, Los Angeles: Getty Information Institute,