Metadata Vocabularies in Subject Gateways for Japanese Regional Public Libraries

1
Metadata Vocabularies in Subject Gateways for
Japanese Regional Public Libraries

• Shigeo Sugimoto
• Research Center for Knowledge Communities
• Graduate School of Library, Information and Media
  Studies
• University of Tsukuba

2
Some Japanese Governmental Activities, Metadata
Vocabularies, anda Model for Sharing Metadata
Schemas

• Shigeo Sugimoto
• Research Center for Knowledge Communities
• Graduate School of Library, Information and Media
  Studies
• University of Tsukuba

3
DC in Japanese Industrial Standard

• Simple Dublin Core has been accepted as a
  National Standard in March 2005 by JIS. JIS X
  0836
• Translation of ISO 15836
• Key issue for translation
• Choice of Japanese terms for Labels, which should
  be domain neutral
• Example Subject element
• ?????
• Straightforward translation of subject
• Library oriented terms, possibility of confusion
  with the meaning of Title
• ?????(keyword)
• Domain Neural
• chosen for JIS X 0836

4
Some Activities in Japan

• Preservation
• Web Archiving National Diet Library (NDL)
• Governmental Resources NDL and National
  Archives of Japan
• NDL
• National Deposit Library
• Appointed as the central organization for
  national Web archiving
• Revision of Law for legal deposit
• National Archives of Japan
• Archiving of government resources
• Born digital resources
• Definition of Governmental Resource
• Central repository for government documents

5
Digital Okayama Dai-Hyakka (DODH)

• DODH
• Regional portal by the Okayama Prefectural
  Library
• Metadata creation by librarians and
  non-professionals, e.g. school teachers,
  students, and volunteers.
• A Key Issue Subject Classification
• Choice of subject vocabularies
• Small set of subject terms usable for the
  non-professionals designed in accordance with
  regional needs.

6
Basic Ideas in DODH

• Basic Question Is comprehensive/conventional
  subject vocabulary really useful?
• Use domain specific vocabularies in addition to a
  comprehensive and widely used by libraries
• Three vocabularies
• NDC (Nippon Decimal Classification)
• Very widely used by Japanese libraries
• Kids Vocabulary
• Designed for children and child resources
• Multiple labels in accordance with user ages
• Prefectural Resource Vocabulary
• Developed by the government of Okayama prefecture
  for their resources

7
Basic Ideas in DODH

• Maintenance of subject vocabularies
• Librarians major concern on domain specific
  vocabularies
• This is still an open question.
• Need software tools to maintain vocabularies
• Metadata Schema Registry
• Semantic Web technology

8
Some Issues on Subject Vocabularies

• Comprehensive and conventional subject
  vocabularies are not always useful for
  domain-specific resources.
• Regional governments vocabularies for
  classifying resources
• Comparison between the three subject vocabularies
• Mappings between all pairs of these three
  vocabularies show the characteristics of
  vocabularies and requirements for classifying
  resources from different perspectives.

9
Classification Vocabularies of Four Prefectural
Governments in Japan
means that terms to express names of regions
or organizations are excluded.
10
Tokyo
Okayama
Ibaraki
Kagawa
Kanagawa
11
Distribution of Terms in the NDC term space -
Okayamas Case -
NDC 000Generalities, 100Philosophy,
200History, 300Social Sciences,
400Natural Sciences, 500Technology,
600Industry, 700The Arts,
800Language, 900Literature NDC in KV/PV the
number of NDC terms in x00 used in the KV/PV
mapping
12
Subject Vocabularies - Okayamas Case -
13
Discussions

• Interoperability vs. Domain Specificity
• Reasonably small and domain-specific vocabulary
  is advantageous for domain-specific applications.
• Domain-specificity is, in general,
  disadvantageous for interoperability
• Maintainability of Vocabularies
• Long-term maintenance of vocabularies is
  expensive.
• Reusability and customizability
• Neighboring communities would need to share a
  vocabulary in part.
• Need a good model to solve these issues

14
A Model for Reusing Metadata Schemas
termA Mandatory
termC Optional Repeatable
termZ Mandatory if applicable
termX Mandatory Repeatable
Metadata Vocabulary 2 (Metadata Element Set)
Metadata Vocabulary 1 (Metadata Element Set)
A structural view of application profile
15
A Model for Reusing Metadata Schemas
Abstract Syntax and Concrete Syntax
16
A Model for Reusing Metadata Schemas
A Layered Modelsplit semantics and syntax into
layers
17
A Model for Reusing Metadata Schemas
Layered Model and Metadata Schema Registry
18
A Model for Reusing Metadata Schemas
Layered Model and Metadata Schema Registry
19
A Model for Reusing Metadata Schemas
Layer 3
Layer 2
Layer 1
DCMI Registry
Tsukuba Registry

• Use registries to share, reuse, customize and
  maintain vocabularies
• Develop software tools to support these functions.

Layered Model and Metadata Schema Registry
20
Discussions

• Need good model and software tools
• DCAM provides the basic architecture of metadata
  elements and metadata descriptions
• The layered model presented is designed in order
  to enhance reusability/customizability of
  metadata schemas by splitting semantic and
  syntactic features of metadata schemas.
• Metadata Schema Registry as a key component to
  share metadata schemas
• Collaborating registries to collect
  community-specific schemas and to share the
  schemas among communities
• Software tools attached to a registry, e.g.
• Vocabulary maintenance tool attached to a
  registry,
• Metadata application software generator