Metadata for images

1
Metadata for images

• Michael Day
• UKOLN UK Office for Library and
• Information Networking
• University of Bath
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/
• m.day_at_ukoln.ac.uk

2
Metadata for images

• Michael Day
• The Challenge of Image Retrieval
• CIR 99 - Second UK Conference on Image Retrieval,
  Forte Posthouse Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne,
  25-26 February 1999.
• http//www.unn.ac.uk/iidr/conference.html

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Presentation Outline

• Metadata
• Contexts
• Dublin Core initiative
• Resource Description Framework
• Distributed and heterogeneous information
• CIMI
• European initiatives
• Other metadata applications
• Representation and authentication
• Digital preservation

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Metadata

• Contexts
• Rapidly growing corpus of image-based information
• CBIR and metadata
• Metadata data about data or the Internet-age
  term for structured data about data - Joint
  NSF-EU Working Group on Metadata (1998)
• Format diversity

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A metadata typology

• Simple
  Rich
• Adapted from Lorcan Dempsey and Rachel Heery,
  Metadata a current view of
• practice and issues, Journal of Documentation,
  vol. 54, no.2, March 1998,
• pp. 145-172.

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Types of metadata

• Format diversity likely to persist
• Metadata creation and cataloguing
• Subject classification schemes
• ICONCLASS
• Thesauri
• Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)

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Dublin Core (1)

• International initiative to define a core set of
  metadata elements for resource discovery on the
  Internet
• Six DC workshops (to date)
• DC-1 (Dublin, Ohio) - 1995
• DC-2 (Warwick) - 1996
• DC-3 (Dublin, Ohio) - 1996
• DC-4 (Canberra) - 1997
• DC-5 (Helsinki) - 1997
• DC-6 (Washington, D.C.) - 1998
• DC-7 (Frankfurt am Main) - 1999
• http//purl.oclc.org/dc

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Dublin Core (2)

• 15 Elements
• Title
• Subject
• Description
• Creator
• Publisher
• Contributor
• Date
• Type
• Core elements defined in RFC 2413
• http//src.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/internet/rfc/rfc
  2413.txt

• Format
• Identifier
• Source
• Language
• Relation
• Coverage
• Rights

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Dublin Core Qualifiers

• TYPE - refines the meaning of elements
• Relation TYPEIsPartOf
• SCHEME - associates the value with an externally
  defined scheme
• Subject SCHEMEDDC
• Date SCHEMEISO 8601
• LANGUAGE - indicates the language of the value
• Title LANGUAGEen

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Dublin Core syntax

• Syntax issues
• Simple DC can be embedded into HTML Web pages
• Limited functionality
• Web moving to Extensible Markup Language (XML)
• Resource Description Framework
• RDF ... an architecture for metadata on the Web

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RDF

• Resource Description Framework
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Data model and XML based syntax
• An implementation of the conceptual Warwick
  Framework
• Modular interoperability
• Useful for aggregating the different metadata
  types required for managing digital information
  over time
• http//www.w3.org/RDF/

12
Integrating access

• Distributed and heterogeneous information
• ANSI/NISO Z39.50 protocol
• Applications
• Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI)
  Consortium
• Aquarelle project
• Electronic Library Image Service for Europe
  (ELISE)
• Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS)

13
Research processes

• Metadata interacts with the research process
• Discovery
• Retrieval
• Collation
• Analysis
• Re-presentation
• David Bearman and Jennifer Trant, Unifying our
  cultural memory. Information Landscapes for a
  Learning Society Networking and the Future of
  Libraries 3, University of Bath, 29 June - 1 July
  1998.
• http//www.archimuse.com/papers/ukoln98paper/index
  .html

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Standards for images

• Types (Howard Besser)
• Technical information (for viewing)
• Capture processes
• Quality and veracity
• Original object
• Authentication
• Rights metadata
• Where should this metadata be kept?
• Image headers
• Separate databases

15
Making of America II

• Three types of metadata
• Descriptive
• Structural
• Administrative

16
Digital preservation

• The existence of relevant metadata is the key to
  the future utilisation of image-based information
• Preservation strategies depend upon metadata
• Digital Rosetta Stone (DRS)
• "Super-metadata"

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Research Libraries Group
RLG Working Group on Preservation Issues of
Metadata (1998)

• Date
• Transcriber
• Producer
• Capture device
• Capture details
• Change history
• Validation key
• Encryption
• Watermark

• Resolution
• Compression
• Source
• Color
• Color management
• Color bar / Grey
• scale bar
• Control targets

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OAIS

• A high-level model for archival information
  object classes
• Content Information
• Preservation Description Information
• Reference Information
• Context Information
• Provenance Information
• Fixity Information
• Packaging Information
• Descriptive Information

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Implementations

• National Library of Australia
• PANDORA project
• 'logical data model'
• Cedars project
• Electronic Libraries Programme
• Consortium of University Research Libraries
• Defining data elements
• Demonstrators

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Conclusions

• Metadata complements CBIR approach to image
  retrieval
• Metadata has wider applications than discovery
  and retrieval
• Representation of information
• Rights management
• Authentication
• Preservation

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UKOLN

• UKOLN is funded by the British Library Research
  and Innovation Centre (BLRIC), the Joint
  Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK
  Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by
  project funding from the JISCs Electronic
  Libraries (eLib) Programme and the European
  Union. UKOLN also receives support from the
  University of Bath, where it is based.
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/