Artiste is a European project developing a cross-collection search system for art galleries and museums. It combines image content retrieval with text based retrieval and uses RDF mappings in order to integrate diverse databases. The test sites of the Louvre, Victoria and Albert Museum, Uffizi Gallery and National Gallery London provide their own database schema for existing metadata, avoiding the need for migration to a common schema. The system will accept a query based on one museumÔÇÖs fields and convert them, through an RDF mapping into a form suitable for querying the other collections. The nature of some of the image processing algorithms means that the system can be slow for some computations, so the system is session-based to allow the user to return to the results later. The system has been built within a J2EE/EJB framework, using the Jboss Enterprise Application Server.
Secondary Title
WWW2002: The Eleventh International World Wide Web Conference
Publisher
International World Wide Web Conference Committee
ISBN
1-880672-20-0
Critical Arguements
CA "A key aim is to make a unified retrieval system which is targeted to usersÔÇÖ real requirements and which is usable with integrated cross-collection searching. Museums and Galleries often have several digital collections ranging from public access images to specialised scientific images used for conservation purposes. Access from one gallery to another was not common in terms of textual data and not done at all in terms of image-based queries. However the value of cross-collection access is recognised as important for example in comparing treatments and conditions of paintings. While ARTISTE is primarily designed for inter-museum searching it could equally be applied to museum intranets. Within a MuseumÔÇÖs intranet there may be systems which are not interlinked due to local management issues."
Conclusions
RQ "The query language for this type of system is not yet standardised but we hope that an emerging standard will provide the session-based connectivity this application seems to require due to the possibility of long query times." ... "In the near future, the project will be introducing controlled vocabulary support for some of the metadata fields. This will not only make retrieval more robust but will also facilitate query expansion. The LouvreÔÇÖs multilingual thesaurus will be used in order to ensure greater interoperability. The system is easily extensible to other multimedia types such as audio and video (eg by adding additional query items such as "dialog" and "video sequence" with appropriate analysers). A follow-up project is scheduled to explore this further. There is some scope for relating our RDF query format to the emerging query standards such as XQuery and we also plan to feed our experience into standards such as the ZNG initiative.
SOW
DC "The Artiste project is a European Commission funded collaboration, investigating the use of integrated content and metadata-based image retrieval across disparate databases in several major art galleries across Europe. Collaborating galleries include the Louvre in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the National Gallery in London." ... "Artiste is funded by the European CommunityÔÇÖs Framework 5 programme. The partners are: NCR, The University of Southampton, IT Innovation, Giunti Multimedia, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Gallery, The research laboratory of the museums of France (C2RMF) and the Uffizi Gallery. We would particularly like to thank our collaborators Christian Lahanier, James Stevenson, Marco Cappellini, John Cupitt, Raphaela Rimabosci, Gert Presutti, Warren Stirling, Fabrizio Giorgini and Roberto Vacaro."
Type
Conference Proceedings
Title
Integrating Metadata Schema Registries with Digital Preservation Systems to Support Interoperability: A Proposal
There are a large number of metadata standards and initiatives that have relevance to digital preservation, e.g. those designed to support the work of national and research libraries, archives and digitization initiatives. This paper introduces some of these, noting that the developers of some have acknowledged the importance of maintaining or re-using existing metadata. It is argued here that the implementation of metadata registries as part of a digital preservation system may assist repositories in enabling the management and re-use of this metadata and may also help interoperability, namely the exchange of metadata and information packages between repositories.
Publisher
2003 Dublin Core Conference: Supporting Communities of Discourse and Practice-Metadata Research & Applications
Publication Location
Seatle, WA
Critical Arguements
CA "This paper will introduce a range of preservation metadata initiatives including the influential Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model and a number of other initiatives originating from national and research libraries, digitization projects and the archives community. It will then comment on the need for interoperability between these specifications and propose that the implementation of metadata registries as part of a digital preservation system may help repositories manage diverse metadata and facilitate the exchange of metadata or information packages between repositories."
Conclusions
RQ "The plethora of metadata standards and formats that have been developed to support the management and preservation of digital objects leaves us with several questions about interoperability. For example, will repositories be able to cope with the wide range of standards and formats that exist? Will they be able to transfer metadata or information packages containing metadata to other repositories? Will they be able to make use of the 'recombinant potential' of existing metadata?" ... "A great deal of work needs to be done before this registry-based approach can be proved to be useful. While it would undoubtedly be useful to have registries of the main metadata standards developed to support preservation, it is less clear how mapping-based conversions between them would work in practice. Metadata specifications are based on a range of different models and conversions often lead to data loss. Also, much more consideration needs to be given to the practical issues of implementation." 
SOW
DC Michael Day is a research officer at UKOLN, which is based at the University of Bath. He belongs to UKOLN's research and development team, and works primarily on projects concerning metadata, interoperability and digital preservation. 
Type
Journal
Title
Capturing records' metadata: Unresolved questions and proposals for research
The author reviews a range of the research questions still unanswered by research on the capture of metadata required for recordness. These include how to maintain inviolable linkages between records and their metadata in a variety of architectures, what structure metadata content should take, the semantics of records metadata and that of other electronic sources, how new metadata can be acquired by records over time, maintaining the meaning of contextual metadata over time, the use of metadata in records management and the design of environments in which Business Acceptable Communications ÔÇô BAC ÔÇô (those with appropriate evidential metadata) can persist.
Critical Arguements
CA "My research consists of model building which enables the construction of theories and parallel implementations based on shared assumptions. Some of these models are now being tested in applications, so this report reflects both what we do not yet know from abstract constructs and questions being generated by field testing. " ... Bearman overviews research questions such as semantics, syntax, structure and persistence of metadata that still need to be addressed.
Phrases
<P1> Records are evidence when they are bound to appropriate metadata about their content, structure and context. <P2> The metadata required for evidence is described in the Reference Model for Business Acceptable Communications (BAC). <P3> Metadata which is required for evidence must continue to be associated with the record to which it relates over time and neither it nor the record content can be alterable. <P4> To date we have only identified three implementations which, logically, could allow metadata to retain this inviolable connection. Metadata can be: kept in a common envelope WITH a record (encapsulated), bound TO a record (by integrity controls within an environment), or LINKED with a record through a technical and/or social process (registration, key deposit, etc.). <P5> Metadata content was defined in order to satisfy a range of functional requirements of records, hence it ought to have a structure which enables it to serve these functions effectively and in concrete network implementations. <warrant> <P6> Clusters of metadata are must operate together. Clusters of metadata are required by different processes which take place at different times, for different software clients, and within a variety of processes. Distinct functions will need access to specified metadata substructures and must be able to act on these appropriately. Structures have been proposed in the Reference Model for Business Acceptable Communications. <P7> Metadata required for recordness must, logically, be standard; that required for administration of recordkeeping systems is extensible and locally variable. <P8> Records metadata must be semantically homogenous but it is probably desirable for it to be syntactically heterogeneous and for a range of protocols to operate against it. Records metadata management system requirements have both an internal and external aspect; internally they satisfy management requirements while externally they satisfy on-going recordness requirements. <P9> The metadata has to come either from a specific user/session or from rules defined to extract data either from a layer in the application or a layer between the application and the recording event. <P10> A representation of the business context must exist from which the record-creating event can obtain metadata values. <P11> Structural metadata must both define the dependent structures and identify them to a records management environment which is ÔÇ£patrollingÔÇØ for dependencies which are becoming risky in the evolving environment in order to identify needs for migration. <P12> BAC conformant environments could reduce overheads and, if standards supported the uniform management of records from the point of issue to the point of receipt. Could redundancy now imposed by both paper and electronic processes be dramatically reduced if records referenced other records? <P13>
Conclusions
