MetadataCollection Level Description |
Draft version - 02 August 1999
Edited by: Andy Powell, UKOLN
Our simple content model can be shown diagramatically as:
This can be interpretted as follows:
The comprehensive description of Agents is also considered beyond the scope of this proposal. Initially it is expected that people and corporate bodies will simply be described using loosely structured string values, for example their name or name and email address. In the longer term, it might be sensible to develop structured values for these elements, perhaps based on vCard [2], to make it possible to provide postal addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, etc. However, this proposal does not consider how this might be done.
Name | Label | Semantics |
---|---|---|
Collection | ||
Title
[DC] |
Title |
A name given to the collection.
Typically, Title will be the name by which the collection is formally known. |
Subject and Keywords
[DC] |
Subject |
The topic of the collection.
Typically, Subject will be expressed as keywords, phrases or classmarks that describe the topic of the collection. Recommended best practice is to select values from a controlled vocabulary or formal classification scheme. |
Description
[DC] |
Description |
An account of the content of the collection.
Typically, Description will contain a free-text account of the collection content. |
Collection Owner | Owner |
A person or organization that owns the collection.
Typically, the value of Owner will be a name or name and email address. |
Publisher
[DC] |
Publisher |
The entity responsible for making the collection available in its present form.
Examples of Publisher include a publishing house, a university department, a person or a corporate entity. Typically, the value of Publisher will be a name or name and email address. |
Date
[DC] |
Date |
A date associated with the creation or availability of the collection.
Recommended best practice for the value of Date is defined in a profile of ISO 8601 [3] that includes (among others) dates of the forms YYYY and YYYY-MM-DD. In this scheme, for example, the date 1994-11-05 corresponds to November 5, 1994. |
Language
[DC] |
Language |
The language of the intellectual content of the collection.
Recommended best practice for the value of Language is defined in RFC 1766 [4]. |
Source
[DC] |
Source | The identifier or name of a resource from which the collection is derived. |
Coverage
[DC] |
Coverage |
The extent or scope of the content of the collection.
Coverage will typically include spatial location (a place name or geographic co-ordinates), temporal period (a period label, date, or date range) or jurisdiction (such as a named administrative entity). Recommended best practice is to select a value from a controlled vocabulary (for example, the Thesaurus of Geographic Names [5]) and that, where appropriate, named places or time periods be used in preference to numeric identifiers such as sets of co-ordinates or date ranges. |
Relation
[DC] |
Relation |
An identifier of a related item or collection.
This element is used to express linkages among related collections or items. |
Collection Type
[DC] |
Type |
The category of the collection.
For the sake of interoperability, Type should be selected from an enumerated list. Such a list is proposed below. |
Other notes | Notes | Specialized information that cannot be accommodated in any of the other areas. |
Collection Purpose and Policy | Purpose |
A statement of
why the collection is offered
and the origin and lineage of the items held.
Purpose may also be used to describe any collection policy associated with the collection. |
Rights Management
[DC] |
Rights |
Information about rights held in and over the collection.
Rights information typically encompasses Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Copyright and other Property Rights. |
Use Constraints | UseConstraints |
A description of any constraints or legal prerequisites for using the
collection or its component items.
This includes any use constraints applied to assure the protection of privacy or intellectual property and any other special restrictions or limitations on using the collection. |
Required Collection Logo | Logo |
The URI of a logo associated with the collection or the Owner of
the collection.
If present, this logo must be displayed by any service that provides access to the collection. |
Access | Access |
Information about how the collection may be accessed.
This can include information about both digital and physical access. Typically, this information will be provided using the 'service' description elements listed below. |
Service | ||
Identifier
[DC] |
Identifier |
A string or number used to uniquely identify the collection.
Examples for networked collections include URLs and URNs (when implemented). Note that protocol specific URLs for Z39.50 (RFC-2056) [6], LDAP (RFC-2255) [7] and Whois++ ( draft-ietf-asid-whois-url-02.txt) [8] may be used to provide host, port, database and other information ncessary for connecting to network accessible collections. |
Access Times | AccessTimes | Time ranges for mandatory or preferred access of service. |
Physical Location and Access | Location |
Information about physical access to the collection and its location.
Typically, the value of Location will be a postal address. LOcation may also be used to provide related information, such as wheelchair access. |
Administrator | Admin |
The person or organization responsible for service
operation and administration.
