Metadata Madness: Describing Digital Collections

1
Metadata Madness Describing Digital Collections
Part 2

• Danielle Cunniff Plumer
• Texas State Library and Archives Commission

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Types of Metadata

• Descriptive Metadata
• Used for discovery and identification
• Structural Metadata
• Used for display and navigation within objects
• Includes information on the internal organization
  of that object
• Administrative Metadata
• Used to document and manage digital objects
• Subtypes
• Rights management
• Preservation
• Technical

SourceNISO. (2004) Understanding
Metadata.Bethesda, MD NISO Press, p.1
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Descriptive Metadata Purposes

• Used for
• Identification
• Identify an item more or less uniquely
• Locate an item in physical or virtual space
• Resource discovery
• Group an object with similar objects
• Differentiate an object from other objects
• Should enable both search and browse

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Descriptive Metadata Elements

• Title or name
• Author or creator
• Keywords or subjects
• Abstract or notes
• Other elements?
• Specific elements depend on the metadata syntax
  or standard used

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Descriptive Metadata Standards

• Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR.
  Anglo-American cataloguing rules. 2nd ed., 2002
  revision. Chicago American Library Association,
  2002.
• Visual Resources Association. Cataloging cultural
  objects a guide to describing cultural works
  and their images. Chicago American Library
  Association, 2006.
• Society of American Archivists. Describing
  archives a content standard. Chicago Society
  of American Archivists, 2004.

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Describing Objects Books
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Describing Objects Books
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Describing Objects Documents
Hardin-Simmons University View East from
Wadston Gymnasium, Abilene, Texas Image Source
Abilene Postcards. TXGenWeb. http//www.rootswe
b.com/txtaylor/postcards2.htm
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Describing Objects Documents
Handbill from performance by Sugarloaf, Nov. 21,
1970, at The Civic Center in Abilene.  Image
Source www.bobyeazel.com/Sugarloaf20Concerts.htm

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Describing Objects Maps
Abilene 1916 (topographic) Original Scale
1125,000. 1892 Reprint, 1916. Image Source
Univ. of Texas at Austin Map Collection,
http//www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/abilene
16.jpg
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Describing Objects Maps
Augustus Koch (1840?). Birds Eye View of
Abilene, Taylor County, Texas. 1883 Courtesy of
Special Collections, The University of Texas at
Arlington Libraries. Image Source Amon Carter
Museum, http//www.birdseyeviews.org/zoom.php?cit
yAbileneyear1883extra_info
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Describing Objects Photos
Thunderstorm at sunset. Image ID nssl0135,
NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)
Collection Location Near Abilene, Texas. Photo
Date May 17, 1978 Credit NOAA Photo Library,
NOAA Central Library OAR/ERL/National Severe
Storms Laboratory (NSSL) , http//www.photolib.no
aa.gov/htmls/nssl0135.htm
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Describing Objects Photos
John Barker, ex-slave, Abilene. Portraits of
African American ex-slaves from the U.S. Works
Progress Administration, Federal Writers' Project
slave narratives collections, 1937 July 13.
Source Library of Congress Prints Photographs
Online Catalog, http//hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.
01047
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Describing Objects Photos
Texas Sesquicentennial Wagon Train at
Abilene.Photographer Nick Cirincione. Source
Portal to Texas History, http//texashistory.unt.
edu/permalink/meta-pth-20694
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Describing Objects Objects
Texas Sesquicentennial Wagon Train at
Abilene.Photographer Nick Cirincione. Source
Portal to Texas History, http//texashistory.unt.
edu/permalink/meta-pth-20694
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Describing Objects Objects
"Childhood's Great Adventure" based on the book
Santa Calls Author and illustrator William
Joyce. Sculptor Rick Jackson, December 3, 1996.
Source Portal to Texas History,
http//texashistory.unt.edu/permalink/meta-pth-52
71
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Controlled Vocabularies

• Types of Controlled Vocabularies
• Authority Lists
• Thesauri
• Structured Classifications
• Uses of Controlled Vocabularies
• Consistent Search Browse
• Gathering similar materials together
• Disambiguating items

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Vocabularies People Names

• Library of Congress Authorities
  http//authorities.loc.gov/
• Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)
  http//www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research
  /vocabularies/ulan/
• Handbook of Texas Online http//www.tsha.utexas.e
  du/handbook/online/

