Emerging Standards for Complex Works

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Emerging Standards for Complex Works

• Howard Besser
• UCLA School of Education Information
• http//www.gseis.ucla.edu/howard

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Emerging Standards for Complex Works

• Background Context for Standards
• MOA2 Structural Administrative Metadata
• NISO/DLF Technical Imaging Standards
• Identification/provenance
• Rich Media
• Longevity

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Key problems were facing

• Discovery
• Longevity
• Interoperability

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Traditional Digital Library Model
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Ideal Digital Library Model
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For Interoperability Digital Libraries Need
Standards

• Descriptive Metadata for consistent description
• Discovery Metadata for finding
• Administrative Metadata for viewing and
  maintaining
• Structural Metadata for navigation
• ... Terms Conditions Metadata for controlling
  access...

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Why are Standards and Metadata consensus
important?

• Managing digital files over time
• Longevity
• Interoperability
• Veracity
• Recording in a consistent manner
• Will give vendors incentive to create
  applications that support this

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Collaborative Metadata Projects

• Dublin Core
• NSF/ERCIM Digital Collaboratory
• OCLC CORC Project-
• Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core
• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
• Computerized Interchange of Museum Information
  (CIMI)-
• Records Export for Art and Cultural Heritage
  (REACH)

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CORC--Cooperative Online Resource Catalog

• both bib records webliographies (pathfiinders)
• supports both AACR2/MARC and DC
• began 1/99, scheduled availability 7/00
• 100-200 participants
• Academic libraries
• OCLC networks, special libraries, public
  libraries, state national libraries, consortia

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Making of America II-

• Background of the DLF Project
• Administrative Metadata
• Structural Metadata

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MOA2 Goal is Interpoerability

• Book example

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DLF Metadata for Interoperability Testbedthe
MOA II Project

• R D
• Distributed Repositories
• Transportation, 1869-1900
• Testbed Project
• Best Practices
• Structural and administrative metadata

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Previous Projects/Background

• Library Standards Background
• UC Berkeley Background
• Finding Aids
• EAD
• SGML
• EAD Digital Archives

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MOA II Classes of Objects

• Continuous Tone Photos
• Photo Albums
• Diaries, journals, letterpress books
• Ledgers
• Correspondence

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MOA II Metadata

• Administrative Metadata
• for enhancing resource management
• Structural Metadata
• for reflecting internal hierarchies and
  relationships btwn parts
• Raw/Seared/Cooked

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MOA II Behaviors

• Navigation
• Display/Print

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MOA II Best practices

• Use/Users/Collection
• Benchmarking
• Masters vs. Derivatives
• Scanning-
• Administrative Metadata-
• Structural Metadata-

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Scanning Best Practices

• Think about users (and potential users), uses,
  and type of material/collection
• Scan at the highest quality that does not exceed
  the likely potential users/uses/material
• Do not let todays delivery limitations influence
  your scanning file sizes understand the
  difference between digital masters and derivative
  files used for delivery
• Many documents which appear to be bitonal
  actually are better represented with greyscale
  scans

• Include color bar and ruler in the scan
• Use objective measurements to determine scanner
  settings (do NOT attempt to make the image good
  on your particular monitor or use image
  processing to color correct)
• Dont use lossy compression
• Store in a common (standardized) file format
• Capture as much metadata as is reasonably
  possiple (including metadata about the scanning
  process itself)

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Why Scale is important
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Administrative Metadatato uniquely identify a
digital resource and manage it over time

• Information about where the various
  pieces/versions of the object reside
• Information to view the digital object
• Information about the scanning process

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Structural Metadatathat which is relevant to
presentation of the digital object to the user

• metadata defining the "object a book, a diary,
  a photo album
• metadata defining the sub-objects pages
  (physical) or chapters and subheads (intellectual)

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SGML, XML, HTML

• TEI for structured humanities text
• EAD for Finding Aids

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NISO/DLF Image Metadata WorkshopPossible Goals

• Metadata fields
• Rules for Field Contents (authority control)
• Core set of necessary fields
• Syntax for expressing fields and contents
  (headers)

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Image MetadataFocus on Metadata that may prove
helpful for

• management
• use
• preservation
• ...