Typically the value of Admin will be a name or name and email address. |
Access Policy | AccessPolicy | A description of any constraints or legal prerequisites for accessing the collection or its component items. |
Charging Policy | ChargingPolicy | A description of any charging mechanism in place for accessing the collection. |
The use of protocol specific URLs for the Identifier element has several advantages. It limits the number of elements required and means that the element set is less likely to have to expand in future as new protocols become available (assuming that the new protocols have associated URL formats).
This document enumerates a list of values for the Type element (see below). This is an example of a SCHEME. In the semantic definitions provided above, other SCHEMEs were also mentioned including ISO8601 and RFC1766. It also proposes the use of four TYPEs for the Relation element (see below).
The implementation of element qualifiers is syntax specific. The RDF implementation described below includes an introduction to encoding element and value qualifiers in RDF.
Type | |
Collection | Any collection of items. |
Catalogue | A manually created catalogue (or one created with significant human effort). |
Index | An automatically generated index (or one that is primarily generated by a software robot or other harvesting technology). |
Curatorial Environment | |
Library | A library collection (books, journals, etc.). |
Museum | A museum collection (artefacts, etc.). |
Archive | An archive is a whole which documents the life and work of an institution or individual, which has been retained in its original working order and is of known provenance. |
Internet | A collection, catalogue or index of Internet resources. |
Content | |
Text | A collection of items that are primarily words for reading. For example - books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre "text". |
Image | A collection of items that are primarily symbolic visual representations other than text. For example - images and photographs of physical objects, paintings, prints, drawings, other images and graphics, animations and moving pictures, film, diagrams, maps, musical notation. Note that "image" may include both electronic and physical representations. |
Sound | A collection of items that are primarily audio. For example - music, speech, recorded sounds. |
Dataset | A collection of items that primarily consist of structured information encoded in lists, tables, databases, etc., which will normally be in a format available for direct machine processing. For example - spreadsheets, databases, GIS data, midi data. Note that collections of items that are primarily unstructured numbers and words will normally be considered to be type "Collection.Text". |
Software | A software repository. |
InteractiveResource | A collection of resources which require interaction from the user to be understood, executed, or experienced. For example - forms on web pages, applets, multimedia learning objects, chat services, virtual reality. |
Event | A collection of non-persistent, time-based occurences. |
PhysicalObject | A collection of three dimensional objects or substances which are not primarily text or image or one of the other types listed here. For example - people, computers, sculptures or wheat (!) . Note that collections of digital representations of, or surrogates for, these things should use "Collection.Image", "Collection.Text" or one of the other collection types listed here. |
Policy and/or Usage | |
Special | A collection connected with local history, celebrities, industries, etc., or on a certain subject or period, or gathered for some particular reason. This term applies primarily to library collections. |
Subject | A collection of material on a particular subject. |
Form | A collection of materials of the same form. |
User | A collection arranged specifically for a particular group of users. |
Working | A collection brought together for a particular project or exhibition which is then disbanded. |
In this Scheme, multiple categories may be selected as appropriate. Typically, zero or one category from each group will be selected (though there may be exceptions to this). Multiple categories should be concatenated together, separated by a '.', to form a string value - for example, Collection.Library.Special. Although no hierarchy is implied by the ordering of categories, it is suggested that categories are selected in the order shown here for consistency.
Some examples of the use of this enumerated list of Type values are given in Appendix B.
Relation element qualifier | |
IsPartOf | An identifier of a second collection of which the current collection is a phyical or logical part. |
HasPart | An identifier of a second collection (or item) that is a phyical or logical part of the current collection. |
IsCatalogueFor | An identifier of a second collection for which the current collection is the catalogue. |
HasCatalogue | An identifier of a second collection that is the catalogue for, or contains a catalogue record for, the current collection. |
This document makes no specific recommendations as to database structures, data types or implementation of qualifiers (described above) for any of the elements.
While this proposal recognises the need for conspectus information, it makes no recommendation for how it might be encoded. However, it is anticipated that a mechanism for embedding conspectus information into the Subject element will be developed in the future.
CreatedWhat does temporal Coverage mean in the context of collections?
DataGathered
Valid
Issued
Available
Accepted
Acquired
Several examples of the use of the proposed attribute set follow. Note that these have been developed for demonstration purposes and may not provide completely accurate descriptions of particular collections.
They are presented using an informal representation.