RQ "All the proposed methods have some degree of external dependency. What are the implications software dependencies? Encapsulation, integrity controls and technico-social process are all software dependent. Is this avoidable? Can abstract reference models of the metadata captured by these methods serve to make them effectively software independent? " ... "What are the relative overhead costs of maintaining the systems which give adequate societal assurances of records retention following any of these approaches? Are there some strategies that are currently more efficient or effective? What are the organizational requirements for implementing metadata capture systems? In particular, what would the costs of building such systems within a single institution be versus the costs of implementing records metadata adhering communications servers on a universal scale?" ... "Can we model mechanisms to enable an integrated environment of recordkeeping throughout society for all electronically communicated transactions?" ... "Are the BAC structures workable? Complete? Extensible in ways that are known to be required? For example, metadata required for ÔÇ£recordnessÔÇØ is created at the time of the creation of the records but other metadata, as premised by the Warwick Framework, 2 may be created subsequently. Are these packets of metadata orthogonal with respect to recordness? If not, how are conflicts dealt with? " ... "Not all metadata references fixed facts. Thus, for example, we have premised that proper reference to a retention schedule is a citation to an external source rather than a date given within the metadata values of a record. Similar external references are required for administration of shifting access permissions. What role can registries (especially rights clearinghouses) play in a world of electronic records? How well do existing languages for permission management map to the requirements of records administration, privacy and confidentiality protection, security management, records retention and destruction, etc." ... "Not all records will be created with equally perfect metadata. Indeed risk-based decisions taken by organizations in structuring their recordsÔÇÖ capture are likely to result in conscious decisions to exclude certain evidential metadata. What are the implications of incomplete metadata on an individual organization level and on a societal level? Does the absence of data as a result of policy need to be noted? And if so, how?" ... "Since metadata has owners, howdo owners administer recordsÔÇÖ metadata over time? In particular, since records contain records, how are the layers of metadata exposed for management and administrative needs (if internal metadata documenting dependencies can slip through the migration process, we will end up with records that cannot serve as evidence. If protected records within unprotected records are not protected, we will end up with insecure records environments, etc. etc.)." ... "In principle, the BAC could be expressed as Dublin metadata 3 and insofar as it cannot be, the Dublin metadata will be inadequate for evidence. What other syntax could be used? How could these be comparatively tested?" .. "Could Dublin Core metadata, if extended by qualifying schema, serve the requirements of recordness? Records are, after all, documents in the Dublin sense of fixed information objects. What would the knowledge representation look like?" ... "Strategies for metadata capture currently locate the source of metadata either in the API layer, or the communications system, using data provided by the application (an analysis supports defining which data and where they can be obtained), from the user interface layer, or from the business rules defined for specified types of communication pathways. Can all the required metadata be obtained by some combination of these sources? In other words, can all the metadata be acquired from sources other than content created by the record-creator for the explicit and sole purpose of documentation (since such data is both suspect in itself and the demand for it is annoying to the end user)? " ... "Does the capture of metadata from the surrounding software layers require the implementation of a business-application specific engine, or can we design generic tools that provide the means by which even legacy computing systems can create evidential records if the communication process captures the interchange arising from a record-event and binds it with appropriate metadata?" ... "What kinds of representations of business processes and structures can best carry contextualizing metadata at this level of granularity and simultaneously serve end user requirements? Are the discovery and documentation representations of provenance going to have to be different? " ... "Can a generic level of representation of context be shared? Do standards such a STEP 4 provide adequate semantic rules to enable some meaningful exchange of business context information? " ... "Using past experiences of expired standards as an indicator, can the defined structural metadata support necessary migrations? Are the formal standards of the source and target environments adequate for actual record migration to occur?" ... "What metadata is required to document a migration itself?" ... "Reduction of redundancy requires record uses to impose post-creation metadata locks on records created with different retention and access controls. To what extent is the Warwick Framework relevant to these packets and can architectures be created to manage these without their costs exceeding the savings?" ... "A number of issues about proper implementation depend on the evolution (currently very rapid) of metadata strategies in the broader Internet community. Issues such as unique identification of records, external references for metadata values, models for metadata syntax, etc. cannot be resolved for records without reference to the ways in which the wider community is addressing them. Studies that are supported for metadata capture methods need to be aware of, and flexible in reference to, such developments."
Type
Journal
Title
The Management of Digital Data: A metadata approach
CA "Super-metadata may well play a crucial role both in facilitating access to DDOs and in providing a means of selecting and managing the maintenance of these DDOs over time."
Phrases
<P1> The preservation of the intellectual content of DDOs brings into focus a major issue: "the integrity and authenticity of the information as originally recorded" (Graham, 1997). (p.365). <P2> The emergence of dynamic and living DDOs is presenting challenges to the conventional understanding of the preservation of digital resources and is forcing many organizations to reevaluate their strategies in the light of these rapid advances in information sources. The use of appropriate metadata is recognized to be essential in ensuring continued access to dynamic and living DDOs, but the standards for such metadata are not yet fully understood or developed. (p.369)
Conclusions
RQ How can we decide what to preserve ? How can we assure long-term access? What will be the cost of electronic archiving? Which metadata schema will be in use 10 years from now, and how will migration be achieved?
Type
Journal
Title
Six degrees of separation: Australian metadata initiatives and their relationships with international standards
CA The record used to be annotated by hand, but with the advent of electronic business the record has now become unreliable and increasingly vulnerable to loss or corruption. Metadata is part of a recordkeeping regime instituted by the NAA to address this problem.
Phrases
<P1> Electronic metadata makes the digital world go round. The digital world also works better when there are standards. Standards encourage best practice. They help the end user by encouraging the adoption of common platforms and interfaces in different systems environments. (p. 275) <P2> In relation to Web-based publishing and online service delivery, the Strategy, which has Cabinet-level endorsement, requires all government agencies to comply with metadata and recordkeeping standards issued by the NAA. (p.276) <warrant>
Conclusions
RQ How do you effectively work with software vendors and government in order to encourage metadata schema adoption and use?
SOW
DC OAIS emerged out of an initiative spearheaded by NASA's Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems. It has been shaped and promoted by the RLG and OCLC. Several international projects have played key roles in shaping the OAIS model and adapting it for use in libraries, archives and research repositories. OAIS-modeled repositories include the CEDARS Project, Harvard's Digital Repository, Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), the Library of Congress' Archival Information Package for audiovisual materials, MIT's D-Space, OCLC's Digital Archive and TERM: the Texas Email Repository Model.
Type
Journal
Title
How Do Archivists Make Electronic Archives Usable and Accessible?
CA In order to make electronic archives useable, archivists will need to enhance and link access systems to facilitate resource discovery while making the whole process as seamless and low-cost (or no-cost) as possible for the user.
Phrases
<P1> Rather than assuming that the archival community will succeed in transferring all valuable electronic records to archival institutions for preservation and future access, archivists must develop strategies and methods for accessibility and usability that can span a variety of custodial arrangements. (p.9) <P2> Maintaining linkages between different formats of materials will become increasingly burdensome if archvists do not find ways to develop integrated access systems. (p.10) <P3> Archivists must also think about ways to teach users the principles of a new digital diplomatics so that they can apply these principles themselves to make educated judgements about the accuracy, reliability, and authenticity of the documents they retrieve from electronic archives. (p.15)
Type
Journal
Title
Challenges for service providers when importing metadata in digital libraries
CA Problems in implementing metadata for online resource discovery, in this case for digital libraries, will not be solved simply by adopting a common schema. Intellectual property rights remain another major obstacle to be dealt with.
Phrases
RQ Under what circumstances can metadata be altered? How should the copyright information of a resource be distinguished from the copyright information of its metadata? Will an audit trail be used as metadata shared with other repositories?
Type
Journal
Title
Accessing essential evidence on the web: Towards an Australian recordkeeping metadata standard
CA Standardized recordkeeping metadata allows for access to essential evidence of business activities and promotes reliability and authenticity. The Australian records and metadata community have been working hard to define standards and identify requirements as well as support interoperability.
Phrases
<P1> But records, as accountability traces and evidence of business activity, have additional metadata requirements. Authoritative, well-structured metadata which specifies their content, structure, context, and essential management needs must be embedded in, wrapped around and otherwise persistently linked to them from the moment they are created if they are to continue to function as evidence. (p.2) <P2> People do business in social and organizational contexts that are governed by external mandates (e.g. social mores, laws) and internal mandates (e.g. policies, business rules). Mandates establish who is responsible for what, and govern social and organizational activity, including the creation of full and accurate records. <warrant> (p.3)
Type
Journal
Title
Describing Records in Context in the Continuum: The Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema
CA RKMS is based on traditional recordkeeping thinking. However, it also looks to the future by viewing records as active agents of change, as intelligent information objects, which are supported by the metadata that RKMS' framework provides. Through RKMS, the dynamic world of business can be linked to the more passive world of cyberspace resource management.
