Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Dublin Core Metadata

Stuart WeibelConsulting Research Scientist

OCLC Office of Research

purl.org/net/weibel

October 9, 1997

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

What is Metadata?

Data about data… structured descriptive information about other data Library cataloging Rights management Database schemata Content ratings … many others

Its what libraries have done for as longs as there have been libraries

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

We have MARC and AACR2… Why metadata?

A resource description community is characterized by common semantic, structural, and syntactic

conventions for exchange of resource description information

Libraries

MARC AACR2

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

The Internet Commons embraces many formal and informal Resource Description

Communities

Museums

GeospatialLibraries

InternetCommons

Commerce

Whatever...

ScientificData

HomePages

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Interoperability

Using metadata in a global distributed environment requires agreements and conventions that go beyond existing resource description communities

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

The Dublin Core Metadata Workshop Series

How to improve resource discovery on the Web? simple resource description semantics

Build an interdisciplinary consensus about a core element set for resource discovery: simple and intuitive cross-disciplinary international flexible

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Metadata Workshop Series Milestones

Chicago WWW Conference Oct, 1994 OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop Mar, 1995 OCLC/UKOLN Warwick Workshop April,

1996 W3C Distributed Indexing and Searching Workshop May, 1996 CNI/OCLC Image Metadata Workshop Sep, 1996 Fifteen-Element Dublin Core Dec, 1996 DC-4, Canberra, Australia Mar, 1997 Meta Access Summit at RLG July, 1997

EPA Metadata Registry Workshop July, 1997 DC-5, Helsinki, Finland Oct, 1997

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Dublin Core Metadata Workshop Series

DC-1: OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop Mar, 1995

13 element Dublin Core Interdisciplinary consensus

DC-2: OCLC/UKOLN Warwick Workshop April, 1996

Warwick Framework Syntax issues

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Dublin Core Workshop Series(continued)

DC-3: CNI/OCLC Image Metadata Workshop Sep, 1996 Images are in scope 15 element core

DC-4: Canberra Metadata Workshop Mar, 1997

Minimalists and Structuralists

Canberra Qualifiers (additional information useful for interpretation of metadata)

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

The Dublin CoreMetadata Element Set

Title Author/Creator Subject /Keywords Description Publisher Other Contributor Date

Resource Type Format Resource Identifier Source Language Relation Coverage Rights Management

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Tom Baker’s Theory of Pidgin Metadata

Pidgin languages result from the need for communication among groups who do not share a common language: simplification and hybridization

Creolization is the process of complexification of a pidgin language. Addition of semantic and syntactic nuance that

supports the inherent complexity of natural language expressivity

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Dublin Core and Pidgin Metadata

The current state of the Dublin Core reflects the pidginization of resource description.

Movement towards complexification is evident. The emergence of metadata creoles is a natural

consequence of adoption by diverse communities of the pidgin as a mother tongue

Tension between interoperability (comprehension) and richer specificity is inevitable

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Museums

Dublin Core

Libraries GeospatialDomain-specific Metadata

Pidgin Metadata

MetadataCreoles

Pidginization and Creolization

Grey literature

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Recent Dublin Core Publications

http://purl.org/metadata/dublin_core

Journal of Digital Libraries Weibel and Lagoze, Special JoDL Metadata Issue

Image Metadata Workshop (DC-3) Report Weibel and Miller, DLib Magazine, January 1997

http://www.dlib.org

Canberra Metadata Workshop (DC-4) Report Weibel, Iannella, and Cathro, DLib Magazine, June,

1997 http://www.dlib.org

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Tangible Outcomes ofthe DC Workshop Series

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Embedded HTML Metadata

HTML 2.0: simple embedded metadata HTML 4.0: richer metadata with qualifiers

New META Attributes LANG (language of the content of the

descriptor) SCHEME (formal qualifier) SUB-ELEMENT (deployed via the dot syntax

extension

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

RDF:Resource Description Framework

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) initiative RDF is the instantiation of the Warwick

Framework for the Web RDF will be the foundation for an architecture

for metadata on the WebResource description Electronic commerce

Site mapping Third party rating

Digital signatures

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Pseudo-RDF Example

<namespace href = “http://purl.org/metadata/dublin_core” as =“DC”><namespace href = “http://iso.org/spec/8601” as = “iso8601”>

Stuart Weibel’s Home PageStuart Weibel

1997-04-02

metadata, Dublin Core, URN, electronic publishing, book reviews

<ablock href=“http://purl.net/weibel”><DC:title> </DC:title><DC:creator> </DC:creator><DC:date><iso8601:date> </iso8601:date></DC:date><DC:subject>

</DC:subject></ablock>

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

RDF: Why is it important?

Political imperatives for deployment Software infrastructure will be ubiquitous (and

come for free in browsers and servers) RDF provides a model and syntactical

framework the contents of the framework will be determined

by stakeholder communities via independently developed and maintained metadata element sets e.g.: MARC, DC, TEI, GILS, IAFA, Ratings….

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Further Information

W3 Metadata Overview and RDF Working Group Home Page

www.w3.org/Metadata/RDF

Dublin Core Home Page

purl.org/metadata/dublin_core

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

DC Implementation Projects

30+ major implementation projects in 10 countries

Interdisciplinary and international recognition as the lingua franca for resource discovery metadata for electronic resources

Support in the library and museum communities for adoption of DC for non-electronic resource description

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

What do we need next?

Element refinements and stability User guides and standards of practice Progress on Internationalization Extensibility standards Tools Standardization path

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

DC-5The Helsinki Metadata Workshop

The National Library of Finland and OCLC,in collaboration with

The National Science Foundation and

the Coalition for Networked Information

75 registrants

16 countries

4 continents

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

The Process

Reports on related developments Discussion of recent activities Implementers reports Breakout groups Ad hoc working groups Small group reports Argue until done Non-stop for 20 hours a day

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

DC-5Objectives

Share implementation experiences Element refinements and stability Define Sub-elements and resource types User guides and standards of practice Extensibility standards Standardization path

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Results

Data Model Clearer understanding of SOURCE and

RELATION DATE field definition Intended semantics for additional sub-elements Closer DC-W3C collaboration

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

RFCsfirst steps toward standardization

Simple DC semantics (the minimalist position)

Simple DC syntax HTML DC semantics with qualifiers DC syntax with qualifiers

HTML 2.0 HTML 4.0 RDF

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

DC-5 ResultsWorking Groups

Data Model WG Sub-elements DATE sub-element WG RELATION WG Z39.50 WG Rights Management

Stuart WeibelOCLC, Inc.

October, 1997

Existing Working Groups

DC in Multiple Languages COVERAGE WG User Guides (resurrected)