An Introduction to Metadata

1
An Introduction to Metadata

• Jackie Knowles
• RSP Support Officer

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Aim of the session

• To gain an understanding of metadata and its
  purpose in a repository context
• To re-enforce the importance of using metadata
  standards within your repository to enable
  interoperability and harvesting

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What is metadata?

• Metadata is structured information that
  describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes
  it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an
  information resource.
• Source NISO (2004) Understanding Metadata.
  Bethesda, NISO Press.

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More about metadata

• Metadata can be confusing!
• Easier to understand if you think of it as it
  appears in two different contexts in the
  repository
• Metadata as collected from the author via the
  submission interface within the repository
• Metadata as it is stored in the database sitting
  behind the repository

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Types of metadata

• Descriptive
• Structural
• Administrative
• Rights management metadata
• Preservation metadata

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Why do we need metadata?

• To facilitate discovery of your repository
  content
• To facilitate harvesting of your repository
  content by external systems
• To help you organise your repository content
• To support archiving and preservation

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Metadata schemas

• A metadata scheme is a sets of metadata elements
  designed for a specific purpose, such as
  describing a particular type of information
  resource.

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List of metadata schemas

• Simple Dublin Core
• Qualified Dublin Core
• MODS
• DIDL
• MARC
• METS
• PREMIS
• MIX .
• ACRONYM HEAVEN!

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Current standards in use

• The most commonly used standard within the
  repository community, and the one required for
  interoperability and harvesting via the OAI-PMH,
  is Dublin Core.

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Simple Dublin Core 15 elements

• Title
• Creator
• Subject
• Description
• Publisher
• Contributor
• Date
• Type
• Format
• Identifier
• Source
• Language
• Relation
• Coverage
• Rights
• http//www.dublincore.org/

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Qualified Dublin Core

• Takes the 15 Dublin Core elements and adds some
  further levels of detail.
• Two types of qualifiers used
• Element refinement
• Encoding scheme

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DC Tags some examples

• Field label DC tag Content
• Title dctitle This is the title.
• Author dc author Knowles, J.
• Date dc.date 2007
• Abstract dcdescription.abstract This is the
  abstract of my example content.

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Application Profiles

• application profiles are a type of metadata
  schema
• can be thought of as packages of metadata
• declaration specifying which metadata terms an
  organization, information provider, or user
  community uses in its metadata.
• application profiles are schemas which consist of
  data elements drawn from one or more XML
  namespaces, combined together by implementors,
  and optimised for a particular local application.

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SWAP Scholarly Works Application Profile

• Extend DC to make it richer and more functional
• Provide an unambiguous method of identifying the
  full text
• Help with version control and identification
• Introduce vocabularies
• Implement OpenURL and citation analysis

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Out of the box local extensions

• Realistically most people will work with what
  comes out of the box when establishing
  repositories but fields can be added and
  schemes customised.
• Explore the types of content you are working with
  and the field structures you will need at an
  early stage and establish your metadata scheme.
• Consider local needs such as departmental and
  research group structures and any local decisions
  needed about subject classification etc.

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• Jackie Knowles
• jak_at_aber.ac.uk