Phrases
<P1> As long as records remain in the local domains in which they are created, a lot of broader contextual metadata is "in the air," carried in the minds of the corporate users of the records. When records move beyond the boundaries of the local domain in which they are created or, as is increasingly the case in networked environments, they are created in the first place in a global rather than a local domain, then this kind of metadata needs to be made explicit -- that is, captured and persistently linked to the record. This is essential so that users in the broader domain can uniquely identify, retrieve and understand the meanings of records. (p.7) <P2> The broader social context of the project is the need for individuals, society, government, and commerce to continually access the information they need to conduct their business, protect their rights and entitlements, and securely trace the trail of responsibility and action in distributed enterprises. ... Maintaining reliable, authentic and useable evidence of transactions through time and space has significant business, social, and cultural implications, as records provide essential evidence for purposes of governance, accountability, memory and identity. (p.6)
Conclusions
RQ There is a need to develop typologies of recordkeeping relationships such as agent to record and better ways to express them through metadata.
Type
Journal
Title
Towards Frameworks for Standardising Recordkeeping Metadata
CA There are many challenges to devising metadata schema to manage records over time. Continuum thinking provides a conceptual framework to identify these problems.
Phrases
<P1> It is clear from the SPIRT Project definition that recordkeeping and archival control systems have always been about capturing and managing recordkeeping metadata. (p.30) <P2> One of the keys to understanding the Project's approach to what metadata needs to be captured, persistently linked to documentation of social and business activity, and managed through space and time, lies in the continuum view of records. In continuum thinking, [records] are seen not as 'passive objects to described retrospectively,' but as agents of action, 'active participants in business processes and technologies.'" (p.37)
Type
Electronic Journal
Title
A Spectrum of Interoperability: The Site for Science Prototype for the NSDL
"Currently, NSF is funding 64 projects, each making its own contribution to the library, with a total annual budget of about $24 million. Many projects are building collections; others are developing services; a few are carrying out targeted research.The NSDL is a broad program to build a digital library for education in science, mathematics, engineering and technology. It is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Undergraduate Education. . . . The Core Integration task is to ensure that the NSDL is a single coherent library, not simply a set of unrelated activities. In summer 2000, the NSF funded six Core Integration demonstration projects, each lasting a year. One of these grants was to Cornell University and our demonstration is known as Site for Science. It is at http://www.siteforscience.org/ [Site for Science]. In late 2001, the NSF consolidated the Core Integration funding into a single grant for the production release of the NSDL. This grant was made to a collaboration of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Columbia University and Cornell University. The technical approach being followed is based heavily on our experience with Site for Science. Therefore this article is both a description of the strategy for interoperability that was developed for Site for Science and an introduction to the architecture being used by the NSDL production team."
ISBN
1082-9873
Critical Arguements
CA "[T]his article is both a description of the strategy for interoperability that was developed for the [Cornell University's NSF-funded] Site for Science and an introduction to the architecture being used by the NSDL production team."
Phrases
<P1> The grand vision is that the NSDL become a comprehensive library of every digital resource that could conceivably be of value to any aspect of education in any branch of science and engineering, both defined very broadly. <P2> Interoperability among heterogeneous collections is a central theme of the Core Integration. The potential collections have a wide variety of data types, metadata standards, protocols, authentication schemes, and business models. <P3> The goal of interoperability is to build coherent services for users, from components that are technically different and managed by different organizations. This requires agreements to cooperate at three levels: technical, content and organizational. <P4> Much of the research of the authors of this paper aims at . . . looking for approaches to interoperability that have low cost of adoption, yet provide substantial functionality. One of these approaches is the metadata harvesting protocol of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) . . . <P5> For Site for Science, we identified three levels of digital library interoperability: Federation; Harvesting; Gathering. In this list, the top level provides the strongest form of interoperability, but places the greatest burden on participants. The bottom level requires essentially no effort by the participants, but provides a poorer level of interoperability. The Site for Science demonstration concentrated on the harvesting and gathering, because other projects were exploring federation. <P6> In an ideal world all the collections and services that the NSDL wishes to encompass would support an agreed set of standard metadata. The real world is less simple. . . . However, the NSDL does have influence. We can attempt to persuade collections to move along the interoperability curve. <warrant> <P7> The Site for Science metadata strategy is based on two principles. The first is that metadata is too expensive for the Core Integration team to create much of it. Hence, the NSDL has to rely on existing metadata or metadata that can be generated automatically. The second is to make use of as much of the metadata available from collections as possible, knowing that it varies greatly from none to extensive. Based on these principles, Site for Science, and subsequently the entire NSDL, developed the following metadata strategy: Support eight standard formats; Collect all existing metadata in these formats; Provide crosswalks to Dublin Core; Assemble all metadata in a central metadata repository; Expose all metadata records in the repository for service providers to harvest; Concentrate limited human effort on collection-level metadata; Use automatic generation to augment item-level metadata. <P8> The strategy developed by Site for Science and now adopted by the NSDL is to accumulate metadata in the native formats provided by the collections . . . If a collection supports the protocols of the Open Archives Initiative, it must be able to supply unqualified Dublin Core (which is required by the OAI) as well as the native metadata format. <P9> From a computing viewpoint, the metadata repository is the key component of the Site for Science system. The repository can be thought of as a modern variant of the traditional library union catalog, a catalog that holds comprehensive catalog records from a group of libraries. . . . Metadata from all the collections is stored in the repository and made available to providers of NSDL service.
Conclusions
RQ 1 "Can a small team of librarians manage the collection development and metadata strategies for a very large library?" RQ 2 "Can the NSDL actually build services that are significantly more useful than the general web search services?"
Type
Electronic Journal
Title
Electronic Records Research: Working Meeting May 28-30, 1997
CA Archivists are specifically concerned with records that are not easy to document -- records that are full of secret, proprietary or sensitive information, not to mention hardware and software dependencies. This front end of recordmaking and keeping must be addressed as we define what electronic records are and are not, and how we are to deal with them.
Phrases
<P1> Driven by pragmatism, the University of Pittsburgh team looked for "warrant" in the sources considered authoritative by the practicioners of ancillary professions on whom archivists rely -- lawyers, auditors, IT personnel , etc. (p.3) <P2> If the record creating event and the requirements of 'recordness' are both known, focus shifts to capturing the metadata and binding it to the record contents. (p.7) <P3> A strong business case is still needed to justify the role of archivists in the creation of electronic record management systems. (p.10)
Conclusions
RQ Warrant needs to be looked at in different countries. Does the same core definition of what constitutes a record cut across state borders? What role do specific user needs play in complying to regulation and risk management?
CA Through OAI, access to resources is effected in a low-cost, interoperable manner.
Phrases
<P1> The need for a metadata format that would support both metadata creation by authors and interoperability across heterogeneous repositories led to the choice of unqualified Dublin Core. (p.16) <P2> OAI develops and promotes a low-barrier interoperability framework and associated standards, originally to enhance access to e-print archives, but now taking into account access to other digital materials. (p.16)
Conclusions
RQ The many players involved in cultural heritage need to work together to define standards and best practices.
CA Metadata is a key part of the information infrastructure necessary to organize and classify the massive amount of information on the Web. Metadata, just like the resources they describe, will range in quality and be organized around different principles. Modularity is critical to allow metadata schema designers to base their new creations on established schemas, thereby benefiting from best practices rather than reinventing elements each time. Extensibility and cost-effectiveness are also important factors. Controlled vocabularies provide greater precision and access. Multilingualism (translating specification documents into many languages) is an important step in fostering global metadata architecture(s).
Phrases
<P1> The use of controlled vocabularies is another important approach to refinement that improves the precision for descriptions and leverages the substantial intellectual investment made by many domains to improve subject access. (p.4) <P2> Standards typically deal with these issues through the complementary processes of internalization and localization: the former process relates to the creation of "neutral" standards, whereas the latter refers to the adaptation of such a neutral standard to a local context. (p.4)
Conclusions
RQ In order for the full potential of resource discovery that the Web could offer to be realized, a"convergence" of standards and semantics must occur.
The Semantic Web activity is a W3C project whose goal is to enable a 'cooperative' Web where machines and humans can exchange electronic content that has clear-cut, unambiguous meaning. This vision is based on the automated sharing of metadata terms across Web applications. The declaration of schemas in metadata registries advance this vision by providing a common approach for the discovery, understanding, and exchange of semantics. However, many of the issues regarding registries are not clear, and ideas vary regarding their scope and purpose. Additionally, registry issues are often difficult to describe and comprehend without a working example.
ISBN
1082-9873
Critical Arguements
CA "This article will explore the role of metadata registries and will describe three prototypes, written by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. The article will outline how the prototypes are being used to demonstrate and evaluate application scope, functional requirements, and technology solutions for metadata registries."
