1 / 47

Grappling  with Metadata

Grappling  with Metadata. November 17, 2008. Leah Prescott Digital Projects Coordinator Getty Research Institute. Master of St. Bartholomew, The Meeting of the Three Kings (detail), ca. 1480 J. Paul Getty Museum. What is Metadata?. “Data about data”—data categories

mills
Download Presentation

Grappling  with Metadata

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Grappling withMetadata November 17, 2008 Leah Prescott Digital Projects Coordinator Getty Research Institute Master of St. Bartholomew, The Meeting of the Three Kings (detail), ca. 1480 J. Paul Getty Museum

  2. What is Metadata? • “Data about data”—data categories • Data describing a discrete data object or objects • Cataloging or indexing information created to arrange, describe, and otherwise enhance access to an information object

  3. What is Metadata? "Metadata has aptly been compared to labels on cans in the supermarket. Without labels, we would have to open all the cans to see what is in them, we would have to analyse their contents to know whether the substance is edible or not, and so on." Metadata for Digital Resources

  4. What is Metadata? Thanks to the labels, we know what is in the can, what it is made of, where it comes from, how much it costs, up to what date we can safely eat it, possibly how we can prepare it and how to preserve it.

  5. Why is metadata important? Enhanced accessibility Retention of context Expanding use Multi-versioning Legal issues Preservation of data

  6. Don't go in blindfolded Emblem (“Premitur, non opprimitur”) from Claude Paradin, The heroicall devises of M. Claudius Paradin (London: W. Kearney, 1591) http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/parad176.htm As you start planning for digital projects, you need to be aware of the various options that exist for creating metadata

  7. Types of Metadata Administrative Descriptive Preservation Technical Structural Use

  8. Standards Why do we need them?

  9. Standards • Fundamental to the efficient exchange of information • Essential for meaningful search-and-retrieval of information • To improve the quality and consistency of information • To improve compatibility of information structures  • To protect the long-term value of data • To facilitate information retrieval • To facilitate information exchange

  10. Standards Information standards and controlled vocabularies can help extricate us from our metadata dilemmas...

  11. A brief (but related) detour:Markup Languages Glossary to EAD application guidelines: http://www.loc.gov/ead/ag/agappf.html

  12. Putting the Pieces Together

  13. DATA STANDARDS MARC -Machine Readable Cataloging MODS – Metadata Object Description Schema EAD - Encoded Archival Description Dublin Core - Core elements (Dublin, Ohio) METS - Metadata Encoding andTransmission Standard CDWA – Categories for theDescription ofWorks of Art VRA Core - Core elements of the Visual Resources Association Data Structure Standards (Metadata Element Sets) 

  14. DATA STANDARDS MARC -Machine Readable Cataloging http://www.loc.gov/marc/ Data Structure Standards (Metadata Element Sets) 

  15. Library of Congress MARC record

  16. Brief display of previous LC MARC record, with field labels instead of numbers

  17. MARC records can also be expressed in XML format http://www.loc.gov/standards/ marcxml/

  18. “Classic” MARC record

  19. MARCXML record

  20. DATA STANDARDS MODS: Metadata Object Description Schema http://www.loc.gov/standards/ mods/ Data Structure Standards (Metadata Element Sets) 

  21. MODS • An initiative of Network Development and MARC Standards Office at the Library of Congress • Uses XML schema • Originally designed for library applications, but may be used for others • A derivative of MARC

  22. MODS high-level elements • Note • Subject • Classification • Related item • Identifier • Location • Access conditions • Extension • Record Info Title Info Name Type of resource Genre Origin Info Language Physical description Abstract Table of contents Target audience

  23. DATA STANDARDS EAD - Encoded Archival Description http://www.loc.gov/ead/ Data Structure Standards (Metadata Element Sets) 

  24. EAD

  25. DATA STANDARDS Dublin Core - Core elements (Dublin, Ohio) http://dublincore.org/ Data Structure Standards (Metadata Element Sets) 

  26. Dublin Core

  27. DATA STANDARDS METS - Metadata Encoding andTransmission Standard http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/ Data Structure Standards (Metadata Element Sets) 

  28. Sample METS Object

  29. DATA STANDARDS CDWA Categories for theDescription ofWorks of Art http://www.getty.edu/research/ conducting_research/standards/ cdwa/ Data Structure Standards (Metadata Element Sets) 

  30. CDWA

  31. DATA STANDARDS VRA Core - Core elements of the Visual Resources Association http://www.vraweb.org/projects/ vracore4/ Data Structure Standards (Metadata Element Sets) 

  32. VRA Core Lindisfarne Gospel

  33. Data Value Standards (Vocabularies) DATA STANDARDS LCSH – Library of Congress Subject Headings LCNAF – Library of Congress Name Authority File TGM – Thesaurus of Graphic Materials AAT – Art and Architecture Thesaurus TGN – Thesaurus of Geographic Names ULAN – Union List of Artist Names and there are more...

  34. DATA STANDARDS Data Content Standards  (Cataloging Rules) AACR (➔RDA) – Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (Resource Description and Access) DA:CS – Describing Archives: A Content Standard ISBD – International Standard Bibliographic Description CCO – Cataloging Cultural Objects

  35. Data format standards (standards expressed in machine-readable form) DATA STANDARDS MARC –Machine Readable Cataloging MARCXML –MARC expressed in XML EAD – Encoded Archival Description CDWA Lite – Categories for theDescription of Works of Art - expressed in XML Dublin Core Simple XML schema DC Qualified XML schema VRA Core XML schema

  36. Connecticut History Online Project Dublin Core/MARC Crosswalk Mapping and Crosswalking

  37. Issues with the Web... • Are your collections “reachable” by commercial search engines? • If yes, how will you “contextualize” individual collection objects? • If not, what is your strategy to lead Web users to your search page?

  38. “Visible Web” vs. “Deep Web” • The Visible Web is what you see in the results pages from general Web search engines & subject directories (static Web pages) • The Invisible or Deep Web consists of data from dynamically searchable databases that cannot be indexed by search engines, because they aren’t “stored” anywhere.

  39. The “Google factor”

  40. What Google “looks at” • Title tag • Text on the Web page • Referring links

  41. What Google doesn’t look at (mostly) • Keywords meta tag • Description meta tag

  42. Challenges How to assist users in “unmediated” searching, browsing, etc. How to present large, complicated amounts of data in a way that users can understand and interpret How to create “cataloging for the Web”: harnessing and adapting the power of metadata and controlled vocabularies How to provide reliable, up-do-date, “authoritative” metadata

  43. Facing the Challenges • Institutions need to carefully chose and consistently apply metadata schemes to their collections information. • Application of vocabulary resources (including local authorities and thesauri) is essential for enhancing end-user access. • Use of picklists, thematic groupings, and “browsing categories” based on institutions’ organized data improves end-user access.

  44. Facing the Challenges • Careful and consistent implementation of title tags and other metadata on Web pages facilitates end-user searching and retrieval of Web resources • Use metadata and usability analysis should be a routine part of digital library work. • Provide both searching and browsing functionalities (and carefully consider an advanced “fielded” searching option)

  45. Facing the Challenges Don’t necessarily “show” all your data, nor make it all available for end-user searching Don’t create hyperlinks simply because you can Don’t let software dictate decisions Create thematic groupings (based on carefully constructed metadata!) that reflect your collections and help your users Study end-user behavior (including your own)

  46. Thank you for your attention! lprescott@getty.edu Joseph Ducreux, Yawning (Self-Portrait), before 1783 J. Paul Getty Museum

More Related