An Introduction to Metadata by Wendy Duff

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An Introduction to Metadata by Wendy Duff

• ECURE 2000
• October 6, 2000

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Metadata

• The term "meta" comes from a Greek word that
  denotes something of a higher or more
  fundamental nature. Metadata, then, is data about
  other data.
• The term refers to any data used to aid the
  identification, description and location of
  networked electronic resources

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Defining Metadata

• Does data about data mean anything?
• Librarians equate it with a complete
  bibliographic record
• Information technologists equate it to database
  schema or definitions of the data elements
• Archivists include context information,
  restrictions and access terms, index terms, etc.

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Bibliographic Metadata

• Providing a description of the information
  package along with other information necessary
  for management and preservation
• Encoding
• Providing access to this description
• Predominantly discovery and retrieval

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Encoding

• Surrogate records are encoded by assigning tags,
  letter, or words
• Why encode?
• For display
• Provide access
• Integration of surrogates

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Beyond Discovery and Retrieval

• Gilliland-Swetland (1998) explains metadata also
  documents how that objects behaves, its functions
  and use, relationship to other objects and how it
  should be managed.

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Different Communities .Different Metadata

• Developers of the Interoperabilty of Data in
  E-Commerce Systems (indecs) ideintified metadata
  for protecting intellectual property rights of
  creators and publishers.
• The Research Library Groups Working Group on
  Preservation Issues of Metadata identified
  metadata for digital master files that have
  preservation-based intent.

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Metadata to Information Technologists

• The data that defines the data elements in a
  table
• Data that controls or explains other data
• Something that is not part of the bit stream of a
  record but needed to understand the data in the
  record
• One systems metadata is another systems data

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Source of Metadata

• Automatically generated
• Supplied by creator of electronic resource
• Supplied by 3rd party

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Metadata generation for an image using MEX2
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Dublin Core

• Metadata to improve information retrieval of
  internet resources
• Developed predominantly by the bibliographic
  community. Elements similar to bibliographic
  surrogate

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Characteristics of Dublin Core

• Simplicity
• Semantic Interoperability
• International Consensus
• Extensibility
• Metadata Modularity on the Web

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Dublin Core Elements

• Content
• Coverage
• Description
• Type
• Relation
• Source
• Subject
• Title

• Intellectual Property
• 
  
• Contributor
• Creator
• Publisher
• Rights
  

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Dublin Core Element

• Instantiation
• Date
• Format
• Identifier
• Language

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Resource Description Framework(RDF)

• RDF provides interoperability between
  applications that exchange machine-understandable
  information on the Web

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Metadata and XML

• Provides a means of encoding and exchanging
  metadata
• EAD, TEI, VERS

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XML Example

• lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"UTF-8"
  standalone"yes"?gt lt!DOCTYPE FAQ SYSTEM
  "FAQ.DTD"gt ltFAQgt
• ltINFOgt ltSUBJECTgt XML lt/SUBJECTgt
• ltAUTHORgt Lars Marius Garshollt/AUTHORgt
• ltEMAILgt larsga_at_ifi.uio.no lt/EMAILgt ltVERSIONgt 1.0
  lt/VERSIONgt
• ltDATEgt 20.jun.97 lt/DATEgt
• lt/INFOgt ltPART NO"1"gt ltQ NO"1"gt ltQTEXTgtWhat is
  XML?lt/QTEXTgt ltAgtSGML light.lt/Agt lt/Qgt ...lt/PARTgt
  lt/FAQgt

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Electronic Records Metadata Project

• Functional Requirements for Evidence in
  Recordkeeping
• The SPIRT Metadata Project
• VERS
• GILS - and the AGLS

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Functional Requirements for Evidence in
Recordkeeping Metadata Model

• Six Layers
• Handle Layer
• Terms and Conditions Layer
• Structural Layer
• Contextual Layer
• Content Layer
• Use History Layer

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SPIRT Metadata Scheme
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Victoria Recordkeeping Model

• VERS is an exchange standard that allows transfer
  of metadata (and content) from the system it was
  created in to future systems as yet unbuilt.
• A VERS Encapsulated Object (VEO) a record is
  designed to be self documenting so that the
  record can subsequently be extracted without
  reference to external documentation.

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Encapsulated Object

• A VEO includes metadata that supports the
  management, finding, and retrieval of the
  electronic record.
• A VERS record contains one or more documents,
  each of which may be stored as one or more
  encodings (physical file formats).

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VERS Record Structure
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Record Metadata
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Metadata Facts to Remember

• Metadata does not have to be digital
• Metadata relates to more than the description of
  an object.
• Metadata can come from a variety of sources
• Metadata continue to accrue during the life of an
  information object or system.
• One information object's metadata can
  simultaneously be another information object's
  data. (Anne Gilliland-Swetland, Setting the
  Stage)

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Developing Metadata Schemes

• Identify the purpose of the metadata model
• Level of specificity of the elements
• Identify resources
• Infrastructure - who will supply it?
• What type of information package is it?
• Who will use the metadata?
• Existing metadata models

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Other Sources

• Introduction to Metadata Pathways to Digital
  Information. http//www.getty.edu/gri/standard/i
  ntrometadata/index.htm
• CLIR Reports http//www.clir.org/pubs/reports/rep
  orts.html
• Digital Libraries Metadata Resources
  http//www.ifla.org/II/metadata.htm
• Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS)
  Metadata Standard. http//www.naa.gov.au/recordkee
  ping/gov_online/agls/summary.html

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More Sources

• SPIRT Recordkeeping Metadata Project
  http//www.sims.monash.edu.au/rcrg/research/spirt/
  index.html