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Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002 Pete Johnston UKOLN, University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY UKOLN is supported by: [email protected] http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

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Page 1: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

Collections revealed:the role and practical application of

collection descriptionsCIMI Forum,

National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

Pete Johnston

UKOLN, University of Bath

Bath, BA2 7AY

UKOLN is supported by:

[email protected]://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

Page 2: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

2

Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection description

• The resource discovery context• Collections and services• Describing collections• Collection-level description in practice

• A case study: CLD at The Natural History Museum

• CIMI and CLD

Page 3: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

3

UKOLN & collection-level description

• Centre of expertise in digital information management

– Core funding from JISC and Re:source– Policy & advice

– Influencing policy– informing practice

– Research & development– Advancing knowledge– Wide range of areas

– Services – Information services (Ariadne, Cultivate Interactive)– Technical support/joint administration of Resource

Discovery Network (RDN)

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

Page 4: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

4

UKOLN & collection-level description

• JISC eLib programme– range of digital library development projects– integrated access to distributed resources– architectural studies (MODELS) – simple collection description schema

• RSLP Collection Description project– Analytical Model, RSLP CD Schema

• Collection Description Focus– funded by RSLP, JISC, British Library, Re:source– “improve consistency/compatibility of approaches”– awareness-raising, consensus-building– support to implementers– dissemination of good practice

Page 5: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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The resource discovery context

• Initiatives to improve access to services– political/economic drivers

• High-level strategies– UK “Modernising government” White paper– e-Government strategies

• Better connectivity – public library networking through “People’s

Network”– recognition of multiple channels of access

• Improved resource disclosure – e.g. Full Disclosure, Research Support Libraries

Programme, Archives Hub, Access 2 Archives, Scottish Archival Network etc

Page 6: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

6

The resource discovery context

• Collaborative approaches to service provision and resource management

• Move away from “silo mentality”• Towards more “joined-up” approaches

– Within museum domain– Across domains

• Embedded in strategic initiatives for museums

– Re:source (England) – Single Regional Agencies– “Preserving the Past for the Future”: Framework for

Collections Management– Cross-domain projects

Page 7: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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The resource discovery context

• Growth of digital content creation programmes

– making heritage (more) accessible– NOF-Digitise

– £50m content creation programme– Over 1 million digital objects– supporting strategy for social inclusion, lifelong

learning

– Culture Online– “to widen access to resources of arts/cultural sector

for purposes of learning and enjoyment”

• Digital collections not “stand-alone”– Value as reusable components

Page 8: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

8

The resource discovery context

• Functional separation of content provision and presentation

– user wants information relevant to task/activity – may see structural/organisational boundaries of

content providers as unimportant!

– content providers exposing content through multiple services, channels

– service providers “surfacing” content from multiple (distributed) sources

• … from web sites to “portals”– “A network service that provides a personalised,

single point of access to a range of heterogeneous network services, local and remote, structured and unstructured”

– Powell 2002

Page 9: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Historic Environment Information Resources Portal (HEIRPORT)

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/heirport/

Historic Environment Information Resources Portal (HEIRPORT)

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/heirport/

Cross-searching metadata databases of ADS, RCAHMS, SCRAN, Portable Antiquities

Z39.50 search/retrieval protocol

Dublin Core (in XML)

Cross-searching metadata databases of ADS, RCAHMS, SCRAN, Portable Antiquities

Z39.50 search/retrieval protocol

Dublin Core (in XML)

Page 10: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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The resource discovery context

• Wide implementation of XML-based standards/specifications for data exchange

• Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting Version 2.0

– roots in scholarly publication community, but deployed more widely

– Version 2.0 as stable release– lightweight protocol enabling sharing of metadata

records – using XML over HTTP– alternative to distributed search model– Must provide simple/unqualified Dublin Core record

(OAI provides XML Schema)– May provide other metadata formats (in XML)

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CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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OAIRepository

A

OAIRepository

B

Harvestvia OAI PMH

Portalsite C

Website A

Collection of digital

metadata records

Collection of physical

items

Website BCollection of

digitalmetadata records

Collection of digitalitems

OAIRepository

X

Page 12: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Social Science Information Gatewayhttp://www.sosig.ac.uk/