Phrases
<P1> Establishing a common approach for the exchange and re-use of data across the Web would be a major step towards achieving the vision of the Semantic Web. <warrant> <P2> The Semantic Web Activity statement articulates this vision as: 'having data on the Web defined and linked in a way that it can be used for more effective discovery, automation, integration, and reuse across various applications. The Web can reach its full potential if it becomes a place where data can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people.' <P3> In parallel with the growth of content on the Web, there have been increases in the amount and variety of metadata to manipulate this content. An inordinate amount of standards-making activity focuses on metadata schemas (also referred to as vocabularies or data element sets), and yet significant differences in schemas remain. <P4> Different domains typically require differentiation in the complexity and semantics of the schemas they use. Indeed, individual implementations often specify local usage, thereby introducing local terms to metadata schemas specified by standards-making bodies. Such differentiation undermines interoperability between systems. <P5> This situation highlights a growing need for access by users to in-depth information about metadata schemas and particular extensions or variations to schemas. Currently, these 'users' are human  people requesting information. <warrant> <P6> It would be helpful to make available easy access to schemas already in use to provide both humans and software with comprehensive, accurate and authoritative information. <warrant> <P7> The W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF) has provided the basis for a common approach to declaring schemas in use. At present the RDF Schema (RDFS) specification offers the basis for a simple declaration of schema. <P8> Even as it stands, an increasing number of initiatives are using RDFS to 'publish' their schemas. <P9> Registries provide 'added value' to users by indexing schemas relevant to a particular 'domain' or 'community of use' and by simplifying the navigation of terms by enabling multiple schemas to be accessed from one view. <warrant> <P10> Additionally, the establishment of registries to index terms actively being used in local implementations facilitates the metadata standards activity by providing implementation experience transferable to the standards-making process. <warrant> <P11> The overriding goal has been the development of a generic registry tool useful for registry applications in general, not just useful for the DCMI. <P12> The formulation of a 'definitive' set of RDF schemas within the DCMI that can serve as the recommended, comprehensive and accurate expression of the DCMI vocabulary has hindered the development of the DCMI registry. To some extent, this has been due to the changing nature of the RDF Schema specification and its W3C candidate recommendation status. However, it should be recognized that the lack of consensus within the DCMI community regarding the RDF schemas has proven to be equally as impeding. <P13> The automated sharing of metadata across applications is an important part of realizing the goal of the Semantic Web. Users and applications need practical solutions for discovering and sharing semantics. Schema registries provide a viable means of achieving this. <warrant>
Conclusions
RQ "Many of the issues regarding metadata registries are unclear and ideas regarding their scope and purpose vary. Additionally, registry issues are often difficult to describe and comprehend without a working example. The DCMI makes use of rapid prototyping to help solve these problems. Prototyping is a process of quickly developing sample applications that can then be used to demonstrate and evaluate functionality and technology."
SOW
DC "New impetus for the development of registries has come with the development activities surrounding creation of the Semantic Web. The motivation for establishing registries arises from domain and standardization communities, and from the knowledge management community." ... "The original charter for the DCMI Registry Working Group was to establish a metadata registry to support the activity of the DCMI. The aim was to enable the registration, discovery, and navigation of semantics defined by the DCMI, in order to provide an authoritative source of information regarding the DCMI vocabulary. Emphasis was placed on promoting the use of the Dublin Core and supporting the management of change and evolution of the DCMI vocabulary." ... "Discussions within the DCMI Registry Working Group (held primarily on the group's mailing list) have produced draft documents regarding application scope and functionality. These discussions and draft documents have been the basis for the development of registry prototypes and continue to play a central role in the iterative process of prototyping and feedback." ... The overall goal of the DCMI Registry Working Group (WG) is to provide a focus for continued development of the DCMI Metadata Registry. The WG will provide a forum for discussing registry-related activities and facilitating cooperation with the ISO 11179 community, the Semantic Web, and other related initiatives on issues of common interest and relevance.
Type
Electronic Journal
Title
The Dublin Core Metadata Inititiative: Mission, Current Activities, and Future Directions
Metadata is a keystone component for a broad spectrum of applications that are emerging on the Web to help stitch together content and services and make them more visible to users. The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) has led the development of structured metadata to support resource discovery. This international community has, over a period of 6 years and 8 workshops, brought forth: A core standard that enhances cross-disciplinary discovery and has been translated into 25 languages to date; A conceptual framework that supports the modular development of auxiliary metadata components; An open consensus building process that has brought to fruition Australian, European and North American standards with promise as a global standard for resource discovery; An open community of hundreds of practitioners and theorists who have found a common ground of principles, procedures, core semantics, and a framework to support interoperable metadata.
Type
Report
Title
Mapping of the Encoded Archival Description DTD Element Set to the CIDOC CRM
The CIDOC CRM is the first ontology designed to mediate contents in the area of material cultural heritage and beyond, and has been accepted by ISO TC46 as work item for an international standard. The EAD Document Type Definition (DTD) is a standard for encoding archival finding aids using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). Archival finding aids are detailed guides to primary source material which provide fuller information than that normally contained within cataloging records. 
Publisher
Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas
Publication Location
Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Language
English
Critical Arguements
CA "This report describes the semantic mapping of the current EAD DTD Version 1.0 Element Set to the CIDOC CRM and its latest extension. This work represents a proof of concept for the functionality the CIDOC CRM is designed for." 
Conclusions
RQ "Actually, the CRM seems to do the job quite well ÔÇô problems in the mapping arise more from underspecification in the EAD rather than from too domain-specific notions. "┬á... "To our opinion, the archival community could benefit from the conceptualizations of the CRM to motivate more powerful metadata standards with wide interoperability in the future, to the benefit of museums and other disciplines as well."
SOW
DC "As a potential international standard, the EAD DTD is maintained in the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress in partnership with the Society of American Archivists." ... "The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (see [CRM1999], [Doerr99]), in the following only referred to as ┬½CRM┬╗, is outcome of an effort of the Documentation Standards Group of the CIDOC Committee (see ┬½http:/www.cidoc.icom.org┬╗, ÔÇ£http://cidoc.ics.forth.grÔÇØ) of ICOM, the International Council of Museums beginning in 1996."
This document presents the ARTISTE three-level approach to providing an open and flexible solution for combined metadata and image content-based search and retrieval across multiple, distributed image collections. The intended audience for this report includes museum and gallery owners who are interested in providing or extending services for remote access, developers of collection management and image search and retrieval systems, and standards bodies in both the fine art and digital library domains.
Notes
ARTISTE (http://www.artisteweb.org/) is a European Commission supported project that has developed integrated content and metadata-based image retrieval across several major art galleries in Europe. Collaborating galleries include the Louvre in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the National Gallery in London.
Edition
Version 2.0
Publisher
The ARTISTE Consortium
Publication Location
Southampton, United Kindom
Accessed Date
08/24/05
Critical Arguements
<CA>  Over the last two and a half years, ARTISTE has developed an image search and retrieval system that integrates distributed, heterogeneous image collections. This report positions the work achieved in ARTISTE with respect to metadata standards and approaches for open search and retrieval using digital library technology. In particular, this report describes three key aspects of ARTISTE: the transparent translation of local metadata to common standards such as Dublin Core and SIMI consortium attribute sets to allow cross-collection searching; A methodology for combining metadata and image content-based analysis into single search galleries to enable versatile retrieval and navigation facilities within and between gallery collections; and an open interface for cross-collection search and retrieval that advances existing open standards for remote access to digital libraries, such as OAI (Open Archive Initiative) and ZING SRW (Z39.50 International: Next Generation Search and Retrieval Web Service).
Conclusions
RQ "A large part of ARTISTE is concerned with use of existing standards for metadata frameworks. However, one area where existing standards have not been sufficient is multimedia content-based search and retrieval. A proposal has been made to ZING for additions to SRW. This will hopefully enable ARTISTE to make a valued contribution to this rapidly evolving standard." ... "The work started in ARTISTE is being continued in SCULTEUR, another project funded by the European Commission. SCUPLTEUR will develop both the technology and the expertise to create, manage, and present cultural archives of 3D models and associated multimedia objects." ... "We believe the full benefit of multimedia search and retrieval can only be realised through seamless integration of content-based analysis techniques. However, not only does introduction of content-bases analysis require modification to existing standards as outlines in this report, but it also requires a review if the use of semantics in achieving digital library interoperability. In particular, machine understandable description of the semantics of textual metadata, multimedia content, and content-based analysis, can provide a foundation for a new generation of flexible and dynamic digital library tools and services. " ... "Existing standards do not use explicit semantics to describe query operators or their application to metadata and multimedia content at individual sites. However, dynamically determining what operators and types are supported by a collection is essential to robust and efficient cross-collection searching. Dynamic use of published semantics would allow a collection and any associated content-based analysis to be changed  by its owner without breaking conformance to search and retrieval standards. Furthermore, individual sites would not need to publish detailed, human readable descriptions of available functionality.  
