INTRODUCTION OF LIBRARY METADATA

BY DHEERAJ SINGH NEGI

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

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.

WHY METADATA? Hardware and software come and go—sometimes

becoming obsolete with alarming rapidity—but high-quality, standards-based, system-independent metadata can be used, reused, migrated, and disseminated in any number of ways, even in ways that we cannot anticipate at this moment.

Digitization does not equal access. The mere act of creating digital copies of collection materials does not make those materials findable, understandable, or utilizable to our ever-expanding audience of online users. But digitization combined with the creation of carefully crafted metadata can significantly enhance end-user access; and our users are the primary reason that we create digital resources.”

BIBLIOGRAPHIC METADATA

Providing a description of the information package along with other information necessary for management and preservation

Encoding Providing access to this description

ENCODING

Surrogate records are encoded by assigning tags, letter, or words

Why encode? For display Provide access Integration of surrogate Management

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 Group’s Working Group on Preservation Issues of Metadata identified metadata for “digital master files that have preservation-based intent”.

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

SOURCE OF METADATA

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

DUBLIN CORE

Metadata to improve information retrieval of internet resources

Developed predominantly by the bibliographic community. Elements similar to bibliographic surrogate

CHARACTERISTICS OF DUBLIN CORE

Simplicity Semantic Interoperability International Consensus Extensibility Metadata Modularity on the Web

DUBLIN CORE ELEMENTS

Content Coverage Description Type Relation Source Subject Title

Intellectual Property

Contributor Creator Publisher Rights

DUBLIN CORE ELEMENT

Instantiation Date Format Identifier Language

METADATA AND XML

Provides a means of encoding and exchanging metadata

EAD, TEI, VERS

XML EXAMPLE

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <!DOCTYPE FAQ SYSTEM "FAQ.DTD"> <FAQ>

<INFO> <SUBJECT> XML </SUBJECT> <AUTHOR> Lars Marius Garshol</AUTHOR> <EMAIL> larsga@ifi.uio.no </EMAIL>

<VERSION> 1.0 </VERSION> <DATE> 20.jun.97 </DATE> </INFO> <PART NO="1"> <Q NO="1">

<QTEXT>What is XML?</QTEXT> <A>SGML light.</A> </Q> ...</PART> </FAQ>

ELECTRONIC RECORDS METADATA PROJECT

Functional Requirements for Evidence in Recordkeeping

The SPIRT Metadata Project VERS GILS - and the AGLS OAIS InterPares

SPIRT METADATA SCHEME

OPEN ARCHIVAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Figure 4‑12: Information Object Taxonomy

Information Object

Content Information

Packaging Information

Preservation Description Information

Descriptive Information

. . .

PRESERVATION DESCRIPTION

Preservation Description Information

Reference Information

Provenance Information

Context Information

Fixity Information

TABLE 4‑1: EXAMPLES OF PDI TYPES

ContentInformation

Type

Reference Provenance Context Fixity

Space Science Data

   Object identifierJournal reference   Mission, instrument, title, attribute set

 

   Instrument description   Processing history   Sensor description   Instrument   Instrument mode   Decommutation map   Software interface specification

   Calibration history   Related data sets   Mission   Funding history

   CRC   Checksum   Reed-Solomon coding

 

Digital Library

Collections

   Bibliographic description   Persistent identifier

   For scanned collections:    metadata about the digitisation process   pointer to master version   For born-digital publications:    pointer to the digital original   Metadata about the preservation process:   pointers to earlier versions of the collection item   change history

   Pointers to related documents in original environment at the time of publication

   Digital signature   Checksum   Authenticity indicator

SoftwarePackage

 

   Name   Author/Originator   Version number   Serial number

   Revision history   License holder   Registration   Copyright

   Help file   User guide   Related software   Language

   Certificate   Checksum   Encryption   CRC

records

datafiles

currenttechnical context

provenanceoriginal technicalcontext

form andstructure

activities

Strategy,methods

requirements,rules

simplified datamodel

INTERPARES PRESERVATION MODEL

METADATA FORMATS

Extensible Markup Language (XML) Allows for combining and interoperability XML flexibility

Any other conceivable format MS Word? PDF? Post-it notes?

Excel, FileMaker Pro, Access DB, CSV

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