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Image MetadataBreak-out Groups Work Done

• Characteristics and Features of Images
• Image Production and Reformatting Features
• Image Identification and Integrity

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NISO/DLF Image Metadata Workshop (4/99) Image
Technical Information Possible Goals

• Metadata fields
• Rules for Field Contents (authority control)
• Core set of necessary fields
• Syntax for expressing fields and contents
  (headers)

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Image MetadataFocus on Metadata that may prove
helpful for

• management
• use
• preservation
• ...

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Image MetadataBreak-out Groups Work Done-

• Characteristics and Features of Images
• Image Production and Reformatting Features
• Image Identification and Integrity

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Image Metadata Elements for Data DictionaryData
Dictionary Entries

• Element Name
• Definition (short) of the element name
• Is the element required? (Identified as
  Mandatory, Mandatory if Applicable, Recommended,
  Optional)
• How is the value of the element represented?
• Examples
• When is this data collected?
• What is the purpose of this data?
• Who would the identified users be?
• How is the metadata used?
• What other metadata standards reference it?

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Image Metadata Elements for Data
DictionaryCharacteristics and Features Element
List

• Format Issues
• Resolution Issues
• Encoding
• Compression
• Others

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Image Metadata Elements for Data Dictionary
Image Production Element List (Pertaining to the
Image)

• In-image target(s)
• System target(s), associated with the object
• Responsible agent
• Rationale
• Hardware
• Software

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Image Metadata Elements for Data Dictionary
Image Production Element List (Pertaining to the
Process)

• Format of the image
• Intrinsic characteristics of the image
• Identification
• Provides a means for defining methodology
  including documentation and rationale
• Who is involved with the file?
• Who created the image file?
• Who commissioned the creation of the image file
  (i.e., the chartering entity), as opposed to Who
  is the responsible agency? Who is the owner?
• Where
• What
• When necessary dates including capture
  date/time, modification
• Checksum
• Navigational aid
• Encoding tools

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Image MetadataNISO/DLF Image MetadataIn
Progress

• Data Dictionary for both Characteristics
  Features and for Image Production Elements due
  end of 6/00

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Finding Image Origins
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Identification/Provenance (Images)-

• The number of variant forms of a work can be
  enormous
• Image Families
• A digital image frequently has many layers of
  parentage
• Information about the parentage that can indicate
  the quality and veracity of the image (Dublin
  Core "Source" and "Relation")
• how to deal with different versions derived from
  the same scan or different encoding schemes
• Vocabulary Standards to express this

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The number of variant forms of a work can be
enormous

• different views of the same object
• different lighting of the same object
• different scans of the same photo
• different resolutions
• different compression schemes
• different compression ratios
• different file storage formats
• different details of the same image
• ...

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Image Families
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Identification/Provenance

• how to deal with different versions (browse,
  hi-res, medium res) derived from the same scan or
  different encoding schemes (TIFF, PICT, JFIF)
• Vocabulary Standards to express this
• VRA Surrogate Categories
• CIMI's "Image Elements

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Other Metadata

• Description of depiction/surrogate (What VRA
  calls its "Surrogate Categories")
• Description of original object
• Rights and Reproduction Information
• Location Information

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Metadata for Digital Commerce

• DOI
• ltindecsgt-

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ltIndecsgt

• formal structure for describing and uniquely
  identifying intellectual property itself, the
  people and businesses involved in its trading,
  and the agreements which they make about it
  (primarily for publishing, music, and visual
  arts)
• will develop high-level specifications for the
  services that will be required to implement a
  global IP trading system based on this ltindecsgt
  generic data model
• focus is on encoding rights at a high level, not
  on resource discovery
• likely to involve metadata schma registration and
  directory to allow interoperation of personal
  identifiers for rightsholders and users
• supported by EEC DG-13
• First meeting July 1999
• http//www.indecs.org/

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Problems Potentialsof Rich Media-

• Types of Rich Media
• Technologies and problems
• Opportunities--a scenario
• Metadata
• Indexing

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Some Types of Rich Media

• Moving image materials
• Multimedia
• Interactive programs
• Computer art

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After an uphill battle, tech and Tinseltown find
common ground (USA Today, 3/3/00)
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Projected Changes Prospect of digitized movies
already has some mourning loss of film(SF
Chronicle, 3/5/00)
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Video Technology to Make the Head Spin (NYT
3/2/00)
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ECI - Hole in Space (both)
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ECI - 84-locations
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ECI - 84-Community Memory
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ECI - 84-MOCA
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ECI - Avatars Humans
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ECI - Avatar Stage
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Complexity of Rich Media