Social Science Information Gatewayhttp://www.sosig.ac.uk/

Page 13: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Page 14: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Resource Discovery Network Resource Finder http://www.rdn.ac.uk/

Resource Discovery Network Resource Finder http://www.rdn.ac.uk/

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CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Page 16: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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The resource discovery context

• CIMI Dublin Core testbed– Evaluate use of DCMES for describing range of

museum objects– 185,000 simple DC records from 10 contributors

• CIMI Metadata Harvesting using OAI PMH– Development of repository– Harvesting metadata– Making aggregated metadata available for harvest

• CIMI XML Schema for SPECTRUM– Recently made available for review (Oct 2002)– Semantics based on mda SPECTRUM standard– Enables encoding of rich descriptive information– Objects, related people, places, events

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The resource discovery context

• Access… • Integration…• Collaboration…. • “Metadata is data in the system which allows

people and machines to do smarter things”

“Interoperability as recombinant potential”(Dempsey, 2002)

• The whole is more than the sum of the parts

Page 18: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

Collections and services

Page 19: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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What is a collection?

• Collection– “an aggregation of items”

• Aggregations of, e.g.– natural objects: fossils, mineral samples…– created objects: artefacts, documents, records…– digital resources: documents, images, multimedia

objects, data, software…– digital surrogates of physical objects: documents,

images…– metadata: catalogue records, item descriptions,

collection-level descriptions (!)…

Page 20: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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What is a collection?

• Various criteria for aggregation, e.g.– By location– By type/form of item– By provenance of item– By source/ownership of item– By nature of item content– ….

• Any number of items• Permanent, temporary• Discrete, distributed• Collections created with intent/purpose

– “consciously formed”– collection development policies

Page 21: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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What is a collection?

• Functional granularity– “[T]here is no structure inherent in the model that

requires or predisposes a particular level of aggregation. The institution should base its choices on its own pragmatic grounds, such as the level of detail required to make explicit those elements of the Collection-Description that the institution deems to be useful or necessary for the purposes of resource discovery or collection management. i.e. institutions should adopt a functional granularity approach.”

– Heaney, 2000

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Collections and services

• Collections are made available to users through services

• Museum collections – collections of physical objects/items– collections of digital objects/items– collections of metadata records

– describing physical objects

– describing digital objects

• Museum services – physical services– digital/network services

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CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Physicalservice

Physicallocation

Physical services make physical collections available at physical locations

Collection of physical

items

Page 24: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Collection of digitalitems

Website

Networkservice

Digitallocation

Network services make digital collections available at digital locations

Page 25: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Physicalservice

Catalogueinterface

Digitallocation Network

service

Digital catalogue (Collection of digitalmetadata records)

Physicallocation

Physical services make physical collections available at physical locations

Collection of physical

items

Page 26: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Digitallocation

Collection of digital

metadata records

Collection of digitalitems

Website

Networkservice

Digitallocation

Network services make digital collections available at digital locations

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User wants to know…

• Which collections are relevant to their requirement?

– subject/coverage of items?– type?– legal status?– conditions of access/use?– etc

• What services make those collections available?

– location?– access?– etc

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OAIrepository

Harvestvia OAI-

PMH

Z39.50target Search/retrieve

via Z39.50

Website

Collection of digital

metadata records

SOAPreceiver

operationsvia SOAP

unstructured network service

structured network service

Collections of digital metadata records made available through multiple network services

Page 29: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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“User” wants to know…

• Which collections are relevant to their requirement?

• What services make those collections available?

• “User” may be human researcher or software tool

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CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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The problem

“We’ve created this incredible constellation of collections, of pools of information accessible through the Net. And people can’t find which pool to look in”

– (Lynch, 2002)

Page 31: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

Describing collections

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Collection description

• Analytic– info about items in collection and their content

• Indexing– info derived from items in collection

• Hierarchic– info about collection as whole, and about items and

their content (and relationships between items and whole)

• Unitary– info about collection as whole, not about items– “collection-level description”

– (typology from Heaney 2000)

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Why collection-level description?