SOW
DC "Four major European galleries are involved in the project: the Uffizi in Florence, the national Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musees de France (C2RMF) which is the Louvre related restoration centre. The ARTISTE system currently holds over 160,000 images from four separate collections owned by these partners. The galleries have partnered with NCR, leading player in database and Data Warehouse technology; Interactive Labs, the new media design and development facility of Italy's leading art publishing group, Giunti; IT Innovation, a specialist in building innovative IT systems, and the Department of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southhampton." 
Type
Report
Title
Advice: Introduction to the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) PROS 99/007 (Version 2)
This document is an introduction to the PROV Standard Management of Electronic Records (PROS 99/007), also known as the VERS Standard. This document provides background information on the goals and the VERS approach to preservation. Nothing in this document imposes any requirements on agencies.
Critical Arguements
CA The Victorian Elextronic Records Strategy (VERS) addresses the cost-effective, long-term preservation of electronic records. The structure and requirements of VERS are formally specified in the STandard for the Management of Electronic Records (PROS 99/007) and its five technical specifications. This Advice provides background to the Standard. It covers: the history of the VERS project; the preservation theory behind VERS; how the five specifications support the preservation theory; a brief introduction to the VERS Encapsulated Object (VEO). In this document we distinguish between the record and the content of the record. The content is the actuial information contained in the record; for example, the report or the image. The record as a whole contains the record content and metadata that contains information about the record, including its context, description, history, and integrity cvontrol. 
Conclusions
<RQ>
SOW
<DC>Public Record Office Victoria is the archives of the State Government of Victoria. They hold records from the beginnings of the colonial administration of Victoria in the mid-1830s to today and are responsible for ensuring the accountability of the Victoria State Government. 
CA This is the first of four articles describing Geospatial Standards and the standards bodies working on these standards. This article will discuss what geospatial standards are and why they matter, identify major standards organizations, and list the characteristics of successful geospatial standards.
Conclusions
RQ Which federal and international standards have been agreed upon since this article's publication?
SOW
DC FGDC approved the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998) in June 1998. FGDC is a 19-member interagency committee composed of representatives from the Executive Office of the President, Cabinet-level and independent agencies. The FGDC is developing the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in cooperation with organizations from State, local and tribal governments, the academic community, and the private sector. The NSDI encompasses policies, standards, and procedures for organizations to cooperatively produce and share geographic data.
Type
Web Page
Title
An Assessment of Options for Creating Enhanced Access to Canada's Audio-Visual Heritage
CA "This project was conducted by Paul Audley & Associates to investigate the feasibility of single window access to information about Canada's audio-visual heritage. The project follows on the recommendations of Fading Away, the 1995 report of the Task Force on the Preservation and Enhanced Use of Canada's Audio-Visual Heritage, and the subsequent 1997 report Search + Replay. Specific objectives of this project were to create a profile of selected major databases of audio-visual materials, identify information required to meet user needs, and suggest models for single-window access to audio-visual databases. Documentary research, some 35 interviews, and site visits to organizations in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal provided the basis upon which the recommendations of this report were developed."
Type
Web Page
Title
Archiving The Avant Garde: Documenting And Preserving Variable Media Art.
Archiving the Avant Garde is a collaborative project to develop, document, and disseminate strategies for describing and preserving non-traditional, intermedia, and variable media art forms, such as performance, installation, conceptual, and digital art. This joint project builds on existing relationships and the previous work of its founding partners in this area. One example of such work is the Conceptual & Intermedia Arts Online (CIAO) Consortium, a collaboration founded by the BAM/PFA, the Walker Art Center, and Franklin Furnace, that includes 12 other international museums and arts organizations. CIAO develops standardized methods of documenting and providing access to conceptual and other ephemeral intermedia art forms. Another example of related work conducted by the project's partners is the Variable Media Initiative, organized by the Guggenheim Museum, which encourages artists to define their work independently from medium so that the work can be translated once its current medium is obsolete. Archiving the Avant Garde will take the ideas developed in previous efforts and develop them into community-wide working strategies by testing them on specific works of art in the practical working environments of museums and arts organizations. The final project report will outline a comprehensive strategy and model for documenting and preserving variable media works, based on case studies to illustrate practical examples, but always emphasizing the generalized strategy behind the rule. This report will be informed by specific and practical institutional practice, but we believe that the ultimate model developed by the project should be based on international standards independent of any one organization's practice, thus making it adaptable to many organizations. Dissemination of the report, discussed in detail below, will be ongoing and widespread.
Critical Arguements
CA "Works of variable media art, such as performance, installation, conceptual, and digital art, represent some of the most compelling and significant artistic creation of our time. These works are key to understanding contemporary art practice and scholarship, but because of their ephemeral, technical, multimedia, or otherwise variable natures, they also present significant obstacles to accurate documentation, access, and preservation. The works were in many cases created to challenge traditional methods of art description and preservation, but now, lacking such description, they often comprise the more obscure aspects of institutional collections, virtually inaccessible to present day researchers. Without strategies for cataloging and preservation, many of these vital works will eventually be lost to art history. Description of and access to art collections promote new scholarship and artistic production. By developing ways to catalog and preserve these collections, we will both provide current and future generations the opportunity to learn from and be inspired by the works and ensure the perpetuation and accuracy of art historical records. It is to achieve these goals that we are initiating the consortium project Archiving the Avant Garde: Documenting and Preserving Variable Media Art."
Conclusions
RQ "Archiving the Avant Garde will take a practical approach to solving problems in order to ensure the feasibility and success of the project. This project will focus on key issues previously identified by the partners and will leave other parts of the puzzle to be solved by other initiatives and projects in regular communication with this group. For instance, this project realizes that the arts community will need to develop software tools which enable collections care professionals to implement the necessary new description and metadata standards, but does not attempt to develop such tools in the context of this project. Rather, such tools are already being developed by a separate project under MOAC. Archiving the Avant Garde will share information with that project and benefit from that work. Similarly, the prospect of developing full-fledged software emulators is one best solved by a team of computer scientists, who will work closely with members of the proposed project to cross-fertilize methods and share results. Importantly, while this project is focused on immediate goals, the overall collaboration between the partner organizations and their various initiatives will be significant in bringing together the computer science, arts, standards, and museum communities in an open-source project model to maximize collective efforts and see that the benefits extend far and wide."
SOW
DC "We propose a collaborative project that will begin to establish such professional best practice. The collaboration, consisting of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Rhizome.org, the Franklin Furnace Archive, and the Cleveland Performance Art Festival and Archive, will have national impact due to the urgent and universal nature of the problem for contemporary art institutions, the practicality and adaptability of the model developed by this group, and the significant expertise that this nationwide consortium will bring to bear in the area of documenting and preserving variable media art." ... "We believe that a model informed by and tested in such diverse settings, with broad public and professional input (described below), will be highly adaptable." ..."Partners also represent a geographic and national spread, from East Coast to Midwest to West Coast. This coverage ensures that a wide segment of the professional community and public will have opportunities to participate in public forums, hosted at partner institutions during the course of the project, intended to gather an even broader cross-section of ideas and feedback than is represented by the partners." ... "The management plan for this project will be highly decentralized ensuring that no one person or institution will unduly influence the model strategy for preserving variable media art and thereby reduce its adaptability."
There are many types of standards used to manage museum collections information. These "standards", which range from precise technical  standards to general guidelines, enable museum data to be efficiently  and consistently indexed, sorted, retrieved, and shared, both  in automated and paper-based systems. Museums often use metadata standards  (also called data structure standards) to help them: define what types of information to record in their database  (or card catalogue); structure this information (the relationships between the  different types of information). Following (or mapping data to) these standards makes it possible  for museums to move their data between computer systems, or share  their data with other organizations.