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Vocabularies Geographic

• Alexandria Digital Library Gazetteer Server
  http//www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/clients/gazetteer/
  
• Alexandria Digital Library Geographic Feature
  Type Thesaurus http//www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/gaz
  etteer/FeatureTypes/ver070302/
• Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
  http//www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research
  /vocabularies/tgn/
• Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)
  http//geonames.usgs.gov/

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Vocabularies Subject Genre

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
  http//www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research
  /vocabularies/aat/
• Library of Congress Subject Headings.
  http//authorities.loc.gov/
• Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I Subject Terms
  http//lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/toc.html
• Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II Genre and
  Physical Characteristic Terms http//lcweb.loc.go
  v/rr/print/tgm2/

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Vocabularies Objects Artifacts

• The Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging A
  Revised and Expanded Version of Robert G.
  Chenhall's System for Classifying Man-made
  Objects. Nashville, TN AASLH Press, 1988.
• British Museum Object Names Thesaurus
  http//www.mda.org.uk/bmobj/Objintro.htm
• Basic Terms for Cataloguing Costume
  http//www.mda.org.uk/costume/vbt00e.htm
• Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II Genre and
  Physical Characteristic Terms http//lcweb.loc.go
  v/rr/print/tgm2/

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Mapping Vocabularies
From OCLC Terminology Services, Cross-Vocabulary
Mappings http//www.oclc.org/research/projects/t
ermservices/default.htm
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Describing Objects Photos
Russell Lee. West Texan sitting on his pony while
watching polo match at Abilene, Texas, May 1939.
Source Library of Congress Prints
Photographs Online Catalog, http//lcweb2.loc.gov
/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/fsaall_at_FILREQ(_at_FIELD(DOCID_at_
LIT(fsa1997026607/PP))_at_FIELD(COLLIDfsa))
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Custom Vocabularies

• Range from locally-maintained term lists to
  detailed ontologies
• OWL Web Ontology Languagehttp//www.w3.org/TR/ow
  l-features/
• SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization
  Systemshttp//www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/
• Uncontrolled vocabularies
• Clay Shirkey, Ontology is Overratedhttp//www.s
  hirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html
• David Weinberger, Everything is Miscellaneous.
  New York Times Books, 2007.

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Combining Vocabularies

• Namespaces
• Namespaces are a simple and straightforward way
  to distinguish element names used in XML
  documents, no matter where they come from.
• Tim Bray, Namespaces by Example,
  http//www.xml.com/pub/a/1999/01/namespaces.html
• Encoding schemes
• An Encoding Scheme provides contextual
  information or parsing rules that aid in the
  interpretation of a term value.
• DCMI Grammatical Principles, http//dublincore.org
  /usage/documents/principles/

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Example XML Document

• lt?xml version"1.0"?gt
• ltmetadata
• xmlnsxsi"http//www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-in
  stance"
• xmlnsdc"http//purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
• xmlnsdcterms"http//purl.org/dc/terms/"
• xmlnsthditerms"http//www.thdi.org/standards
  /terms/"gt
• ltdctitlegt West Texan sitting on his
  pony while watching polo match at Abilene,
  Texaslt/dctitlegt
• ltdccreator xsitype"thditermshbto"gt
  Lee, Russell Werner (1903-1986)lt/dccreatorgt
• ltdctermsspatial xsitype"dctermsTGN"gt
  Abilene (preferred, C,V,N)lt/dctermsspatialgt
• ltdcsubject xsitype"dctermsLCSH"gt
  CowboysTexas--Pictorial workslt/dcsubjectgt
• ltdcsubject xsitype"thditermslctgm"gt
  Nitrate negativeslt/dcsubjectgt
• ltthditermsinstitution xsitype"thditermsmar
  corg"gt dlcpplt/thditermsinstitutiongt
• lt/metadatagt
• lt/xmlgt

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A Word About Wikis

• Excellent tool for creating and maintaining local
  controlled vocabularies
• Ability to make and track changes, add context,
  and define relationships
• Free hosted wiki tools
• PBWiki http//pbwiki.com/
• Wikia http//www.wikia.com/
• Locally installed wikis
• MediaWiki http//www.mediawiki.org
• PmWiki http//www.pmwiki.org/