• Enable collection provider to– disclose information about collections to potential

users– overview of otherwise uncatalogued items

– summary where item-level detail inappropriate/unavailable

– manage collections– audit/review holdings internally

– manage in collaboration with other providers

– assess priorities for item-level cataloguing

– inform strategic planning – institutional, cross-institutional, regional, sectoral,

national….

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Why collection-level description?

• Enable user to – discover/locate collections– select collections to explore/search on basis of

summary description e.g.– content/coverage, access conditions, resource type

– compare collections as broadly similar objects (even where items heterogeneous)

– understand conditions of access & use– interpret collections

– provenance, context, relationships

• Enable software agents to – select collections to search on behalf of user

– e.g. on basis of profile/preferences

– control searches across collections

Page 35: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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What information should collection-level description provide?

IMLS on describing collections…• “Collections should be described so that a

user can discover important characteristics of the collection, including scope, format, restrictions on access, ownership, and any information significant for determining the collection’s authenticity, integrity and interpretation.”

IMLS Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections

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Approaches to CLD in archives

• “Collections” defined by provenance of (unique, physical) items

– records of organisation or individual– principle that value of individual record derives

from context, relationships

• (Mainly) physical collections made available by physical services

• Archival description– emphasis on “multi-level” resource description– hierarchical collection description– well-established standards e.g. ISAD(G), EAD

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Approaches to CLD in archives

• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)– SGML/XML Document Type Definition for

encoding archival finding aids– Owned/maintained by Society of American

Archivists/Library of Congress – Hierarchical finding-aids– “Structured document” approach– Designed to encompass broad range of existing

practice

• Basis of established services– Online Archive of California– RLG Archival Resources– UK Public Record Office, Archives Hub, A2A etc

http://www.loc.gov/ead/ http://www.loc.gov/ead/

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Approaches to CLD in libraries

• Focus on description of (non-unique, physical) item

– well-established standards (MARC, AACR2)– shared cataloguing – emphasis on discovery

• Collections defined by– location– subject

• Until recently, CLD informal, unstructured– some use of MARC for CLD (especially in USA)– deployment of RSLP CD schema by RSLP projects

Page 39: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Approaches to CLD in libraries

• RSLP Collection Description project• Michael Heaney, An Analytical Model of

Collections and their Catalogues– Entity-Relationship model– Implementation independent– Based mainly on library/archival view of ‘collection’– but intended to be applicable across wide range of

collection types

• Functionally (IFLA FRBR) concerned with : – Finding (provide access points for discovery)– Identifying (describe sufficiently well for user

interpretation)

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/ http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/

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Approaches to CLD in libraries

• RSLP Collection Description schema– Andy Powell (UKOLN) – structured set of metadata attributes– some simplification of model– description of subset of entities in model– attributes based on Dublin Core Element Set

where possible

• RSLP CD schema supports creation of “unitary” collection description

– simple high-level description– not a substitute for richer CLD schema

• RSLP CD instance – set of linked descriptions of several resources

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RSLP CD Model and Schema (simplified)

ContentCreatorcreates

Collector

Owner

collects

owns

Administratoradministers

ItemProducerproduces

is-embodied-in

Collection

is-gathered-into

Location

is-located-in

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Approaches to CLD for digital resources

• Some description of aggregates of resources– use of general metadata schemas (e.g. DC, GILS)– application-specific, protocol-specific approaches

• Evolution of approaches to creating digital collections

– “proof of concept” (technological focus?)– greater attention to custodianship, use– focus on integration, reuse, interoperability,

sustainability– (Cole 2002, Besser 2002)

• Integration requires shared conventions for talking about collections

– growing interest in collection-level metadata

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Approaches to CLD in museums

• Focus on description of (unique, physical) object

– for management more than discovery?

• But concept of “collection” is present• Various criteria

– type/form of item– subject– ownership/source– audience/purpose

• Some CLD (maybe not called CLD…!)– e.g. guides to holdings, directories, gateways

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Approaches to CLD in museums

• CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model draft v3.3.2, 31 July 2002

– E78 Collection– Subclass of: Physical Man-Made Stuff – Scope Note: This entity describes an aggregate of

items, which is maintained by an Actor following a plan of cultural relevance over time. Things may be added or taken out of a collection in pursuit of this plan. A collection is designed for a certain public, and the conservation of the collected items is normally catered for.