Notes
The CHIN Web site features sections dedicated to Creating and Managing Digital Content, Intellectual Property, Collections Management, Standards, and more. CHIN's array of training tools, online publications, directories and databases are especially designed to meet the needs of both small and large institutions. The site also provides access to up-to-date information on topics such as heritage careers, funding and conferences.
Critical Arguements
CA "Museums often want to use their collections data for many purposes, (exhibition catalogues, Web access for the public, and curatorial research, etc.), and they may want to share their data with other museums, archives, and libraries in an automated way. This level of interoperability between systems requires cataloguing standards, value standards, metadata standards, and interchange standards to work together. Standards enable the interchange of data between cataloguer and searcher, between organizations, and between computer systems."
Conclusions
RQ "HIN is also involved in a project to create metadata for a pan-Canadian inventory of learning resources available on Canadian museum Web sites. Working in consultation with the Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI), the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) [link to GEM in Section G], and SchoolNet, the project involves the creation of a Guide to Best Practices and cataloguing tool for generating metadata for online learning materials. " 
SOW
DC "CHIN is involved in the promotion, production, and analysis of standards for museum information. The CHIN Guide to Museum Documentation Standards includes information on: standards and guidelines of interest to museums; current projects involving standards research and implementation; organizations responsible for standards research and development; Links." ... "CHIN is a member of CIMI (the Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information), which works to enable the electronic interchange of museum information. From 1998 to 1999, CHIN participated in a CIMI Metadata Testbed which aimed to explore the creation and use of metadata for facilitating the discovery of electronic museum information. Specifically, the project explored the creation and use of Dublin Core metadata in describing museum collections, and examined how Dublin Core could be used as a means to aid in resource discovery within an electronic, networked environment such as the World Wide Web." 
Type
Web Page
Title
PBCore: Public Broadcasting Metadata Dictionary Project
CA "PBCore is designed to provide -- for television, radio and Web activities -- a standard way of describing and using media (video, audio, text, images, rich interactive learning objects). It allows content to be more easily retrieved and shared among colleagues, software systems, institutions, community and production partners, private citizens, and educators. It can also be used as a guide for the onset of an archival or asset management process at an individual station or institution. ... The Public Broadcasting Metadata Dictionary (PBCore) is: a core set of terms and descriptors (elements) used to create information (metadata) that categorizes or describes media items (sometimes called assets or resources)."
Conclusions
<RQ> The PBCore Metadata Elements are currently in their first published edition, Version 1.0. Over two years of research and lively discussions have generated this version. ... As various users and communities begin to implement the PBCore, updates and refinements to the PBCore are likely to occur. Any changes will be clearly identified, ramifications outlined, and published to our constituents.
SOW
DC "Initial development funding for PBCore was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The PBCore is built on the foundation of the Dublin Core (ISO 15836) ... and has been reviewed by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Usage Board. ... PBCore was successfully deployed in a number of test implementations in May 2004 in coordination with WGBH, Minnesota Public Radio, PBS, National Public Radio, Kentucky Educational Television, and recognized metadata expert Grace Agnew. As of July 2004 in response to consistent feedback to make metadata standards easy to use, the number of metadata elements was reduced to 48 from the original set of 58 developed by the Metadata Dictionary Team. Also, efforts are ongoing to provide more focused metadata examples that are specific to TV and radio. ... Available free of charge to public broadcasting stations, distributors, vendors, and partners, version 1.0 of PBCore was launched in the first quarter of 2005. See our Licensing Agreement via the Creative Commons for further information. ... Plans are under way to designate an Authority/Maintenance Organization."
Type
Web Page
Title
Schema Registry: activityreports: Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies
CA "The Australian SPIRT Recordkeeping Metadata Project was initially a project funded under a programme known as the Strategic Partnership with Industry -- Research and Training (SPIRT) Support Grant -- partly funded by the Australian Research Council. The project was concerned with developing a framework for standardising and defining recordkeeping metadata and produced a metadata element set eventually known as the Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema (RKMS). The conceptual frame of reference in the project was based in Australian archival practice, including the Records Continuum Model and the Australian Series System. The RKMS also inherits part of the Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) metadata set."
The creation and use of metadata is likely to become an important part of all digital preservation strategies whether they are based on hardware and software conservation, emulation or migration. The UK Cedars project aims to promote awareness of the importance of digital preservation, to produce strategic frameworks for digital collection management policies and to promote methods appropriate for long-term preservation - including the creation of appropriate metadata. Preservation metadata is a specialised form of administrative metadata that can be used as a means of storing the technical information that supports the preservation of digital objects. In addition, it can be used to record migration and emulation strategies, to help ensure authenticity, to note rights management and collection management data and also will need to interact with resource discovery metadata. The Cedars project is attempting to investigate some of these issues and will provide some demonstrator systems to test them.
Notes
This article was presented at the Joint RLG and NPO Preservation Conference: Guidelines for Digital Imaging, held September 28-30, 1998.
Critical Arguements
CA "Cedars is a project that aims to address strategic, methodological and practical issues relating to digital preservation (Day 1998a). A key outcome of the project will be to improve awareness of digital preservation issues, especially within the UK higher education sector. Attempts will be made to identify and disseminate: Strategies for collection management ; Strategies for long-term preservation. These strategies will need to be appropriate to a variety of resources in library collections. The project will also include the development of demonstrators to test the technical and organisational feasibility of the chosen preservation strategies. One strand of this work relates to the identification of preservation metadata and a metadata implementation that can be tested in the demonstrators." ... "The Cedars Access Issues Working Group has produced a preliminary study of preservation metadata and the issues that surround it (Day 1998b). This study describes some digital preservation initiatives and models with relation to the Cedars project and will be used as a basis for the development of a preservation metadata implementation in the project. The remainder of this paper will describe some of the metadata approaches found in these initiatives."
Conclusions
RQ "The Cedars project is interested in helping to develop suitable collection management policies for research libraries." ... "The definition and implementation of preservation metadata systems is going to be an important part of the work of custodial organisations in the digital environment."
SOW
DC "The Cedars (CURL exemplars in digital archives) project is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher education funding councils under Phase III of its Electronic Libraries (eLib) Programme. The project is administered through the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) with lead sites based at the Universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Oxford."
Type
Web Page
Title
Metadata for preservation : CEDARS project document AIW01
This report is a review of metadata formats and initiatives in the specific area of digital preservation. It supplements the DESIRE Review of metadata (Dempsey et al. 1997). It is based on a literature review and information picked-up at a number of workshops and meetings and is an attempt to briefly describe the state of the art in the area of metadata for digital preservation.
Critical Arguements
CA "The projects, initiatives and formats reviewed in this report show that much work remains to be done. . . . The adoption of persistent and unique identifiers is vital, both in the CEDARS project and outside. Many of these initiatives mention "wrappers", "containers" and "frameworks". Some thought should be given to how metadata should be integrated with data content in CEDARS. Authenticity (or intellectual preservation) is going to be important. It will be interesting to investigate whether some archivists' concerns with custody or "distributed custody" will have relevance to CEDARS."
Conclusions
RQ Which standards and initiatives described in this document have proved viable preservation metadata models?
SOW
DC OAIS emerged out of an initiative spearheaded by NASA's Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems. It has been shaped and promoted by the RLG and OCLC. Several international projects have played key roles in shaping the OAIS model and adapting it for use in libraries, archives and research repositories. OAIS-modeled repositories include the CEDARS Project, Harvard's Digital Repository, Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), the Library of Congress' Archival Information Package for audiovisual materials, MIT's D-Space, OCLC's Digital Archive and TERM: the Texas Email Repository Model.
Type
Web Page
Title
The Gateway to Educational Materials: An Evaluation Study, Year 4: A Technical Report submitted to the US Department of Education
CA The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) is a Web site created through the efforts of several groups, including the US Department of Education, The National Library of Education, and a team from Syracuse University. The goal of the project is to provide teachers with a broad range of educational materials on the World Wide Web. This study evaluates The Gateway as an online source of educational information. The purpose of this evaluation is to provide developers of The Gateway with information about aspects of the system that might need improvement, and to display lessons learned through this process to developers of similar systems. It is the fourth in a series of annual studies, and focuses on effectiveness of The Gateway from the perspectives of end users and collection holders.
