The JISC IE Metadata Schema Registry and IEEE LOM Application Profiles

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The JISC IE Metadata Schema Registry and IEEE LOM
Application Profiles
Pete Johnston UKOLN, University of Bath CETIS
Metadata Digital Repositories SIG, Liverpool30
June 2004
http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/
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Outline

• What is a metadata schema registry?
• The JISC IE and the IEMSR
• Metadata application profiles
• DC and IEEE LOM

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JISC IE Metadata Schema Registry project (IEMSR)

• Funded under JISC Shared Services programme, Jan
  2004 July 2005
• UKOLN, University of Bath
• ILRT, University of Bristol
• CETIS, Becta as contributing partners
• Main outputs
• Pilot metadata schema registry service for JISC
  IE
• Schema creation tool(s) for DC LOM implementers
  (plus documentation)
• Open-source software
• Models for application profiles
• Recommendations re policy framework

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Metadata Schema Registries

• What is a metadata schema registry?
• Application that provides services based on
  information about metadata vocabularies and their
  component terms
• Metadata vocabulary
• Functional set of terms managed as a unit
  (element set)
• Services to human readers, software agents

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Metadata Schema Registries

• What functions might a metadata schema registry
  support?
• Disclosure of metadata vocabularies, terms
• Discovery/selection (and re-use) of vocabularies,
  terms
• Verification of provenance/status of
  vocabularies, terms
• Navigation of relationships between terms
• Mapping, inferencing
• Pointers to related resources
• guidelines, bindings, transformations

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JISC IE Metadata Schema Registry

• Effective exchange of metadata essential to
  interoperability in IE
• IE Technical Standards specify "baseline" of
  Simple DC and/or UK LOM Core
• Also exchange of richer metadata between services
• Use of "application profiles"
• Increasing requirement to disclose metadata
  semantics
• Issues of authority, currency, provenance, trust
• N.B. IEMSR concerned with metadata exposed by
  applications, not internal database schemas

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JISC IE Metadata Schema Registry

• IEMSR as shared/infrastructural service
• Machine interface(s) ("structured")
• Provide functions of common interest to other
  service components (content providers, fusion
  services, presentation services) in IE
• "Common service" in e-Learning Framework
• IEMSR as presentational service
• Human-readable interface ("unstructured")
• Disclose/discover metadata semantics, usage
• Promote appropriate reuse of existing solutions
• Minimise duplication of effort

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IEMSR Use Scenarios

• Content provision service discloses application
  profile
• Constructs publishes schema, submits to
  registry
• Metadata schema developer explores/(re-) uses
  existing implementation choices
• Human-readable documentation
• Controlled vocabularies used
• Schemas for bindings
• Metadata schema researcher surveys existing usage
  of metadata standards
• How properties/data elements used in practice
  (within domain, community, area)

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IEMSR Use Scenarios

• Metadata creation tool accesses machine-readable
  description of selected application profile
• Obligation/occurrence constraints
• Human-readable documentation
• Controlled vocabularies as e.g. VDEX
• Schemas for bindings
• Aggregation or presentation service requires
  information on application profile
• Which "metadata formats" to request via OAI-PMH
  for bindings of this AP
• What labels to use in display of harvested records

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Metadata Application Profiles

• Recognition that implementers adopt metadata
  standards in pragmatic way
• Optimise for requirements of application
• Metadata "application profile" as declaration of
  usage (Heery/Patel, Ariadne)
• Select terms from multiple metadata vocabularies
• Provide context-specific interpretations
• Provide constraints on occurrence of terms
• Provide constraints on values of terms

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Metadata Schema Registries Metadata Application
Profiles

• CORES/MEG schema registries (2002-2003)
• Model for metadata "application profile" as basis
  of registry data model
• Based on Dublin Core "meta-model"
• DC description as set of property-value
  statements about resource
• DC element as property of resource
• CORES/MEG AP as set of "element/property usages"

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Metadata Schema Registries Metadata Application
Profiles

• IEEE LOM based on different "meta-model"
• LOM standard describes LOM instance as
  tree/container structure
• LOM data element as component in hierarchy
• LOM data element ! DC element
• LOM AP describes constraints on LOM tree
  structure
• Subject to constraints in LOM standard
• LOM AP ! DC AP
• Not adequately represented in CORES/MEG data model

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LOM Application Profiles

• Recognise need to develop model for LOM AP for
  IEMSR
• LOM AP as set of LOM data element usages
• A data element usage
• may provide additional documentation on how the
  data element is interpreted
• may specify obligation for the data element
• may specify permitted number of occurrences for
  the data element

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LOM Application Profiles

• For a aggregate LOM data element
• shall not define datatype and value space
• For a simple LOM data element
• must retain datatype and value space
• For a simple LOM data element of datatype
  Vocabulary
• May extend the value space, by allowing values
  from one or more non-LOM vocabularies
• For the LOM Classification data element
• must specify a purpose for the classification
  (from the LOM standard vocabulary)
• may specify the use of one or more taxonomies for
  that specified purpose of classification

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LOMAP
1
contains
m
1
m
usesLOMDataElement
LOM data element
LOM data element usage
LOM aggregatedata element usage
LOM simpledata elementusage
Vocabularydatatype element usage
Classificationdata element usage
m
m
m
extendsValueSpace
hasPurpose
usesTaxonomy
n
1
n
Taxonomy
Non-LOMvocabulary
LOMClassificationpurpose
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IEMSR, LOM APs, LOM applications/tools

• API requirements?
• How to expose LOMAPs to tools?
• e.g. Reload profile/helper documents
• Extended data elements in LOM APs
• What is an extended data element?
• How is an extended data element declared?
• Support for VDEX
• Import VDEX XML?
• Expose VDEX XML?
• Relationship between LOMAP and DCAP models?
• Building on LOM RDF binding

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JISC IE Metadata Schema Registry Project
http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/projects/iemsr/
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Acknowledgements

• UKOLN is funded by the UK Museums, Libraries and
  Archives Council (MLA), the Joint Information
  Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher and
  further education funding councils, as well as by
  project funding from the JISC and the European
  Union. UKOLN also receives support from the
  University of Bath where it is based.
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/

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The JISC IE Metadata Schema Registry and IEEE LOM
Application Profiles
Pete Johnston UKOLN, University of Bath CETIS
Metadata Digital Repositories SIG, Liverpool30
June 2004
http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/