– (emphasis added)

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FENSCOREhttp://fenscore.man.ac.uk/

FENSCOREhttp://fenscore.man.ac.uk/

set up in early 1980'sCLDs for UK biological collections, other than those in the NHM

set up in early 1980'sCLDs for UK biological collections, other than those in the NHM

Page 46: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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Cornucopiahttp://www.cornucopia.org.uk/

Cornucopiahttp://www.cornucopia.org.uk/

Service provided by Re:source

1800 institution-level records, collection-level data from regional “collection mapping” exercises

Current work to expand coverage, enhance interoperability

Service provided by Re:source

1800 institution-level records, collection-level data from regional “collection mapping” exercises

Current work to expand coverage, enhance interoperability

Page 47: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

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24 Hour Museumhttp://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/

24 Hour Museumhttp://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/

Launched by mda/Campaign for Museums, now independent charity with funding from DCMS/Re:source

Institution records, plus events/articles/educational resources; virtual exhibits

Potential for embedding CLDs from Cornucopia

Launched by mda/Campaign for Museums, now independent charity with funding from DCMS/Re:source

Institution records, plus events/articles/educational resources; virtual exhibits

Potential for embedding CLDs from Cornucopia

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Approaches to CLD in museums

• Project/service specific approaches– Informal?– Limited standardisation?

• However, growing interest in– repurposing management data to support disclosure– sharing data across systems

• Requires harmonisation of approaches– some use of Encoded Archival Description DTD

– Museums in the Online Archive of California– The Natural History Museum

– some use of RSLP CD schema– Crossroads (West Midlands), Find It In London

– building consensus on community schema e.g. BioCase

Page 49: Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection descriptions CIMI Forum, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

Collection-level descriptionin practice

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Collection-level description & Research Support Libraries Programme

• Support for academic researchers– disclosure of collections– discovery of/access to collections– collaborative management of collections

• Collections in RSLP– projects describing primarily collections of

physical items (library/archive)– projects also describing digital catalogues (which

describe physical items) – collections of metadata records

http://www.rslp.ac.uk/ http://www.rslp.ac.uk/

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Collection-level description & Research Support Libraries Programme

• Adoption of – RSLP CD Schema and/or – ISAD(G)/EAD– Some project-specific schemas

• Web-based discovery services built on databases of CLDs

– subject/discipline-based e.g.– Backstage: Theatre Studies– CASBAH: Caribbean Studies/Black & Asian History – Cecilia: Music collections– … and many more…

– national/regional

• Presently no cross-programme search/aggregation service

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Scottish Collections Network Extensions (SCONE)http://scone.strath.ac.uk/

Scottish Collections Network Extensions (SCONE)http://scone.strath.ac.uk/

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Research and Special Collections Available Locally (RASCAL)http://www.rascal.ac.uk/

Research and Special Collections Available Locally (RASCAL)http://www.rascal.ac.uk/

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Collections Waleshttp://www.mappingwales.ac.uk/

Collections Waleshttp://www.mappingwales.ac.uk/

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Collection-level description & NOF-digitise

• Projects creating digital collections– collections of digital resources– collections of metadata records

• CLD as mechanism for disclosure/discovery– NOF-digi technical standards recommend use of

RSLP CD Schema– Use in NOF-digitise portal– (Re) use in other services/environments

• Initial portal not providing item-level search– but simple DC item-level metadata available– potential for e.g. OAI-based approach

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Collection-level description & the JISC Information Environment

• Content made available as collections– various content providers

• Physical collections– of physical resources (e.g. books, journals)

• Digital collections– of digital resources (texts, images, multimedia

objects, software, datasets, “learning objects” etc) – of digital metadata records

– describing physical items, digital items, physical collections

– metadata record contains identifier/locator of resource

• Users access content through services

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jisc-ie/arch/ http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jisc-ie/arch/

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End-user needs to join services together manually - as well as learning multiple user interfaces

End-user

Currently…. Content providers

Authentication

Authorisation

Shared services

Web Web Web WebWeb

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Using Collections in the JISC Information Environment

• HTML Web sites– Aimed at human reader not software tool– Different user interfaces, different metadata

schemas– Researcher “joins up” services manually

• The portal solution– task/user-centred– single point of access to range of heterogeneous

network services

• The “IE service registry”– Database of collection-level descriptions,

service descriptions

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Broker/Aggregator

Portal PortalPortal

End-user

Collection Desc

Service Desc

Shared services

Service registry

Broker/Aggregator

Content providersThe vision….