CA In March 2003, the intention of undertaking an international survey of LOM implementations was announced at the plenary meeting of the "Information Technology for Learning, Education and Training", ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36 sub-committee. The ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36 committee is international in both membership and emphasis, and has a working group, Working Group (WG) 4, "Management and Delivery for Learning, Education, and Training," which has been explicitly charged with the task of contributing to future standardization work on the LOM. <warrant> The international LOM Survey focuses on two questions: 1) "Which elements were selected for use or population?"; and 2) "How were these elements used, or what where the types of values assigned to them?" This report also attempts to draw a number of tentative suggestions and conclusions for further standardization work
Conclusions
RQ Based on its findings, the preliminary survey report was able to suggest a number of conclusions: First, fewer and better-defined elements may be more effective than the range of choice and interpretive possibilities currently allowed by the LOM. This seems to be especially the case regarding educational elements, which are surprisingly underutilized for metadata that it ostensibly and primarily educational. Second, clear and easily-supported means of working with local, customized vocabularies would also be very valuable. Third, it also seems useful to ensure that structures are provided to accommodate complex but more conventional aspects of resource description. These would include multiple title versions, as well as multilingual descriptions and values.
SOW
DC On June 12, 2002, 1484.12.1 - 2002 Learning Object Metadata (LOM) was approved by the IEEE-Standards Association.
Type
Web Page
Title
METS : Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard
CA "METS, although in its early stages, is already sufficiently established amongst key digital library players that it can reasonably be considered the only viable standard for digital library objects in the foreseeable future. Although METS may be an excellent framework, it is just that and only that. It does not prescribe the content of the metadata itself, and this is a continuing problem for METS and all other schema to contend with if they are to realize their full functionality and usefulness."
Conclusions
RQ The standardization (via some sort of cataloging rules) of the content held by metadata "containers" urgently needs to be addressed. If not, the full value of any metadata scheme, no matter how extensible or robust, will not be realized.
Type
Web Page
Title
National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) Metadata Primer -- A "How To" Guide on Metadata Implementation
The primer begins with a discussion of what metadata is and why metadata is important. This is followed by an overview of the Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) adopted by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). Next, the primer focuses on the steps required to begin collecting and using metadata. The fourth section deals with how to select the proper metadata creation tool from the growing number being developed. Section five discusses the mechanics of documenting a data set, including strategies on reviewing the output to make sure it is in a useable form. The primer concludes with a discussion of other assorted metadata issues.
Critical Arguements
CA The Metadata Primer is one phase of a larger metadata research and education project undertaken by the National States Geographic Information Council and funded by the Federal Geographic Data Committee's Competetive Cooperative Agreements Program (CCAP). The primer is designed to provide a practical overview of the issues associated with developing and maintaining metadata for digital spatial data. It is targeted toward an audience of state, local, and tribal government personnel. The document provides a "cook book" approach to the creation of metadata. Because much of the most current information on metadata resides on the Internet, the primer summarizes relevant material available from other World Wide Web (WWW) home pages.
Conclusions
RQ To what extent could the NSGIC recommendations be used for non-geographic applications?
SOW
DC FGDC approved the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998) in June 1998. FGDC is a 19-member interagency committee composed of representatives from the Executive Office of the President, Cabinet-level and independent agencies. The FGDC is developing the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in cooperation with organizations from State, local and tribal governments, the academic community, and the private sector. The NSDI encompasses policies, standards, and procedures for organizations to cooperatively produce and share geographic data.
Abstract The ability of investigators to share data is essential to the progress of integrative scientific research both within and across disciplines. This paper describes the main issues in achieving effective data sharing based on previous efforts in building scientific data networks and, particularly, recent efforts within the Earth sciences. This is presented in the context of a range of information architectures for effecting differing levels of standardization and centralization both from a technology perspective as well as a publishing protocol perspective. We propose a new Metadata Interchange Format (.mif) that can be used for more effective sharing of data and metadata across digital libraries, data archives and research projects.
Critical Arguements
CA "In this paper, we discuss two important information technology aspects of the electronic publication of data in the Earth sciences, metadata, and a variety of different concepts of electronic data publication. Metadata are the foundation of electronic data publications and they are determined by needs of archiving, the scientific analysis and reproducibility of a data set, and the interoperability of diverse data publication methods. We use metadata examples drawn from the companion paper by Staudigel et al. (this issue) to illustrate the issues involved in scaling-up the publication of data and metadata by individual scientists, disciplinary groups, the Earth science community-at-large and to libraries in general. We begin by reviewing current practices and considering a generalized alternative." ... 'For this reason, we will we first discuss different methods of data publishing via a scientific data network followed by an inventory of desirable characteristics of such a network. Then, we will introduce a method for generating a highly portable metadata interchange format we call .mif (pronounced dot-mif) and conclude with a discussion of how this metadata format can be scaled to support the diversity of interests within the Earth science community and other scientific communities." ... "We can borrow from the library community the methods by which to search for the existence and location of data (e.g., Dublin Core http://www.dublincore.org) but we must invent new ways to document the metadata needed within the Earth sciences and to comply with other metadata standards such as the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). To accomplish this, we propose a metadata interchange format that we call .mif that enables interoperability and an open architecture that is maximally independent of computer systems, data management approaches, proprietary software and file formats, while encouraging local autonomy and community cooperation. "
Conclusions
RQ "These scalable techniques are being used in the development of a project we call SIOExplorer that can found at http://sioexplorer.ucsd.edu although we have not discussed that project in any detail. The most recent contributions to this discussion and .mif applications and examples may be found at http:\\Earthref.org\metadata\GERM\."
SOW
DC This article was written by representatives of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Insititute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics under the auspices of the University of California, San Diego.
Type
Web Page
Title
Softening the borderlines of archives through XML - a case study
Archives have always had troubles getting metadata in formats they can process. With XML, these problems are lessening. Many applications today provide the option of exporting data into an application-defined XML format that can easily be post-processed using XSLT, schema mappers, etc, to fit the archives┬┤ needs. This paper highlights two practical examples for the use of XML in the Swiss Federal Archives and discusses advantages and disadvantages of XML in these examples. The first use of XML is the import of existing metadata describing debates at the Swiss parliament whereas the second concerns preservation of metadata in the archiving of relational databases. We have found that the use of XML for metadata encoding is beneficial for the archives, especially for its ease of editing, built-in validation and ease of transformation.
Notes
The Swiss Federal Archives defines the norms and basis of records management and advises departments of the Federal Administration on their implementation. http://www.bar.admin.ch/bar/engine/ShowPage?pageName=ueberlieferung_aktenfuehrung.jsp
Critical Arguements
CA "This paper briefly discusses possible uses of XML in an archival context and the policies of the Swiss Federal Archives concerning this use (Section 2), provides a rough overview of the applications we have that use XML (Section 3) and the experiences we made (Section 4)."
Conclusions
RQ "The systems described above are now just being deployed into real world use, so the experiences presented here are drawn from the development process and preliminary testing. No hard facts in testing the sustainability of XML could be gathered, as the test is time itself. This test will be passed when we can still access the data stored today, including all metadata, in ten or twenty years." ... "The main problem area with our applications was the encoding of the XML documents and the non-standard XML document generation of some applications. When dealing with the different encodings (UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1, etc) some applications purported a different encoding in the header of the XML document than the true encoding of the document. These errors were quickly identified, as no application was able to read the documents."
SOW
DC The author is currently a private digital archives consultant, but at the time of this article, was a data architect for the Swiss Federal Archives. The content of this article owes much to the work being done by a team of architects and engineers at the Archives, who are working on an e-government project called ARELDA (Archiving of Electronic Data and Records).
CA There is great potential in developing a national standard for the control of records that combines traditional recordkeeping practices with continuum-based thinking and cutting-edge metadata.
Conclusions
RQ One challenge is integrating item-level metadata with system-level metadata. Linking old and new archival descriptive systems should be done as seamlessly as possible, since retrofitting would be too expensive. Another important area is linking contextual metadata to records whenever they are used outside their domain in order to provide "external validation" (p.17) <warrant>
Type
Web Page
Title
Metadata Reference Guide: ONIX ONline Information eXchange
CA According to Editeur, the group responsible for the maintenance of the ONIX standard, ONIX is the international standard for representing book, serial, and video product information in electronic form.
Type
Web Page
Title
Creating and Documenting Text: A Guide to Good Practice
CA "The aim of this Guide is to take users through the basic steps involved in creating and documenting an electronic text or similar digital resource. ... This Guide assumes that the creators of electronic texts have a number of common concerns. For example, that they wish their efforts to remain viable and usable in the long-term, and not to be unduly constrained by the limitations of current hardware and software. Similarly, that they wish others to be able to reuse their work, for the purposes of secondary analysis, extension, or adaptation. They also want the tools, techniques, and standards that they adopt to enable them to capture those aspects of any non-electronic sources which they consider to be significant -- whilst at the same time being practical and cost-effective to implement."