• Works often have artistic nature (including video
  games)
• Enormous number of elements can, at times, be
  very important to preserve (pacing, original
  artifact, elements used to construct the
  artifact)
• Too complex to save every one of these aspects
  for every type of material
• Importance of saving documentation

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Rich Media Technologies

• Streaming media vs. Downloaded files
• Bandwidth and compression
• Need to offload functions onto clients

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The Inter-relation Problem

• -Info is increasingly inter-related to other info
• -How do we make our own Info persist when it
  points to and integrates with Info owned by
  others?
• -What is the boundary of a set of information (or
  even of a digital object)?

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The Translation Problem

• Content translated into new delivery devices
  changes meaning
• -A photo vs. a painting
• -If Info is produced originally in digital form
  in one encoded format, will it be the same when
  translated into another format?
• Behaviors

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Problems of Rich Media

• Complexity of formats (storage compression)
• Synchronicity between media/streams
• Pieces and Boundaries
• Persistent IDs
• Interactivity
• Historical context
• Content
• Recontextualization (Postmodernism)

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Opportunities--a scenario

• Huge stable online DB of rich media (Prelinger
  Archives)
• Creators create new works that consist mainly of
  links to and transitions btwn pieces of the rich
  media DB
• Works are not really assembled until run-time
• Securing IP permission may shift from
  capital-intensive producer to end-user
• Economics of media production may change
  drastically

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Structural Metadata for Complex Objects-

• MPEG 4
• SMIL

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Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
(SMIL)

• For repurposing and reuse in different ways
• Use XML to reference various pieces in different
  ways
• Supported by Realmedia but not Microsoft or
  Macromedia

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MPEG 4

• Object-oriented
• Very low level of granularity (even objects vs
  backgrounds)
• Scaleable bandwidth use
• Binary Format for Scenes (BIFS) borrows concepts
  from VRML

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Indexing ofMoving Image Materials

• Whole works vs. parts of Works
• MPEG 7
• Approaches to segmentation thumbnail
  representation
• Closed caption indexing
• Audio description indexing
• Semiotics

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Other Types of Metadata-

• Longevity
• Identification/Provenance
• Rights Management

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The Short Life of Digital Info Digital Longevity
Problems-

• Disappearing Information
• The Viewing Problem
• The Scrambling Problem
• The Inter-relation Problem
• The Custodial Problem
• The Translation Problem

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The Viewing Problem

• Digital Info requires a whole infrastructure to
  view it
• Each piece of that infrastructure is changing at
  an incredibly rapid rate
• How can we ever hope to deal with all the
  permutations and combinations

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The Scrambling ProblemDangers from

• Compression to ease storage delivery
• Container Architecture to enhance digital commerce

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The Inter-relation Problem

• -Info is increasingly inter-related to other info
• -How do we make our own Info persist when it
  points to and integrates with Info owned by
  others?
• -What is the boundary of a set of information (or
  even of a digital object)?

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The Custodial Problem

• How do we decide what to save?
• Who should save it?
• How should they save it?
• -methods for later access emulation, migration,
  etc.
• -issues of authenticity and evidence

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The Translation Problem

• Content translated into new delivery devices
  changes meaning
• -A photo vs. a painting
• -If Info is produced originally in digital form
  in one encoded format, will it be the same when
  translated into another format?
• Behaviors

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Pieces of the Solution (1/2)

• -We need to insist upon clearly readable
  standardized ways for digital objects to
  self-identify their formats
• -We should discourage scrambling
• -We need to better understand information
  inter-relates to other Info, and what constitutes
  boundaries of Info objects

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Pieces of the Solution (2/2)

• -People and organizations wishing to make
  information persist need guidelines of how to go
  about doing it
• -We need to better understand how translating
  from one storage or display format to another
  affects the meaning of a work
• -We need to save the behaviors of a digital
  object, not just its contents

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Metadata can be the first line of defense

• Can tell you
• where the file is (if you cant find the file)
• where more info about the file is (if you have
  the file but most other metadata has become
  separated)
• what the file format is
• what the compression scheme is
• what application program and version is needed
  for the file

