RSLP Collection Description Relationship to ISAD(G) and the Archives Hub

This page provides a view on the relationship between the RSLP collection description schema and ISAD(G)/EAD, with particular reference to the UK HE Archives Hub.

General points

• The RSLP collection description schema is not intended to be a replacement for richer archival description schemas, such as that offered by ISAD(G). Rather, it should be seen as a schema for making relatively simple collection descriptions in a wide variety of contexts - a 'Dublin Core' for collection description.
• It is noted that several of the current RSLP projects will be contributing descriptions to the Archives Hub (or will be elligible to contribute descriptions to the Hub). The RSLP collection description project recognises that it is not sensible to ask those projects to describe the same collections twice.
• To enable RSLP projects to describe collections once, a mapping from ISAD(G) to the RSLP collection description schema or vice versa is necessary, allowing collection descriptions in one format to be transformed into the other format.
• Mappings between ISAD(G) and the RSLP collection description schema, and tools to automate conversion between ISAD(G) conformant EAD and RSLP collection descriptions encoded in RDF are likely to be generally useful, particularly given the possibility that the RSLP collection description schema may be used outside of the RSLP context.
• An ISAD(G) to RSLP schema mapping is required to enable those collection descriptions that are contributed by RSLP projects to the Archives Hub to be gathered into the UKOLN RSLP Collection description search demonstrator. An RSLP schema to ISAD(G) mapping may be required to enable future cross-searching of RSLP and ISAD(G) repositories - however, there no obvious immediate requirement for this mapping.

At the second RSLP Collection Description Concertation Day a breakout group discussed the relationship between ISAD(G) and the RSLP collection description schema. Some notes of that breakout group are available. A smaller follow-up meeting was held in London on 17 April 2000. The meeting recommended a number of changes to the proposed RSLP collection description schema. Based on those changes, it also agreed an initial mapping between ISAD(G) and the RSLP schema. Some notes of that meeting and the initial mappings will be made available in due course. Further work on the mappings will be required prior to any software tool development being undertaken.

The recommended schema changes were:

• The addition of two new external relationships - 'hasAssociation' and 'hasPublication' - to the schema for collections.
• The separation of a 'legalStatus' attribute from the current 'accrualStatus' attribute in the schema for collections.
• The addition of a 'custodialHistory' attribute to the schema for collections.
• The addition of a general 'Notes' attribute to the schema for collections.
• The addition of an 'agentHistory' attribute to the schema for agents.

The meeting also noted the following comments on the current RSLP schema:

• The data entry guidelines for the 'language' attribute should make it clear that a free text description of the languages (or families of languages) used in the collection is an allowable value.
• There are inconsistencies between the current definitions for the 'collector' and the 'contributor'.
• In ISAD(G), the 'creator' may be the creator of the collection or the creator of the items in the collection.
• The use of vCard as the basis for agent description was queried.

It was also noted that, if tools are made available to automatically convert from ISAD(G) to the RSLP schema, there are various options for their deployment in the context of the UKOLN/RSLP search demonstrator and the Archives Hub:

• The tool may be made available for use by projects that are contributing to the Hub, i.e. projects will be able to contribute ISAD(G) descriptions to the Hub and RSLP schema descriptions to UKOLN.
• The tool may be located at the Hub, i.e. projects would supply descriptions to the Hub. The Hub will convert those descriptions and make them available to UKOLN.
• UKOLN may run the tool as part of the demonstrator, i.e. UKOLN will gather ISAD(G)-based descriptions directly from projects and convert them as necessary.

Maintained by: Andy Powell Last updated: 20-April-2000 [RSLP] [Metadata] [UKOLN]