Introduction to Metadata

1. Introduction to Metadata Mary Manning-Texas A&M University Karen Sigler-Texas State University

2. TDL Course Description • This introductory course provides students with an understanding of descriptive metadata through hands-on experience in creating descriptive metadata records for digital objects. • Among the topics covered in the course are • Overview of descriptive metadata • Outline of community-specific metadata standards • Nuts and bolts of Dublin Core • Hands-on creation of Dublin Core records for • Images • Audio • Text • ETDs

3. Agenda (Housekeeping) • 9:00-9:30 Introductions • 9:30-10:15 Overview of Descriptive Metadata •10:15-10:30 Break •10:30-11:15 Community Specific Metadata •11:15-11:45 Dublin Core •11:45-12:00 Metadata & Traditional Cataloging •12:00-1:30 Lunch (on your own) •1:30-3:00 Hands on exercises •3:00-3:15 Break •3:15-4:00 Review and questions

4. Introductions • Name • Institution • Job Title/Duties • Why you took this workshop • Your level of metadata understanding • Your goals for this workshop • Does your institution use Dspace or CDM? If not how do you describe and display digital resources?

5. Overview of Descriptive Metadata

6. Definition of Metadata • Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. • First definition appeared in 1968 (44 yrs. ago) There are categories of information about each data set as a unit in a data set of data sets, which must be handled as a special metadata set.

7. Definition cont’d • Additional entries in 1970, 1977, 1987 and 1998, but the 1987 definition still has relevance today: The challenge is to accumulate data . . . from diverse sources, convert it to machine-readable form with a harmonized array of metadata descriptors and present the resulting database(s) to the user. • From NISO 2004: “Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use or manage an information resource. Metadata is often called data about data or information about information”.

8. Another way of looking at it: Cataloging = Creating Metadata MARC XML Library Catalog Digital Library

9. Basic Types of Metadata • Administrative metadata Metadata used in managing and administrating collections and information resources Examples: • acquisition information • rights and reproduction tracking • documentation of legal access requirements • selection criteria for digitization and • location information

10. Administrative Metadata (cont’d) • Information about dates of digitization and technical specifics, along with identifiers and digital file names. • May be important locally to include in descriptive metadata but not useful in aggregated context. • Increases noise of the metadata and increases number and ambiguity of data values. • Better to hide this information from public view

11. Structural Metadata • Used primarily to facilitate navigation and presentation of electronic content, for example, multiple views of the same object, such as front, back and side views of a sculpture captured in separate digital image files • Or a single book scanned as multiple image files, allows the user to jump to different parts of the book • http://contentdm.adelphi.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/oracles&CISOPTR=22075&REC=1

12. Descriptive Metadata • Provides intellectual access to the contents of a digital collection • Two basic functions: identification and retrieval • Supports both the searching and browsing methods of information retrieval • Used for describing and identifying information resources. These could include title, creator, description, language, geographical place names, and so on • Must be entered in a consistent form—usually taken from a controlled vocabulary to ensure consistent information retrieval

13. Preservation Metadata • Information needed for the long-term preservation of the digital object and migration to other digital formats as software and hardware change over time • For example: type of scanner used, original scanning resolution, image editing specifications • Sometimes put under the umbrella of administrative metadata. Used to record information on the administration of the data in order to assure the continuity and authenticity of the digital object. • Tracks the condition of the physical or digital forms and any actions taken to preserve them

14. Break

15. Community Specific Metadata

16. Metadata Strategies • Variety of metadata schemas, content standards, and controlled vocabularies • Must choose the best for your project based on a variety of factors • Subjective in nature

17. Metadata Creation • What are you describing? • What are the characteristics of the collection you are describing? • Who are your users? • Who will create metadata? • How are you going to use your metadata? • Will you be providing and/or harvesting your metadata in the future? • How does your system work with certain metadata?

18. Context • Metadata is first and foremost created for use in its local context, but you need to think about uses of your metadata in a federated environment • Once local metadata is shared by your institution with outside repositories, it becomes exposed to automatic harvesting and aggregation • This is why it is important to map local metadata element or field to Dublin Core elements

19. *Graphic modified from Steven Miller’s “Metadata Resources” https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/mll/www/resource.html Dublin Core MODS AACR2 CCO (cataloging cultural Objects RDA MARC elements Structure Standards Metadata schemas Metadata Standards ValueStandards Controlled vocabularies for the values of elements Encoding Standards For machine readability, communication, and exchange Presentation Standards For display to users AAT LCSH MARC XML OPAC XSLT/CSS TGN ContentStandards Rules, guidelines, best practices for element content

20. Community Specific Metadata • MODS(Metadata Object Description Schema): Education • VRA Core (Visual Resources Association): Arts • EAD (Encoded Archival Description): Finding Aid • CDWA (Categories for the Description of Works of Art) • DDI (Data Documentation Initiative): Social, Behavioral Sciences. • TDL ETD MODS Application Profile (Texas Digital Library): Electronic Theses and Dissertations MODS Application http://www.tdl.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/tdl-descriptive-metadata-guidelines-for-etd-v1.pdf