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Groups Working onthe Big Longevity
Problemhttp//sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Imaging/Databa
ses/Longevity/

• CPA Task Force
• CPA Study Group
• Getty Time Bits Conference-
• Internet Archive
• Long Now

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Migration/Refreshing

• Impact on evidential value

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Emerging Standards for Complex Works

• Howard Besser
• UCLA School of Education Information
• http//www.gseis.ucla.edu/howard/image-meta.html
• http//sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/moa2/
• http//www.gseis.ucla.edu/howard/Classes/287-movi
  ng.html
• http//www.gseis.ucla.edu/howard/Classes/287-mov-
  index-bib.html
• http//www.gseis.ucla.edu/howard/Metadata/UC-May0
  0/
• http//www.getty.edu/gri/standard/intrometadata/
• http//sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Imaging/Databases/sta
  ndards
• http//sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Longevity/
• http//www.ifla.org/II/metadata.htm
• http//purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core/
• http//purl.oclc.org/corc/
• http//lcweb.loc.gov/ead/
• http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/Metadata/sp2000.html

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Data StructuresThe VRA Core

• 28 elements specifically for visual resource
  collections
• Work Description Categories-
• Visual Document Description Categories-
• http//www.oberlin.edu/art/vra/dsc.html

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VRA CoreWork Description Categories

• Work type
• Title
• Measurements
• Material
• Technique
• Creator
• Role
• Date
• Repository name
• Repository place

• Repository number
• Current site
• Original site
• Style/period/group/movement
• Nationality/culture
• Subject
• Related work
• Relationship type
• Notes

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VRA CoreVisual Document Description Categories

• Visual document type
• Visual document format
• Visual document measurements
• Visual document date
• Visual document owner
• Visual document owner number
• Visual document view description
• Visual document subject
• Visual document source

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Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

• designed for subject indexing of pictorial
  materials, particularly large general collections
  of historical images
• for cataloging and retrieval
• good for general audiences and broad approaches
  to the material
• TGM-I Subject Terms TGM-II Genre and Physical
  Characteristic Terms
• http//lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm/toc.html

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AAT

• 120,000 terms
• for describing objects, textual materials,
  images, architecture, and material culture from
  antiquity to present
• large and complex
• http//www.getty.edu/gri/vocabularies/

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ULAN

• name authority
• http//www.getty.edu/gri/vocabularies/

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Thesaurus of Geographic Names

• over 1 million records
• hierarchical and global
• throughout history
• most records include coordinates and descriptive
  notes

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Semantics/Syntax/Structure

• Semantics
• meaning, as defined by a community to meet their
  particular needs (DC)
• Syntax
• a systematic arrangement of data elements for
  machine processing
• facilitates the exchange and use of metadata
  among various applications (HTML, XML, RDF)
• Structure
• a formal arrangement of the syntax with the goal
  of consistent representation of the semantics
  (rules defining field contents like 1/11/99)

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Metadata Mapping-

• Crosswalks
• Resource Description Framework (RDF)

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Crosswalks

• mapping btwn differing metadata structures
• eliminate the need for monolithic, universally
  adopted standards
• focus on flexibility and interoperatiblity
• RDF-based metadata registries

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Crosswalk Example
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Resource Description Framework (RDF, spec
released 2/99)

• W3C Metadata activity
• designed to move the Web beyond simple links to
  semantically-rich relationships btwn resources
• metadata application using XML as a common syntax
  for exchange and processing
• flexible architecture for managing diverse
  application-specific metadata packets that can be
  processed by machines
• associates resources, property types, and
  corresponding values
• http//www.w3.org/RDF/

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RDF

• Resources (character strings, names, digital
  objects)
• Property (is the author of)
• Value
• resourcespropertiesrelationships
• many different relationships can be reflected

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XML-encoded RDF

• lt?xmlnamespace nshttp//www.w3.org/RDF/RDF
  prefix"RDF" ?gt
• lt?xmlnamespace nshttp//purl.oclc.org/DC/
  prefix"DC" ?gt
• ltRDFRDFgt
• ltDCCreatorgtHoward Besserlt/DCCreatorgt
• lt/RDFDescriptiongt
• lt/RDFRDFgt

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