Conclusions
RQ "While a single metadata scheme, adopted and implemented wholescale would be the ideal, it is probable that a proliferation of metadata schemes will emerge and be used by different communities. This makes the current work centred on integrated services and interoperability all the more important. ... The Warwick Framework (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/resources/wf.html) for example suggests the concept of a container architecture, which can support the coexistence of several independently developed and maintained metadata packages which may serve other functions (rights management, administrative metadata, etc.). Rather than attempt to provide a metadata scheme for all web resources, the Warwick Framework uses the Dublin Core as a starting point, but allows individual communities to extend this to fit their own subject-specific requirements. This movement towards a more decentralised, modular and community-based solution, where the 'communities of expertise' themselves create the metadata they need has much to offer. In the UK, various funded organisations such as the AHDS (http://ahds.ac.uk/), and projects like ROADS (http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/roads/) and DESIRE (http://www.desire.org/) are all involved in assisting the development of subject-based information gateways that provide metadata-based services tailored to the needs of particular user communities."
This document is a revision and expansion of "Metadata Made Simpler: A guide for libraries," published by NISO Press in 2001.
Publisher
NISO Press
Critical Arguements
CA An overview of what metadata is and does, aimed at librarians and other information professionals. Describes various metadata schemas. Concludes with a bibliography and glossary.
Joined-up government needs joined-up information systems. The e-Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS) lays down the elements, refinements and encoding schemes to be used by government officers when creating metadata for their information resources or designing search interfaces for information systems. The e-GMS is needed to ensure maximum consistency of metadata across public sector organisations.
Publisher
Office of the e-Envoy, Cabinet Office, UK.
Critical Arguements
CA "The e-GMS is concerned with the particular facets of metadata intended to support resource discovery and records management. The Standard covers the core set of ÔÇÿelementsÔÇÖ that contain data needed for the effective retrieval and management of official information. Each element contains information relating to a particular aspect of the information resource, e.g. 'title' or 'creator'. Further details on the terminology being used in this standard can be found in Dublin Core and Part Two of the e-GIF."
Conclusions
RQ "The e-GMS will need to evolve, to ensure it remains comprehensive and consistent with changes in international standards, and to cater for changes in use and technology. Some of the elements listed here are already marked for further development, needing additional refinements or encoding schemes. To limit disruption and cost to users, all effort will be made to future-proof the e-GMS. In particular we will endeavour: not to remove any elements or refinements; not to rename any elements or refinements; not to add new elements that could contain values contained in the existing elements."
SOW
DC The E-GMS is promulgated by the British government as part of its e-government initiative. It is the technical cornerstone of the e-government policy for joining up the public sector electronically and providing modern, improved public services.
Type
Web Page
Title
Record Keeping Metadata Requirements for the Government of Canada
This document comprises descriptions for metadata elements utilized by the Canadian Government as of January 2001.
Critical Arguements
CA "The Record Keeping Metadata is defined broadly to include the type of information Departments are required to capture to describe the identity, authenticity, content, context, structure and management requirements of records created in the context of a business activity. The Metadata model consists of elements, which are the attributes of a record that are comparable to fields in a database. The model is modular in nature. It permits Departments to use a core set of elements that will meet the minimum requirements for describing and sharing information, while facilitating interoperability between government Departments. It also allows Departments with specialized needs or the need for more detailed descriptions to add new elements and/or sub-elements to the basic metadata in order to satisfy their particular business requirements."
Type
Web Page
Title
Descriptive Metadata Guidelines for RLG Cultural Materials
To ensure that the digital collections submitted to RLG Cultural Materials can be discovered and understood, RLG has compiled these Descriptive Metadata Guidelines for contributors. While these guidelines reflect the needs of one particular service, they also represent a case study in information sharing across community and national boundaries. RLG Cultural Materials engages a wide range of contributors with different local practices and institutional priorities. Since it is impossible to find -- and impractical to impose -- one universally applicable standard as a submission format, RLG encourages contributors to follow the suite of standards applicable to their particular community (p.1).
Critical Arguements
CA "These guidelines . . . do not set a new standard for metadata submission, but rather support a baseline that can be met by any number of strategies, enabling participating institutions to leverage their local descriptions. These guidelines also highlight the types of metadata that enhance functionality for RLG Cultural Materials. After a contributor submits a collection, RLG maps that description into the RLG Cultural Materials database using the RLG Cultural Materials data model. This ensures that metadata from the various participant communities is integrated for efficient searching and retrieval" (p.1).
Conclusions
RQ Not applicable.
SOW
DC RLG comprises more than 150 research and cultural memory institutions, and RLG Cultural Materials elicits contributions from countless museums, archives, and libraries from around the world that, although they might retain local descriptive standards and metadata schemas, must conform to the baseline standards prescribed in this document in order to integrate into RLG Cultural Materials. Appendix A represents and evaluates the most common metadata standards with which RLG Cultural Materians is able to work.
Type
Web Page
Title
Interactive Fiction Metadata Element Set version 1.1, IFMES 1.1 Specification
This document defines a set of metadata elements for describing Interactive Fiction games. These elements incorporate and enhance most of the previous metadata formats currently in use for Interactive Fiction, and attempts to bridge them to modern standards such as the Dublin Core.
Critical Arguements
CA "There are already many metadata standards in use, both in the Interactive Fiction community and the internet at large. The standards used by the IF community cover a range of technologies, but none are fully compatible with bleeding-edge internet technology like the Semantic Web. Broader-based formats such as the Dublin Core are designed for the Semantic Web, but lack the specialized fields needed to describe Interactive Fiction. The Interactive Fiction Metadata Element Set was designed with three purposes. One, to fill in the specialized elements that Dublin Core lacks. Two, to unify the various metadata formats already in use in the IF community into a single standard. Three, to bridge these older standards to the Dublin Core element set by means of the RDF subclassing system. It is not IFMES's goal to provide every single metadata element needed. RDF, XML, and other namespace-aware languages can freely mix different vocabularies, therefore IFMES does not subclass Dublin Core elements that do not relate to previous Interactive Fiction metadata standards. For these elements, IFMES recommends using the existing Dublin Core vocabulary, to maximize interoperability with other tools and communities."
Conclusions
RQ "Several of the IFMES elements can take multiple values. Finding a standard method of expressing multiple values is tricky. The approved method in RDF is either to repeat the predicate with different objects, or create a container as a child object. However, some RDF parsers don't work well with either of these methods, and many other languages don't allow them at all. XML has a value list format in which the values are separated with spaces, however this precludes spaces from appearing within the values themselves. A few legacy HTML attributes whose content models were never formally defined used commas to separate values that might contain spaces, and a few URI schemes accept multiple values separated by semicolons. The IFMES discussion group continues to examine this problem, and hopes to have a well-defined solution by the time this document reaches Candidate Recommendation status. For the time being IFMES recommends repeating the elements whenever possible, and using a container when that fails (for example, JSON could set the value to an Array). If an implementation simply must concatenate the values into a single string, the recommended separator is a space for URI and numeric types, and a comma followed by a space for text types."
SOW
DC The authors are writers and programmers in the interactive fiction community.
CA NSW has issued their metadata standard because one of the ÔÇ£key methodsÔÇØ for assuring the long-term preservation of e-records is through he use of standardized sets of recordkeeping metadata. Not only can their metadata strategy help public offices meet their individual requirements for accu
Type
Web Page
Title
Imaging Nuggets: Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard
CA The main advantages of METS consists of the following: First, it provides a syntax for transferring the entire digital objects along with their associated metadata and other supporting files. Second, it provides a functional syntax, a basis for providing users the means of navigating through and manipulating the object. Third, it provides a syntax for archiving the data as an integrated whole.
CA One problem in the field of radio archives is the tendency to view anything that is not audio or video (specifically this leaves text) as metadata. However, all text is not metadata. While all text can be seen as potentially useful due to the information it represents, the creators of P/FRA recommend standardizing only the essential information needed to describe and retrieve radio archive information.
Conclusions
RQ Rules need to be drafted specifying the content of metadata fields. While the authors extol the value of ÔÇ£good metadataÔÇØ for resource discovery, proscribing the content of metadata containers is a problem here as in every other filed.
