Metadata Lessons Learned Katy Ginger Digital Learning Sciences University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)

1.Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) Earth science focused Educationally oriented (K-12 slant) Asked to address datasets 2.National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Science, Engineering, Technology, Math and Medical (STEM) focused Educational focus via 10 Pathways (higher ed slant) Two Metadata Stories

1.DLESE: (came online 1999/2000) Lesson plans, activities, labs, articles, projects Visualizations and some datasets Datasets that have an educational wrapper Reviews, teaching tips, news & events (separate objects from above 3) 2.NSDL: (came online 2002) Same as above; but reviews, teaching tips, news & events are not separate objects as in DLESE *Only metadata that links to external resources is held Actual Objects

1.DLESE: PIs of NSF funded projects, K-12 educator groups Government organizations: NASA, USGS, NOAA, NAS Informal educators from museums University faculty 2.NSDL: Same as above and including Publishers (often but not limited to textbooks) Types of Contributors

DLESE IMS because of education focus & geospatial info Required 10 fields but no data typing enforced Community developed vocabularies for required metadata - subject, resource type, tech requirements & grade range Collections can use a variety of methods to send metadata Metadata creation and format changing support NSDL Qualified Dublin Core & IEEE fields All fields optional Dublin Core controlled vocabs Require collections to use OAI to send metadata No support to collection builders to create metadata or change formats Initial Metadata Context

DLESE IMS changes versions Promised support for geospatial does not happen Community demands geospatial focus first Community changes to an education focus DLESE funding emphasizes quality (resources & metadata) An annotation and review project is a primary player NSDL Scientific Pathways become content stewards (only some contribute) All fields still optional; encourage presence of title, description, grade range Pathways disappointed cannot easily exchange metadata and understand meaning Pathways feel their high- quality materials & metadata are lost in NSDL Change Happens

DLESE ADN: education, geospatial, temporal & space info Strong data-typing enforced by XML schemas Required 10 fields Vocabularies for optional metadata – educational standards, teaching method Developed other metadata frameworks to support new objects like annotations, tips & news NSDL Uses qualified Dublin Core & IEEE All fields optional Dublin Core controlled vocabs Some NSDL specific vocabs Developing community controlled vocabularies at request of the Pathways – grade range, resource type, educational standards, audience Current Metadata Context

Metadata Frameworks Vocabularies Metadata Creation Storage Structures Catalog Tools Contributing Lesson Learned: Overview

DLESE Using multiple metadata frameworks –Creates overhead –Allows flexibility –DLESE meets community demands quicker –Supports DLESE resource centric searching –Creates higher quality metadata when different objects are recognized NSDL No required metadata results in very little metadata Using a standard metadata framework creates overhead in keeping up and deciding on backwards compatibility Does it truly create interoperability? Not necessarily (e.g. Pathways find sharing difficult) Lesson Learned: Frameworks 1

Be clear to community in terms of version support Are multiple metadata formats allowed or only one for a particular object? (DLESE and NSDL both use a single format only for learning objects) Use a standard or own metadata framework? –DLESE experience: Own framework worked very well but it was purposely made to be encompassing so that it could be mapped to multiple other metadata formats –NSDL experience: Important to say using Dublin Core but most metadata fields incomplete even for own browsing Lesson Learned: Frameworks 2

Bottom line: use metadata that can be mapped to multiple formats without much loss of data Because more organizations/people (than you can think of) will ask to share metadata with you or request your metadata for their project Know the copyright & terms of use of the metadata shared and ingested Lesson Learned: Frameworks 3

Definitions, definitions, definitions: to provide meaning Extremely useful in creating browse capabilities Useful in knowing what’s in the library (e.g. subject) Gives novice catalogers a better chance at cataloging Encourages some consistency by its use Decide how terms are managed and aged off Decide if a vocabulary registry will be used (terms become URI then) Decide if vocabularies will be enforced Lesson Learned: Vocabularies

Lesson Learned: Metadata Creation Nature of community requires –Tool support for metadata creation –Metadata and collection building training for novices Support legacy/existing metadata formats semantically and technically: –Help map vocabularies –Help change metadata formats programmatically Most useful DLESE and NSDL metadata (rank order): title, description, resource type, grade range

Metadata is just one piece of information for an object (it just tends to be a bit more structured) Choose flexible storage structures (e.g. digital libraries use Fedora and Lucene indexes) for metadata, content indexing, content storage and user supplied notes/annotations Lesson Learned: Storage Structures

Make flexible – DLESE Collection System (DCS) generates user interfaces and vocabs directly from XML schemas Provide cataloging support –Define the each metadata field –Provide Best Practices for cataloging each field Have built-in metadata sharing capabilities (OAI, API, web services) Lesson Learned: Catalog Tools

Allow contributors to provide metadata via multiple methods (OAI, APIs, web services and many more) Contributors are more inclined to contribute content rather than metadata If willing to contribute metadata, often not aware of metadata format to be contributed or metadata best practices Don’t understand the relationship between metadata and its ability to support uniform or targeted discovery Lesson Learned: Contributing

DLESE Metadata: Using Annotation to Add Value to a Digital Library for Education (DLib: Vol. 12, Num The NSDL Repository: Using Fedora: OAI Software: jOAI More Information