Metadata Considerations Implementing Administrative and Descriptive Metadata for your digital images 1

Session Goal Workshop participants will be able to produce technical, administrative, and descriptive metadata about the digital objects. 2

Session Objectives Overview big picture metadata issues Overview technical, administrative, preservation, and descriptive metadata Familiarize learners with project documents for metadata creation Illustrate the metadata creation process involving technical, administrative, and descriptive metadata in a Hands-on Lab 3

Learner Outcomes Understand different types of metadata and their uses Recognize the necessary documentation used to produce tech, admin, and descriptive metadata Use CONTENTdm Acquisition Station in order to add descriptive to digital images Name and Save a TIFF, TXT transcript, and PDF onto computer HD using standard naming convention 4

Overview What is metadata (theory) ◦Different types of metadata ◦Different levels of metadata How will metadata be used in this project? ◦Issues, tools, standards, and strategies 5

Metadata: Definitions “Data about data” “Cataloging done by men” Information created to arrange, describe or otherwise enhance access to an information object 6

Why is metadata important? Accessibility Retention of context Administrative reporting Preservation of content Legal issues Expanded (interoperable) use 7

Four Types of Metadata Descriptive Structural ◦File directory Administrative ◦Including Rights Preservation ◦May include Technical 8

Levels of Metadata Collection-level ◦Describes the aggregate resource ◦Often found in the catalog ◦Also used in collection registries Intellectual entity-level Item or file-level 9

HBCU-CUL Digital Imaging Workshop Digital Objects Recommendations CONTENTdm does much of the metadata work for us Recommended: Excel worksheet ◦File names, scanner, date, item filed, etc. File naming conventions

HBCU-CUL Digital Imaging Workshop Data standards What do you need to describe a resource? To help researchers find it? To know who created it? Data structure standards ◦Specifies the elements that should be included ◦Examples: MARC, MODS, EAD, VRA Core, CDWA

What are we doing about directory structure and file naming? 12 Level 1: Abbreviated Collection Name PDF Photos, Film, Video, Audio Compound Object Level 2: Preservation and Access image folders Level 3: Files Level 4: Manuscript or bound volume Printed Text Revels Collection Master Images Access Images PDF Level 5: Pages Printed Text

HBCU-CUL Digital Imaging Workshop Essential Elements for an Effective Digital Collection (The Five C’s) Content (“critical mass”) Curation Cataloging Controlled vocabularies Copyright Courtesy of Murtha Baca, Getty Research Institute

HBCU-CUL Digital Imaging Workshop A specific example: Dublin Core Dublin Core: 15 very simple elements Some display to the public; others are for internal use ContentDM is built around modified Dublin Core

HBCU-CUL Digital Imaging Workshop Metadata in the HBCU Project Title Subject Description Creator Publisher Contributors Date Type Format Identifier Source Language Relation Coverage Rights DC is our basic descriptive structure

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HBCU-CUL Digital Imaging Workshop Data Content Standards Used to populate the data structure standards Consistency is very important ◦For our own users ◦For cross-collection searching Date example Controlled vocabularies can help ◦LCSH, AAT, TGM, MeSH, etc. Work hard to keep your metadata consistent!

HBCU-CUL Digital Imaging Workshop Cataloging Aids U Washington “Field Properties table” (also linked from project website) Provides an explanation for each element

HBCU-CUL Digital Imaging Workshop Other Help RLG Descriptive Metadata Guidelines ◦More than just DC ◦Provides similar guidance on the use of each field The Cornell team Each other!

Some challenges involved in the creation and longevity of metadata Unavailability of metadata Dependence on existing local systems, protocols, and lack of common standards Naming, identifiers, and persistence Resource discovery/Cross-collection searching Scale Cost of production 21

What are we doing to address these challenges in the project ? Providing guidelines on technical metadata and tools for its creation Providing partners standard descriptive metadata elements 22

What are we doing to address these challenges in the project ? CONTENTdm provides a descriptive framework using Dublin Core and tools for the creation of ◦Compound objects (multi-sided or multi-level documents that use the same metadata) ◦Tools to edit metadata field names that can then be linked to Dublin Core records 23

What about OCR? 24

What are we doing about recording metadata? We’re capturing and recording… HTML META tags on digital collection webpages Dublin Core Metadata Records Administrative Metadata OCR’d text Metadata from scanner 25

What are some examples of how these metadata work? 26

Resources: ◦Metadata creation using Naming Digital Files instructions [PDF] ◦Technical and administrative metadata creation using the T/A Metadata spreadsheet [MS Excel] ◦Production Guidelines [PDF] ◦NISO Dublin Core Standards [PDF] 27

Hands-on demo using Administrative Metadata Spreadsheet Demo creating Administrative metadata 28