Kathryn Cassidy

Software Engineer, Digital Repository of Ireland (Trinity College Dublin)

Metadata & XML

Digital Repository of IrelandDRI is a trusted digital repository for Humanities and Social Sciences Data in Ireland, launched June 2015

• Provides preservation and access to digital collections

• Born digital and digitised collections including maps, photographs, letters,

audio-visual, sound, books, oral histories, paintings..

https://repository.dri.ie/

Metadata & XML

• Define Metadata• Identify benefits of using standards-compliant metadata• Familiarise ourselves with XML• Create XML Metadata by Interactive Example

By the end of this morning’s session we will have be able to do the following…

What is Metadata?

Baby Em at 3 months !First house in Ranelagh

What is Metadata?

Technical metadata – hardware, software, file formats, resolution, size

Preservation metadata – provenance, authenticity, preservation actions, responsibility (eg. PREMIS)

Structural metadata – physical/logical structure of digital resources (eg. METS)

Descriptive metadata – describes the digital resource; catalogue records/finding aids

Human readable metadataA handwritten or typewritten listing or finding aid

Can be easily read and understood

Can be accessible in physical or digital medium

Can be free-text searched

Machine readable metadataIn a format that can be understood by computers

Structured representation of information

Described using particular standards (eg. XML, HTML, RDF)

Allows processing, exchange and analysis

The importance of Structure & standards

K. Cassidy

Why use standard metadata?

Using standardised descriptive metadata means adhering to the best practices in your domain.

Standardised metadata allows you to control how records are described within your organisation too.

Enforcing standards allows greater searchability of your records.

Metadata sharing and interoperability is only possible when a standard is used.

Quality metadata enables analysis, manipulation and “value-added services”

Seeing Standards: A Visualization of the Metadata Universe, Jenn Riley & Devin Becker, http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/

Digital Archiving in Ireland:

National Survey of the Humanities and Social Sciences

DRI metadata guidelines

•Dublin core and Qualified Dublin Core

• MODS

• EAD

• MARC

Simple Dublin Core Metadata Element Set1. Title

2. Creator3. Subject4. Description5. Publisher6. Contributor7. Date8. Type

9. Format10. Identifier11. Source12. Language13. Relation14. Coverage15. Rights

DRI metadata guidelines

1. Title Ulysses

2. Creator James Joyce

3. Subject Stream of consciousness;Modern novel;Turn of century Dublin;Book covers

4. Description Traces the character Leopold Bloom as he walks around Dublin on 16 June, 1904

Or

Scan of first edition, hard cover5. Publisher Shakespeare and Company

6. Contributor

7. Date 1922

Metadata Quality Control – DRI guidewww.dri.ie/publications

“Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. It is defined by the W3C's XML 1.0 Specification and by several other related specifications, all of which are free open standards.”

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML

What is XML?“Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. It is defined by the W3C's XML 1.0 Specification and by several other related specifications, all of which are free open standards.”

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML

Machine readable metadataIn a format that can be understood by computers

Structured representation of information

Described using particular standards (eg. XML, HTML, RDF)

Allows processing, exchange and analysis

“Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. It is defined by the W3C's XML 1.0 Specification and by several other related specifications, all of which are free open standards.”

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML

What is XML?

<participants> <person role="teacher"> <id>1</id> <name> <personalname>Kathryn</personalname> <familyname>Cassidy</familyname> </name> <affiliation>DRI</affiliation> <affiliation>TCD</affiliation> </person> <person role="learner"> <id>2</id> <name> <personalname>Clare</personalname> <familyname>Lanigan</familyname> </name> <affiliation>DRI</affiliation> <affiliation>RIA</afiliation> </person> .... </participants>

XML Structure

An XML document consists of a set of elements, which can be nested within eachother

All elements must have an opening and closing tag of the form <tagname>… </tagname>

Elements may also have attributes

<tramTicket><type>return</type><from>Central 1</from><to>Red 2</to><validUntil>Last Tram</validUntil><date>31 Jul 06</date><for>Adult</for><on>Luas only</on><timeIssued>21:15</timeissued><price>2.90</price><number>6004375019</number>

</tramTicket>

XML does not DO anything

Useful Links

W3 schools xml tutorial http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

W3 schools xslt tutorial http://www.w3schools.com/xsl/default.asp

Examples