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1 Metadata 101 An introduction to data about data R. John Robertson, Digital Libraries class 28 th April 2005

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Lecture given to digital Libraries class on metadata

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Page 1: Metadata 101public

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Metadata 101 An introduction to data about data

R. John Robertson,Digital Libraries class28th April 2005

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Who? What? Why?

Project(s): Metadata Workflow Investigation, mandate

An introduction to metadata Inform you about other settings for your skills:

not just digital libraries – IR’s; LOR’s; records management; webpages..

Bibliography at end, notes online Ask questions; tell me if you can’t hear me

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What is metadata?

Answers on a postcard… What do you know about metadata?

Simple definitions… Data about data; information about information

Getting trickier Lack of consensus

“Metadata is machine understandable information for the web” “Metadata is data about data. The term refers to any data

used to aid the identification, description and location of networked electronic resources.”

Discussing formal metadata

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Overview

What does metadata have to do with digital libraries? What is metadata (1)? What does metadata do? What is metadata (2)? Why do you need it?

How do you create metadata? Workflow Quality Why bother with workflow or quality?

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What I’m not doing

Technical systems stuff – rdf / xml bindings… Limits to examples Not how to create metadata, rather how and

why to choose and manage metadata

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Metadata and digital libraries: what is metadata?

Firefox plug-in [bottom right]

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Metadata and digital libraries: what is metadata?

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Metadata and digital libraries: what is metadata?

When metadata becomes important (sort of)

Who is this? What do we know

about them? Why is this picture

significant? Where is this picture

stored?

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Metadata and digital libraries: what does metadata do?

What do you are you trying to do? What do you need your metadata to do to achieve

that? (discuss…) Bibliographic (e.g. a picture of Fred) Administrative (e.g. taken on 12/07/1997) Rights (e.g. all rights reserved/ no re-use) Preservation (e.g. requirements to view jpeg ; context:

passport photo) Technical (e.g. jpeg ; 85.8kb) Education (e.g. illustration; UKEL 11)

How does this convey meaning?

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Metadata and digital libraries: what is metadata (part 2)?

Definition from Weibel (1998) how to think about data… Structure: ‘a data model […] for specifying

semantic schemas’ e.g. Dublin Core Semantic: ‘agreed content description standards’

e.g. author name conventions; controlled vocabularies

Syntax: ‘syntax for expressing metadata’ e.g. XML binding for Dublin Core

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Metadata and digital libraries: what is metadata (part 2)?

Metadata Structure - a data model Standards:

Marc 21 IEEE LOM DC(MES)

‘Super’standards METS

Application profiles

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Metadata and digital libraries: what is metadata (part 2)?

Title Creator

Subject Description

Publisher Contributor

Date Type

Format Identifier

Source Language

Relation Coverage

Rights

"SIGNPOSTS" DATA

100 1# $a Arnosky, Jim.245 10 $a Raccoons and ripe corn /

$c Jim Arnosky.

250 ## $a 1st ed.

260 ## $a New York :$b Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books,$c c1987.

300 ## $a 25 p. :$b col. ill. ;$c 26 cm.

520 ## $a Hungry raccoons feast at night in a field of ripe corn.

650 #1 $a Raccoons.

900 ## $a 599.74 ARN

901 ## $a 8009

903 ## $a $15.00

METS header

descriptive metadata

administrative metadata

file section

structural map

structural links

behaviour

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Metadata and digital libraries: what is metadata (part 2)?

Metadata semantics - content description Where things get tricky

Tools for getting semantic metadata right Guidelines Controlled vocabularies

Challenge of interoperability

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Metadata and digital libraries: what is metadata (part 2)?

Metadata Syntax – metadata expression Encoding information

Formats (XML)

Technical Infrastructure Protocols

z39.50 OAI-PMH

Software Manage Encode Crosswalk and map

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Metadata and digital libraries: why do you need metadata?

How else could you manage stuff? Browse limits Free text limits Other limits

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Metadata generation: workflow and quality

How do you create metadata? Who creates? What do they create? Why should they? How much does it cost…

Why do you need good metadata and what does that mean anyway?

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Metadata generation: workflow What? Who? (Actors/ Agents/ Roles)

Automatic: good at/ bad at Creator: good at/ bad at LIS professional: good at/ bad at Other professional: good at/ bad at

Why? How much?

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Metadata generation: quality

Good enough metadata Fitness for purpose

Metadata metrics accuracy reliability verification documentation consistency completeness sufficiency timeliness persistence etc.

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Metadata quality: why bother?

Functional digital libraries Interoperability

Migration Exchange Participation Cost

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Which leads to…

Amazon Merlot Jorum Cross-searching library catalogues e-journal access CORDRA Scotland’s Culture …and hopefully, interesting jobs for all of us

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Key references

National Information Standards Organization. (2004). Understanding Metadata. NISO Press. Available from: http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf. Last accessed 21st December 2004.

NISO Framework Advisory Group. (2004). A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections. 2nd ed. Bethesda, MD: National Information Standards Organization. Available from: http://www.niso.org/framework/framework2.html. . Last accessed 10th Nov 2004.

Weibel, S.L. (1998). The Metadata Landscape: conventions for semantics, syntax, and structure in the Internet Commons. In: Metadiversity. Proceedings of the Conference, Natural Bridge, VA. Available from: http://www.nfais.org/publications/metadiversity_preprints6.htm. Last accessed 20th January 2005.

Currier, S., Barton, J., O'Beirne, R. & Ryan, B. (2004). Quality assurance for digital learning object repositories: issues for the metadata creation process. ALT-J, 12(1), pp.5-20.

Dushay, N. & Hillmann, D.I. (2003). Analyzing metadata for effective use and re-use. DC-2003: 2003 Dublin Core Conference, Seattle.

Greenberg, J., Pattuelli, M. C., Parsia, B., & Robertson, W. D. (2001). Author-generated Dublin Core metadata for web resources: a baseline study in an organization. Journal of Digital Information, 2(2).

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The end

Questions now? Questions later – contact:

[email protected]

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