COPAC |
Title : COPAC Subject : Description : COPAC gives access to the online catalogues of some of the largest university research libraries in the UK and Ireland. Most COPAC records represent books and periodicals (but not periodical contents). Other materials include videos, printed and recorded music, and electronic materials. Owner : Manchester Information Datasets and Associated Services Publisher : Manchester Computing, University of Manchester Date : Language : en-uk Source : Consortium of University Research Libraries Coverage : Cambridge University Library Coverage : Dublin: Trinity College Library Coverage : Edinburgh University Library Coverage : Glasgow University Library Coverage : Leeds University Library Coverage : London: University College Library Coverage : London: Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Library Coverage : London: University of London Library Coverage : University of Manchester Library Coverage : Nottingham University Library Coverage : Oxford: Bodleian Library and other libraries Type : Catalogue.Library Notes : Purpose : Rights : UseConstraints : Logo : http://www.copac.ac.uk/copac/icons/copac.gif Access : Identifier : http://www.copac.ac.uk/copac/ AccessTimes : Any Location : Admin : copac@mcc.ac.uk AccessPolicy : Open ChargingPolicy : Free Access : Identifier : telnet://copac.ac.uk/ AccessTimes : Any Location : Admin : copac@mcc.ac.uk AccessPolicy : Open ChargingPolicy : Free Access : Identifier : z39.50s://z3950.copac.ac.uk:2100/COPAC AccessTimes : Any Location : Admin : copac@mcc.ac.uk AccessPolicy : Open ChargingPolicy : Free
Digimap |
Title : Digimap Subject : Ordnance Survey; OS; maps; digital map data Description : DIGIMAP is exploring ways of delivering Ordnance Survey of Great Britain map data to Institutes of Higher Education in the United Kingdom. Based in the Data Library at the University of Edinburgh, the project involves researchers and service developers as well as map library and library staff from six UK academic insititutions. Owner : Data Library, University of Edinburgh Publisher : University of Edinburgh Date : Language : Source : Ordnance Survey Coverage : Type : Collection.Dataset Type : Collection.Image Notes : Purpose : Rights : http://digimap.ed.ac.uk:8081/service/copyright.html UseConstraints : http://digimap.ed.ac.uk:8081/service/copyright.html Logo : http://digimap.ed.ac.uk:8081/ui-graphics/digi_logo_3.jpeg Access : Identifier : http://digimap.ed.ac.uk:8081/ AccessTimes : Any Location : Admin : P.Burnhill@ed.ac.uk AccessPolicy : Access limited to staff and students at: University of Aberdeen Queen Mother Library University of Edinburgh Main Library University of Glasgow Library University of Newcastle Robertson Library University of Oxford Bodleian Library Map Library University of Reading Department of Geography Map Library Registration is required. ChargingPolicy : Free (to those groups listed in AccessPolicy)
Follett Lecture Series |
Title : Follett Lecture Series Subject : electronic library; digital library; information technology Description : This series of lectures developed from an idea put forward by members of the JISC's Follett Implementation Group on Information Technology, with the aim of raising awareness of international developments and issues relating to the electronic library, and stimulating further discussion. Beginning in May 1994 with a paper given at the University of Aston by Clifford Lynch, then of the University of California, the final lecture took place at the University of Leicester in March 1997 with a presentation by Peter Graham of Rutgers University Library. The series featured 11 speakers giving a total of 13 lectures. Venues ranged across the United Kingdom, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, Derry City, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester, London, Birmingham and Leicester. Owner : Publisher : Date : Language : Source : Coverage : United Kingdom, 1994-1997 Relation : Type : Collection.Event Notes : Logo : Purpose : Rights : UseConstraints : Access : Identifier : AccessTimes : Location : Admin : AccessPolicy : ChargingPolicy :
National Fairground Archive |
Title : National Fairground Archive Subject : fairground; showmen; fairs; history Description : The NFA is a unique collection of photographic, printed, manuscript and : audiovisual material covering all aspects of the culture of travelling : showpeople, their organisation as a community, their social history and : everyday life; and the artefacts and machinery of fairgrounds. There are : over 30,000 images in the photographic collection, in addition to audio : and video material, journals and magazines, and nearly 300 monographs. : The collection also includes a unique body of fairground ephemera : (programmes, handbills, posters, charters and proclamations, plans and : drawings). Owner : National Fairground Archive Publisher : University Library, University of Sheffield Date : 1994 Language : en-uk Source : Showmen's Guild of Great Britain Source : Fairground Association of Great Britain Source : UK fairground societies Source : fairground families Coverage : United Kingdom; 18th century - present Relation : HasPart Bellhouse