Metadata 101

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Metadata 101

• Sandy McIntyre Colby
• SOASIS- Dayton
• 2000-11-30

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Outline

• Environment Scan
• Metadata Basics
• Dublin Core 101
• Selected Standards
• Discussion Questions

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Environment Scan
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How big?

• 7.1 million unique web sites, a 50 percent
  increase over the previous year's total of 4.7
  million
• 41 percent of the Web, or about 2.9 million sites
  are Private
• OCLC Researchers Measure the World Wide Web
  Oct. 16, 2000 (http//www.oclc.org/oclc/press/2
  0001016a.htm)

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Metadata

• Known items vs. a topic
• Data about data
• Or Structured Data about data
• Structure
• Lots of communities do metadata

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Metadata basics
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Metadata

• What is metadata?
• Data about data
• Or Structured Data about data
• Sound familiar?
• Lots of communities do metadata

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Why metadata?

• Improves discovery
• Enables retrieval
• Supports administration

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Discovery

• Navigating large collections is challenging!
• Used to build databases to answer key what, who,
  where, when questions like
• What exists on a topic, in a genre, by an author,
  for a specific audience, published in a given
  year?
• Brings out content, value, relationships that are
  not expressed in the resource
• Supports fast, arms-length evaluation of
  resources to optimize retrieval, save users time
• Is often used to market resources to users
• Catalogs / directories / search engines
• Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI))

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Retrieval

• Identifiers that assist manual and automated
  systems in retrieval
• Shelf location for physical resource
• File location for electronic resource
• System requirements for e-resources
• Users system responds to file type with correct
  application
• Captures rights and privileges information
• Circulation
• Document delivery
• Interlibrary loan

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So whats the big fuss?

• The Web is large and growing quickly
• Many producers, many users on the Web
• Navigating networked resources is difficult
• Good description
• better access
• better control
• Control and access big business
• Convergence of interests collaboration in
  building standards (interoperability)

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Concepts to know

• Types of metadata
• Descriptive
• Structural
• Administrative

Title Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
1
File type jpg
2
Rights holder NGDB
3
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Concepts to know (cont.)

• Semantics
• Whats in a name?
• Syntax
• We gots grammar
• Interoperability
• Sharing...

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Concepts to know (cont.)

• Metadata objects can be
• Embedded in the resource
• Separate from the resource
• Both embedded and separate

M
M
M
M
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Dublin Core101
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Dublin Core

• Common name for the Dublin Core Metadata Element
  Set (DCMES)
• DCMES is a
• a common core of semantics for resource
  description
• it appears to be very useful in facilitating
• retrieval of described resources
• as a lingua franca for the exchange of resource
  descriptions
• DCMES is maintained by the Dublin Core Metadata
  Initiative (DCMI) hosted by OCLC

purl.org/dc
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International in Scope
Purl.oclc.org/dc/project/index.htm
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Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES)

• A set 15 elements designed to enhance discovery
  and retrieval of resources
• Goals of DCMES
• Simplicity of creation and maintenance
• Commonly understood semantics
• Conformance to existing and emerging standards
• International scope and applicability
• Extensibility
• Interoperability among collections and indexing
  systems

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Rules for DCMES

• DCMES is extensible
• Additional elements, schemes, qualifiers may be
  defined and used in conjunction with DCMES
• DCMES may be modified by DCMI to add more
  elements, schemes, qualifiers over time
• Approved elements, schemes qualifiers may only be
  used with appropriate elements
• All elements, qualifiers, schemes are optional
• All elements, qualifiers, schemes are repeatable
• DCMES special practice may be defined by
  individuals, agencies, communities

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Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) (cont.)
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Selected Standards
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Selected metadata standards

• ISBD (AACR2 / MARC)
• Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) headers
• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
• VRA Core Categories (VRA CC)
• Global Information Locator Service (GILS)
• Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
  (CSDGM, formerly FGDC)

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Metadata transport standards

• MARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging)
• SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)
• HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
• XML (Extensible Markup Language)
• RDF (Resource Description Framework)
• Character encoding
• MARC 21 repertoire
• Unicode

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Character Encoding

• Many standards available
• Of critical importance to be sure that systems
  correctly process, index, display textual data
• MARC 21 uses various ISO standards plus EACC,
  etc.
• Global standard gaining acceptance Unicode

http//lcweb.loc.gov/marc/specifications/specchari
ntro.html
http//www.unicode.org/
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Who uses metadata?

• Elementary students
• Publishers, authors, institutions
• Librarians Reference/Catalogers
• International in scope

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Elementary students
Journal of the American Society for Information
Science, 51(2) 193-201, 2000 193- 201.
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Publishers, authors

• Crossref- Ovid
• The Association of American Publishers and
  Andersen Consulting recommended E-Book metadata
  standards
• Implement a document-identification scheme
  worldwide

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Webmasters
http//www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/alsop/0,
5238,88063,00.html
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Librarians

• Librarians
• Reference, catalogers
• Corporate, academic, government

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Academia
U. of Michigan's media image services (a search
system based on Dublin Core elements)
40,000 images215,000 recordsare in this
system
http//www.images.umdl.umich.edu
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Applying Dublin Core

• Acquisitions
• Often mandated (law or management)
• Determine metadata set
• Controlled vocabulary
• Template (tools)
• Indexing
• Prototype

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CORC

• Discovery, harvesting, template, automated HTML
• Internal publishing
• Leaflets (web resources that end unto themselves)
• Global standard gaining acceptance Unicode

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Additional links

• Web Characterization
• Statistics, publications, related links
  (http//wcp.oclc.org/)
• Cataloging Metadata Resources
• Metadata (http//slis.cua.edu/ihy/catmeta.htmD2)
• Open Archives Initiative
• (http//www.openarchives.org)
• Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
• Home page (purl.org/DC)
• Dublin Core Library Interest Group mailing list
• http//www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/dc-libraries/
• IFLA -- Digital Libraries Metadata Resources
• http//www.ifla.org/II/metadata.htm