21. Designing a Metadata Scheme • Examine context, content, users • Determine functional requirements • Select and develop an element set • Establish element and database specifications • Establish controlled vocabulary and encoding schemes • Develop content guidelines • Document the scheme

22. Documenting a metadata scheme (or a rose by any other name….) • A critical aspect of metadata design • Common names for metadata scheme documentation include metadata/user guidelines, usage guide, best practice guide, data dictionaries, and application profiles • These documents range in formality and specificity—from a simple table to a document of a hundred or so pages

23. Community Specific Metadata Exercise (If We Have EnoughTime…) • Which community(ies) uses this standard? • What type(s) of digital objects are being described with this standard? • What is the encoding standard used (xml, MARC, html)? • Are there any content standards used with this standard? • Are there any value standards used with this standard?

24. Dublin Core

25. Background on Dublin Core • Created in 1995 in Dublin, Ohio • Comprised as a small, simple set of elements for describing resources • Critical for OAI-PMH harvesting of digital objects (Open Archives Initiatives Protocol Metadata Harvesting) • Intended to be used for a wide variety of digital objects across different platforms

26. Dublin Core (cont’d) • Has since been generally adopted by libraries and other cultural heritage institutions to describe digital collections • ContentDM and Dspace are both commonly used platforms for digital content; both use Dublin Core elements for description • Although Dublin Core started out as a simple set of elements, it became obvious that a more complex structure was necessary for meaningful description, leading to Qualified Dublin Core

27. Dublin Core: Original 15 Elements(Simple Dublin Core) • Title • Creator • Subject • Description • Publisher • Contributor • Date • Type • Format • Identifier • Source • Language • Relation • Coverage • Rights

28. Qualified Dublin Core: Fields with Element Refinement(s) • Title—Alternative • Description—Table Of Contents, Abstract • Date—Created, Valid, Available, Issued, Modified • Format—Extent, Medium • Relation—Is Version Of, Has Version, Is Replaced by, Replaces, Is Required By, Requires, Is Part Of, Has Part, Is Referenced By, References, Is Format Of, Has Format • Coverage—Temporal, Spatial

29. Qualified Dublin Core: Fields with Element Encoding Scheme(s) • Identifier—URI • Date—DCMI Period, W3C-DTF • Language—ISO 639-2 and 639-3, RFC 1766 and 4646 • Subject—LCSH, MeSH, DDC, LCC, UDC

30. Qualified Dublin Core: Fields with Element Encoding Scheme(s) cont’d • Coverage.Spatial—DCMI Point, ISO 3166, DCMI Box, TGN • Coverage.Temporal—DCMI Period, W3C-DTF • Relation—URI • Source—URI

31. Metadata and Traditional Cataloging

32. Making the Connection Between Cataloging and Dublin Core • Moving from MARC to Dublin Core is painless • Same principle • Accurate description • Access • Machine readable across different systems/platforms

33. Mapping from Marc record to Dublin Core • Title 245 10 Automatic and controlled processes regulating attentional distraction by emotional stimuli|h[electronic resource] /|cby Juliette Galindo. • Author 100 1 Galindo, Juliette. • Subject 650 0 Distraction (Psychology) 650 0 Attention. 650 0 Galvanic skin response. *When moving from MARC to Dublin Core, Library of Congress Subject headings need to be designated with the suffix .lcshto differentiate them from keywords. • Title dc.Title Automatic and Controlled Processes regulating attentional distraction byemotional stimuli • Author dc.Creator Galindo, Juliette • Subject dc.Subject Emotion regulation, attentional distraction, skin conductance response (SCR), negativity bias. • Subject dc.subject.lcsh Galvanic skin response Attention Distraction (Psychology)

34. MARC to Dublin Core MARC Dublin Core In a Dublin Core record, the same information is put into multiple fields. dc.type.genre thesis thesis.degree.grantor Texas State University thesis.degree.department Psychology dc.date.issued 2010-08-23 • For granularity of description, MARC uses multiple subfields for various entries. • Texas State University--San Marcos.|bDept. of Psychology |vTheses|y2010.

35. Lunch

36. Metadata Exercises—IMAGE http://goo.gl/mfL8G

37. Metadata Exercises—TEXT Baylor Lariat, Vol. 18, Issue 1, 09/21/1916 (student newspaper), Pages 1-4 - http://contentdm.baylor.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/24lariat&CISOPTR=5179&REC=1 Book of Poetry – http://contentdm.baylor.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/09ablwpc&CISOPTR=20624&REC=2 Letter- http://digital.lib.uh.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/p15195coll9&CISOPTR=179&REC=1

38. Metadata Exercises—ETDs http://repository.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/94140

39. Metadata Exercises—AUDIO http://texasperformingarts.org/media/watch_and_listen_2009-2010

40. Contact Us Mary Manning Assistant University Archivist Texas A&M University mmanning@library.tamu.edu Karen Sigler Special Collections Cataloging Librarian Texas State University – San Marcos ks10@txstate.edu