Collection Relation : HasPart Harry Lee Collection Relation : HasPart Jack Leeson Collection Relation : HasPart Shufflebottom Collection Relation : HasPart R A Taylor Collection Relation : HasPart Tucker Collection Relation : HasPart Waddington Collection Type : Collection.Archive Type : Collection.Image Type : Collection.Text Type : Collection.Sound Notes : Web pages at http://www.shef.ac.uk/~nfa/ Purpose : Rights : (c) National Fairground Archive UseConstraints : Logo : http://www.shef.ac.uk/~nfa/logo.gif Access : Identifier : AccessTimes : Monday to Friday, from 9.30 to 1.00 and from 2.00 to 4.30 Location : Main Library, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN UK Admin : Dr. Vanessa Toulmin, NFA Assistant Director; fairgound@shef.ac.uk AccessPolicy : Appointments must be made in advance ChargingPolicy :
The Pitman Collection |
Title : The Pitman Collection Subject : shorthand; phonetic alphabets; Initial Teaching Alphabet; ITA; Pitman family; Description : A collection of printed, manuscript, and audiovisual material and artefacts collected by Sir Isaac Pitman and his grandson, Sir James Pitman. The collection has been added to by the Pitman Company. It includes over 7300 catalogued monographs and serials on the history of shorthand plus a small number of uncatalogued manuscripts in shorthand. The collection also includes 75 feet of material on the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA), 50% monographs, the rest artefacts, offprints, correspondence, etc. - all unsorted - plus 18 filing cabinets of archival material. Owner : University of Bath Library Publisher : University of Bath Date : Language : en-uk Source : Pitman family Source : Pitman Company Source : Library of the Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation Coverage : Predominantly UK - 19th and 20th century. Relation : HasPart Initial Teaching Alphabet Collection Relation : HasCatalogue http://www.bath.ac.uk/Library/webcat/ Type : Collection.Library.Special Notes : Transferred to the University of Bath in 1970. Purpose : Rights : (c) University of Bath UseConstraints : Logo : Access : Identifier : AccessTimes : Location : Library and Learning Centre University of Bath Bath BA2 7AY UK Admin : Keith Jones - k.e.jones@bath.ac.uk AccessPolicy : By arrangement with the University of Bath Library. ChargingPolicy : Free
Social Science Information Gateway |
Title : Social Science Information Gateway Title : SOSIG Subject : Economics, Development, Law, Education, Management, Accountancy, Business, Environmental Issues, Philosophy, Demography , Politics, International Relations, Ethnology, Social Anthropology, Psychology, Feminism, Social Science General, Methodology, Geography, Social Welfare, Community, Disability, Education, Sociology, Government, Military Science, Statistics, Demography Description : SOSIG is an online catalogue of thousands of high quality Internet resources relevant to social science education and research. Every resource has been selected and described by a librarian or subject specialist. Owner : ILRT, University of Bristol Publisher : University of Bristol Date : Language : en-uk Source : Coverage : Type : Catalogue.Internet.Subject Notes : Purpose : http://sosig.ac.uk/desire/collect.html Rights : UseConstraints : Logo : http://www.sosig.ac.uk/images/sos.gif Access : Identifier : http://www.sosig.ac.uk/ AccessTimes : Any Location : Admin : sosig-info@bris.ac.uk AccessPolicy : ChargingPolicy : Free for non-commercial and educational use Access : Identifier : whois++://sosig.ac.uk:8237/ AccessTimes : Any Location : Admin : sosig-info@bris.ac.uk AccessPolicy : Please check centroid before querying Whois++ server ChargingPolicy : Free for non-commercial and educational use Access : Identifier : z39.50s://edward.ilrt.bris.ac.uk:2102/Sosig AccessTimes : Any Location : Admin : sosig-info@bris.ac.uk AccessPolicy : ChargingPolicy : Free for non-commercial and educational use
Voices from the Dust Bowl |
Title : Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection Subject : migrant work camps; california; folk song; folk culture; US; united states; america Description : The collection consists of approximately 18 hours of audio recordings (436 titles on 122 recording discs), 28 graphic images (prints and negatives), and 1.5 linear feet of print materials including administrative correspondence, field notes, recording logs, song text transcriptions, dust jackets from the recording discs with handwritten notes, news clippings, publications, and ephemera. The online presentation provides access to 371 audio titles, 23 graphic images, a sampling of the dust jackets, and all the print material in the collection. Covering a period between 1940 and 1941, this collection documents the lives of Dust Bowl migrants living in Farm Security Administration (FSA) camps in California. Owner : Publisher : Library of Congress Date : Language : en-us Source : Coverage : California, USA, 1940-1941 Relation : IsPartOf http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ Type : Collection.Sound Notes : Purpose : Rights : http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tscpyrt.html UseConstraints : Logo : Access : Identifier : http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html AccessTimes : Any Location : Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA Admin : ndlpcoll@loc.gov AccessPolicy : Open ChargingPolicy : Free
