Metadata: practice and practice

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Metadatapractice and practice

• Lorcan Dempsey
• VP Research and Chief Strategist
• CLIR/DLF. Managing Digital Assets A Primer for
  Library and Information Technology
  Administrators  
• Charleston, SC
• February 4-6, 2005
•  

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Overview

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

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Some themes

• Consolidation fragmentation gets in the way
• Industrialization much of our metadata creation
  is a cottage industry current approaches will
  not scale
• Cost value
• Intellectual and machine need to work harder to
  programmatically create metadata
• Institutions and service move from projects to
  service

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Example Metasearch/portal
Metadata is everywhere -)
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A portal turned inside out
Common services
I need a few references
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
authentication
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Directory user profile
Common services
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
Query broker
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Directory service/collection description
Common services
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
Content results list
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
Id like to get this book.
Request broker
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
Directory ILL policy
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Directory service/collection description
Common services
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
Content circ/ILL system
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
I need this article too.
Request broker
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
openURL resolver
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
Directory local knowledge base
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Nearly there
Common services
Directory service/collection description
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Common services
Content article
Content services
Application services
Presentation services
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Directory user profile
Directory service/collection description
Directory ILL policy
Authentication
Common services
Directory local knowledge base
Reference db
OpenURL resolver
Circ/ILL system
Article db

• Metadata for multiple entities required to
  support operations.
• This picture could be extended in multiple ways.

Request broker
Content services
Query broker
Application services
Presentation services
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Metadata as intelligence

• Know what resources are available
• Know how to play a resource
• Know provenance of a resource
• Know what use policy governs a resource
• Know how to ingest a resource
• Know how to interact with a resource
• Know how to compose/decompose resources

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Metadata?
allows people and machines to work smarter
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Metadata?
Schematized
statements about
resources
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Something about Resources
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Resources everything that moves

• Multiple types of information Objects
• Collections
• Services
• People
• Organizations
• Places
• Terms
• Formats
• Rights
• Business terms
• License

• and will support multiple operations
• Discovery to delivery
• Digital asset management
• Publishing interfaces intersections between user
  information spaces and library information spaces

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Different classes of metadata increasingly a part
of complex object models

• Descriptive
• Structural
• Technical
• Administrative
• Rights
• Preservation
• Tracking
• Provenance

• SCORM/Content package
• METS
• MPEG 21

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Community?




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So

• More than discovery
• More than information objects
• More than library

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Something about schematized
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Simple descriptive metadata!!
Cataloging rulesControlled vocabs.
FRBRINDECSCIDOC
MARC21 DC VRA CoreMODSOnix
XML ISO2709
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OAI
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OAI-based mediation
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OAI

• A way of publishing processable metadata on the
  network
• A way of synchronizing databases
• And
• The same for resources themselves?
• A nice building block for other services

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An example
Following pages show some experimental services
where OAI is used to publish metadata. There
is a WIKI interface to metadata stores managed
under OAI.
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Tools
Edit
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Interoperability

• Recombinant potential
• Economic and service issues
• Cost

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Interoperability a factor at all these levels ..
For example ..

• Encoding
• Element set
• Content/values

• Encoding
• Element set
• Content/values

Examples Z39.2/MARC/AACR DC OAI
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Importance of agreements

• DC profile
• Vocabularies

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This gives a context for discussing

• Traditional library practice
• Strive for consistency at all three levels in the
  ISO 2709/MARC/AACR model
• Institutionalised in standards, OCLC/RLG/LC,
  committees,
• Dublin Core
• Consistency of element set
• A small number of encodings
• Content/values subject to separate agreement
• OAI
• A transport for resources.
• No control over the transported resources
• So

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Something about collections
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Collections grid
Stewardship
high
low
low
Uniqueness
high
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Collections grid
disclosure
high
low
Publishing
Amazoogle
D2D
low
Reformatting
high
E-learning E-research
Cultural heritage
Digital asset management
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Some observations

• Bought materials
• Licensed materials

• Special collections/archives
• Research and learning materials

Metadata Cost/value Routine? Consolidated?
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Making data work

• Reading in the dark

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Some thoughts

• Fragmentation
• Fragmentation reduces gravitational pull
• Fragmentation increases cost
• Consolidation
• Services
• Processing
• Mobilize collective capacity
• Routinization/industrialization
• Programmatic extraction of metadata from digital
  resources
• Agreement
• Plural disclosure
• Want to make stuff available in lots of ways

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Thank you!
Lorcan DempseyDempseyL_at_oclc.org