Metadata Issues Underlying the Development of a Data Repository for Evolutionary Biology Sarah Carrier, SILS, Master’s Student Jackson Dube, Visiting Scholar, SILS/MRC Jane Greenberg, Associate Professor, Director SILS/Metadata Research Center, UNC-CH Ruth Monnig, Doctoral Research Assistant, SILS/MRC

Overview 1. Metadata defined 2. Role of metadata in a repository 3. Range of metadata standards 4. Issues 5. Discussion

The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB)

Metadata Example for a specimen Family: Pinaceae Species: Pinus serotina Date identified: County: Pasquotank County Location collected: Woodland Border, 2.3 miles north east of Nisonton Collected by: Harry E. Ahles Pinus serotina

Metadata for a Water Quality Study 1. Jordan Lake Study Study Procedure Information 5. The following 15 variables were used to measure water quality over a two-year period. 6. Salinity is described as XXXXX

Metadata  Data about the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of data (FGDC Glossary, 1992)  Additional information necessary for data to be useful (Musik, 1997) Resource = data = object = entity = document = data object

Why metadata?  Facilitate discovery  Permit use – intellectual and technical  Manage and preserve  Secure  Help advance the field of evolutionary biology

Range of published data objects  Table, graph  Dataset  Research methods / procedures –Bayesian inference of phylogeny –Meta-analysis –Computational biology

Metadata continuum FGDC/ CSGSM EML Dublin Core DDI

The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) *

The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) * ontologies Data structures

Issues  Cost –More metadata, more cost to produce –Less metadata, cost to users  Metadata creation –Who, when, how? –Incentivizing  Preservation, sustainability –Data object and associated metadata  Open access (“a loaded word”) –What levels of access/rights should be supported

Discussion Topics  Range of data objects  Granularity (metadata)  Users: Needs, greater use  Additional issues….

Metadata types and properties Metadata “type”Property, etc. *Resource/data discovery Title, subject ProvenanceCreator, source Terms and condition metadata (intellectual use) Access rights, manipulation rights. Structural metadata (technical use) Software and hardware needs *Resource = data = object = entity = document = data object

Range of metadata standards Schemes (just a few…)  LSID  TEI Header; MARC bibliographic format, Dublin Core  EAD  FGDC/CSGSM; NBII  EML  DDI  ODRL (Creative Commons Profile)  A Core  PREMISCharacteristics  Objectives and principles  Domains –Environment –Object type/format  Architectural Layout –Extent –Level of Complexity  Flat, hierarchical –Granularity

Range of metadata standards  Data structure standards  Data communication standards  Data value standards –Content representation, ontologies, authority files  Data syntax standards  Data models, architectures/packaging