The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive |
Title : The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive Title : WOMDA Subject : First World War; WWI; Wilfred Owen Description : The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive contains a host of material relating to the First World War poet Wilfred Owen, in particular, and a large amount of related background material on the War in general . It is not the intention of the authors of this site to canonize Owen above the other poets of the First World War, rather the contents of the archive are a reflection of the proximity of material and advice on Owen available to the authors. The archive contains digital facsimilies of Owen's original manuscripts, audio interviews with veterans, letters written by Owen, contemorary video clips, contemporary photographs and modern video and photographs. Owner : Humanities Computing Unit, Oxford University Computing Services Publisher : University of Oxford Date : Language : en-uk Source : Imperial War Museum Source : Wilfred Owen Estate Source : Harry Ransom Research Centre, University of Texas at Austin Source : British Library Source : Public Records Office Coverage : 1914-1918 Type : Collection.Text Type : Collection.Image Type : Collection.Sound Notes : Purpose : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/help.html#whatcontain Rights : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/copyright.html UseConstraints : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/copyright.html Logo : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/images/womda-title.gif Access : Identifier : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/ AccessTimes : Any Location : Admin : paul.groves@oucs.ox.ac.uk AccessPolicy : Open ChargingPolicy : Free
An RDF/XML example, based on the SOSIG description above, follows:
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:collection="http://registry.desire.org/cld/collection/elements/1.0/" xmlns:service="http://registry.desire.org/cld/service/elements/1.0/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/" xmlns:dcq="http://purl.org/dc/qualifiers/1.0/"> <rdf:Description about=""> <dc:title> Social Science Information Gateway </dc:title> <dc:title> SOSIG </dc:title> <dc:subject> Economics; Development; Law; Education; Management; Accountancy; Business; Environmental Issues; Philosophy; Demography ; Politics; International Relations; Ethnology; Social Anthropology; Psychology; Feminism; Social Science General; Methodology; Geography; Social Welfare; Community; Disability; Education; Sociology; Government; Military Science; Statistics; Demography </dc:subject> <dc:description> SOSIG is an online catalogue of thousands of high quality Internet resources relevant to social science education and research. Every resource has been selected and described by a librarian or subject specialist. </dc:description> <collection:owner> ILRT, University of Bristol </collection:owner> <dc:language> en-uk </dc:language> <dc:type> <rdf:Description> <dcq:scheme rdf:resource="http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cld/SCT/" /> <rdf:value> Catalogue.Internet.Subject </rdf:value> </rdf:Description> </dc:type> <collection:purpose rdf:resource="http://sosig.ac.uk/desire/collect.html" /> <collection:access> <rdf:Description about="http://www.sosig.ac.uk/"> <service:admin> sosig-info@bris.ac.uk </service:admin> <service:publisher> University of Bristol </service:publisher> <service:chargingPolicy> Free for non-commercial and educational use </service:chargingPolicy> <service:accessTimes> Any </service:accessTimes> </rdf:Description> </collection:access> <collection:access> <rdf:Description about="whois++://sosig.ac.uk:8237/"> <service:admin> sosig-info@bris.ac.uk </service:admin> <service:publisher> University of Bristol </service:publisher> <service:chargingPolicy> Free for non-commercial and educational use </service:chargingPolicy> <service:accessTimes> Any </service:accessTimes> <service:accessPolicy> Please check centroid before querying Whois++ server </service:accessPolicy> </rdf:Description> </collection:access> <collection:access> <rdf:Description about="z39.50s://edward.ilrt.bris.ac.uk:2102/Sosig"> <service:admin> sosig-info@bris.ac.uk </service:admin> <service:publisher> University of Bristol </service:publisher> <service:chargingPolicy> Free for non-commercial and educational use </service:chargingPolicy> <service:accessTimes> Any </service:accessTimes> </rdf:Description> </collection:access> <collection:logo rdf:resource="http://www.sosig.ac.uk/images/sos.gif" /> </rdf:Description> </rdf:RDF>
Note: this example should not be interpretted as a formal syntax for the element set proposed here.
The group was asked to develop a proposal for a core set of collection description attributes. The group considered 5 existing description formats in detail:
[Collection Level Description] [Metadata] [UKOLN]
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