User Profiles

End-user is “automatically” presented with relevant resources

Web

Fusionlayer

Presentationlayer

Provisionlayer

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Collection-level description & BioCASE

• BioCASE = Biological Collections Access Service for Europe

– Partnership of 31 countries funded by European Commission under Framework V

• Biological collections large– Item-level description time-consuming

• BioCASE XML Schemas for– Unit-level (specimens/observations) metadata– Collection-level metadata

http://www.biocase.org/ http://www.biocase.org/

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Collection-level description & BioCASE

• National nodes collecting information about biological collections in that country

• The Natural History Museum is UK National Node

– Pool records from – NHM CLD project,

– FENSCORE,

– other organisations

• Searches on BioCASE portal will return– unit-level records where available from

participating databases– collection-level records

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Surveying the landscape

• Collections as broadly similar objects– across domains– even if constituent items, approaches to

management etc. differ– easier to harmonise collection-level metadata?

• Disclosure via collection-level description achievable

– where item-level description not feasible/appropriate

• CLD not a substitute for item-level description– complementing item-level discovery – enabling item-level discovery by providing gateway

to item-level metadata

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Surveying the landscape

• CLDs as resource discovery metadata• CLDs support “survey of information

landscape”– “to identify areas rather than specific features - to

identify rainforest rather than to retrieve an analysis of the canopy fauna of the Amazon basin”

(Heaney, 2000)

– detailed item-level “map” not appropriate in all contexts

• The “navigator” of the landscape may be a human researcher or a software tool

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CIMI and CD Focus survey

• Collaboration on survey questionnaire, Sep/Oct 2001

– current activity in CLD– standards/specifications used for CLD

– schemas

– terminologies, thesauri etc

– how schemas/specs used/deployed– approaches/technologies/tools– problems

• Broad target audience– international– not limited to museums

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CIMI and CD Focus survey

• 106 respondents• Mostly working on library/archive collections• Emphasis on resource disclosure/discovery• Outside archival community, little consensus

on descriptive schemas– local/project-/community-specific schemas– extensions to standard schemas– different schemas for different classes of resource– legacy (unstructured?) CLDs

• Only 22 describing museum collections– only 8 exclusively museum collections

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CIMI and CD Focus survey

Simple DC (6),

Qualified DC (4),

RSLP CD (5),

ISADG (5),

EAD (3),

SPECTRUM (2),

Project-specific (9),

Other (9) : subset of ISADG (1), legacy data (1), national standard (1), MARC (2), may develop (1), VRA 3.0 (1), AMICO (1) , project-specific (1)

Simple DC (2),

Qualified DC (3),

RSLP CD (1),

SPECTRUM (2),

Project-specific (4),

Other (4) : national standard (1), VRA 3.0 (1), AMICO (1) , project-specific (1)

Schemas in use (in 22) Schemas in use (in 8)

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Issues, challenges….

• What is a collection?– “even-ness” across contexts, domains?– does it matter?

• Absence of cross-domain consensus on schemas for CLD

• Access points for CLD– what is the “subject” of a collection?– terminologies

– intra-domain/cross-domain

• Relationships between items and collections• Relationships between services and

collections

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Issues, challenges….

• Can single CLD support multiple functions?– Collection management and resource discovery?– Audience, purpose– Language: vernacular v technical/specialist

• Uncertainty of value of CLD, compared to item-level description?

– resource managers, resource users– perception of dumb-down?– varying perceptions within museum sector?

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Summary

• Access, integration, interoperability– across institutional, domain boundaries

• Collections as broadly similar objects• CLD as resource discovery metadata• CLD as contextual metadata• CLD supporting a “survey of the landscape”

– By human user, by software tool

• CLD as complement to item-level description• CLD as gateway to richer description• CLD as achievable mechanism for resource

disclosure

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More information….

http://www.cimi.org/http://www.cimi.org/

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/

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Acknowledgements

UKOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher and further education funding councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/